Everybody loves food (even people who don’t love food). But, not many know the best cooking tips that make cooking easier and enjoyable.
Cooking naturally comes easily for some people and some others have to intentionally put in the work. However, for both categories, getting helpful cooking tips on hand won’t hurt.
Learning something new about cooking wouldn’t hurt. Ahead, you’ll find that there are some things your cooking may have been missing out on.
Below are some helpful tips every cook must put to work to get the best out of every minute they spend in the kitchen.
1. Before anything, read cookbooks first
Reading the recipe or cookbooks first is essential. It prepares your mind ahead for your cooking adventure.
A cookbook is the repository of your cooking goodness, cooking fantasies, and a map towards making your delicacies a reality.
Not only does it guide you into knowing the ingredients needed for your prospective meal, but it also makes you ensure your meal comes out the best without mixing unmeasured ingredients or seasoning.
Read and understand it before you start cooking.
It is common to find people reading their cookbooks in the middle of cooking.
Do not join the bandwagon. Go the extra mile to achieve your desires, and encourage yourself to read it before and during cooking.
2. Use cast-iron pots and pans
One commandment in cooking very nice meals is to abide by the oath of using only the right utensils.
Cast-iron pots/pans are well recommended for cooking all kinds of meals. They are made up of melting blocks and steel that prevent food from burning and allow easy searing.
When your cast iron pots and pans become patchy and splotchy, season them to restore them to their original smooth and shiny texture.
3. Properly season your food
Do not hurriedly salt your food. Salt is one of the indispensable seasonings you can not avoid. When salting your food, ensure you measure appropriately according to the quantity of your food.
4. Dry your proteins before searing
Dry your meat before you sear it. Leaving meat to dry before searing reduces the water content and makes the meat brown better on grills.
If your meat has too much water, it may not brown well. And, what’s steak without sufficient growing and charring?
5. Try not to be in a hurry, be patient
If you must make outstanding dishes that will taste like the 5-star restaurants’, you must be patient. Do not attempt this when you’re hungry and likely to lose patience. Otherwise, you will end up losing both your patience and your delicious meal.
If you can endure the process, resist the urge to taste your food while cooking. Otherwise, you will spoil the fun. Also, do not check the doneness of your food with a spoon. Use a thermometer instead.
6. Add heavy flavors last
Heavily flavored spices like garlic, curry, and spicy cinnamon or even your food wine should go in last when trying to flavor up your dish. However, your onions go in first to help to maintain a balance in flavor.
It also helps in monitoring the taste direction and balance of your dish.
7. Be obsessed with your cooking
Practice does not make perfect but an obsession. When you increase the number of times you cook, you become a guru at what you do.
The more you try that favorite dish, the tastier your meals become. Be wholly obsessed with your meals.
8. Be creative and adventurous
The best chefs are known for one thing – creativity. The creativity they display in new dishes brings them to life every time. Cooking is all about engaging natural edibles with brain work.
Whenever you are about to kick off, remember it’s your kitchen. So, you can get creative with the ingredients. However, you must follow the right recipes and use the ingredients in the right quantities.
If you know how to substitute ingredients, do a lot of substitutions and create new and unique flavors to make your meals exciting.
With your unique creativity and adventurous cooking processes, you possess the relevant attribute of the best chefs in the world while simultaneously puzzling whosoever you invite to the table.
9. Abide by the French principle of “Mis En Place”
The term ‘Mis en Place’ means ‘everything is in place’. Abiding by this principle requires you to have the foresight of whatever you want to cook.
Before you start cooking your meals, all ingredients should be ready (chopped, soaked, sliced) before turning on your gas.
Right there on your kitchen table, all utensils and ingredients must be placed there. Your cooking will be flawed if you begin to search for what you need just at the very moment you need it.
When you become obedient to this principle, you will ultimately avoid a lot of flaws in your cooking. It is a salient rule in culinary schools. It is the primus inter pares mantra.
Since you want your dish to come out just as fine as theirs, why not inculcate this commandment too?
10. Choose quality ingredients and food items
A piece of candid advice: do not head towards a low-quality brand of seasoning, ingredient, or food item. Resist the urge to purchase the cheapest cooking ingredients. Always go for the best quality.
For instance, imported Parmigiano-Reggiano is so much better than domestic Parmesan that the two can hardly be compared. Quality ingredients mean quality food, choose wisely by choosing quality.
11. Store your variety of spices separately
Mason jars are the best options for storing spices and foods in the pantry. Store your spices properly in an organized manner. This way you get to preserve the shelf life of your herbs and spices.
12. Have a personal special mix
It could be a sauce, seasoning mix, or herb and spice mix. Having a special mix will help give your dish a personal touch that is wholly yours.
It also gives an element of surprise to your dish because the taste has been changed to something different.
13. Handle your utensils well and carefully
Here’s another cooking tip to help you become a great cook at home. You must handle our utensils carefully. That’s where all the spices go into anyway.
You must have seen promotions and ads where chefs confidently turn eggs without breaking and amazingly chop their vegetables and other ingredients dexterously in quick succession.
Let me tell you the secret; it all started when they began to handle their kitchen utensils properly.
The aesthetics of cooking is in the way a cook handles his/her cooking utensils to prepare a meal carefully.
One commonly wrongly handled utensil is the knife. The knife should be handled by choking up on the handle to the point of putting your thumb and the side of your index finger onto the side of the blade right above the handle.
14. Doubt the prescribed time on labels
Procedures to cook should be obeyed but not the time indicated. It looks trickish but wisdom is profitable.
The time indicated on raw food labels is estimated and should not be taken hook, line, and sinker. Give room for doubt; it will save you from some unforeseen contingencies.
15. Trying making your bread at home
While creating your bread dough, you get to understand some patterns and habits you have with cooking. While baking can take a long time, it’s not as tedious as you think.
You can try new recipes and create your own based on your palette. Experimenting is the best way to test your skill.
16. Create a meal plan
Before you shake your head at this, it’s not as boring as you think. A meal plan helps to stay organized, not only for a while but also to keep an eye on your pantry stock.
You know what you have, what you don’t have, and what you must have. Meal plans can contain dishes and snacks for the week or month.
It also helps to know what you like and what you don’t like. This prevents stockpiling of unwanted items.
17. Salads need salt too
Salads need a pinch of salt to taste. Vegetable or green salads do not need to taste bland, even with dressings. You can add a little bit of salt to enhance the crunchy taste of the greens.
18. Refrigerate your lemons
Lemons are great additions as toppings, dressings, or zest in food flavors. Keep your lemons tucked in a corner of your fridge to preserve the taste and freshness.
FAQs
Are cookbooks necessary to improve cooking skills?
Yes, they are. Cookbooks are fundamental if you want to improve your cooking skills. However, they are not necessary.
You can also look for vlogs to get tips that will help to improve your cooking. You do not have to stick to a cookbook. But it does provide basics in cooking.
Can you improve your cooking as a beginner?
Yes, you can. As a beginner, your journey to becoming a professional will start with the basics. Look for and follow guides and cookbooks, and maybe take a few classes.
Can cooking be fun?
Yes, it can. Cooking can be fun if you enjoy the different stages of preparing ingredients, mixing them up, and dishing them out.
Cooking isn’t for everyone, but every time you spend in the kitchen can get better if you know the basics.
Conclusion
If you are thinking of boosting your cooking skills, you need the best cooking tips.
While there are numerous options and hacks to cooking, these tips highlighted will get you started if you are a beginner or just getting into the whole world of culinary art.
Moreover, these tips will also help boost your knowledge of cooking and what to do when in a pinch. So, keep these tips close for the best cooking experience.
You can cook almost nothing without bowls. See this list of bowl types and find out which one you have been using incorrectly.
Thanks for reading.
