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Article created by: Greta Jaruševičiūtė
We usually think about acquiring good cooking habits and ways to improve our masterchef skills by implementing novelties, tips and tricks, and going out of our comfort zone. In fact, we previously wrote a handful of useful posts just about that and you can find them here, here and here.
But the truth is, unless we earn our bread from cooking, most of us are pretty susceptible to daily kitchen mishaps, faux pas and questionable recipes that would make any chef’s hair stand on end. “What bad cooking habits get on your nerves?” asked one Redditor on the Cooking community and added “For me it’s when people use the highest flame setting to cook EVERYTHING. It is wasteful, overcooks food, overboils everything and it really does ruin pans.”
The thread immediately resonated with cooking aficionados who saw it as a perfect opportunity to spill all the bad cooking habits that totally annoy them. And it’s not looking pretty.
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#1
Putting no salt in anything and expecting the salt shaker at the table to do the job. Nothing seasoned at the table with a salt shaker will ever even approach the flavor of something that was seasoned throughout the cooking process.
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#2
Parents who only steam veggies and barely use salt or pepper on them and then act all shocked when their kids don't like it. Of course they won't like that, most adults would be peeved getting something like that.
Something as simple as roasting veggies with some basic herbs and a good olive oil can make a huge difference.
#3
10 years in kitchens here so bear with me...
crowding pans, moving/scraping cut ingredients with the sharp side of knife, knife in the sink, steaming most veggies, not salting pasta water, watering down beer for brats, way too much water when boiling pasta, adding garlic too early & burning it, not toasting buns, not letting leftovers cool before putting in tupper-ware & fridge, etc etc etc.
edit: add to that impatiently flipping/mixing around food while its cooking! whether it's burgers/steaks/veggies whatever! sometimes you need a lil color/char
but also if someone else cooks for me, i will love whatever it is sincerely and not say a word.
#4
Boiling vegetables until they are mush. My husband didn’t eat vegetables for more than half of his life because he thought they were disgusting. I found out it was because his grandmother just boiled everything and then covered it in that nasty “0 calorie” spray butter. ROAST THEM. SAUTEE. GRILL. please don’t boil veg unless for something specific like potatoes or you need to blanch something.
#5
My mother’s glass cutting board. I lack the words to explain the torture of using a glass cutting board. Awful. I did finally buy her a couple good knives that she won’t use. This year I am getting her a nice wooden board for her to not use.
#7
My husband “seasons the pan” instead of seasoning the food. As in, he sprinkles salt/pepper/Italian seasoning into a hot pan and then adds plain, unseasoned protein on top. He seems to think this accomplishes the same thing as seasoning the meat directly. It does not.
#8
I can’t deal when they put the onion and garlic in at the same time and expect the onions to be caramelised. I need more time than the garlic will allow !
#9
More of a lack of a habit than a habit, but not sharpening knives regularly is one of the worst things to do to your knives. And 9 out of 10 times, people cut themselves on a dull knife, not a sharp one. Its also just better for the food you are going to end up eating; your veggies wont be so bruised, your steaks wont be that little bit extra tenderized from forcing a dull knife through it. The dullest knife ive ever seen couldnt slice through the skin of a baked potato. So it is in your interest and the food's also.
#10
Dirty cooks. Leaving the knife dirty, not wiping down the counter, cross contaminating everything.
"I don't cook with salt."
And people who only use shortcuts that get mad because they tried my recipe and it didn't work.
#11
When people press down hard on everything they’re cooking...I am thinking of one person in particular that is an absolute dumpster fire in the kitchen. Making pancakes? She flips them and then mashes them down with the spatula! Fried eggs? Smash em!
Also when people don’t let meat rest after it’s cooked. Or cut with the grain.
#12
My mother uses metal utensils when cooking in our Teflon pans, then complains that they wear so easily. Even AFTER I've explained you never use metal in the pans, she does it anyway and says she forgot.
We have gone through 3 non-stick pans so far.
#14
People cutting up things one at a time. Example: celery stalks. Grab a few at a time!!!
#15
People who taste who taste test with the utensil they're using to make it, then continue using the same utensil. Who wants backwash soup?!?
Final score:
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