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People Are Sharing The Biggest Cooking Mistakes They’ve Noticed Others Making (36 Pics)
Whenever I’m feeling blue, I tune into one of cooking legend Gordon Ramsay’s food shows. His screaming is soothing and I love absorbing all the advice on what not to do in the kitchen. You know if I ever end up having to make him lunch at a top-tier restaurant out of the blue. Don’t forget the lamb sauce? Check. Don’t send out raw salmon? Gotcha! Don’t be an idiot sandwich? Roger that! But there are tons of other cooking no-no’s that are extremely useful to know.
And redditor MomosOnSale got other cooking aficionados talking and sharing their advice on what you shouldn’t be doing in the kitchen. We’ve collected the best tips and tricks for you to snack on. Remember to upvote the ones that you found useful and if you’ve got any extra ones to share, drop us a comment below.
Pie artist, baking expert, and cooking diva Jessica Clark-Bojin told Bored Panda all about her kitchen pet peeves, the basic blunders that amateur cooks tend to make, and how to make our meals look enticing, so be sure to read on for her wonderful insights. Jessica recently announced the first book dedicated to pie art, 'Pies Are Awesome: The Definitive Pie Art Book,' and has just sold her very first NFT and the world's first-ever cryptoFoodArt.
Just for the record—ugh! Who uses glass cutting boards?!
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Coming anywhere near my non-stick pan with metal. If you scratch my pan I will scratch your soul.
"Weighing by volume rather than by weight is a big pet peeve of mine," pie artist Jessica shared with me in an interview. "The chemical reactions involved in baking require precise measurements of ingredients, and depending on how densely people pack flour into their measuring cups, they can be using up to 25% more or less than the recipe actually calls for!" Instead, she suggested using kitchen scales as an alternative. They're cheap. And they're much more precise. This leads to far fewer mistakes in the kitchen.
"Working mis en place can eliminate most blunders amateur cooks make… Issues with timing, forgetting certain ingredients, using ingredients at the incorrect temperature, etc.—all of these mistakes can be avoided when you take the time to prep and lay out all tools and ingredients before you start cooking or baking!" Jessica suggested getting everything ready beforehand.
Don't try to catch a dropped knife. Back away and let it fall.
I've done this out of instinct so many times and still do it *insert face palm*
DON'T
LEAVE
PASTA
IN THE WATER
WHEN IT'S
DONE!!!!!
"This way you aren’t wasting time waiting for your butter to chill for pie dough, or waiting for eggs to come to room temperature for meringue, overcooking one ingredient in the wok because you forgot you needed to dice another ingredient first, or suddenly realizing you’re completely out of salt."
For Jessica, food isn't just about the taste—the aesthetics are equally as important! Especially when it comes to making a good first impression. "We eat first with our eyes—and if we’re having a meal with friends over Zoom, we’re only eating with our eyes! Try sprinkling a complimentary spice/powder on your food through a stencil as a quick and easy way to add some aesthetic impact to your food," she suggested.
Don't cut meat immediately after cooking it, more juices will flow out, the meat will become drier. Wait a few minutes
Cooking with unwashed hands
Never and I mean never panic if you start a fire on accident, you need to be calm enough to know if you have to smother it (oil or grease fires) or grab the extinguisher. Panicking can get your house burned down
"You can sprinkle paprika on mashed potatoes, cinnamon on pudding or ice cream, activated charcoal on home baked bread, matcha powder on your tea, cocoa powder on pie dough or toast… there are so many options! All you need is a flat surface and a food safe stencil—either store bought, or you can cut your own from acetate. You could choose a simple pattern, a word, or even a template of your friend’s face that you create on the computer yourself!"
Bored Panda had the pleasure of carving up the world of gastronomy in earlier articles as well. Previously, I spoke about kitchen mistakes with pie artist Jessica about some of the other issues that came pop up in the kitchen. For Jessica, problems in the kitchen can range from the tiny and insignificant to the dangerously disastrous. Distraction and a lack of preparation, in her point of view, are the main villains.
Never pour spices directly into a steaming pot on the stove. The spices will congeal in their containers from the moisture introduced. Instead put the spices in a separate side container then add to a steaming pot.
Don't use a nice knife on anything other than food. (a common offense would be opening a food package with it)
Don't send a nice knife through a dishwasher
Don't leave a sharp knife in the sink
Don't leave a knife wet, even ones claiming to be stainless will often rust if left wet.
Glass cutting boards. Like seriously, just GTFO.
And in a similar vein, dangerously dull knives. I’ve seen some real bludgeons in other people’s kitchens; no wonder they hate prep work.
"Kitchen 'mistakes' can range from the catastrophic, 'I forgot the pot roast in the oven and now the kitchen is on fire' to the more benign, 'I accidentally put paprika in the cookies instead of cinnamon', but in most instances, they stem from the same thing: distraction and a lack of preparation,” she said.
In Jessica’s professional opinion, improving our skills in the kitchen starts with picturing in our minds all the steps that we need to take before diving head-first into the gastronomic fray. If you’re prepared, you’re less likely to run the risk of burning yourself, your kitchen, and your pride.
I'd like to add to this that you should read and understood the entire recipe before you start cooking. You don't have time to boil water when you need to "add boiling water". And it's nice to have the rice ready when you arrive at "serve with rice".
I had a recipe that had 130g of Butter. The recipe said "mix 120g Butter with..." and at the end "use the leftover 10g of Butter to...". I overlooked that I had to use only 120g at the beginning, instead of the whole 130g. So yeah. Read the recipe through before starting.
"Taking the few extra minutes to prep will give you a lovely stress-free baking experience!" Jessica believes that it’s hard to mess up if you follow all of these steps. What’s more, following them means that if any mistakes do pop up, you’ll catch them before they cause some serious havoc.
Jessica also revealed to Bored Panda about what cooking’s like in her family. Every member of her family cooks, however, they all have very different dietary preferences! You can imagine what a nightmare that is when it comes to actually getting people to taste the food as it’s being made.
Skipping fresh ingredients.
Just peel & chop garlic! Squeeze a lemon! Skip the jar/ bottle
A jar of garlic, or lemon juice etc has a longer shelf life. I prefer fresh, but am frequently left with things that have to be thrown away. If I use jarred garlic, it is always on hand, and it doesn't go to waste.
This is not a cooking mistake, not eveyone can afford to constantly stock fresh ingredients, or deal with the waste from using lemons over lemon juice. Any halfway decent cook can work with frozen, dried, canned, and other types of easy to store, inexpensive food items. This isn't a mistake, this is just something one should do if they have the time, money, and ability. This is a pretty elitist comment
I've been cooking for years and have cooked the fanciest of recipes and the plainest of dishes. What I've noticed is that some dishes work better with fresh garlic and herbs and some don't. In some recipes you really can't tell the difference. Especially when you are talking about cooking every day meals for a family. Sometimes garlic powder and onion powder are going to be better recieved than fresh by young children. Not to mention the time saved standing on my poor feet after a long day at work.
Pro tip: chop a bunch of onions and freeze them in an ice cube tray. Also, there are mini ice cube trays, perfect for freezing chopped garlic. That way you can freeze fresh and aromatic garlic and use it the whole year, and not buy that dried-up monstrosity they sell in the supermarket as "fresh".
I do the same also with fresh herbs like parsley for example! I chop it and put it in a bag and in the freezer!!
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If available, always fresh. That said, many people are very tired, and just want to get it over with, so .... you do you. You're cooking, right? YAY!
Use what you have. Fresh is best but don't let its absence put you off having a go. If all you have or all you can get is powdered garlic, use that. It'll still taste good.
I agree, but still keep some jarred/canned stuff just in case. Like lemongrass - can't always find it fresh. Or Thai chilis. Specialty items.
And...you see why some people in poverty can’t cook like this! Sometimes it’s simply not possible to cook like this when you ain’t got no money....to run to the store and get some fresh veg and fruit whenever you just feel like it...
Look this isn't a mistake. Not everyone has access to all fresh ingredients. Using canned or jarred when that's all that's available is fine. It won't harm anyone.
It depends on what you can afford. Sometimes we can't spare the money for a fresh garlic or lemon for each dish... A jar or bottle goes a hell of a lot further...
yeah! that's why i love doing my own indoor gardening! it's just so fun, and useable, and cute!
We use jars of garlic and there is nothing wrong with that! Avoid the struggle of having to chop it up yourself
I'll add fresh or dried or whatever I have at hand or can afford or care to buy because it's my food
We had a great lemon tree in our apt complex, new owners chopped it down to save water. I saved cuttings, grafted them to the roots, 5 years later, productive lemon shrub.
... and NEVER use a press for garlic. Then, better leave it out already. Also - garlic powder. Consists of the entire plant, including all that paper and roots and stuff ... tastes like something no garlic-loving person can like ... there is no use for this. Same for powdered onions - ew. Useless ... I don't even know how someone can come up with these excuses of ingredients and think "Yeah, like expected, like I wanted them - I may even get money for this!" - I wouldn't have dared even giving that out for free...
For the love of god stop mucking about with whatever it is you're cooking. Unless it's something you specifically need to be mixing or stirring constantly, leave it alone! You'll never get proper color on things if they make more contact with your spatula than your pan.
Knowing when to stir and when not to stir comes with experience. Please feel free to muck about until you achieve your desired results and get comfortable with your cooking intuition:-)
People coming into the kitchen to "help".
“We have family members who are vegetarian, vegan, celiac (and just plain fussy) and it’s not always possible for the cook to taste what they are making for everyone else. But you can always bring in a pinch-taster and get a second opinion!" she said.
Jessica also gave us some useful tips on how to ensure that food products stay fresh longer than usual. “One of my favorite tricks is to serve fruits and veggies in cups with a layer of ice in the bottom. It keeps the snacks fresh and prevents them from getting dried out and floppy," she said.
Learned this the hard way: don't throw fresh chili peppers into a hot pan unless you want to pepper spray the whole house!
Adding salt as a matter of course, or just because the recipe says to. Taste first, and only add if needed. If you've used stock or a stock cube in your dish you might not even need salt, they already have it.
"They make a pretty little bouquet in the cup, and the individual serving sizes mean no grubby little hands contaminating a communal veggie platter! Which I know is something at the back of all of our minds these days,” she pointed out that this is very useful in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Don't season a liquid before reducing it, it will become too salty after you reduce it.
Also, allow liquids to cool a bit before tasting. Hot vs warm vs cool liquids all taste different. One of my favorite things is Korean Lunchbox Potatoes (Gamja Jorim). Because they are meant to be eaten at room temp, if you taste them while they are cooking, by the time you eat them fully cooled, you may as well be eating a block of soy sauce.
Don’t press your burgers down as they’re cooking. You’re releasing all the juice. It’ll give you a dry ass burger.
There are such things as smash burgers, but I believe on those, you smash them at the beginning before the fat has a chance to melt so you’re not smashing the juice out.
First rule of Burger club. NEVER PRESS THE BURGER. The second rule of bur... Oh you know the rest.
Meanwhile, Canadian cake designer Darci, the founder of Kake by Darci, also told me earlier what we can do to keep food fresh for longer. She said that products like milk, whipping cream, and fresh fruit spoil the fastest, so you have to use them all ASAP.
“If you have leftover fruit, you can make fillings! Milk, you can freeze into cubes and use later on. Whipping cream is an easy caramel recipe," Darci said.
Never put oil in the pot when cooking pasta, as the sauce will just slip and slide away instead of sticking to the pasta.
Pasta should never, ever be rinsed for a warm dish. The starch in the water is what helps the sauce adhere to your pasta. The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold dish like a pasta salad or when you are not going to use it immediately
Adding olive oil to pasta water while cooking is pointless. I think the idea was that it was supposed to stop the pasta sticking together but all it does is float on top and serve no purpose at all.
Cutting with a dull knife. Get yourself a sharpener, even if it's a cheap one.
What useful food prep, cooking, and kitchen tips do you have for us, dear Pandas? What are the biggest kitchen no-no’s that you know of? Which of the things mentioned in this list have you done at least once? Share your thoughts in the comment section with all the other readers.
Resting is part of cooking. That bacon you cooked to perfection that's still in the skillet? Yeah, that's too late. You need to remove things from heat a little earlier than youd think so that the ambient heat continues to do its job. Otherwise you're overcooking it.
Remember, you can't get some stuff back after you add it. Go slow with seasonings, and lightly. You can always add more, but you can't take it back. Don't let your food taste like ocean water.
Using sugar to take the edge off a highly acidic sauce. Just put a damn carrot in it and let it absorb the acidity instead of covering it with a new flavor.
Cranking the heat to reduce the cooking time will leave you with a burnt outside and an under-done inside.
Don't use a cold pan to sear something; get the pan hot first, better sear.
Do not mix hot cooking oil and cool sink water! I saw a girl burn the hell out of herself because she didn't listen to the Home Ec. teacher. She threw her hot oil in a sink with some cool water running. Boom! Sprayed hot oil all over her arm and neck. Let your oil cool folks.
Don't let your baking powder get clumpy. Tiny rocks of baking powder ruin anything you bake.
If it has gone lumpy, rub it through a metal sieve with the back of a spoon.
Don't grab something that is on the stove without a towel or some type of heat protection
And for milk, it's exactly the opposite. Don't stop watching the pot or it will boil over the instant your back is turned.
Load More Replies... Memo to self: Extra thanks to mom and grandmas for teaching me to cook when I was little!
I still use my grandmothers cholent receipe, it's the best.
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Some of these should be common knowledge, you know... I can't imagine someone doesn't know you can't add water to hot/burning oil.
The post did mention it was in Home Economics class... a lot of (pre)teens have zero experience cooking as they don't get involved in food preparation at home. Many think it magically appears when the parent shouts "Dinner's ready!".
Load More Replies... My thing is cooking on an electric stove. I have no earthly idea how hot a burner is without looking at a flame. I stayed at my friend's for a while and she gave me such a hard time because I burned everything I made. I'm actually a good cook. It is just that induction stoves shouldn't even exist. I'm as bitter about this as my burnt food tasted.
Another thing is never, ever put grandmas old cast iron skillet in water. Wipe it out, season it with oil and leave it alone. Grandma didn't spend years building up that coating to have you destroy it with the rinse cycle of the dishwasher.
Always push your pan handles to the side, not hanging over the front. Even if you don't have kids that can grab them, you can bump them your self while cooking, causing a nasty burn. Or at the very least, a nasty mess.
Never wear loose or baggy clothing while cooking. Have you ever noticed a pro chef in a restaurant? They are wrapped up tight for a reason.
The burned sleeve of my loose polyester tracksuit is saying that your advice is coming too late. Thanks to the cooking gods it has a cotton lining inside and i have strong reflexes. I still wear it at home as a reminder of my dumbness.
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I fell for the “throw a piece of spaghetti against the wall ,if it sticks it’s done”. Three times, as an adult I put cooked food on my wall, before I took one noodle out and bit it.
And never undercook the squid so it’s so raw it still telling Spongebob to f*ck off.
I want to read these articles and have it be enjoyable and interesting. But the attitude is always ...ugh. Am I supposed to come out of the womb knowing exactly how to cook everything? No experimentation allowed, no room to learn or find out for myself, and I can only use the most expensive ingredients? Things like...'no one cares, it's not impressive,' what if I CARE, and I am trying to learn and enjoy something?
Don’t do what a friend of mine called “auto seasoning”, where people immediately put salt or pepper or sauce on something before tasting it, when it may already have salt/pepper or herbs added. Try without it first and then add seasoning according to taste, otherwise it can ruin a meal
Never store anything on top of your stove, other than the pots and pans you are currently cooking with. It only needs a curious child, pet, or your butt to turn the stove on, and you'll got a house on fire.
Eye level aka wall ovens prevent that and hobs with the sensors/knobs on the side not the front.
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NEVER burn a non-stick pan dry. The fumes can kill you, or at least give you the worst sick headache of your life.
Don't let pot and pan handles hang over the of the stove, keep them turned away from you. When serving from a hot pan, leave a potholder on the handle so nobody burns their hands.
Never blend liquids that are hot unless you want to redecorate your kitchen.
Never pour tomato pasta sauce from the jar directly into a steaming pot with meat on the stove. It will cause the rest of the sauce to get mouldy once you close the jar.Always pour required amount of the sauce into a smaller bowl and pour that into the saucepan.
Never was meat. Every bacteria will die during the cooking or baking process anyway, you just was them down, so they can multiply on your sink, which you won't clean after everything you wash or shower anyway...
I have such a phobia about raw meat that I couldn't even look at some of these. (They were just stomach-churning; I don't think I can get contaminated over the internet.) Wash your hands constantly, for the love of all that's holy DON'T wear gloves (that only makes things worse), and never put the meat down anywhere you aren't willing to clean within an inch of its life.
Fill the sink w hot, soapy water right before you start cooking. From Rachael Ray
That's fine so long as you have an extra sink to strain things into, but not so useful if you just have the one sink because now there's nowhere to pour anything out.
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Coated pots and pans don't belong in the dishwasher ... you ruin the coating with the aggressive cleaning agent. Even if it says that it is dishwasher safe. The vendor is not interested in you using the pan for years ... it reduces their sales.
This is a bit redundant, and many of them are completely obvious. Many are also completely wrong advice picked up from who knows where.
-and if a lot of these are news to you maybe you should just order take out.
There are only two rules having to do with cooking in my house: one, don't criticize the cook, and two, don't offer cooking advice unless asked.
And for milk, it's exactly the opposite. Don't stop watching the pot or it will boil over the instant your back is turned.
Load More Replies... Memo to self: Extra thanks to mom and grandmas for teaching me to cook when I was little!
I still use my grandmothers cholent receipe, it's the best.
Load More Replies... Some of these should be common knowledge, you know... I can't imagine someone doesn't know you can't add water to hot/burning oil.
The post did mention it was in Home Economics class... a lot of (pre)teens have zero experience cooking as they don't get involved in food preparation at home. Many think it magically appears when the parent shouts "Dinner's ready!".
Load More Replies... My thing is cooking on an electric stove. I have no earthly idea how hot a burner is without looking at a flame. I stayed at my friend's for a while and she gave me such a hard time because I burned everything I made. I'm actually a good cook. It is just that induction stoves shouldn't even exist. I'm as bitter about this as my burnt food tasted.
Another thing is never, ever put grandmas old cast iron skillet in water. Wipe it out, season it with oil and leave it alone. Grandma didn't spend years building up that coating to have you destroy it with the rinse cycle of the dishwasher.
Always push your pan handles to the side, not hanging over the front. Even if you don't have kids that can grab them, you can bump them your self while cooking, causing a nasty burn. Or at the very least, a nasty mess.
Never wear loose or baggy clothing while cooking. Have you ever noticed a pro chef in a restaurant? They are wrapped up tight for a reason.
The burned sleeve of my loose polyester tracksuit is saying that your advice is coming too late. Thanks to the cooking gods it has a cotton lining inside and i have strong reflexes. I still wear it at home as a reminder of my dumbness.
Load More Replies... I fell for the “throw a piece of spaghetti against the wall ,if it sticks it’s done”. Three times, as an adult I put cooked food on my wall, before I took one noodle out and bit it.
And never undercook the squid so it’s so raw it still telling Spongebob to f*ck off.
I want to read these articles and have it be enjoyable and interesting. But the attitude is always ...ugh. Am I supposed to come out of the womb knowing exactly how to cook everything? No experimentation allowed, no room to learn or find out for myself, and I can only use the most expensive ingredients? Things like...'no one cares, it's not impressive,' what if I CARE, and I am trying to learn and enjoy something?
Don’t do what a friend of mine called “auto seasoning”, where people immediately put salt or pepper or sauce on something before tasting it, when it may already have salt/pepper or herbs added. Try without it first and then add seasoning according to taste, otherwise it can ruin a meal
Never store anything on top of your stove, other than the pots and pans you are currently cooking with. It only needs a curious child, pet, or your butt to turn the stove on, and you'll got a house on fire.
Eye level aka wall ovens prevent that and hobs with the sensors/knobs on the side not the front.
Load More Replies... NEVER burn a non-stick pan dry. The fumes can kill you, or at least give you the worst sick headache of your life.
Don't let pot and pan handles hang over the of the stove, keep them turned away from you. When serving from a hot pan, leave a potholder on the handle so nobody burns their hands.
Never blend liquids that are hot unless you want to redecorate your kitchen.
Never pour tomato pasta sauce from the jar directly into a steaming pot with meat on the stove. It will cause the rest of the sauce to get mouldy once you close the jar.Always pour required amount of the sauce into a smaller bowl and pour that into the saucepan.
Never was meat. Every bacteria will die during the cooking or baking process anyway, you just was them down, so they can multiply on your sink, which you won't clean after everything you wash or shower anyway...
I have such a phobia about raw meat that I couldn't even look at some of these. (They were just stomach-churning; I don't think I can get contaminated over the internet.) Wash your hands constantly, for the love of all that's holy DON'T wear gloves (that only makes things worse), and never put the meat down anywhere you aren't willing to clean within an inch of its life.
Fill the sink w hot, soapy water right before you start cooking. From Rachael Ray
That's fine so long as you have an extra sink to strain things into, but not so useful if you just have the one sink because now there's nowhere to pour anything out.
Load More Replies... Coated pots and pans don't belong in the dishwasher ... you ruin the coating with the aggressive cleaning agent. Even if it says that it is dishwasher safe. The vendor is not interested in you using the pan for years ... it reduces their sales.
This is a bit redundant, and many of them are completely obvious. Many are also completely wrong advice picked up from who knows where.
-and if a lot of these are news to you maybe you should just order take out.
There are only two rules having to do with cooking in my house: one, don't criticize the cook, and two, don't offer cooking advice unless asked.
