ARE YOU MAKING THESE

COMMON COOKING

MISTAKES?Bobby Caples

ARE YOU MAKING THESE

COMMON COOKING

MISTAKES?• Sure, we all make mistakes. But some of us

just keep making the same ones over and

over again. Cooking requires patience and

for the majority of us who don’t have that,

things never seem to come out right. Here

are the top five errors that you’re probably

making:

SUBSTITUTIONS• There is nothing wrong with substitutions.The

problem is simply doing the wrong ones. In

cooking, it’s less of a problem than in baking.

When you’re cooking, the main thing to watch

out for is substituting dry herbs for fresh ones.

The flavor of dry herbs is a lot more

concentrated than the flavor of fresh ones and

so if you’re going to do that substitution then

you have to cut down the quantity. If you’re

baking, it’s even more important to know what

you’re doing since the chemistry of baking is a

lot more exact. First of all, never make the

mistake of thinking that baking soda and

baking powder can be used interchangeably.

Also, be careful when you’re making efforts to

make your baked goods healthier. For

example, instead of using only whole-wheat

flour, consider using half whole wheat and half

white and applesauce can often replace oil but

usually it’s best to only substitute half the oil

so that whatever your making stays light and

fluffy.

BOILING INSTEAD OF

SIMMERING• There are a lot of ways to fall into this

trap. You could try to rush things, use

a flame that’s too big, or just not

really know what you’re doing. The

difference between simmering and

boiling isn’t one that everyone can

identify right away. It’s the difference

between a small bubble rising to the

surface every second or two as

opposed to bubbles all over the

liquid’s surface constantly. Boiling is

not just faster simmering. It can

cause the liquid to evaporate and the

solids to dry out and burn. Especially

if you are cooking meat, it can easily

get very tough. Soup can get cloudy,

with a heavier taste, assuming the

broth doesn’t disappear into the air.

NOT PREHEATING• This can usually also be prevented by

reading the recipe through at the

beginning. Don’t put your baked goods

into the oven if you’ve just turned it on.

Before the temperature rises to where

you want it, the low heat will already start

having an impact. It may cause your

cookie dough to melt and spread before

it’s actually ready to bake, or make your

cake batter rise more than it can handle

and then collapse. But this doesn’t just

apply to the oven. Also be careful with

pans on the stove. If a pan and the oil in

it haven’t reached the required heat when

you put the food in your food will end up

cooked through before it’s managed to

brown the way you want it to. It’s likely to

be soggy instead of crispy and browned

and is much more likely to stick to pan

and break up into pieces.

OVERCROWDING THE PAN• This one tends to come up a lot

when you’re cooking for more

people than usual. You may not

have stocked your kitchen with a big

enough pan to make green beans

for twenty but don’t just put them all

into your small pan anyway. When

your meat or vegetables are

scrunched in together in a pan,

steam gets trapped in between the

layers so your food ends up soggy

instead of crisp and brown. If you

can, use two pans. If that’s not an

option then you’ll just have to

prepare the food in batches. To

keep the first batch hot until the next

batch is ready, just put it into the

oven at a very low heat.

NOT READING THE RECIPE• We’re not suggesting that you’re ignoring the

instructions entirely but you might be doing things

sloppily because you’re reading the first step and

then starting to cook before you’ve read through to

the end. If you’ve already started when you get to

steps four, five and six, you may be in for a nasty

surprise. You may not have realized that the dough

needs to chill for a few hours or that the meat is

supposed to marinate overnight. Sometimes you

may discover in the middle that you’re missing an

ingredient or that one of the ingredients needs to be

chopped. While you start slicing, the rest of the dish

is burning in the pan. The most common one is to

have your butter still cold when it needs to be

softened, then you’re tempted to microwave it, then

you end up with liquid butter, then your crumble

topping needs to be cut with a saw… No, we’re not

talking from experience at all, why do you ask?

• What other mistakes do you run across all the time?

Don’t worry, we won’t tell the chef!