Whether you feel that you can you hold your own in the kitchen or you would rather be anywhere else, most of us will never have had any sort of formal culinary training. The main bulk of our learning may have come from our parents, the occasional cookery show or maybe through following a recipe book. Because of this, there may be many bad habits that you have picked up along the way that may be having a significant effect on the quality of your cooking.

In this article, we will be listing a few habits that you can change to help give your meals that much-deserved boost. The great thing is that you don’t even have to adopt these changes straight away, even changing one habit can produce great results straight away. Without further ado, here is our list of 9 cooking habits that you should change.

Using Old Dried Herbs

Although your large collection of dried herbs may open up many doors for your cooking, there is a reason that shops often also stock fresh herbs as well. Although dried herbs may be infinitely more convenient, you simply cannot get the same flavour from using the dried alternatives. If you must use dried herbs in your recipes then be sure that they have not been sitting in your cupboard for years.

Prepping Ingredients As You Cook

This habit is an easy one to have, you would be forgiven in thinking that multi-tasking while cooking is a great way to save time. Although you may save 5 or 10 minutes, the problem is that this can sometimes completely mess up your meal. If you are having to chop a lot of vegetables while your chicken is burning on the pan, or you are unable to pay attention to what is going on in your pan then your meal is not going to turn out how you want it. Within reason, prepping all of your meal before you start cooking will lead to a more relaxed cooking experience as well as a more polished meal.

Guesstimating

We’re all guilty of it, sometimes it can be easy to get carried away with our cooking abilities and think that we can measure ingredients by simply guessing. If this sounds like you then you should consider using a measuring jug, scales or the correct spoon in the future. Recipes including exact measurement for a reason and it is a good idea to follow this. Although this might not have a catastrophic effect for some recipes, this can definitely ruin any food that you need to bake. Baking a cake that is hard as a rock will generally not win you any awards with your friends.

Forgetting To Wash Your Hands

Hopefully, you have been brought up knowing that washing your hands is essential in order to avoid a list of illnesses. When cooking youshould also be washing your hands after handling any raw meat and generally throughout the cooking process. If this is not currently a habit of yours then we would strongly suggest that you change this immediately. One example where you will definitely regret not washing your hands while cooking is immediately after handling chilli peppers. For anyone unfortunate enough to have experienced this, if any of the chilli on your fingers reaches your eyes then you are truly in for a nasty surprise. The moral of the story - Wash your hands thoroughly before cooking and after handling any raw meat or chilli.

Using A Metal Utensil On A Non-Stick Pan

Non-Stick pans are incredibly useful for any chef while they still work effectively. If you have started to notice that your food is beginning to stick to your pan then you may potentially be ruining its integrity without knowing it. If you regularly use a metal utensil when cooking in your non-stick pan then we would suggest that you switch to a less abrasive wooden or plastic utensil. You will be thankful when your food no longer rips apart when trying to remove it from the pan.

Cooking In A Cold Pan

This habit is very common for amateur chefs. When you start cooking, you may simply start throwing in some oil along with your ingredients thinking that this is the best course of action. Next time that you cook a meal, make sure to heat your pan up for around 5 minutes before adding the oil and then beginning to cook. By doing this you ensure that you are cooking at a consistent temperature. Another tip related to this is to make sure that your meat sits in the sink until it reaches room temperature before you begin to cook it. Again, this will ensure that your meat is cooked at a consistent temperature and leads to a better texture.

Using A Blunt Knife

Knives, by their very nature, are a potential hazard in the kitchen. You might think that having a sharp knife would add to this danger, but many chefs will drive the point home that having a sharp, high-quality chef’s knife and keeping it sharp will make your cooking experience much more enjoyable, while also being much safer than a blunt knife.

Checking On Your Food

When you are waiting for your food to cook, it may be incredibly tempting to constantly open the oven door or lift up the lid on the crockpot to check if it has finished cooking yet. The problem with this is that this actually reduces the temperature of your oven or saucepan as a lot of heat will escape in the process. The next time you feel the need to open your oven door halfway through cooking, it is much better to turn on your oven light and look through the door. For cooking in a saucepan or crockpot, it is generally better to follow a recipe’s time suggestion and avoid checking your food until then.

On the other hand, every time that you are adding another ingredient to your meal, you should also be tasting the food to see if anything else is needed. Rather than adding your seasoning at the final step, you should be adding the seasoning throughout the process in order to bring out the most flavour in your food.  Another great reason for doing this is that you will be able to clearly distinguish what each of your ingredients adds to a dish. This will prove incredibly useful when coming up with your own recipes.

Feeding The Fire

It could be argued that this point is not actually a habit you should change but rather a safety tip that you should bear in mind. If you ever notice your oven begins to go up in flames, a normal reaction would be to open the door to try and extinguish the fire. The problem with this is that this actually feeds the fire and the oxygen will actually make the situation much worse. The best solution would be to turn the oven off and leave the door closed until the fire dies down. In the event that the fire does not go down, we would then suggest calling 999 for your own safety.

Conclusion

So there we have it! 9 cooking habits that you should change. Hopefully, we have given you enough food for thought when you are cooking your next meal. By making a few changes here and there we hope that you will notice a difference in the quality of your dishes. Who knows, maybe your dinner guests will be impressed by your newfound knowledge. If you are looking for high quality kitchen appliances in Liverpool to help give you the edge then check out our wide range of appliances at Powerpoint, from