Most of the cookbooks I find on techniques teach you How To Cook, but there are only a few that teach you How NOT to Cook.
Years ago I thought it would be fun to look at some of the most basic cooking techniques used every day and the common mistakes we make when doing them. You will be surprised at how many mistakes we all make that you didn’t know about.
I was planning on publishing this collection of articles as a cookbook but decided it would be more helpful to post them on my website instead so I can get your feedback and add new chapter in the future. Over the next few months, I plan to introduce these posts describing common cooking mistakes we make all the time in our kitchens and how to avoid them.
I hope you enjoy this new section of The Reluctant Gourmet.com, comment on some of your own cooking mistakes and please share this page with your friends and family.
Even More Common Baking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them Mistake #4 – Over or Under Filling Your Pans Once all your mise en place is taken care of, your oven is well preheated and your pans are prepared, it’s imperative to fill the pans with the right amount of batter. If you overfill the […]
More Common Baking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them You can find Part 1 of How NOT to Bake here. This is Part 2 and looks at improper measuring and not knowing your oven as well as you think you do. Mistake #2 – Improper Measuring Some recipes are written in fairly straightforward terms: one […]
Common Baking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them At first glance, baking seems like a fairly straightforward cooking process. The definition of baking is to cook food with dry heat in an oven. The process is simple: Open oven, put in food, take out baked food. In practice, as with most cooking methods, there is […]
More Common Braising Mistakes & How to Avoid Them Braising is one of the best ways I know to turn a less expensive cut of meat into something sublime. This is the second post on common braising mistakes and how to avoid them. To read my first post go to How NOT to Braise – […]
Common Braising Mistakes & How to Avoid Them Braising is a moist heat cooking method that is very forgiving. Like I always say, “You could braise an old leather baseball glove in beef stock and it would taste good with enough time.” A braise can be done on the stove-top or in the oven. Some […]
More Pan Roasting Mistakes & How to Avoid Them Here are some more Pan Roasting mistakes home cooks sometimes make. You can find Mistakes 1, 2 & 3 here. Mistake #4 The Cold Pan Sometimes, when trying to make a quick and nutritious meal at the end of a long day, we tend to rush […]
Common Mistakes Home Cooks Make When Pan Roasting Now that we having talked about How NOT to Roast your favorite foods, let’s talk about one of my favorite cooking techniques – Pan Roasting. Pan roasting is a chef’s technique that is only starting to come out of the professional kitchen and into the home kitchen. […]
Even More Common Roasting Mistakes & How to Avoid Them This is Part 3 of How NOT to Roast. Part 1 gets into the history of roasting and some of the preferences you have when deciding to cook a roast like to sear or not to sear, bone in or bone out, that sort of […]
Common Roasting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them This is Part 2 of common roasting mistakes and how to avoid them. In Part 1, I look at some of the preferences that are not mistakes but variations you can use depending on your own personal cooking style. Mistake #1: Oven too hot or too cold […]
Common Roasting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Ever since Man discovered fire, they have been roasting meat. Prehistoric man probably didn’t realize why their roasted meat tasted so much better than its raw counterpart, but we know now. Meats that have been properly roasted have a crisp, flavorful, deep brown exterior and a uniformly […]
I'm a work-at-home dad who enjoys cooking, learning everything I can about the culinary world and sharing it with you. To learn more about me... Read More
More Common Grilling Mistakes & How to Avoid Them This is Part 2 of How NOT to Grill which is part of my How NOT To Cook Online CookBook. You can read How NOT To Grill – Part 1 here. Mistake #7 – The Second Guesser You are so concerned about overcooking that beautiful steak, […]
Common Grilling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Although grilling has long been thought of as the “man’s domain,” there are plenty of reasons why both men and women would want to get out in the sunshine, drink a cold, frosty beverage, and do some grilling. Consider the extra energy it takes to cool the […]
How Not To Cook Pasta & Tips for Perfect Pasta Thanks to the great American melting pot, pasta is a staple in the United States. When “spaghetti and meatballs” turns up on children’s menus, you know that what was once brought over by Italian immigrants is now as American as apple pie. I’d be […]
