26 Methods To Enhance Your Proficiency within the Kitchen
Moving out of the family home, yearning to try something different, or supporting oneself through economic hardship are all valid reasons to take up cooking. Well, and loving food, of course. However, for any new cook, navigating the kitchen can be daunting. Thankfully, there are many measures one can take to make the jump from microwaving frozen meals to crafting elaborate recipes. The following tips are like a beginner’s guide to cooking, offering crucial concepts needed to evolve in the kitchen.
1. Salt Is Your Friend
Salt acts like a magnifying glass for food, bringing the authentic flavors of each ingredient through in a dish to make bland food edible. A good supply of sea salt, rock salt, and even monosodium glutamate (MSG) is essential for making food taste good. Be careful of how much you use, though. Too much sodium is actually not good for your blood pressure and can ruin even the most delicious dishes.
The more comfortable you get with using salt in your recipes, the more you’ll begin to understand just how versatile it is as a spice. From elevating desserts to reducing the bitterness of coffee, there are a ton of different uses for this very basic ingredient.
2. Know Your Onions
Onions are integral to many soups, sauces, and salads, so choosing the right type is critical to different cooking styles. Shallots and scallions are natural bedfellows for Asian dishes, sweet onions work for sauces, and red onions are great for roasting. When you fry onions, adding a healthy pinch of salt will extract their moisture, helping them caramelize for a natural sweetness. Also, Bon Appetit shares ways to store onions, stating one should never store onions in the fridge — they will keep better in dry conditions at room temperature.
3. Know Your Oil
There are so many different types of oils available, so it’s important to know where each one is used best. For example, you’ll use olive oil for frying European-style dishes, vegetable oil for Asian food or deep frying, and sesame oil for Asian seasoning. Of course, peanut, avocado, and coconut oil have their niche uses, depending on the ingredients. Clarified butter (or ghee) is best for Indian or Central Asian cuisine.
Oils like sesame and peanut can have very strong flavors, so use them cautiously. They can quickly become the star of your dish regardless of whether you want them to or not.
4. Know Your Pans
Most people have a universal frying pan for all their cooking, but if you ask any experienced chef, they would recommend owning several different types. If you love fried fish, you must invest in a separate pan. You’d be surprised how much the bold flavor of fish and oil can stick around in a pan, even after it’s been cleaned. You should also use a separate pan for vegetarian cooking to ensure plant-based eaters won’t detect a meat taste anywhere. Pro-tip for frying: heat your pan before adding oil to prevent the meat from sticking to the surface.
From different sizes to materials, there is quite a variety of pans out there. Frying pans, for example, should have curved sides, while saute pans should be deeper and wider.
5. Protect Yourself at All Times
Wearing an apron is essential for protecting your clothing and avoiding oil burns. Additionally, safety glasses provide excellent eye protection for cutting onions and avoiding barbecue smoke. Protection goes beyond what you’re wearing, though. How you handle food is critical to ensuring you’re safe in the kitchen. For example, don’t touch raw chicken without immediately washing your hands with soap, or don’t use the same utensils for handling raw meats and vegetables.
6. The Egg Dilemma
Eggs are a bone of contention in the cooking game — purists claim you must store eggs outside the fridge, especially if you want better baking results. This idea works if you have a hen and access to freshly laid eggs. As I live in an urban setting, I store my eggs in the refrigerator, which keeps them fresh for longer. You can always remove said eggs from the fridge before baking, allowing them to warm to room temperature. A warm egg may sound disgusting, but they actually make it easier to bind ingredients together, which is essential for baking.
7. Utensils for the Win
There are certain utensils every chef needs, but it takes time to build up a collection if you want quality products that will last a long time. The best basics include a silicone spatula, silicone-head tongs, serving spoons, a ladle, a steel-slotted spoon for deep-frying and blanching, scissors, a small cheese grater, and a vegetable peeler. These items are easily bought in bulk sets. However, the cheaper the set, the less likely they’ll have any longevity. That’s not to say you should be spending hundreds on utensils. Find a happy medium between price and quality.
If you go for wood utensils, make note that they can’t be treated like metal ones. For example, wooden kitchenware shouldn’t be put in the dishwasher and needs to be dried immediately, or else it can crack.
8. Knives Out
You may use the same undersized, blunt vegetable knife to cut everything. However, for kitchen supremacy, your knife collection must contain the following: a large kitchen knife for bigger foods and meat, a bread knife, a carving knife, a paring knife, and a utility knife. Never use a knife beyond how it’s meant to be used. For example, using a pairing knife to cut through steak can ruin your cut of meat and dull the knife quicker.
Rules one and two for maintaining your knives: invest in a sharpener. and hand-wash only The quickest way to ruin your knives is to run them through the dishwasher and not care for them properly.
9. Knives Sharpened
The rule most chefs follow is that expensive knives need expensive sharpening tools, so sharpening your top-of-the-line Miyabi knives on a $10 sharpener is unacceptable. The experts at Knives and Tools believe pro chefs all use whetstones, which restore a blade in seconds. Several whetstones are available: traditional, oil, and diamond whetstones. Honing steel rods and electric sharpeners are an option for cheaper, shorter-term knives.
With proper sharpening, you can bring a knife back to near-new quality. Believe it or not, a dull knife can be dangerous. If you’re forced to exert more pressure to make a cut, you’re more likely to slip and hurt yourself.
10. Thickening Sauces
There are many dos and don’ts with sauces, but the most important is buying a soft silicone-head spatula to prevent sticking and wastage. Moreover, when cooking stews or casseroles, adding flour to freeze-dried stock cube powder to make a roux for your gravy works every time as a thickening agent. You will get thin sauce if you only add water or broth to a casserole. Some recipes require a thicker base, such as most gravies.
11. Keep It Clean
We all have or have had a messy chef in our lives at one point. Though they may cook well, it’s nfuriating if you’re living with them as they’ll often leave you responsible to clean dishes for meals you didn’t even eat. Some people end up with a kitchen that looks like they fought a losing wrestling match — vegetable trimmings everywhere, pots and pans sitting with charred remains stuck to them, or utensils scattered far and wide. You will soon grow tired of cooking if your whirlwind culinary session always precedes a marathon of dishwashing.
While some people are adamant about hand-washing everything, use your dishwasher if it’s not a delicate utensil like a knife and his dishwasher safe. Not only are you saving time, with modern units, it’s actually better for water consumption and energy use.
12. Baking Is Science
Chefs can ad-lib some ingredients when cooking dishes, even omitting them entirely. Nothing is more fun than using up leftovers to create a never-before-seen meal. However, if you’re baking, always follow the recipe and avoid substituting volume amounts. There is a difference between switching chocolate chips for nuts and flour for cornmeal. Invest in a digital scale if baking is your prime kitchen calling — your tastebuds will thank you.
Baking is very similar to chemistry. The more you do it, the more you’ll understand how certain ingredients react with one another and why it’s crucial to stick to the recipe when possible.
13. I Can’t Believe It’s Hot Butter
Cooking with butter requires practice, as getting it wrong is often catastrophic due to its low burn threshold. The best rule is to use oil for heat and butter for rich flavor. When frying anything directly in butter, it must be on low heat lest you burn it. According to Serious Eats, a dash of oil protects the butter from burning and can remove the taste of burnt butter if you slip up.
14. The Burger Bun Dichotomy
One indicator for someone who understands burgers is their choice of burger bun and how they prepare it. For the love of all things good, toast that roll. It is the most crucial step for burger building. It protects the bread from the meat’s juices and prevents disintegration, adding a nice crunch to every bite. A good burger bun should be hearty and not flimsy. It shouldn’t crumble (literally) under the weight of the burger, and it should be big enough to give you a good grip when picking it up.
15. Choose Fresh
There are two extremes of people in life — those who love seafood and those who hate it. We must sympathize with the latter because a bad seafood experience can taint one’s perception forever. When choosing seafood or fish, finding fresh produce is essential for avoiding the unpleasant fishy odor that turns many people away. If you live near the sea, find your nearest seafood market. If you’re a little further inland, it’s worth asking your butcher when everything is imported in, or simply use caution and stray away from shellfish.
16. Red Hot Chili Peppers
Chili peppers can enhance great recipes if used correctly, but improper handling can lead to disastrous results for eyes or nostrils. As with onions, goggles will prevent casual yet painful contact, and rubber gloves are also recommended. If you don’t like your recipes too strong, remove a chili pepper’s seeds to soften the fiery blow, says Allrecipes. If you decide not to wear gloves, remember to wash your hands thoroughly and avoid touching your eyes for the remainder of the day. Ask anyone who’s chopped a jalapeno and then had an itchy eye immediately after what the results are.
17. Ice Your Vegetables
Vegetables must be treated well to extract the best flavor from them. Overcooking vegetables releases their essential nutrients and enzymes, while undercooking them (looking at you, eggplants) might produce an unappetizing texture. If boiling vegetables, drop them in ice water after boiling to halt the cooking process while preserving their color. Moreover, roasting vegetables makes their natural flavor shine.
18. Stay Germ-Free
Did you know that cut fruits and vegetables may contain harmful bacteria? One must be vigilant in choosing the right source, and buying intact produce will mitigate the chances of bacterial presence. A National Institute of Health (NIH) study of cut fruits and vegetables in Canadian supermarkets showed that pre-cut apples, melon, cauliflower, and mushrooms are more likely to have Listeria monocytogenes than other ingredients. One can use this principle for ground meats, too — the fresher ground the protein, the safer the meat.
19. Understand Cooking Temperatures
Modern culinary arts are rife with old techniques, which have been circulating for centuries, and the cooking-by-feel approach is still prevalent. However, one tool most carnivore chefs own is a meat thermometer. It’s a simple tool that ensures consistent results every time instead of prodding and hoping for the best. The real show-offs will rave about their sous-vide machine, a water bath used for gently heating food to its perfect temperature. More casual cooks, however, are happy simply shoving this probe into their meat for an accurate temperature reading.
20. Say Cheese
Cheese is central to many delightful recipes, especially pizza. One tip for cutting or grating softer cheese is to store it in the freezer for 30 minutes (no longer) beforehand. By cooling the cheese, you can also avoid wasting any on the cheese grater, which gives good peace of mind for those counting each paycheck. After all, cheese is not cheap. Unfortunately, it’s so flavorful and works wonders to add a delicious bite to many recipes that it’s often difficult to pass on.
21. Low-Fat or Fat-Free Cheese Is a Poor Substitute
We absolutely understand the need for lower-calorie meals. However, be wary of fat-free or low-fat cheeses. Sure, they may be better for you, but they’re not only going to taste different from their fuller-fat counterpart, they’re not going to have the same consistency. Low-fat cheese doesn’t melt as evenly and can look and feel like melted plastic, which can ruin staples like mac ‘n cheese or grilled cheese. Try a different avenue before sacrificing cheese if you need to lower your meals’ fat or calorie content. Or go cheeseless altogether. Trust us, really bad cheese can ruin your appetite for it.
22. Mastering a Mandolin
Spending hours cutting and crying through large quantities of onions can be a form of kitchen torture – especially without goggles. The mandolin is a daunting yet ingenious cutting instrument and can be your culinary confidant. Many fingertips will agree that mastering the mandolin can save hours of hard work. The trick is to lay your palm flat, parallel to the blade. Gripping the vegetable with your fingertips pointing toward the mandolin’s surface is a recipe for disaster and a good way to tint your food red.
23. Meat Your Maker
Vegetarians and vegans can skip this entry. Cooking meat is the most challenging skill in a home chef’s repertoire. While certain basic meat products like bacon and chicken require little effort, porterhouse steak needs a lot. One must understand meat temperatures and proper seasoning for the perfect results. Furthermore, befriend your local butcher. They will soon offer you the best cuts once they know and offer sage advice.
A quick tip about cooking steak: let it rest. Slicing into a beautiful cut of meat before it cools a little will lose some of its juices, where the flavor hides the most.
24. Keep Those Bread Crusts
Growing up in a big household means getting to the best bread slices quickly. Those who snooze in the bread world get the crust, but that doesn’t have to be bad. If you use breadcrumbs, loaf ends are lovely. In fact, the more stale, the better. Dry out the bread pieces in the oven and cool before blending if you want finer crumbs. Leftover crust can also be baked into seasoned croutons or used to make tuna salad heartier.
25. Prepping Ahead Saves Time and Stress
Cooking for guests sometimes requires extensive preparation, making any dinner party unnecessarily painful and stressful. Prepare everything possible ahead of time so you can be left to unwind with your friends or loved ones. Even a salad can be readied a few hours before mealtime, though cooking steak 24 hours in advance will result in many frowns. Thinking about what can sit and what can’t. Anything that doesn’t need to be freshly prepared should be handled the night before.
26. Be One With Your Cutting Board
Most professional kitchens have different color-coded cutting boards for obvious hygiene-related reasons. FoodDocs teaches that red boards are for raw red meat, yellow is for raw poultry and game, and blue is for fish and seafood. However, it doesn’t end there. If you are serious about cooking, use a white cutting board for dairy, green for vegetables, and brown for cooked meats. If you’re working with a wood cutting board, always wash it by hand and never use it to cut meat. Wood is very porous, which is a problem for several reasons. Along with trapping bacteria, it can expand and warp if it’s not properly dried.
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