Helpful Cooking Tip #6 - Slow and Steady

Helpful Cooking Tip #6 - Slow and Steady

Another common mistake that can lead an amateur cook to disaster is trying to move too quickly. Cooking isn't fun for all people, especially those that have had particularly bad luck in the past. The natural inclination for those that don't like to do it is to get it over with as fast as possible. Typically that means higher heat and less planning/preparation. A couple of things to realize:

- You can always add heat to an undercooked item, but once something is over cooked it can never revert back (think of a raw egg vs. a fried egg). Many artists start their drawings in light pencil that can easily be erased so that the components of the picture can still be easily changed until they are ready to be permanent. Cooks can do effectively the same thing by dialing down the heat.

- Preparing ahead of time helps prevent panic. Take time to prepare initial ingredients ahead of time if you are working off of a recipe. Read the recipe a few times so that you are familiar with everything you are about to do. Find gaps (if there are any) in the active cooking time so that you can prepare ingredients for later steps while the food presently cooking can sit unattended. If there is nothing to actively prepare during these periods, use the empty time to clean up the kitchen or your workspace. If you aren't working off a recipe, plan out how you are going to cook your dish either mentally or on paper (which I find is more useful), and follow the same basic guidelines.

- Planing helps prevent forgetfulness. I have been in countless situations where I had intended to include a specific ingredient in a dish and then realized I completely forgot about it after it was too late. Plan ahead of time and set your workspace up in such a way that you can easily access and use the ingredients you intend to use. Making checklists can also help in this regard.

- If you have a big party, start making the food days in advance, and cook things to the point that you can easily finish the dishes the day of. It also gives you some leeway if something gets screwed up or burned. Two days before your Mom's birthday party you can remake a pork shoulder that accidentally was left in the oven too long, but if you are cooking it the day of, you likely won't be eating pork shoulder for dinner. Additionally, when you cook ahead of time, you have a lot more freedom to break up the cooking times so the process isn't quite so overwhelming the day you intend to eat.