Lately, the cooking became a popular hobby not only for women but also for men and even students. Most of us are learning new dishes and cooking methods from the internet or just by trying it. While we learn many things by trial and error, there are certain things we can’t possibly learn just by trying. Some of these mistakes may ruin the flavor of the dishes while the others can risk our health.
1. Rinsing Pasta With Cold Water
A cold shower may be good for your health, but definitely not for the pasta. It not only ruins the flavor but also removes the nutrients from the pasta. In order to keep nutrients and its flavor, drain the pasta and use its water to make a sauce. However, you can’t make a sauce with too much water so you need to cook the pasta until it absorbs most of the water. By doing that, some of the nutrients will be absorbed by the pasta while some of them will be used in the sauce.
2. Sautéing Garlic Before Onion
If you are going to use both garlic and onion for your sauté, you need to sauté onion first and then you can add garlic after softening the onion. The water content of the onion can protect it from overcooking but the garlic doesn’t have that much water. The garlic can’t resist the heat like the onion does so sautéing the onion first not only prevents overcooking but also keeps nutrients.
3. Cooking Meat Without Thawing
The meat releases more water than it normally does when you cook it without thawing and that makes it lose its flavor. The correct way to cook the meat is bringing it to room temperature before cooking. However, keeping the meat in room temperature for too long will cause bacteria to grow rapidly so be sure to check its temperature once in a while when you get it out of the freezer.
4. Reusing The Marinade As A Sauce
In order to add a distinctive flavor, some people use the marinade as a sauce. However, you are risking your health while trying to get that flavor. When you marinate the meat at room temperature, bacteria start to grow rapidly in the marinade so it is best to get rid of the marinade when you are done marinating the meat. Applying the same logic, you shouldn’t be using the same knife or chopping board for cooked meat if you have used it to cut the raw meat.
5. Salting Beef Stew Before Cooking
It is best to add salt before cooking for most dishes but not for beef stew. If you salt beef stew before cooking, that will make beef tougher. So just for beef stew, salting it after cooking would be a better choice.
6. Searing Meat Over Medium Heat
When you try to sear a meat over medium heat, the result would be less oily and less juicy meat which is not something we want. The correct way to sear a meat would be over high temperature.
7. Not Preheating The Oven Before Baking A Cake Or Cookies
Most people think it is optional to preheat the oven before baking a cake. However, if you don’t preheat the oven, the cake or the cookies will bake slowly and lose their oil due to evaporation while you bake. As a result, they stick to the pan or the tin.
8. Adding Sugar To The Pudding Before Cooking
When you are trying to make a dessert with milk, you shouldn’t add sugar in the beginning because sugar breaks the structure of the protein that milk contains. So it is better if you add sugar later on if you are making a dessert that contains milk.
9. Not Rinsing Rice
This is not for health actually, just to make your rice eye-pleasing. When you rinse rice, you are removing starch from it which can be considered as a nutrient loss. However, if you don’t rinse it, it will be sticky after you cook it.
10. Overbeating The Eggs While Making A Cake
You might be thinking well-beaten eggs is essential for making a great cake, however, when you overbeat the eggs, your cake won’t rise. It would be enough to beat until the sugar is dissolved.
11. Wrong Timing While Dressing The Salad
Most people dress their salad while mixing the ingredients for the salad but if you dress your salad too early, you can’t protect it from wilting. So dress your salad only right before serving.
12. Cooking The Vegetables Just After Washing Them
Dried vegetables taste better because you remove excess water and keep its flavor. So we can say excess water ruins the flavor. When you put vegetables in the pan just after washing them, water amount will increase and reduces the flavor. In order to prevent that, let vegetables dry after washing them instead of cooking them directly.
