25 Most Common Cooking Mistakes

The 25 Most Common Cooking Mistakes YOU are Probably Making:

1. You don't taste as you go
2. You don't read the entire recipe before you start cooking
3. You make unwise substitutions in baking
4. You boil when you should simmer - simmering means a bubble breaks to the surface every second or two
5. You overheat chocolate
6. You over-soften butter - can make your cookies spread too much or cakes too dense
7. You overheat low-fat milk products
8. You don't know your oven's quirks and idiosyncrasies
9. You're too casual about measuring ingredients
10. You overcrowd the pan
11. You mishandle egg whites - best tool for separating egg whites is your hands
12. You turn the food too often
13. You don't get the pan hot enough before you add the food
14. You slice meat with - instead of against- the grain
15. You underbake cakes and breads
16. You don't use a meat thermometer
17. Meats get no rest after cooking
18. You try to rush the cooking of caramelized onions - should take up to an hour
19. You overwork lower-fat dough - stop the mixer before everything is completely incorporated and finish by hand
20. You neglect the nuts you're toasting
21. You don't shock veggies when they've reached desired temperature - you should plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking process
22. You put all the salt in the marinade or breading
23. You pop meat straight from the fridge to the grill/oven - it should stand at room temp for 15-30 minutes
24. You don't know when to start over
25. You use inferior ingredients

Okay, now come clean... how many of these mistakes are you making!?!? Let's just say, I'm in the double digits!! Ha!

(Source: Cooking Light magazine)