Whether you are an amateur cook or have been cooking for a long time, there is always room for improvement! You can refine techniques, find better ingredients, and better understand your equipment. Here are three easy ways to improve your cooking skills so that your food can be that much better.
Refine the Basic Techniques
This point seems obvious, but it cannot be reiterated enough just how important these fundamentals are for cooking. Whether you are new or have been cooking your whole life, you have room for improvement if you do not have the basics ingrained in your muscle memory. You need to know how to chop and measure correctly. On top of this, you should understand what recipes mean exactly when they use terms such as deglaze, aerate, blanch, etc. If you don’t know what the terms mean, you will have a tough time following them in your recipes.
Get the Right Equipment
Another great way to improve your cooking skills is by improving your equipment. For example, a dull knife can easily be upgraded to a more professional sharp knife, allowing you to cut more uniform and manageable ingredients. Like with the right equipment, I also suggest you understand the complexities of your equipment. A gas oven vs. an electric oven can significantly change your food, as both cook food differently, potentially making or breaking your recipes.
Choose the Right Ingredients
You can have great techniques and equipment, but your food can only go so far if you don’t have quality ingredients. A piece of produce close to spoiling will taste much worse than one that is freshly picked and ripe. Even herbs and spices can go bad over time and hurt your dishes. Many choose to use fresh herbs from a garden rather than the dried variety because of this reason. To avoid this, I recommend purchasing ingredients to use on that day instead of using ones you’ve purchased that’ve been sitting in the pantry or fridge for a few days. These simple ingredient choices can go a long way in making your food feel fresh and flavorful.
These are only a few easy ways to improve your cooking skills, but they will certainly go a long way. You will be leaving guests impressed with a full stomach and asking what’s for dessert.
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