20 Aha! Cooking Tips from Chefs and Veteran Cooks

Just when you thought you knew everything…

Have you ever felt like what you’re doing in the kitchen is just isn’t enough? You’re probably able to whip up a mean dinner or bake your yummy signature cake, but at the same time, you feel like there’s more to cooking than what you already know. Well perhaps it’s true! Ladies and gents, prepare to amp up your kitchen knowledge.

Here are 20 cooking tips from chefs and veteran home cooks that will change your cooking game!

Preparation

1. Mise En Place

Fancy French term meaning “putting in place”.

Basically, it means prepping everything you’ll need for the dish before you start cooking the dish. If you’re going to need chopped onions, chopped celery, and chopped carrots, don’t wait until you need them before you start cutting, have everything pre=cut, pre-measured, and ready to throw in the pot.

It fixes all of your timing issues, prevents you scrambling for a clean measuring device, keeps you from running around looking for that one sauce you can’t find, and gives you a heads-up if you are missing ingredients or tools. I think this is probably the single biggest thing a home cook can do to improve their cooking quality. – meadhawg

2. Read the recipe

If you’re using a recipe, read it all the way through carefully a few times before you start cooking. Missing a line like “let sit overnight” is the difference between eating tonight and ordering a pizza. – jerseycowboy

3. Use proper equipment

Equip yourself properly – If the recipe says to whisk something, for gods sake buy a whisk. Don’t use a wooden spoon and think, “close enough that’ll do”‘ Buy a set of saucepans, not just one. Want to cook Roasts to a perfect medium? Get a meat thermometer. Saves you having to hack into a piece of meat every 10 mins to check how pink it is. – The_Philosochef

4. Keep the box

Don’t throw away the box, you’re going to need to re-read the directions. – Skaughty23

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