Culinary Calamities - 6 Common Cooking Mistakes & How To Fix Them

The explosive popularity of TV cooking shows has inspired untold millions of people across the globe to elevate their home cooking games. Or, at the very least, give it some extremely serious thought!

The same genre has also spawned some of humanity's most unforgettable and excruciatingly public cooking disasters. Who could forget MasterChef 6’s Brendan serving up a Chinese-inspired fried rice containing pork so raw that the judges refused to even taste it? Or, Larissa & Steph’s food truck inferno on Season 11?

However, it’s not just TV contestants who suffer epic broadcast fails. For example, the time Jamie Oliver became public enemy number one in Spain for the unspeakable sin of daring to add chorizo to his paella recipe. Or, when Gordon Ramsay’s famous potty mouth was gloriously silenced by a persnickety Thai chef who was utterly unimpressed with his failed attempt at an authentic Pad Thai.

These culinary calamities may keep us glued to our screens in morbid fascination. However, when a recipe goes horribly wrong at home, it’s no laughing matter. Most of us put hours of hard work into the meals we lovingly prepare for our families and friends and are devastated when things go pear-shaped.

In most cases, home cooking implosions boil down to a surprisingly small number of simple and avoidable errors. Today, we’re going to look at the most common cooking mistakes you may be making in your kitchen, and how you can avoid them to boost your chances of succulent success, every time.

Let’s get started:

1: Dracula’s Revenge - Burned Garlic

It may be the bane of vampires and successful first dates, but garlic is the undisputed champion of aromatic flavour bases in national cuisines from Seville to Seoul.

As any seasoned home chef knows, the line between beautifully browned and burned to a crisp is a fine one. Take your eye off the pan for an instant at the critical moment, and garlic turns bitter and unpalatable. Fortunately, there are a couple of simple strategies you can employ to avoid this pitfall and enjoy the optimal flavour of “The Stinking Rose”

• Saute your garlic on low heat and stir constantly. Not only are you less likely to burn it in the first place, but you’ll give yourself far more leeway to notice when it’s done.
• Like all aromatics, once you get that strong, fragrant hit wafting from the pan, your garlic is at peak deliciousness. While some people love the sweeter, less pungent flavour of the browned item, garlic purists will savour the pure, optimal tones of garlic at its peak.
• As an alternative, skip the sauté altogether! Simply add your garlic later in the process, along with the meat or vegetables. This makes it much harder to burn, but you’ll still be able to release the aromas.

2: Dull Moments - Blunt Knives

Believe it or not, science has proven that the better food looks, the better people think it tastes1. It turns out that presentation really does matter. So, if your dish is made up of mangled tomatoes and misshapen carrots, even if it’s delicious, human psychology dictates that people are likely to perceive it as less than stellar.

Well-honed knife skills are a critical part of neat and elegantly presented foods. Sharp knives are an essential component in executing these skills. Purchasing excellent-quality knives and keeping them regularly sharpened will make a palpable contribution to the way your food looks and tastes. Whether you get them professionally sharpened, use a sharpening steel or invest in a whetstone, razor-sharp knives will put you on the path to better presentation.

3: Giving Greasies - Oil Faux Pas

Despite what all the self-proclaimed social media diet gurus tell you, fats are an essential part of a healthy diet and an indispensable element of virtually all cooking. Whether you’re searing snapper, baking muffins or whipping up a salad dressing, you’re almost certainly using some form of oil.

As children of the ‘80s know well - “Oils Ain’t Oils”. The iconic catchphrase applies at least as much to the kitchen as it does to your car engine. Choosing the right oil for your job is essential to achieving the best results:

• Low smoke point oils, such as olive oil, burn easily and lose their taste, as well as any health properties. Use your beloved EVOO in dressings, for drizzling on finished products, or for slow, low-heat sauteeing.
• High smoke-point oils, such as canola, sunflower, avocado, and peanut, are best for shallow and deep frying to achieve that delicious, crispy texture.
• Aromatic oils such as sesame oil should be used exclusively for adding flavour.

Watching your waistline? You can minimise your fat intake by jumping on the air fryer bandwagon. Air fryers work by rapidly circulating superheated air around your food, creating the same chemical reaction that causes food to crisp without the need for fat. We may be a little bit biased, but GreenPan’s superb Bistro range of non-stick ceramic air fryers give outstanding performance, are a breeze to clean and come in a range of gorgeous colours, making them the perfect option for health-conscious home cooks. You will be amazed at what you can cook in an air fryer, so the ease, versatility and health benefits make them well worth the investment.

3: Need Some Space - Overcrowding Your Pan

Cooking is a delicate balance of chemistry and art. Learning to control the elements will make you a better cook. The ancients believed that the world was composed of just four elements: earth, water, fire and air. While science has taught us better, it’s a handy way to think about the food you’re cooking. Earth for the physical ingredients, water for their moisture content, and fire for heat.

Unfortunately, the interplay between those three elements and air is a key factor that many people ignore to their detriment. Allowing your food room to breathe helps with heat transfer, browning, and the intricate chemical reactions that cause the proteins in food to bond, creating the tantalising flavour combinations.

Overcrowding your pan denies your ingredients the oxygen they need to make this magic happen, and can result in dishes that don’t look, feel or taste as good as they should. For this reason, it’s vital to choose the correct-sized pot or pan for the job. We all have our trusty pan that is our go-to for every occasion. However, if that pan is not the right size for the job at hand, you might be sabotaging your own efforts. Your best bet is to find a great quality, versatile cookware set that you love. This will give you the flexibility to choose the most appropriate piece for your dish while still enjoying the style and feel you love.

4: Chaos Reigns - Poor Kitchen Organisation

Every workplace has systems, procedures and methodologies designed to eliminate errors and mishaps. Your kitchen should be no different. Think about any time things have gone wrong for you in the kitchen. The likelihood is that a lack of organisation and planning was the cause of that domestic disaster.

The antidote is to implement a rigid organisation and efficient processes that eliminate as much room for error as possible. Here are some practical ways to achieve this:

• Organise your pantry and storage so all your ingredients, cookware and utensils are logically arranged and easy to find. This will eliminate those last-minute mad rushes searching for the elusive spatula while your sauce burns on the stove.
• Always read the recipe thoroughly before starting to cook and formulate a plan that allows you to approach each step well prepared.
• Prepare all your ingredients ahead of time, so they’re easily at hand right when you need them.
• Ensure that everything is measured accurately before you begin cooking. It’s easy to mix up your teaspoons and tablespoons and ruin the recipe when the pressure’s on and you’re getting flustered at the stove.
• Clean your workspace as you go. Piles of dirty dishes and off-cuts can trigger stress and claustrophobia. If you’re waiting for the pot to boil or the food in the oven to roast, use the break in active cooking time to clean up as much as possible, keeping your surroundings free of mess and clutter.

4: Burning up - Overreliance On High Heat

We get it, life’s busy, and we’re all time-poor. However, willing your creations to be ready quicker by firing up the burner to the temperature of the sun’s surface will ultimately cost you more time and anguish than it will save. Save it for boiling water for pasta.

Complex flavours are created when the chemicals in your ingredients react to heat and form bonds with each other. This chemistry of cooking works best with gentle heat and longer durations, allowing more of these culinary connections to occur.

Fire-bombing your food with excessive heat not only reduces the time available for this gentle percolation of flavour, but it can also cause those bonds to collapse, negatively impact the taste and texture of that dish you worked so hard to prepare.

5: By the Book – Sticking to Recipes Without Adapting Flavours

Here at GreenPan, every product we offer is rigorously tested and retested to ensure optimal quality, performance and reliability. Whether it’s our exclusive range of gorgeous yet functional electrical cooking appliances or a superb and stylish cookware set that’s as beautiful to look at as it is a joy to use, you can be sure that every item is rigorously put through its paces. We leave nothing to chance, and when you’re working your magic in the kitchen, neither should you.

Following the recipe and praying that it’ll work out precisely the way you want it is not a formula for success. Rather, continuously taste, adjust, season and repeat throughout the cooking process. A sprinkle of salt here, a dash of cumin there and a crack of pepper to unite them all can be the difference between “Meh” and “Wow”.

While you’re at it, have a hunch that a dram of balsamic vinegar might add a glorious kick to your pasta sauce? Feeling like a sneaky teaspoon of smoked paprika could add an extra dimension to the marinade you’re trying? Don’t be afraid to channel your creativity and try things out. Recipes are a great guide, but they’re not engraved in stone tablets by a divine hand. Sometimes, the best results occur when you adapt tried-and-true methods and take them to a new level.

6: More Of The Same - Not Including a Variety of Flavours & Textures

All foods can be broadly divided into five primary flavours (sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami) and five primary textures (watery, firm, crunchy, creamy and chewy). The most inspiring gastronomic delights combine at least two of each, and sometimes more. The trick is to select mixtures that oppose and therefore balance each other. There’s a reason why salted caramel ice cream with a sprinkling of cashews works so spectacularly well.

If you’re looking at your work in progress and thinking that it needs something to make it pop, go back to your basic flavours and textures and add a twist. Add a shower of slivered almonds or pepitas to a salad for a satisfying crunch, or a splash of mirin to your stir-fry to balance out the salt. With a bit of practice, you’ll develop an intuitive feel for what combinations work together, much to the delight of your family or dinner guests.

Conclusion: If You Didn’t Know, Now You Know

Now that you’re armed with this critical information, you have what you need to march confidently back into the kitchen and compose scrumptious symphonies of mouthwatering deliciousness.

Even experienced and accomplished cooks can overlook basic rules of edible engagement and allow simple errors to creep in and detract from their output.

Follow our simple, yet powerful tips above, and you’ll be well on your way to consistently catastrophe-free adventures in your kitchen.

Note:
1. Zellner et. al., Appetite, Vol. 77, June 2014 It tastes as good as it looks! The effect of food presentation on liking for the flavor of food