We all know the benefits of cooking our own meal instead of going out all the time. I mean it’s both much healthier for your stomach and wallet, at least that should be the case if you do it right. But becoming a great cook can be quite challenging and downright frustrating since you don’t always know what you’re doing as a beginner.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way since there are a few habits good cooks constantly keep practicing that makes their food always smell, look and taste delicious. And if you want to be one of those people as I’m sure you do (since who doesn’t like good food right?), then you should definitely keep reading
Follow a Baking Recipe First and Improvise Later
Like Gordon Ramsay once said, “…it’s chemistry, so follow your recipe exactly.” It looks cool to try a little bit of this and mix a little bit of that. But usually, there is a reason why recipes follow a certain order of steps.
By getting the right ratio of ingredients- like sugar, fat, and liquids, you’ll be able to make sure that your food gets the proper moistness, fluffiness, or elasticity. And once you get a little bit more experience and a better “feeling” of how things work, you can experiment more and change the recipes according to your own personal taste.
A Clean and Organized Kitchen
The last thing you want is to search for 10-15 min for the right kind of bowl or plate, while your food is getting burned or cold. Cooking can be time sensitive since you need to add certain ingredients at the right time so that the right taste and flavor comes out. So it’s very important to keep your kitchen clean and organized so that you can easily grab the right thing you need.
Preparing the Right Ingredients
Great cooks know that good preparation is half the work. They get all the ingredients that they need for the recipe out before they start so they’ll know if anything is missing. Because no one wants to start cooking only to realize that there are one or two ingredients they don’t have for the recipe. And that means they’ll have to go to the grocery store before they can continue to cook.
Storing Food The Right Way
It’s no secret that food loses its quality over time. Good cooks know this very well and make sure that they store the ingredients the right way so that the quality of the food is preserved as best as possible. Check the label on the groceries you’re buying and make sure you heed their advice as to how you should store it.
Keep Your Knives Sharp
You need to constantly keep your knives as sharp as possible. A dull knife can be dangerous since you don’t have that much control over it, plus you won’t cut through the food very well. Regularly sharpening your knives is something that good cooks definitely do.
If you’ve always wanted to cook, then definitely think about these habits and see how you can apply them to your daily life! They’ll definitely help you out!
Grace Moser is the author and founder of Chasing Foxes, where she writes articles to help women create a life they love in big and small ways. She's been a full-time traveler since 2016 and loves sharing her experiences and exploring the world with her husband, Silas. Her lifestyle and travel advice can also be seen on sites such as Business Insider, Glamour, Newsweek, Huffpost, & Apartment Therapy.