My Most Common Cooking Mistake
March 4, 2010 by Culinary Cory
Filed under Tips
While sipping on a Lemon Drop Martini, my most favorite beverage, I was having a great conversation about this website. My dining companion asked me, “What is your most common cooking mistake?”
I took another sip, thought for a moment and then answered, “I always burn nuts when I’m toasting them.” Out of the thousands of things that could go wrong while making a meal, it may seem like such a simple mistake. I either have the flame up too high or forget about them altogether. I guess you can consider it the culinary equivalent to burning popcorn.
Toasting nuts like almonds, walnuts, cashews and even pine nuts is a great way to bring out their rich flavor and add depth to a dish. The best way to toast nuts is by heating a dry sauté pan over a medium flame. Toss the nuts into the pan and shake occasionally for about 2 – 3 minutes, or until the nuts become slightly darker. Don’t walk away! Otherwise you could forget about them and end up with a charred mess.
The biggest tip to remember is that nuts continue to toast even after you turn off the flame. I recommend transferring them to a cool plate to prevent overbrowning.
So I’m curious, what is your most common cooking mistake?
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I agree with the other – burning nuts is a common (and really easy to commit) mistake. I am also known to under-season or completely forget to add salt to a dish.
All of my mistakes are one-offs
– but my SO’s most common mistake is burning garlic when sauteing, and it is always a sad occasion when this happens.
Turning on the wrong burner and melting something – I know I shouldn’t have it on the stove, but I only have about a foot of counter space.
I also burn nuts and other things if I am reading email while cooking.
Using salt. Most of the time I use the right amount, but if something goes wrong in my cooking, more often than not is the amount of salt I put in them. Burning garlic is my second most common mistake, hehe
Hi CC,
My most common cooking mistake would have to be forgetting to save the cup of pasta water to thicken the sauce.
I always drain the pasta and forget to save the starchy water! Darn it!
I have also burned pine nuts a zillion times too.
xxoo
Trying to cook.
I’ve been known to walk away and have a pan full of burned pine nuts…I know some don’t like to oven toast but it seems to work better for me. I just have to remember to set that timer! That is my most common mistake!
Yummmmmm Lemon Drop Martini — recipe pleeeeeeze???
Defintely overbrowing the garlic —- ruins the taste of everything!!!!!!!!!!! Always need to start again….
I’m good at burning pine nuts too. Or there was the time I was taking a salad to work for a pot luck, and wanted the pine nuts to be freshly toasted. I poured the pine nuts into a ziploc bag directly from the pan…they burned through immediately and scattered all over the floor. It was a salad with no pine nuts that day. Lesson learned.
burning baguette slices!
I forget the bread is in there since it is usually one of my last steps, and I am setting a table etc… It happened so often I began buying two baguettes, so I would have a replacement, now I set a timer!
I always toast my nuts in the oven, usually at 350F. For pine nuts, around 325F. But I set the timer. For pecans and walnuts, 5 to 8 minutes, start checking at 5 minutes, for hazelnuts (filberts), 8 to 12 minutes, again, start checking at the lower end, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, just a couple of minutes.
And of course, spread them out on a flat sheet and immediately remove them from the hot sheet when finished roasting.
Burning the nuts happens a good bit, especially if they are toasted in the oven and not on the stove. Oven toasting is a bad, bad idea.
Another mistake…occasionally forgetting the baking soda/powder in cookies!
Definitely have one that comes to mind: not adding enough seasoning. I often forget the salt or don’t put enough of other spices in. Makes some bland, but edible still, meals.