Cooking Recipes and ‘Mise en Place’
Top chefs seem to really have it together when they are preparing meals and cooking recipes. When we see them cook, they don’t scramble around the kitchen looking for last minute ingredients. Everything always seems to be where right in front of them.
Mise en Place – Preparing the Ingredients
The French have a term for this – mise en place. This basically means “preparing the ingredients”. You chop and measure things out in advance. It may seem as if this will lengthen the cooking time. But it actually shortens it and helps make your food come out better.
Not convinced? Consider this. How many times have you left onions or garlic to sauté in a skillet, only to realize that you need to add the mushrooms ASAP but they are not cleaned or chopped yet? By the time they are chopped, the onions are a burnt mess. Well all this could have been prevented if you prepared the ingredients ahead of time.
Are The Recipes Confusing
Do you avoid cooking anything complicated because you don’t understand how to follow recipes? Maybe the problem isn’t with you. Maybe the recipe simply is not written well. How many times have you tried to follow your aunt’s recipe for apple pie, only to get stuck at the crust?
The problem is, most people do not know how to write recipes so that they are clear and easy to understand. If you are new at cooking, try to follow recipes written by professionals. After you get confident in your cooking skills, then you can tackle a more difficult or badly written recipe.
The fact is, unless you have experience, it could be hard to fill in the gaps that a poorly written recipe may contain. But if you are experienced, you can probably guess what is missing. For a novice, however, this can only lead to frustration and kitchen disasters.
So prepare your ingredients and pick an easy recipe!
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