So, you think recipes are 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 your mom’s meatloaf 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.

A Good Set of Knives is a Wise Investment

A good set of knives is easily the most important implement that you could have in the kitchen. That and a large cutting board. A lot of people buy the least expensive knives they can find. If you want to learn how to cook and be as efficient as possible in the kitchen, skimping on the knife set is not a good idea.

Visit your local home store and check out their knife display. Most of the knives are locked up but you can hopefully find a salesperson and explain to them your needs. They’ll let you hold the knives so you can judge how they feel.

Don’t buy a knife just because it is expensive, however. The grip and balance may not be what you need. Test out knives that are in all different price ranges. There is nothing wrong with buying something inexpensive, as long as it feels solid and feels good.

Mise en Place – Preparing the Ingredients

Top chefs seem to really have it together when they are preparing meals. When we see them cook, they don’t scramble around the kitchen looking for last minute ingredients. Everything always seems to be arranged artistically right in front of them

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? And 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.

Tips for Finding New Recipes

So, what’s for dinner? Do you know? Sometimes it’s fun to shake things up a bit. If you find yourself cooking the same things all the time, it could be that you need to try something new, you just don’t realize it. But just as you may be in a rut with the things you could be cooking, you may be looking in the same places to find your recipes. Is your favourite cookbook getting a little stale? Try searching online instead. There are plenty of food oriented websites. Or, if you want to try cooking in a different cuisine, do a search for that cuisine. For example, if you want to find easy Thai food recipes, type in the search phrase “easy Thai food recipes” and you should be directed to a website that will help you out. This is a good way to shake things up.