Even the most experienced cooks at times end up making some grave mistakes when cooking. As a result, this write-up is a must read for everyone who wants to remain flawless when cooking. Here, we have discussed about mistakes that you must never commit when preparing food.

Mistake #1: Not reading the recipe properly

When it comes to preparing a new dish, reading the recipe is a must both for people cooking for the first time and experienced cooks. Reading the recipe thoroughly will give you the opportunity of familiarizing yourself with the process of preparing the dish before you start cooking. If you remember the recipe by heart, you will never commit mistakes like adding spices in wrong order or using an ingredient not mentioned in the recipe. The possibility of leaving something out will also be less. The other advantage of thoroughly studying the recipe is that it will not let you forget buying the necessary ingredients from retail shopping stores.

Mistake #2: Not washing the vegetables

Most of us wash the fish and meat carefully before cooking, but forget to clean the items purchased from the vegetable store. This is definitely not the way to go. Before initiating the cooking procedure, one should wash all the vegetables he/she will need using lukewarm water.

Mistake #3: Using a Cold Pan

You cannot expect to prepare a perfect dish without preheating the pan. Most of us never forget to preheat the oven when roasting meat or baking cakes. However, remembering the same rule often becomes difficult for us during stovetop cooking. If you add ingredients like chicken, vegetables, mushrooms etc. to a pan before heating it up, sautéing the ingredients will make them tough and soggy. So, unless the recipe tells you to do something else, you should always heat up the pan and also the oil (if the recipe requires use of oil) in it before adding any ingredient. However, make sure that you are not overheating the pan. An excessively hot pan can cause fire, a situation that you will always want to avoid.

Mistake #4: Stirring too much

One of the main steps of the majority of the cooking procedures is stirring. There are many dishes that cannot be prepared without stirring. However, you must keep in mind that different dishes require different levels of stirring. Often it has been found that continuous stirring, flipping and re-flipping instead of making a dish perfect ends up spoiling it gruesomely.

Remember, if preparing a particular food item requires continuous stirring, the recipe will surely indicate the same. Ideally, instead of stirring the items in the pan continuously, you should keep a close eye on them. Use the stirring tool (a wooden spoon or a spatula) only after adding new spices to the pan; gentle stirring is essential to ensure that all the newly added items mix well with each other as well as with the ingredients that were already in the pan.