How Not To Cook - Common Cooking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
A while back I started writing a cookbook, How NOT to Cook – Common Cooking Mistakes & How to Avoid Them. I wrote about a dozen chapters on mistakes I’ve made over the years and how I ultimately learned the right way to cook.
Then I sat on the idea for over five years thinking I’d get around to finishing it soon but never did. The chapters were there but life has a funny way of pointing us in different directions, especially when you have a couple of busy teenage daughters.
So now I decided instead of trying to publish a cookbook, I would share my ideas here on my website. I’m hoping to get these frequent cooking mistakes along with their fixes in front of a lot more people here on my site than trying to get you to purchase a cookbook. Plus, I know you’ll have your own cooking mistakes that you’ll share with me so I can continue to add more “chapters” down the road.
What To Expect
Over the next few months, I’ll start posting new chapters under a new category I’ll call Cooking Mistakes. You’ll be able to find it under Techniques on the menu above. Some of the chapters like How NOT to Cook with Water are long, so I’ll break them up to a few posts. If you like what you're reading, I’ll come up with new chapter ideas and get back to writing.
My very first post will be How NOT to Cook Pasta and is one of my favorites which is why I'm starting with it. It will have 10 common mistakes we make when preparing pasta and how I would avoid them.
After that, here are a few of the other topics you'll be reading about:
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- How NOT to Season Foods
- How NOT to Start a Recipe
- How NOT to Roast
- How NOT to Pan Roast
- How NOT to Bake
- How NOT to Braise
- How NOT to Cook Pasta
- How NOT to Boil
- How NOT to Steam
- How NOT to Poach
- How NOT to Simmer
- How NOT to Grill
- How NOT to Saute
I'm looking forward to sharing this with you and hope to have some fun with future How Not To Cooks. Please let your friends know about these posts via your social media. I appreciate the help getting the word out.
Janice
This sounds GREAT!! I look forward to it!!
Camille
I'm really, really excited to read through this. I have always loved to cook but have never had the discipline or commitment to truly learn the knowledge and skills behind it, aside from a quick Google now and then. Thanks for taking the time to put this together! (I totally would have bought a book like this, though, just for the record!!)
G. Stephen Jones
Hi Camille, your comments are much appreciated. Please tell you friends about my site and about How NOT to Cook.
Stan
After yielding 2 cups of tomato sauce from 10 lbs of fresh tomatoes I wanted to know the proper amount to serve for pasta. I came across your HOW NOT TO COOK. Your saucing section now has me hooked to your down to earth and accessible website.
Instead of oversaucing the expensive and labor intensive sauce I will stretch it enough for maybe 2 lbs of pasta more or less.
Can't wait to read how many errors I can correct! Thanks.
G. Stephen Jones
Stan, you are very welcome and thanks for letting me know.