...prepped all the ingredients, placing them in small bowls...

Easy to say when you don't have to wash all the dirty dishes.

I agree with those tips, but I don't think it's healthy to frequently cook foods in oil that is at or near its smoke point, even when using oils such as grapeseed or safflower.

Instead of placing everything in small individual bowls, I put my ingredients on a divided dish. Makes clean up easier.

Great idea, @Comicgeek.

I mostly agree with his advice, but I don't think it's necessary to prep everything in advance and have them all lined up in bowls. Just reading a recipe and familiarizing yourself with the steps can be enough. Most savory recipes start with cooking onions, for example. So while your onions are sweating or browning, you can be chopping up your other ingredients. The only time I use prep bowls is when I'm making a stir fry.

I have much, greater success (and less stress!) when I use prep bowls. But to cut down on dishes, I combine ingredients in those bowls whenever I can. If I have onions and peppers or different spices going in the skillet at the same time, there's no need to use separate bowls for all those items. At the very least, I heartily endorse his recommendation to read the recipe before cooking! I can't tell you how many times I've gotten halfway through a recipe, only to realize that dinner will be ready at 8:00 rather than 6:00, or that I am missing a key ingredient.

I do agree with heather77--it isn't healthy to heat oils to their smoking point. He's probably right about the flavor, but I'll take a little less flavor if it means keeping it healthy--MOST of the time. :)

Also? Chris Kimball is pretty much my hero. We don't watch much TV, but we tune into PBS every Saturday to watch America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country.

Oops--didn't mean to throw that comma in there. "much greater"--not "much, greater."

Why is cooking food in oil near its smoking point unhealthy?

Heatherk--when an oil is heated to its smoking point, it oxidizes and begins to break down and free radicals are formed.

From www.spectrumorganics.com

"Every oil has a smoke point, the temperature at which it begins to smoke. Oil should never be allowed to smoke as it compromises nutritional value and releases carcinogenic free radicals."

Ah, thanks. Learn something new every day. I figured it had something to do with carcinogens.

I cut/prep ingredients just before I need to cook them too. Just familiarize yourself with the order of your ingredients and cut down on washing up by heaps. Especially if you're going to use about 10 ingredients for a dish. You don't really need to wash 10 surplus dishes do you?

It looks lovely in cooking shows when they have everything prepped in little bowls, but in the real world, not necessary.

I agree with the prep comments. When baking, I usually place dry baking ingredients on a piece of wax paper and save washing a bowl or two. Mise en place ends up being small piles on the cutting board a lot of times.
I normally find the most impractical part of recipes or cooking shows is their complete disregard for how many dishes the cook will have to wash (maybe I'm just salty because I don't have a dishwasher.)