Oooops, I did it again. I didn't put enough water in the pot and now the spaghetti is gummy.
My bad! I didn't run the spinach through the salad spinner before I threw it into pan of garlic and olive oil. Now my greens are a wilted mushy mass and oil sprayed all over me and my stove.
Little mistakes = big problems, right? Has it happened to you?
There's a dozen or so small errors we can make. Cooks mess up either because they aren't paying attention or they just plain don't know.
The pros at Real Simple are here to take us through a virtual Hall of Fame of cooking mistakes. Fess up, how many of them have you made?
And what mistakes are missing from their list? Please share them in the comments here and we'll all learn.
• 7 Common Cooking Mistakes at Real Simple
(Image: Kana Okada for Real Simple)
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Overcooked asparagus and broccoli.
Over salted mashed potatoes.
Underwashed (ie. too pressed for time) veggies = sandy stir-fry.
Not checking the milk before pouring it into a coffee, tea or other dish = ew, what is that clumpy mess?
any overcooked vegetable is a mistake.
I hear you, Michelle; I'm eating a gritty spinach-and-pasta meal right now.
But I've also been known to under salt potatoes and rice, not preheat pans enough, not preheat oil enough, and cram too many ingredients into a pan.
I'm a decent cook in spite of all this, I swear!
It would be easier for me to list what I do right than to list everything I do wrong.
i ditto wetsocks. for me, it's a short list of rights.
Not watching the custard on the stove (when making ice cream) and turning it into sugary scrambled eggs! ew!
I try not to think about those gritty pasta dishes...
but the list confuses me a little. I thought that a little water (ie "the water clinging to the spinach leaves") was not a bad thing. I never spin spinach before sauteing it. Is there a right and a wrong time for that?
Eliza, the Real Simple thing says if the spinach isn't dried before it hits the oil in a sautee, the oil will spray. Also the water can steam the spinach rather than sautee it.
hmm... over salted some cucumbers when trying to pickle them. ew.
My pans always seem to be either too hot or not hot enough when I saute. Sigh.
I thought they were no-boil lasagne noodles. They were not. My elegent dinner guest said "no problem, we can just eat around the noodles".
I mis-read "melt chocolate in a bowl over simmering water" as "melt chocolate in simmering water."
And it was for a dinner party.
Thank god I was 14 at the time and my stupidity was considered "cute."
underestimating how many chipotles were in the little bag in the freezer. My poor guests were almost crying into their bowls of chili!! (It was good once it cooled off a little for some reason)
i need to check my measurements twice before i add them.
made some huge mistakes with that. especially with recipes printed from the net when the text doesn't line up quite right.
Trying to halve a recipe and forgetting halfway through. Adding full amounts of some ingredients and half amounts of others and getting confused about how much of anything was in there.