36 Common Cooking Mistakes And How To Solve Them

You overcrowd the pan.

You undersalt the water.

When cooking pasta, you don't reserve any of the pasta water.

Pasta cooking water is filled with starch — that will help bind the pasta and sauce together and make the sauce silkier. It's also already salted, making it more flavorful than basic water. So the next time you make pasta, save 1/2 a cup of cooking water that you can then use in the sauce.

You rinse pasta after you drain it.

You only season food at the very end of cooking.

You forget that acid is often just as important as salt.

You use a nonstick pan no matter what.

You don't fully preheat the pan before adding ingredients.

You buy the wrong cut of meat.

You move your food around too much as it cooks.

You always default to using olive oil.

You never sharpen your knifes.

You put lots of hot food directly into a cold fridge.

You don't read the recipe all the way through before you start cooking.

You don't prep your ingredients ahead of time.

You don't deglaze your pan.

You don't use a food thermometer to see if your meat is ready.

You don't let your meat rest for a few minutes after cooking.

You don't use the "3-2-1" rule when making pie dough.

You don't use the "fluff, sprinkle, and scrape" method when measuring flour.

You don't use a scale to measure out your ingredients when baking.

You don't line your cake pans with parchment paper.

You prep your cake pan *after* making the batter, instead of before.

You don't cream the butter and sugar together long enough while preparing dough or batter.

Creaming butter and sugar together adds air to your dough and when it comes to baking cakes and cookies, air equals lightness, which is almost always a good thing. When a recipe tells you to "cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy," it doesn't mean whipping them together for a minute. This process is actually pretty long (think five minutes instead of one) and should not be skipped or rushed. To see if your butter and sugar is creamed to perfection, rub some of the mixture between your fingers: If you can still feel the sugar crystals, you're not there yet. If it's perfectly smooth, you're good to go!

You don't sift your dry ingredients — even when the recipe calls for it.

When baking, you don't scrape down the bowl.

You open the door of the oven while your cake is baking.

You start decorating your cake while it's still slightly warm.

When baking, you don't add a bit of salt to doughs and batters.

You use cold or melted butter when the recipe specifically calls for room temperature.

When grilling, you oil the grates instead of oiling what you're grilling.

You don't dry your protein before cooking it.

You don't preheat your oven.

You don't toast nuts and seeds.

The pot you use to make pasta is too small.

You add sauce to your pasta, instead of adding your pasta to the sauce.