I think we can all agree that Wasted Time Gone Forever never to come back is awful and most people are afraid of that one mistake when they’re cooking that takes all of their time and effort and throws it out the window the problem is nobody ever knows what that mistake is going to be until it happens unless maybe you’ve worked in restaurants and you’ve had enough repetitions to know what those mistakes are and thankfully I have so I’m going to be showing you the 50 mistakes that anybody can make that will ruin your food and the solutions to all of them our first and possibly most heinous mistake of the day not patting anything before searing you need a dry surface to get good color anytime you sear anything please Pat both sides dry with paper towel season and then sear your food immediately this one was dried off and this one was not exact same sear time 100% a better product not utilizing acid this has nothing to do with Rave parties okay I’m talking about Cherry vinegars lemon juice lime juice Citrus whatever acidity brings lightness and diversity to the flavor of what you are cooking and not enough people do it next time you cook I mean anything or you’re making a sauce such as this perfectly seasoned chicken Jew add a little splash of something little bit of cherry vinegar you get add to marinated you get added to cooked vegetables or seared meat literally anything tasted that is the pop that makes you want to go back for another bite your mouth is watering starting your cooked sauces vegetables whatever with garlic this is a very common mistake I see even I’m guilty of it sometimes you just want to throw it in there you don’t think about it whatever here’s the thing garlic has a high sugar content if you’re cooking onions garlic and all sorts of things and you start with the garlic there is a chance that garlic gets burnt before your onions cook so do yourself a favor in this context cook your onions first then once they’re cooked through then add your garlic and cook that through another option would be to cook it at the end problem not following a recipe all the way through exactly you see this number one you should get a copy it’s actually out now it’s my brand new cookbook it’s a New York Times bestseller already thanks to you the Link’s in the description and it’s the holiday season and this is the perfect holiday gift so if you’re looking to get somebody something that maybe might get them cooking this is the holiday gift guide right there but this isn’t about promo the number one reason recipes don’t pan out is because people don’t follow every little step they think oh I’ll just make a little Amendment here no the first time you make any recipe just follow it all the way through all the exact ingredients they ask for follow the steps exactly then once you’ve made it a few times then you can start venturing out and modifying it you got to get your practice in over cooking your vegetables look this is really simple most people when they cook vegetables they think cook it until it’s soft that’s not true just like a steak sometimes a little medium rare is perfect in this case a little bit of crunch not complete mush so cook your vegetables to your desired taste but things like brussels sprouts overcooking can actually bring undesirable flavors out of it so next time try not cooking your vegetables as much as you usually do and you might just be surprised mistake using a Dull Knife when cooking common misconception people think that a sharp knife is more dangerous wrong if you have a Dull Knife when you’re cutting first off it’s a lot harder you have to apply a lot more pressure to cut what you’re doing you’re already in a more dangerous position but in addition to that it’s easier to slip I’m applying pressure and my knife is able to slip off of this without cutting the potato your fingers AR prepped for that or it falls over you’re way more likely to cut yourself solution use a sharp knife buy a knife sharpener just make it safer for yourself because look at this you see how easy that was no resistance much less like going to cut myself also if I cut myself with a sharp knife it’s way better for healing than a Dull Knife this rips in tears this is a surgical blade not using enough salt or fat when cooking anything most things need more salt and more fat than you think remember that a lot of the times when people cook they think they’ve hit the ceiling with flavor and texture in their food but often times the bar is much higher and it can be reached by adding a little bit more salt or a little bit more fat than you usually would push the boundaries that you have in your mind and you may fly that also applies to life not cleaning as you go the problem is you keep getting more cluttered and more cluttered I just finished cooking my steak but now I’m about to make my sides I got all this stuff here if I keep going there’s just going to be more for me to clean later Dirty Work surface dirty mine the solution put your stuff away wipe everything down move things off the surface and somewhere where they can rest wipe off all your surfaces if it needs cleaning solution just do it now now I’m ready to move on not moving food constantly while it Cooks so this isn’t apply to every scenario but by frequently moving your food around in the pan while you are frying or searing it it will help with an even cook and even Browning see if I didn’t move these chips around that I’m frying then they’d have different brown spots unevenly but look how beautifully evenly golden these are and they cooked more quickly another example this is actually with toast you guys see me doing this all the time if you’re toasting bread and butter I call this the record scratcher little circles constantly you flip it over look at the evenness the beauty of the toast on this bread that is an industry secret right there it’s because you’re constantly changing the heat of the surface area not storing your food properly research the best way to store proteins the best way to store fish vegetables fruit because if you don’t things will go bad more quickly you’re more likely to grow bacteria and also just generally you’ll lose the quality of the things you just spent money on for example we got some grapes some berries we have fresh lightly dampened towels in the bottom it’s going to keep it moist yet simultaneously dry sometimes I’ll put a dry towel on top to keep it from creating condensation same thing in here these are going to stay good probably twice as long do your research and store things properly not cleaning your knife after every use I think any home cook that does this will massively benefit so for example once I finished chopping garlic first thing I would do is grab a wet towel wipe the entire knife carefully and now it’s ready to be used again if you don’t do this certain Steel knives will develop rust spots but also it’s just good hygiene you won’t be transferring flavors to all the different things that you’re cooking that day mistake not using the correct pan for the correct use you ever noticed there’s a lot of different kinds of pans stainless cast iron nonstick that’s for a reason this nonstick wasn’t meant to be used for everything and neither was this cast iron or this eggs would be good in here but maybe not so good in here yeah sure you can have 4 billion layers of seasoning but it’s still not going to be as non-stick as nonstick so make sure that when you’re cooking you use the correct pan for what you’re about to cook not toasting nuts or spices of course you can use your spices untoasted I do it every once in a while but toasting them intensifies the flavor and doubles the power that they have you will never get the full flavor of a spice without toasting it that also applies to de’s nuts you can do that in a dry pan or a low temperature oven it’s up to you cracking your eggs like this really first off what did that do well for one you broke your egg yolk and there’s bits of shell in there how do you avoid it flat surface tap tap got a little indentation here now thumbs in now your egg naturally just splits right in half not pre-measuring your ingredients before you cook your recipes you ever heard of mean plas it means to measure and process all of your ingredients make sure they are right in front of you and ready to be used before you start cooking oh but jelle what about all the bowls oh you have people to help you clean you know who doesn’t have people to help them clean when they me stuff out chefs take it from the hundreds of thousands if not millions of repetitions that I’ve done and many other people that work in restaurants have done mistake following box directions like it’s gospel you should know better this is something I think the Italians than I actually agree on for once different humidities different elevations different cooking apparatuses use your eyes and your taste yes sure you can follow the directions that’s okay but check it as you go who knows maybe the pasta Cooks 2 minutes faster than it said on the box remember you got instincts trust them overh handling food look I know I said continually moving your food around the pan can help you’re going against what you said Josh some cases it’s just better to leave what you’re cooking in the pan alone for example you need a good render on fat or good crisp skin on chicken just leaving it alone in the pan with constant pressure I flipped it and we got nice Crispy Crunchy skin no chewy fat crisp this other one got handled a bunch but cooked the same amount of time it got uneven Browning and part of the skin is completely undercooked mistake not keeping all of your tools near you while cooking okay so you’re cooking and then you go over here and then in here and then in oh wait I got to go over here stop we’re not doing cardio today organize your kitchen in a way that most of the things you need are within arms length reach see what I mean that brings me to my next point this is a great way to to do that a big mistake is not keeping your most used tools near you we talked about this in the chef hacks video I’m bringing it up again because it is that helpful to have if you keep your things in a container near you plus in your drawers near you you’re going to cook twice as fast walking away from your food without paying attention don’t act like you hav’t burnt something by accident look the fix is simple if you’re going to walk away just set a timer or have a predetermined time to come back be aware of where you’re at in the process of your cooking before you ever walk away from it it’s dangerous and obviously it could r in your food the problem pre-prepped food anything that’s pre-cut for you fruit ETC number one it’s way more expensive number two once you cut a vegetable it slowly begins to die you have a dying life that’s been sitting in a grocery store for days weeks who knows how long just take the fiveing minutes it takes to cut fing vegetables it’s healthier for you it’s less expensive also it’s better for the Earth because you don’t have all this plastic just cut your own vegetables not using softened butter when called for I see this happen too often put the cold butter in there beat it around and maybe one day it’ll eventually soften but it’ll take significantly longer so take the time to soften your butter it will comply with your recipes instantly and incorporated into things far more easily it’s time to stop using these yes this is a cutting board but don’t use hard cutting boards like bamboo or glass why the thought cutting on a piece of glass was a good idea you’re pissing me off although this is wood it’s very very hard and anything that’s too hard is going to dull your knife potentially chip your knife it’s more dangerous to cut on instead doesn’t have to be this thick obviously there are really three main Woods you want to use on a cutting board either cherry maple or walnut fether other materials there also Japanese sushi cutting boards look like this but let’s just stick with wood for now using oil in your pasta water oh doing this can very quickly ruin emulsified sauces it often times makes it difficult for sausa to cling to the pasta because now every piece of pasta you pull out is coated in a thin layer of oil stir it every once in a while it’s not going to stick assuming you added it to actual boiling water problem which apparently people aren’t learning using so soap on your cast iron why that answer that for you granted there are some caveats if you have a really thick seasoning on it using soap on your cast iron strips it of its seasoning which means it will eventually rust and things will stick to it you see food sticking to the pan not only ruins the Browning and the food but also maybe if there’s rust in there I would assume that you might want to throw it away not the pan the food so make sure you just wash with hot water while it’s still hot and it will look nice like this see that shine when you got enough of that every once in a while a little soap doesn’t hurt but take it easy not being precise in your measurements if you’re going to measure something please do yourself a favor and just take the extra 5 seconds per ingredient to really analyze if you got the exact measurement intended because that is going to guarantee you an end product that likely will be what it was supposed to be but also it helps you troubleshoot if a mistake is made it ends up being troubleshooting your mistake not whether or not you measured it properly oh hey you’re making rice a your rice you should all know this by now it’s not just me it’s Uncle Roger it’s the whole world they all do it now if you haven’t caught up yet it’s time to adult the put your big boy pants on I don’t care if you’re six watching this if you don’t wash your rice okay until the water runs clear at least two to three times you end up with mushy rice you ever make rice and for some reason it’s just not as good as the W one it’s cuz they just take 2 minutes to do this so all I got to do put the water in see how it’s cloudy and drain the cloudy water out and then guess what do it again now the water’s less cloudy till it runs clear using an apron as a towel to clean pick up hot things Etc look number one don’t do that number two use a normal towel you know a kitchen towel a hand towel anything but your apron not making your own stock oh we’re back at that combo again 500 times the flavor granted a little extra effort okay it takes a little bit more time but you can freeze it and use it later it’ll make all of your food better store bought stock is significantly less flavorful than homemade stock and stock is the heart and soul of much of that flavor if you use store bought this is essentially as close to water as stock can get if you want to add water to your curries soups broths sausage Etc go right ahead but if you want to add flavor you use homemade never start a steak in butter it never Sears your steak that well the butter Burns pretty much instantly and you end up overpowering the flavors of the steak with burnt butter SE your steaks in a high temperature cooking oil or fat then add it once the steak is almost at temperature and based it to finish the cooking process and just to clarify we seared both of them going in the pan at the same temperature one in oil and one in butter and look at the difference not considering carryover I’m talking with you pull a hot thing out of the pan you put it on a board most times it will continue to cook anywhere from 3 to 5° over sometimes even more so pull your things just slightly under what you need them at you need your internal temp at 135 maybe pull it at 133 adding all of your ingredients all at once if a recipe doesn’t suggest to do that don’t do it you’re likely going to ruin the final product so I got multiple ingredients I’ve got wine I got cream I got stock I’m adding each of these one at a time layering my dish allowing each flavor to cook as intended before adding the next if you’ve ever wondered why your thing doesn’t taste like you thought it would this could be one of the bigger reasons that is how about rinsing your pasta awful you do this and you’re like oh I want to like wash it off a little bit get it nice and cleaned up pull the pasta off no every time you do this you’re washing off all the beautiful starch that’s going to emulsify your sauce stop doing it there’s no reason you don’t need to cool the pasta down move on to the next step if you’re making pasta salad that’s the only excuse using pre-round spices okay there’s some context for pre ground might work but understand that once spices are ground and then open you lose a lot of flavor over time so if you want the biggest bang for your buck try to ground your spices fresh before using them random substitutions because you think it’s right if you have a recipe let’s say you’ve never made it before now is not the time to throw in a curveball and be like I want to add a little bit of this maybe instead of butter I’ll add some duck hat maybe you should just make it the way that it’s written this is the number one thing I hear when people make my recipes like it didn’t turn out but I replace the butter with coconut oil there are properties in each each and every one of these ingredients this this all plays a role to make a final product so don’t make any substitutions unless you know what you’re doing not controlling your temperature people get used to cooking like they do out of a cookbook oh set it to medium and then what what if your Pan’s a little thinner and medium is working for the first 5 minutes but the back 5 minutes it was too hot adjust let color guide your gauge if you don’t adjust your temperature as you cook you’re going to end up burning over or undercooking what you’re making so use visual cues to guide where your temperature should be using Jarred minced garlic I know we have the pre-cut vegetables one this deserves its own category I know a lot of people use this and they’re like oh it’s fine it’s fine no no no it’s not fine this is the Surefire laziest way to completely demolish a great sauce a great marinade and SE on just take the 30 seconds it takes to finally chop some garlic it is slightly convenient but you’re saving like what 30 seconds to a minute and what you’re losing by making that shortcut is a massive amount of flavor and health benefits of eating Garlic like you ever go to a restaurant like oh why is it so much better here I’ll tell you one thing they’re not using this garlic is one of the best flavored components and you’re missing it not using parchment in cake pans this one I see happen way too often and listen this also applies to anything baked in a pan not even a cake pan I don’t even like making cakes that much so do yourself a favor when you’re cooking in any sort of a baking pan spray with a little oil and add a layer of parchment in that pan here’s a little trick for you how do you get a circular piece of parchment paper in here easily well take a rectangular piece of parchment paper fold it in half lengthwise then again in half lengthwise now you’re going to look throughout this whole thing and you’re going to notice that every single point on this rectangle is closed except for one taking the long end fold it up into a weird triangle thing like this point the tip to the center of your circular cake pan and cut off the excess right where the edge of the pan meets it open it up place it in and look at that speaking of baking you know big mistake is when people don’t set timers I know you’re thinking Josh it’s so obvious but a lot of people think their intuition can supersede a timer one day you’re going to make a mistake and realize you’re wrong when you’re setting a timer do do yourself a favor set it 5 minutes earlier than you think you need it just to remind yourself to take a look at it and then set another one that’ll save your life one day using metal utensils and non-stick pans I feel like we all know this by now if you want Teflon and chemicals in your food then go right ahead and use metal utensils in your pans so the fix is just use heat proof rubber spatulas or Wooden Spoons using the wrong fat for the wrong application we don’t deep fry and butter make sure you choose a fat that has a smoke point that can tolerate how you’re cooking if you’re searing high smoke point if you’re frying high smoke point sautéing you might be able to go a little low but think about that first things with twoo low of a smoke point will burn the oil will taste ACD and bitter and it will ruin the flavor of your food also it’s really unhealthy that’s a big one not generously seasoning your pasta water the Italians are watching you closely and although they may not yell at you like they yell at me this is one thing I don’t around with your pasta will always end up feeling somewhat underseasoned if the actual physical pasta itself is not seasoned so in order to do this season your pasta water aggressively it should be very salty some will say as salty as the o otion not using enough oil when searing a lot of the time people think couple drops of oil and it’s good to go if you don’t use enough oil you do not get a full contct sear it is the diffusion of the heat in the oil that gives you that good sear you develop more flavor you’ll cook more evenly here’s a side by side with something that was cooked with enough oil and something that was cooked with well not enough oil so again make sure you coat the bottom of your pan with a full but very thin layer of oil under reducing a sauce you want your sauces to be silky and Luscious here’s how let’s say you’re making whatever this sauce is you sweat some aromatics de glaze with red wine and you reduce it you add beef stock and you reduce it again right generally speaking reducing sauces should coat the back of a spoon it intensifies the flavor but more importantly It Coats your food properly this is one of the most important things in cooking it is one of the reasons why restaurant food is better and it simply comes down to they waited a little longer than the home cook might have problem not tasting as you cook got a little chicken shw here now sure it might have a little salt in it but does it need more before you put this on a plate don’t you want to just double check real quick it takes 2 seconds little spoon I always keep tasting spoons by me would you look at that it’s under salted you see now that little moment is going to take the eating experience 10 times higher for the person that’s going to eat your food they’re immediately going to go wow this is season really well this tastes so good because he just took the 30 seconds to taste before you served not resting your proteins we talked about this in the 100 Chef hacks both of these pork chops were cooked the exact same temperature one was rusted one was not I cut it in half and you could tell a very clear difference that one right there that’s been rested it’s not like one had less juice than the other it’s just that the other one is actually containing its juice that means the juice goes to your mouth instead of the board you want it moist you want it tender rest your meat not preheating a pan or oven enough this seems obvious this is the leading cause to bad seirus poorly cooked vegetables and generally bad cooking overall make sure your pan is sufficiently heated there are two ways to tell with a heat gun or by splashing a little bit of water in there if it’s hot enough the water will actually beat up it won’t just evaporate looks cool right using any salt for cooking without thinking about it first there are many salts out there you got flaky salt you have fine salt the really tiny granules typically Al like table salt is fine and then you have kosher salt which by the way there’s dozens if not hundreds of different granular sizes shapes you got a little crystalline structure in here I just seasoned myself just now for example if you season a protein with flaky salt before cooking it you are insane this is for finishing I’ve said this many times the perfect multi-purpose salt is Diamond kosher salt it is my personal favorite I’m not branded by them I would love to get paid by them flaky salt is for finishing fine sea salt is for liquid applications or baking not washing produce that’s right I’m calling you out I know you’re not doing it brother that’s gross aside from leading to potentially deadly illness and poo poo in your food another big issue is I’m eating a nice salad and then all of a sudden I crunched into the loudest most aggressive tooth cracking piece of dirt or Rock from a vegetable so give your produce low wash willing grill grates directly when they’re hot look I’m guilty of this too but when you oil hot grill grates it burns and immediately oxidizes so you’re left with a burnt oil flavor if you want a cleaner Grill flavor try oiling your proteins lightly instead or if you’re going to oil your grates use a very high smoke point cooking oil that way your grilled food isn’t bitter and yucky wuy and the last one we’re wrapping up we’re done wrong mistake number 50 not checking all of your dangerous appliances to make sure they’re off is your oven off are your burners off maybe you have the gas running but it’s not lit and you don’t know you don’t need me to tell you why you should do that I’ll give you a hint it’s life-threatening so what do you do this is something I do every time with all my kitchens I check every knob and turn them in the direction of off boom boom boom off off off oven’s off hand in the oven it’s cold it’s cold lights are off good evening

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