We've put together a list of 25 key skills that every beginning cook should know to gain confidence in the kitchen. How to master basic knife skills. Most recipes require at least a little bit of cutting and cutting. If you're nervous about using kitchen knives (or you're scared to see chefs cut a butternut squash perfectly in 10 seconds), don't worry.
With a little practice, anyone can master good cutting techniques. Thank you very much for this summary. I've been cooking for years, but I still like to read concise explanations like this. I have recently purchased several Oxo Good Grips tools, such as a set of three peelers.
The prices are great and the value for money is definitely there. Since the second paragraph of the Basic Knife Skills section describes the correct way to hold a chef's knife, you might want to match the image above to the handle you're describing so you don't confuse people. A great basic cooking skill for beginners is knowing how to sweat an onion or cook it until it's translucent. This is an easy way to cook a variety of whole grains, such as farro, barley, brown rice and quinoa (which is actually a seed).
Once you've invested in a quality set of kitchen utensils, make sure you follow the right guidelines on how to clean your pans. With the amount of food prepared in a commercial kitchen, each and every ingredient must be handled with care before using them for cooking. These 17 basic cooking skills will give you the knowledge you need to prepare a huge variety of things you thought you couldn't do. To cook at home or cook in a professional setting as a budding chef, you must have some basic cooking skills in your arsenal.
However, when you're in a professional kitchen, eggs can be one of those intimidating little things that can go very wrong if you don't know the different techniques behind the not-so-similar methods of cooking an egg. Using flour is not bad, the main reason it will taste floury is because it doesn't cook enough. Mussels are an incredible first course of seafood to master, as they are fairly easy to clean and cook and more affordable than other creatures found under the sea. In general, using a nylon dish brush will help remove persistent stains from most kitchen utensils (though you might want a special cast-iron brush to keep those pans clean without destroying the condiment).
This is an easy skill to master and will help you prepare endless salads and vegetable-based dishes with a few small adjustments to your original mix. Cooking pasta can be as simple as following the instructions on the package to find out how long the noodles should boil (unless you use fresh homemade noodles). The basic idea is to simply boil them, but no matter what type of grain you use, cooking them properly involves more than just throwing them in a pot with some water.
