Take it from Us … Kitchen Mistakes Happen!

— By Spoonful Bloggers, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

As food and nutrition bloggers we’ve got years of experience in the kitchen, and plenty of examples of mistakes we’ve made along the way! Read on for our “tell-all” kitchen mistakes and tips to avoid them in your own kitchen.

Doing the Math Wrong – Alex Gayton

Math is not my strong suit, especially fractions, which is why I thought going into nutrition as a career would be a safe option to avoid math. What I didn’t realize at the time was that there is a lot of math involved between nutrition facts labels and working with recipes. A common mistake I tend to make while cooking or baking is not multiplying a recipe correctly or forgetting to apply the duplicating number to every ingredient. When I cook or bake I tend to make at least a double batch of a recipe, but there are many times I make a triple or quadruple batch when I am making muffins, pancakes, waffles, or quick breads because they are great foods to freeze. My tip to help avoid this mistake is to ask a smart speaker/device and then actually write down the new multiplied numbers for each of the ingredients so you don’t forget to multiply every ingredient. It’s tragic when a quadrupled batch of something doesn’t turn out right and then it goes to waste because you don’t know what went wrong or how to fix it.

Un-Savory Applesauce – Kate Yerxa

I enjoy making slow cooker applesauce in the fall, and it is even better when we use local apples we picked. One fall several years ago, I was making a batch of applesauce and after an hour of cooking, I realized that I forgot to add cinnamon. I quickly went to the spice cabinet, grabbed a spice jar and sprinkled it on the apples. I immediately thought I smelled body odor, so I asked my daughter if she had put on deodorant that day. I didn’t wait for an answer and proceeded to lift her arm and smell her armpit. It was not her. Then I thought, what smells like chili? Well, it was the cumin I sprinkled on the apples instead of cinnamon. I did manage to scoop some of the cumin out of the applesauce and I *may* have added more sugar to the applesauce than I had planned. We – well, I – ate the applesauce, and decided the aroma was reminiscent of chili, but the flavor was all applesauce. The lesson I learned: always double check you have chosen the correct spices for your recipe.

Temperature Melt-Down – Kathy Savoie

Back in the day, as a college student, my friends and I liked to gather for a “family” meal to save on the expense of dining out. As the Community Nutrition major of the group. I was the go-to for frugal dining ideas. Yes, I still pride myself on being a frugal cook to this day! Whole chickens happened to be on sale at our local grocery store (I checked out the sale flyer before I shopped) so that was the featured dish…a roasted chicken! I was not new to roasting chickens but I was new to using an instant read thermometer to check that it had been cooked thoroughly. When the kitchen started to smell like the enchanting aroma of baked chicken I figured I better check the temperature before serving it. Who wants to give their guests the gift of salmonella from under-cooked chicken? I knew that the temperature of the chicken needed to be 165˚ F, but I didn’t know that the instant read thermometer was not heat-resistant. So, when I used it like a meat thermometer (yes, they are heat-resistant) and put the roasted chicken back in the hot oven the thermometer dial melted! Take it from me, know what type of thermometer you’re using and use it correctly to prevent this sort of mistake!

Setting the Stage (Mise en Place) – Alex Bosse

Stir-fry Sundays were a weekly tradition back in college. There was nothing better than cooking up a big pan of stir fry to share with friends to round out the week. When it was my turn to fire up the wok, I was ecstatic to impress my friends. Little did I realize that one simple trick would have saved my dish from turning into a disaster: mise en place. While the veggies were sautéing, I quickly realized that I hadn’t prepared my protein or stir-fry sauce. In scramble mode, I searched the kitchen for spices, ingredients, and cooking tools. Minutes later the kitchen was smoking, and the veggies were burned. As someone who was new to cooking, I found myself making this mistake many times, often finding myself scrambling like a madman to find ingredients, searching for cooking tools and utensils, and hastily prepping ingredients midway through a recipe.

Mise en place (“everything in its place”) simply means that everything is prepared and ready to go shortly before you begin cooking or baking. Whether it is thoroughly reading the entire recipe beforehand, gathering all the tools, utensils, or equipment you need, measuring out spices, cutting vegetables, or measuring liquids, these are all ways you can practice mise en place in the kitchen. Making sure everything is prepared and ready to go before getting into the nitty gritty will make cooking and baking less stressful and more enjoyable. Take my word for it.

Read It and Weep – Kate McCarty

My weakness in the kitchen is that I am an impatient cook. I am always ready to jump into the action and get going! I have learned the same lesson as Alex Bosse above—that a little preparation makes things not only easier for you, but often makes the recipe turn out better too. Many times I have picked out a recipe I think sounds good, scanned the first few instructions, and decided to go for it, only to find out there is a time-consuming step halfway through that I was not prepared for. For example, I have started making cookies and gotten to the step that reads “chill dough in refrigerator for a couple of hours,” when I was planning on having cookies ASAP! I have also attempted to make recipes that require slow-cooking or marinating on a weeknight. Disappointing for sure. As much as it is my instinct to grab the ingredients and start cooking, I have learned the hard way to sit and read the whole recipe through to the end before picking up a knife and cutting board.