things i would tell you if i wasn't afraid of hurting your feelings
how to avoid a recipe flop
I write my recipes to include a ton of detail — I want them to read like I’m there in your kitchen cooking alongside you, and always try to preemptively troubleshoot any issues you could run into. Even so, we’re all cooking in different kitchens using slightly different equipment, so there are some situations that require a bit of intuition and troubleshooting on your own.
Thanks to the comments section on What To Cook recipes and my DMs on Instagram, I get a peek at the problems that pop up most often in your kitchens. And fortunately, the most common issues I get asked about have easy fixes!
So today, I’m breaking them down.
The issue: I’ve reached the end of a recipe and my sauce (or stew/glaze/farro-tto/boxed mac and cheese) is too loose and liquidy.
The solution: Crank up the heat and stir.
If you’ve added more liquid than you meant to (I do this all the time when I’m making boxed mac and cheese because I never ever measure the milk), or if you followed a recipe perfectly but it still ended up more liquidy than it should be or than you’d like (all our stoves and ovens and preferences are a little different!), put the pot on the stove, turn the heat up to high, and stir constantly until the liquid cooks off!
The issue: My roasted vegetables always get stuck to the sheet pan.
The solution: Use a stainless steel fish spatula — and some elbow grease! — to scrape them off.
If you’re using a flimsy plastic spatula or a curved wooden spoon to scrape your roasted veg off the sheet pan, you’re likely not using enough fast, smooth force. This can lead to your roasted vegetables breaking apart, with the crispy bits — which are the best bits! — being left behind on the sheet pan.
To prevent this, pull out (or get yourself) a stainless steel fish spatula, hold it upside down (so that it looks like an upside-down “V”), and scrape quickly across the pan, pushing down hard as you go — this will allow the veggies to detach in whole pieces.
In case you’re wondering: yes, you can also use parchment paper to avoid stuck-on food. But things crisp up more when they’re directly touching the hot pan.
The issue: My roasted vegetables always burn and/or my roasted meat is always overcooked. OR, my roasted vegetables never get crispy and/or my meat always takes longer than the recipe says to fully cook.
The solution: Your oven temp is likely off!
Buy an in-oven thermometer to get an accurate read of your oven. If you preheat your oven to 425°F and the thermometer reads higher or lower than that, you’ll know how many degrees your oven is off by. You can have a technician come calibrate your oven, OR you can just always know that your oven runs 25°F hot (or whatever) and set it accordingly.
The issue: Chopping vegetables takes me SO LONG — I usually skip recipes that require a lot of it.
The solution: 1) Sharpen your knives, and 2) brush up on your knife skills!
My least favorite comment to see on a WTC recipe is: “loved this, but it took me forever to chop everything!” Knife skills are a learned skill, but no one is being taught them anymore, despite the fact that we all have to have proper knife skills to get dinner on the table every single night! Feeling comfortable while chopping not only makes it less intimidating to cook chop-heavy recipes, it also gets dinner on the table faster and more efficiently (which is why we’re all here, right?!).
Sometime this week, take an hour to watch my knife skills class from start to finish.
As for sharpening your knife: I don’t sharpen my knives at home. Once a month I take my knives out to have them professionally sharpened. I have a guy at my local farmers market who does this, but you can take them to a local hardware store, Williams Sonoma, or Sur la Table to have yours sharpened. In between those times, I use a honing rod at home. Watch the knife skills class for a honing rod demo!
The issue: I followed your recipe to a T and it tastes too salty.
The solution: I’d be willing to bet you’re using the wrong salt!
If you’re using the wrong salt, your recipe will come out wrong! There is a reason I always call for kosher salt. Specifically, I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt when I’m developing recipes. Most recipe developers I know do, too, so this is a safe bet for cooking most recipes from trustworthy sources. Never ever use table salt or sea salt when a recipe calls for kosher — table salt is a much finer grain and thus you get a much higher volume of salt per teaspoon.
Diamond Crystal really is the elite kosher and the one that will get you the most accurate salt level for What To Cook recipes. It can be hard to find in stores these days — I stock up on Amazon.
Great tips. I’d add re: the chopping situation, if your kitchen has room and/or you have the budget, purchase tools that make it easier. I’m lucky in that my 22yo son was a prep cook at Chipotle so I ask him to do most of my chopping these days…but I also purchased a little strawberry slicer box thingy from Pampered Chef as a splurge last year…and now I use it and eat a lot more strawberries and mini cucumbers and other fresh fruits as snacks….nc prep is easier and faster. Plus, I give myself permission to buy pre shredded carrots and pre chopped squash etc etc whenever I can afford it (not always! College loans and such don’t leave room for bougie grocery bills, especially in today’s stupid expensive market). But feeding ourselves well is a long term investment.
I never follow salt recommendations and just put what I think it needs on and then I taste it when it’s done and if it needs more I’ll add more.