13 Kitchen Habits To Avoid If You're Just Starting Out At Cooking

"My Italian grandfather probably rolled in his grave every time every time I made pasta. I never used to salt it, but you definitely need to." — christineantoinetter

"I used to cook everything with olive oil. I would even try to fry things in it. I guess I thought I was being healthy or something but my apartment was always filled with so much smoke. Then, I learned about low and high smoke points of oil and it changed my life!" — marcelled4124e6859

"I used to add ingredients in a random order when baking, rather than following the order specified in the recipe. Big mistake. The recipe lists them in a certain order for a reason." — strangerthanitseems

"It took me quite some time to realize how long it takes to properly preheat an oven or a pan on the stove. Some things can't be rushed." — jtoddt

"I always add garlic to the pan at the same time as the onions. Onions can handle heat a lot better than garlic, which only needs a minute or so to sauté and become fragrant, so I would always burn the garlic." — gretcheno3

"I used to get lazy and cook my meat immediately after taking it out of the fridge when I really should have let it sit and come to room temperature. The meat would often cook unevenly: too overdone on the outside and still undercooked on the inside." — Hannah Loewentheil

"I always found myself over-flipping my food — things like pancakes, steaks, burgers, and chicken — instead of letting each side cook through. There are handy charts online that give a rough estimate of how log to let things cook on each side." — carlye419733f4c

"I tend to be very impatient when cooking, so I cook everything on the highest temperature so it cooks quickly. The result: lots of burnt dinners." — isabelfisher