When I was first contacted by the “do my assignment” service to research some of the skills that every home cook should have, I didn’t know that I would find the subject so interesting. At first, I thought that the topic would involve telling home cooks what utensils to buy or how to care for their pots and pans. I didn’t know that there are a ton of things that home cooks could do to improve their cooking. I was so fascinated by the topic that I just couldn’t help myself and I had to write a compact version of the article I did so all of my readers could benefit from it.
Now that we know why we’re here, let me give you a few statistics about why this topic is so important. Approximately 36% of all Americans cook their meals daily, but only about 13.7% of those surveyed are doing so out of a strong passion for cooking. Most people are simply trying to make a delicious meal that gives themselves and their families the nutrition they need. As a result, not a lot of people are thinking about how they could improve their cooking. Fortunately for them, I’ve given it a lot of thought, and that’s why I’ve decided to write an article on some of the things that home cooks need to learn to improve their cooking.
Learn How To Save Your Bones For Broth
One of the first things that all home cooks should start doing immediately is saving their bones to make bone broth. Most people when they prepare meat for their nightly meal simply chuck any bones directly into the trash. They should stop doing that immediately. Instead, they should place the bones in a plastic freezer bag and freeze them. They can then use these bones at a later date to make a bone broth. Making a broth is easy. All you have to do is to rinse the bones, submerge them in a pot of water, add onions and/or herbs, and then boil it for 12-hours. When that’s done, the mixture is strained and the beautiful broth can be saved for up to 10-days to liven up dishes. If you want to keep it longer than that, all you have to do is to freeze it and save it for up to 6-months.
Learn How To Cook Pasta Properly
Learning how to properly make pasta can raise a person’s cooking to the next level. Most home cooks overcook their pasta until it’s a soggy mess, which definitely doesn’t result in delicious meals when tackling new pasta recipes. Properly cooked pasta is “al-dente,” a term that means “to the teeth.” What does that mean? That means that the pasta is soft, but is still firm when bit into. To achieve this pasta state, you should make sure that you bring the water to a boil before introducing the pasta to it. Once it’s boiling, add in some salt, and cook for 10-12 minutes. Be sure to stir the pasta regularly to prevent sticking, and then drain the pasta. That will result in perfect pasta. Of course, since there are different kinds of pasta, all with different cook times, it’s important to learn these cook times and cook your pasta accordingly.
Learn Some Basic Knife Skills
Something else that everyone should learn is some basic knife skills. Properly using your kitchen knives will not only allow you to expand the number of dishes you can make and improve your efficiency but having knife skills will also help keep you safe. Although professional chefs have a wide variety of different knife techniques to use while they cook, you don’t need to learn all of them. You really only need to learn how to slice, how to dice, how to mince, and how to cut. If you want to elevate your knife skills a little bit more, you can also learn how to julienne and chiffonade as well. There are a ton of videos on knife skills available that will teach you the basics in no time flat.
Learn How To Process A Whole Chicken
Learning how to cut up a whole chicken is a skill every home cook should know. Not only is it cheaper to buy a whole chicken than to buy individual chicken pieces, but processing your own can be quite satisfying as well. Besides, once you process your own whole chicken, you’ll have bones that you can use for making tasty, delicious stock.