Some people have a knack for cooking and don’t measure anything. Others measure everything and can’t get a thing to taste right. Experience is the best teacher, so get in the kitchen and start experimenting! Here are a few cooking tips to improve your seasoning skills for any entrée or side dish you prepare.
Make Sure You’re Using Salt
Any time you’re cooking anything, you should always make sure that you’re using enough salt. Sea salt is preferable. The only time you should be careful not to use salt is when you’re cooking seafood or foods that already have salt in them.
Otherwise, measure out the minimum that your recipe calls for and add it to the dish. This will help to render the flavors to make them all come together and taste well-rounded. Salt enhances the flavor of foods, but too much can ruin a dish, so it’s never a good thing to over-salt something.
Spice Things Up or Tone Them Down
Just like using salt, you’ll want to be careful with your spices. Some spices are more powerful than others. You can typically tell how strong a spice is by smelling it. After you’ve used it for several different dishes, you will get a feel for how much to use as you’ll know its strength. Be bold and use spices, but always remember what you’re using when combining them because they can overpower one another with the wrong measurements.
Learn To Use the Right Onion
It’s important to learn how to effectively cook with onions and how to choose the right one for each dish. White, yellow, and red onions are quite distinct and can mean the difference between a perfectly prepared dish and a disaster if not used properly.
Yellow onions are the mildest of the three and offer a very even flavor to most dishes. These onions blend exceptionally well whether they are raw or cooked. White onions have more of a kick to them and tend to have more texture. They are great for salads and things like salsas due to their bright and strong flavors. Red onions pack the most punch of all. They have spicy undertones and the strongest textures. They are often used in sandwiches and for pickling due to their flavor and mouthfeel.
Don’t Be Afraid To Adjust Things
You’ll need to adjust your seasonings with everything that you cook. You might think in the beginning that you nailed it, but your dish may end up tasting much different from what you had anticipated. But before you know it, you’ll be a master of knowing what goes together and how much to add to get the perfect combination for any recipe. Just make sure you’re tasting it along the way.
This has been a brief outline of cooking tips to improve your seasoning skills. Hopefully, you have the confidence now to get in there and try something new!
A Few Seasoning and Sauce Recipes You May Like:
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