5 Ways to Take Your Cooking Skills to the Next Level

A good cook will always have a ton of friends. People enjoy eating a tasty meal. If you are looking to take your cooking skills to the next level, here are five tips that might just give you the boost you need.

Master the Art of Carryover Cooking

When you take a meal out of the oven, be it meat, vegetables, or cookies, it is still going to cook for the next 15 to 20 minutes. This is because the external temperature of the food is hotter than the internal temperature of the food. The internal temperature will continue to rise until the heat is evenly distributed. So according to the principle of carryover cooking, if you want to cook meat to 160 degrees, take it off the grill or out the oven when the internal temperature is at 150 degrees and let carryover cooking make your meat just right.

Focus Less on Recipes and More on Techniques

A truly next level cook is not focused on following recipes. Instead, they understand the techniques behind cooking. Once these techniques are mastered, a cook has the ability to prepare different types of foods, even foods that they have never prepared before and have them turn out amazing.

Using the Right Oven for the Job

Not all ovens are created equal. Proof of this can be seen when a person tastes a pizza that was prepared in a traditional oven as compared to one that was made in a brick oven. You may need to shop around to find the right oven for your cooking needs.

Include Edible Flowers

Edible flowers are an awesome way to give your salads and other meals the wow factor. Of course, it is not a smart idea to just throw flowers on a dish willy-nilly since some flowers are toxic and can cause major stomach problems when ingested. However, flowers like clover, dandelions, chrysanthemums, hollyhocks, oxide daisies, squash blossoms, and daylilies will add an exotic flavor as well as a beautiful appearance to your culinary creations.

Use Your Hands

The human hand is more sensitive than any sophisticated cooking tool. Learning how food feels at different temperatures as well as different levels of doneness will help you take your cooking to the next level. Expert cooks can tell by touch how well meat is cooked, how ripe fresh fruit is, and how well dough is kneaded.

Cooking is an art. It takes time to master it. However, by following the above mentioned tips, you can be sure that you will take your cooking to the next level.