Israeli inventions

BAD COOKING HABITS TO AVOID

BAD COOKING HABITS TO AVOID 724 482 Sarity Gervais

Sarity Gervais

The most common habits that many cooks must avoid are often inherited. &quotMy mom cooked like this. She is healthy. Well, considering her age…&quot

The truth is, many illnesses blamed on age are born of decades of bad habits. Replace these with healthy ones and see that age is just a number, it’s not a disease.

1. Heating oil until it smokes

You know oil must be hot to prevent food from sticking. While this is true, burning the beneficial antioxidants is not exactly the idea. Neither are the toxic compounds produced in smoky oil. Some people reuse burnt oil for new batches of food. Don’t! The oil in the pan must ‘shimmer’ to cook anything to perfection. It will be healthy and taste better.

2. Stirring the food too much

Stirring prevents burning the food on the bottom but it also breaks down the integrity of the ingredients. Stirring too frequently prevents browning to bring out flavor and seal in vitamins and nutrients. Avoid a mushy meal – curb the stir.

3. Overfilling the pot

To save time, some cooks overfill the pot. Different foods need different cooking times, browning times and attention to color change (i.e. golden onions, browned but not blackened meats, etc.). Spices, herbs and liquids? Trying to save time often ends up costing far more via the loss of nutrients, appearance and flavor. Expensive ingredients can make for an inedible, partially over or undercooked meal.

4. Not giving roast a rest

It smells great right when you take it out of the oven but will taste much better after it sits and rests before cutting into it. Twenty minutes for turkey and five minutes for a steak. This gives the juices time to redistribute, making the meat far juicier.

5. Don’t ever rinse meat in the sink before cooking

The bacteria in the sink could contaminate your meat and cause food poisoning.

6. Don’t use non-stick pan on high heat

The safest option is heavy metal utensils. When non-stick pan linings are scratched they release PFD, a likely cause of abnormal call growth in humans.

7. When blending hot liquids, remove the stopper and use paper towels to stop the likely explosion

The rubber of the stopper is not a healthy ingredient in your puree.

8. When mixing batter, go easy

If you overmix, you’l create a solid batter, formed by the gluten in the flour. The result will be rock heavy, unhealthy baked goods, indigestible by your GI tract.

These are both cooking and health tips. Next time we’ll focus deeper on the health aspects of bad cooking habits.

Please share if you know of any.