Ever taken a bite of a meal you’ve worked so hard on only to find it’s way too salty, or hardly has flavor at all? Avoid these seasoning mistakes and learn how to balance your flavors with these simple techniques.
Not Sampling as You Cook
If you’ve gone through the trouble of chopping your veggies, sautéing chicken and adding all sorts of fun colors to your meal you want your efforts to be rewarded right? Sitting down to eat only to discover the flavor is way off can be discouraging.
Avoid this by testing your food out during the cooking process. A great way of getting yourself in the habit is by using the two-spoon trick, which also prevents double-dipping.
When you have a recipe to follow, putting all of your ingredients out on the counter is a great way to prepare for cooking your dish. Add a side plate with two different spoons too.
Using two different looking spoons works excellent to ensure you don’t mix them up. Always use one spoon to pick up the food you want to try and place it into the other spoon for tasting. Make sure your two spoons never touch. That way, you are never cross-contaminating your food with germs, and you won’t have to wash multiple spoons.
Not Using Enough Salt
Understanding that everyone has a unique preference for taste is essential, but did you know that a balanced meal should have these five types of tastes? They are salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami. Umami is Japanese for “delicious taste.”
Salt is one of the most integral parts of your meal. Not only is it an essential nutrient, but it interacts with the food and helps release molecules in the air—giving your food a lovely aroma and contributing to your enjoyment of the meal. If done right, salt should enhance your meal, but if done wrong, your food will be bland or extremely briny.
When cooking, adding too little salt or choosing not to add salt can be a huge mistake. While some ingredients have a specific role of providing their natural flavors to the dish, some foods need that extra kick of flavor to stand out.
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Source : Six Food Seasoning Mistakes to Avoid
