10 steps to (better) cooking: How to read and execute a recipe

Ingredienti pasta frolla

After choosing a recipe, from the internet or from a book or a magazine, you need to do it, to cook the dish.

And here it comes the trickiest part!

The rules:

  1. Read it, from the ingredients list to the last step. Then read it again. And then one more time.
  2. Prep everything! Take out all the pans and utensils you’ll need. Take out ingredients form the fridge or the pantry, weight them, and set them aside, each on its own spot.
  3. Chop, halve, cut, measure, spoon… Anything to have all your ingredients ready to be cooked, as stated in the recipe.
  4. Place your recipe in a safe place, where it won’t bother your work but still accessible to read it while you cook.
  5. Begin execute the recipe. Step by step, following what the recipe author stated. No rush! Read carefully!
  6. Something wrong? Something doesn’t sound right or clear? Imagine what you should do at that step and try to improvise!

And remember: if you start from good, hearty ingredients it will be very difficult to come up with something wrong or not good!

Unless it’s the first dish you cook in your life and you choose to make Saint Honorè! But that only means you didn’t read the other lessons of this series 😉