3 Common Issues Home Cooks Face
Cooking is a wonderful hobby that can be a lot of fun, exciting, and challenging while also having very soothing and calming effects on your mental health. For some, their time in the kitchen is their “zen” time. For others, they make cooking each day a time to spend some quality bonding time with their partner, children, or entire family. No matter how amateur or how skilled a home chef you are though, there are some issues that everyone faces at some point. Here are 3 common issues home cooks face.
Pests
Unfortunately no matter how clean of a cook you are, the kitchen has water and food: the things pests seek out the most. All kinds of household pests are known to be found in kitchens including ants, cockroaches, termites, rats, and even raccoons! If you have a pest issue in your kitchen and are thinking about calling pest control, don’t be embarrassed! It doesn’t mean you are a dirty cook by any means and it is an extremely common issue.
Missing Ingredients
Sometimes you will be in the middle of cooking a specific recipe when you realize you are missing one or more of the important ingredients. When this happens, you basically have three options: improvise and use a similar ingredient or try the recipe without it, have someone else watch the stove or oven (or turn it off) while you run back to the grocery store, or abandon the meal entirely and make something else.
Which outcome you choose may differ depending on what it is you were trying to make and how important the missing ingredient is. The important thing to know is that this happens to everyone so don’t beat yourself up over it!
Failed Recipes
Even the best cooks will have a couple of failures every now and again. Not everything you make will turn out exactly how you planned for or wanted it to. This is perfectly OK! Every recipe is a learning experience even if you’ve been cooking for many years. When you do make something that doesn’t taste very good (or not the way you wanted it to), try to figure out why it doesn’t. Too much of one ingredient? Maybe not enough of another?
Or perhaps it’s possible you used the wrong technique or overcooked or under-cooked it. Either way, if you can identify what you did wrong then you will know what to change and can modify it the next time you try the recipe!
As with any other hobby or skill in life, sometimes there will be challenges in the kitchen! Becoming a good home cook is a learning experience, and even the most skilled still make mistakes and face issues sometimes. Learn to laugh at yourself and keep trying new recipes and none of these issues will get you down.
