10 Bad Cooking Habits You Should Break

1. Heating Oil Until It Smokes

Not only do many oils taste bad once they have been heated to or past their smoke point, but when oils are heated to their smoke point or reheated repeatedly, they start to break down, destroying the oil’s beneficial antioxidants and forming harmful compounds.

2. Stirring Your Food Too Much

Stirring can prevent browning—a flavor booster you get by letting your food sit on a hot surface—and it breaks food apart, making your meal mushy. 

3. Overfilling Your Pan

 If you want to sauté, filling your pan too full will cause your food to steam and not give you the crispy results you are looking for. The same goes for cooking meat. Shoving too much meat in the pan lowers the temperature of the pan too quickly, which can cause sticking and a whole host of other problems. 

4. You Don’t Let Your Meat Rest

Let your meat rest before you cut into it. By resting, the juices redistribute through the meat and you’ll get juicier results. Cut it too soon, and all the juice runs out on your cutting board and doesn’t end up in your meat.

5. You Rinse Meat Before Cooking

 Rinsing meat off in your sink may get rid of the slime factor, but it contaminates your sink with bacteria that could potentially cause foodborne illness. Pat your meat with a paper towel instead to remove any unwanted residue.

6. Using Nonstick Pans on High Heat

 High temperatures can cause the nonstick lining to release PFCs (perfluorocarbons) in the form of fumes. PFCs are linked to liver damage and developmental problems.

7. Using Metal Utensils on Nonstick Pans

Using metal utensils in a nonstick pan is not a good idea. You can inadvertently scratch the surface of the pan, which could lead you to ingest the PFCs in the nonstick lining. Use wooden or heat-safe rubber utensils when using nonstick pans.

8. Blending Hot Liquids (Without Removing the Stopper)

 Most blenders come with a removable stopper on the top. If you’ve ever been assaulted by hot liquids from your blender, it’s probably because you didn’t remove the stopper before you blended. Steam from the hot liquid creates pressure that literally blasts off the lid if the stopper is in place. To ease the pressure, remove the stopper and cover the hole with a folded towel to prevent a mess before blending.

9. Put Pyrex Dishes Under the Broiler

 Pyrex pans are not designed to withstand the heat from a broiler. If they get too hot, they shatter, and you’ll have to start the recipe from scratch and have a big mess to clean up in your oven.

10. Overmixing Batter

Too much mixing isn’t good. The mechanical action of the mixing causes gluten to form in the flour, making baked goods tough. So gently mix until the batter is uniform, then put down your mixer.

 

taken from:

http://www.eatingwell.com/healthy_cookin/healthy_cooking_101_basics_and_technique/10_bad_cooking_habits_you_should_break?page=2&utm_source=YahooBlog_Hilary_VeggiesRefrigerator_032612