When you are putting together a recipe you may find it daunting to complete all the steps. Did you know they’re all not required for your food to turn out right? There are several steps you can skip in recipes that won’t affect the quality of your dish and will make the whole cooking process faster and easier.
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1. Skip blending separate ingredients.
Source: K&K Test Kitchen
A lot of recipes have you blending the dry ingredients separately from the wet ingredients. The only reason for this is the mess it could cause. If you are careful this can be done in one simple step. There is no specific reason to keep the ingredients separate as they all end up together in the end anyways and it won’t affect how your food comes out. So next time you are making cookies or a cake, throw everything together and blend. It will come out the same with or without a little extra clean up.
2. Skip blending your own spices.
With the readily availability of spices that are already ground, it seems quite unlikely that you would go through the hassle of grinding your own spices. While this will enhance the flavor of several dishes, it is certainly a step that you can skip in your own kitchen. No need to run out and invest in a spice grinder and whole spices. Just opt for the already ground spices when your recipe calls for freshly ground spices, unless of course you have a garden full of spices to harvest.
3. Skip the sifted flour.
Source: Gretchen's Bakery
When you are baking, a recipe often asks to sift the flour you use. This is truly a step you can skip without any detriment to the results. Most likely you have your flour loosely stored in a container, which will provide enough aeration for it to be used in a recipe. If for some reason you have your flour packed down, you may want to consider sifting it, but in most instances it won’t make a difference. The same is true for powdered sugar.
4. Skip the salt.
This a spice you won’t miss in most baking recipes. While salt does add some flavor that small amount that is called for in most recipes can be left out. You won’t notice the difference in cookies and breads and your heart will thank you for eliminating it entirely. You can even try to eliminate the salt in other meals that you cook. You can always add it later if you need it and you will probably use half the amount that was called for.
5. Skip the clarified butter.
Source: Cooking with Jack Show via YouTube
Do you even know what this means? I wasn’t sure either so there’s a good chance you aren’t doing this anyways. Clarifying butter is the process of removing the milk fat from the melted butter. This is the part of the butter that settles to the bottom when you melt it in the microwave. Just skip this whole process when called for in a recipe. It doesn’t seem to make a difference and no one is doing it anyways.
6. Skip the bean soak.
When using dry beans, it is recommended that you soak them for hours to soften them. While this does speed up the cooking process, there is no difference in taste when you don’t soak them. In a pinch when you have forgotten to soak the beans overnight, just skip the soak and cook with the dry beans as called for. It may take a little longer to cook, but you won’t notice anything different about the dish and this will alleviate the long wait time to soak them.
7. Skip tying meat with string.
Source: Serious Eats
No one ever has that cotton string on hand to tie their meat with. The good news is you can skip this step as all it does is make your meat more condensed so it will cook evenly. You may get some pieces that are sticking out that you would normally tie down that are cooked a little more, but overall your meat will turnout the same as if you didn’t use string. For everyday cooking, forego the string and just cook your meat without it.
8. Skip folding egg whites in batches.
There is an old wife’s tale that insists that your egg whites will flop if you fold them into a mixture in one shot. This doesn’t seem to be the case as this is just done to keep your egg whites intact. You can simply add a small amount such as a half cup to the mixture and them add the rest. This will save you time and your sanity as you won’t have to worry about your egg whites going flat on you.
These tips should save you some time in the kitchen when you are preparing a recipe. Don’t feel frustrated the next time you read a recipe with a ton of steps. Several of them you will be able to skip and still get the same end product as if you followed the recipe to the tee. Experiment a little bit and don’t be afraid to skip a step or two.
