5 Cooking Skills Every Young Adult Should Know

“Cooking is not difficult. Everyone has taste, even if they don't realize it. Even if you're not a great chef, there's nothing to stop you [from] understanding the difference between what tastes good and what doesn't.”

 

Gerard Depardieu believes that everyone can be a chef.  I have compiled a list of 5 cooking skills that every young adult should know.  After working our way through the list, my hope is that we all feel a bit less like a kitchen newcomer and more like a great chef.

1. General Food Safety

Before we begin any food endeavor, it is important to know and understand general food safety.  By understanding some general guidelines set by the FDA, you will keep your kitchen, and all food in it, safe for consumption.

2. Stay Sharp: Properly Using a Knife

Believe it or not, a dull knife is much more dangerous than a sharp one.  Since you are now aware of how to keep your food safe, let’s make sure the hands preparing it are too.  Finding a good, sharp knife that fits your hand well is a great place to start.  Continue learning proper knife use by watching Youtube videos on simple ways to cut vegetables and the proper way to hold a knife.  Before you know it, you’ll be mincing onions like a pro.

3. The Most Important Meal of the Day: Cooking a Hot Breakfast

We all (hopefully) know how to make cereal and toast.  But what about a good, hot breakfast to be enjoyed on a Sunday morning or when friends come over?  A great way to impress your guests while keeping it simple, is to begin with eggs.  You may choose to scramble, boil, or poach the eggs.  These go great with French toast and oven-cooked bacon.

Sandra Dickens, a retired Home Economics teacher shares:

“Breakfast doesn’t have to be fancy.  Simple is satisfying, and you can do an awful lot with not many ingredients.”

4. Properly Cooking Pasta

Mama Mia!  Who knew it was so easy to over or under cook pasta?  Cooking Light, a popular food blog and magazine says:

“While most people can at least boil water to cook pasta, it's still a fairly easy food to mess up…It’s a good idea to make sure you're not using too little water or adding unnecessary ingredients.”

Cooking Light has some awesome tips on preparing pasta.  Don’t be caught with unprepared noodle arms in the kitchen.

5. One-Pot/One-Sheet-Pan Meals

Let’s face it, many of us absolutely dread doing the dishes.  Dawn Patton, a mother of two college students (three children total), knows this struggle all too well.

“They don’t hardly do the dishes at home.  I don’t know how they’re going to keep everything out of the sink in their own kitchen.”

(Ouch, thanks mom.)  Lucky for me, one-pot meals are becoming more common.  I highly recommend finding at least 3-5 recipes that can be prepared, cooked, and served in one pot/pan.  This will not only save time doing dishes but will also enhance your recipe box with simple meals that make dinner exciting.

While these are just a few tips, I hope that each is useful in your own kitchen.  Perhaps cooking truly isn’t all that difficult.  According to Depardieu, we each have our own taste.  Beginning with the simple tricks of the trade, that taste can develop and blossom until we are our own greatest chef.