17 Common Kitchen Mistakes People Make All The Time

It may seem more efficient to chop vegetables and measure ingredients as you cook, but in reality, it's the exact opposite. You end up with messier kitchen and much higher stress levels. Take the time to chop your veggies before you turn on the stove, please.

Ever complained that tomatoes are mealy? Well, if you store in them in the fridge, it's partially your fault. Cold temperatures greatly alter the texture of your tomatoes. In the wise words of our director of video Julia Smith: "Stop that."

If you want to get a golden brown exterior on meat and veggies, the best way to accomplish that is just to let them cook on their own. Constantly stirring your food in the pan minimizes the amount of contact each piece has with the pan and leaves your food looking sad. We're begging you: just leave your food alone.

All food contains water that gets drawn out during cooking. Leaving enough space between each piece allows the water to quickly evaporate. But when you put too much in the pan at once, the water stays put and your food ends up boiling in the liquid. Not delicious.

You gotta give your meat a chance to come to room temperature before it hits the grill. The extreme temperature shift from cold to searing hot can tense up the proteins in the meat and cause your steaks to end up tough and unevenly cooked.

Nothing is less delicious than raw meat juices leaking onto your fresh vegetables. Store it on the bottom shelf and place it on a plate or a tray.

Yes, berries need to be washed. But you should only wash them right before you're about to eat. Even though you're getting rid of the visible dirt, you're also introducing lots of moisture that'll make your fruit spoil faster.

Salt is necessary for any pot of pasta water. Oil, on the other hand, is completely useless. It doesn't prevent your noodles from sticking together. All of it ultimately goes down the drain, and you end up wasting ingredients.

News flash: dull knives are actually more dangerous than sharp ones. Attempting to saw through a tomato with an unsharpened knife increases the risk of injury. And stores like Sur La Table and Williams Sonoma will sharpen any knife for about $5. You have no excuse.

Just because you can't see them when the doors are closed doesn't mean they're not there. Crumbs get left behind in every kitchen, but not cleaning them is a major kitchen mistake. It's like formally inviting mice and bugs into your home. No thanks!

Don't risk eating expired food. Don't let your leftovers turn into moldy mystery meals. Keep a roll of masking tape in your kitchen and just add a date. If it's been sitting in the fridge for longer than four days, toss it.

Spices have aromatic oils that start to dissipate as soon as they're ground, and black pepper is no exception. The pre-ground stuff in the spice aisle is already lacking in flavor on the shelf. After sitting in your pantry for months, or even years, it's like eating ashes.

We're dying on this hill. Salt is a mineral, which means it doesn't lose its flavor when it's ground. Your salt mill may look fancy, but it doesn't do anything other than make your life harder. Just buy a box of Kosher salt and call it a day.

If you've ever followed a recipe only for it to end up tasting like a salt bomb, check the fine print. Most recipes call for kosher salt—which is significantly less salty than equal amounts of iodized table salt. They are absolutely not interchangeable and can completely wreck your dinner plans if you're not careful.

Sorry to break it to you, but your oven's built-in thermometer doesn't work (even if you just bought a fancy one recently). They're always inaccurate, from just a few degrees to a major discrepancy. To counteract those errors, invest in a separate thermometer to keep inside your oven.

When you're making a batch of homemade pizza or planning a taco night, it's easy to reach for the bags of shredded cheese at your local grocery store. But each piece is coated in cellulose to prevent the shreds from clumping together. It seems like NBD, but it tastes like sawdust and messes with the texture once it's melted. Sure, it's convenient, but at what cost?

Oven mitts don't get as much use as dish towels, but that doesn't make them any less gross. Spills and stains are inevitable and need to get washed out occasionally. Not only does it look nasty, but it also risks passing on germs to your food.