College is full of a lot of firsts. It could be your first time doing laundry, your first time away from your family, and your first time cooking. Instead of eating Ramen noodles and going to the dining hall, eventually all students will face the challenge of cooking for themselves.
There are three large problems every new chef must overcome: learning how to cook to the right temperature, discerning how much food to buy, and recognizing when their food has gone bad.
1. Learning To Cook At The Right Temperature
There are multiple ways new chefs can mistake food temperature. For instance, a person with no patience will be a burner. This can happen when you turn the heat all the way up in order to cook more quickly. I am guilty of this. This habit will eventually land you a greeting from the fire department. I learned the hard way when I tried to cook a Portobello mushroom; the worst part was when I had to show the burnt pan to a group of firemen and explain myself.
You may also know you are a burner if you never know the temperature the food should be cooked on. At times, burning is not so bad (burnt marshmallows, for example). However, a burner will be hard to live with because it will take many hours and mistakes until they learn to not burn their food – just ask the people I live with.
2. Discerning How Much Food To Buy
Most food does not last forever, but knowing the right quantity of food to buy can be a difficult and daunting task. Some food comes in big quantities; others, not so much. Cooks can easily buy too many ingredients. Currently, I have the opposite problem; instead of having too many ingredients, I don't buy enough. It is hard to know the perfect amount of food to buy and what you will be cooking in the future, but once you get that down, it will save you money on lost food and save you from having to go shopping for more supplies (although the door greeters may miss you).
3. Recognizing When Food Has Gone Bad
When does one know the food has gone bad? An excellent example of this – and one I will remember and marinate in for a while – is when my roommate took a big gulp of sweet tea, only to regurgitate a chunk immediately. I had never seen chunks in sweet tea before. That day, both of us learned that iced tea needs to be refrigerated. This was only the start of many other mistakes that could have been avoided if we had only used Google. Unless you enjoy rotten food, you should figure out the expiration date or the proper storage location for the foods you buy.
If you fall into any of these categories, then you are probably still at the beginning of your cooking career, although I am certain even professionals have these problems every now and then.
