What basic principles did you understand and your cooking skills greatly increased?

[celestialinter0]

Start with me:

1. The role of seasoning is to enhance the aroma, not to cover the aroma of the ingredients themselves. Eat the ingredients, not the seasonings.

2. When frying vegetables, it is recommended to stir fry to the maximum heat, and take it out of the pot when it is almost out of rawness.

[*sons_and_daughters*]

Pressure cookers scare me.

[tasfleur]

I no longer pressure cook sausages!

[domino-710]

My mother had one - she also was scarey in the kitchen. 

[tasfleur]

It was like watching a volcano erupt;  it looked lurid  .. I turned the hotplate off and fled down the corridor and waited.  It was a vision of alien proportions.  There were a few more culinary disasters after that, namely an eggplant that exploded in the oven .. but it got better, and I became a competent cook .. after all, what choice was there.  All the same, it was fun.

PS ... the pressure cooker did not survive!

[papermoon.lady]

I hardly ever cook because I live on my own and it is difficult to get small quantities of fresh ingredients all the time (there are a couple of small shops near me, but they don't sell fresh food apart from bananas and potatoes). The only time I bought some ingredients and thought I would give it a go because I was bored, I completely forgot that I was cooking while working on a project (because it was such an unusual experience) and the pan caught fire... 🙂

(I now have a timer. )

[veiled-lady]

Don't give up on cooking something because it wasn't perfect the first time.

Practice mightn't "make perfect", but it certainly makes for improvement!

[domino-710]

But I don't intend to ' improve '. lol

[papermoon.lady]

Neither do I. 🙂

[tasfleur]

"But I don't intend to ' improve '. lol"

[tasfleur]

Me neither .. we only have to be able to eat it after all !