A few of you said that you wished for more practical tips for saving time in the kitchen after Pauli’s interview. I thought it was a great idea! I originally thought of doing a long post giving a variety of different tips, but decided to give you one bite at at time.
I think that this is an important topic to consider, as I know that many of you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. There is nothing wrong with spending time in the kitchen, and you will definitely have to spend some time if you want to cook good quality food. However, I don’t think it should be a full time job. Once upon a time, without our modern conveniences, it was. But with our “modern” tools, we shouldn’t have to spend 6 hours in the kitchen everyday preparing our daily fare. At least, I don’t!
There is so many aspects of this topic, it’s hard to know where to start. But I’ve decided to start with speed, just because it’s something that’s not mentioned a lot outside of the professional cooking world.
I am not a professional cook, but I worked for a little while for a friend who did go to cooking school and owned a cafe( as well as being an excellent home cook before this point). One thing that she impressed on me was the importance of learning to do a task quickly. And boy, was she fast in the kitchen! It was hard to keep up with her! But the point is this, you can do the same task at a slow pace or a fast pace. If you are concerned about time, then try to learn to do it at a fast pace.
Here’s a few ideas of how to make that happen.
Separate Your Tasks into “Motions”
1) If you are doing a task of say, making rolls, it’s going to be a lot faster if you do the same motion over and over again. For example, you could cut off a piece of dough, shape it, and then place it on the cooking sheet. But you have to do a different motion for each step of the process. It’s generally faster to cut the dough into even pieces all at one point, and then shape them all. When you are cutting the dough into pieces, you are doing the same motion and can accomplish it quickly as you aren’t setting down the knife in between cuts, and you get in the “swing of it”. When you are shaping the dough into rolls, you don’t have to pick up a knife and cut a new piece off in between shapings.
This principle is especially helpful when doing large projects and can make a surprising difference in time spent in the kitchen. Overall, remember to keep your thinking brain on in the kitchen and your eyes open for new ways of doing things that are faster and more efficient.
2) Stay Focused
I am a dreamer, and often find myself looking out the window or just simply slowing down as my thoughts wander as I make dinner. This is fine if I have all of the time in the world to accomplish what I need to in the kitchen, but it’s not very effective for getting a lot of tasks done. I think that this is a common problem with home cooks (at least it seems so when I am working in the kitchen with other moms).
Simply staying focused at the task on hand can help me accomplish the task faster.
3) Practice
While I can fall into the habit of always trying something new in the kitchen, most of us will find that if we practice something we will become not only better and more confident in that task but also faster. As you cook and find your favorite recipes, repeat them on a consistent basis. I find that I come up with faster ways to prepare meals the more familiar I am with it. It’s also nice when you know the recipe so well you hardly even need to use a recipe. That saves time too!
4)Beat Your Speed
As you continue to work at different skills in the kitchen, work at increasing your speed. Can you chop that parsley faster? Mix that sourdough together more quickly? Or throw that slow cooker meal together in a more efficient manner? Sometimes I think of it as kind of a game, seeing if I can beat my last speed. But I enjoy that kind of thing (it brings out my competitive side ).
Overall, not only are there specific recipes and techniques that will save you time in the kitchen, but also speed and efficiency that comes with practice and skill and good technique. However, the point is to make your kitchen time less stressful, not more. So if you find yourself stressing over trying to work faster in the kitchen or cutting off limbs in attempt to save ten minutes, slow down! We aren’t professional cooks, and one of the advantages to the home cook is that we won’t get fired if dinner is ten minutes late.
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Judith Kingsbury
These are all excellent points! The one about finding ways to do tasks more quickly and efficiently resonated with me. If you’re a typical working mom, getting a meal on the table in 20 – 30 minutes is essential. If you want the meals to be healthy, home cooked food, efficiency is critical. As a vegetarian who has prepped a ton of vegetables over the years, one of the best ways I’ve found to increase my speed was to get a good chef’s knife and learn how to use it. That made such a difference to the amount of veggies I could process and feed my family, and ultimately, to my family’s health.
Holly @ Unintended Byproducts
Really good ideas – choosing your work place based on a good triangle between the sink, stove and fridge has been the biggest change for me. I use to try to cook on the counter space right next to the stove, ignoring my kitchen island because I didn’t wanna get it dirty (ridiculous, I know). Since I’ve started doing my prep there, I’ve got the room to compile my ingredients and move efficiently.
chanelle
This post is good because it gets me thinking about what I can do to be more efficient in the kitchen…
Metta
I’m a bit a dreamer too, looking out the window, but not just when in the kitchen.
I typically do most of my food prep/cooking on the weekend (I’m single and cook only for me), so I spend several hours in the kitchen sometimes – depending on what I’ve got planned for the week’s meals.
One thing that helps is putting on some good music. I’m always surprised when a cd ends and I’ve gotten so much done.
The other thing is simply practice, practice, practice. When I first started making my own meals instead of relying on packaged foods it took me almost a whole day to do everything. I would prep/cook one thing at time. I always meal-planned (still do – another timesaver!), but didn’t time-plan well. I chop veggies once, put in bowls seperated by recipe, and sometimes cook two things at once on seperate burners, or one in the oven one on the stove.
Dani
Great post and great ideas! One of my favorite ways to save time in the kitchen is to make double of what I’m doing–or more–and freeze it for later use. Routinely, we’ll cook up 10 lbs of hamburger with the basic spices, then portion it out and freeze it. It makes a quick meal even faster when you don’t have to start by browning the meat. This can be done while cooking another meal, too. By doing larger portions but in batches, I save having to wash that pot every time, etc.
Another great thing–and I have to steal the idea, but I’m sure Racheal Ray won’t mind–is the garbage bowl. I use two bowls, one for true garbage, and one for compost materials. She also does something on her 30 Minute Meals show that I have routinely done for years: gather everything from one area, move to the next and gather all those ingredients, etc. It’s an entirely extra level to economy of motion (as you described above, doing the same motion repeatedly, so fewer times to change back to the motion) to use your kitchen space well and reduce the times that you move around it. Takes a little planning, but with practice, it becomes second nature.
“if you find yourself … cutting off limbs in attempt to save ten minutes” made me LAUGH OUT LOUD! I love the scene in Julie and Julia where Julia is learning to cut onions so she can be faster than all the other chefs. However, try as I might, that is one technique that I have decided to NOT put on my “must learn” list. Because if it stays there, then adding “9-1-1 send an ambulance” to the speed dial would also be a must for me! I have had several different people show me how, and I know the secret is to move the food and not the knife, and keep the blade up against my knuckles… Let’s just say that I’m comfortable recognizing some of my shortcomings and finding other ways to compensate!
Sarah
Great post! I know my way around the kitchen, but it’s great to get efficiency reminders once in a while! I love to spend hours in the kitchen . . . sometimes . . . but other times it’s just not an option. Looking forward to reading more!
Best,
Sarah
PS – BTW, the title has a misspelling in it. I’m linking to it in my reader, but just wanted to allow you the chance to correct it! Oops!
KimiHarris
Hey Sarah,
That’s what I get for changing my title at the last minute! LOL Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Emma
I love this post and look forward to the tips to come. Since I began my family’s switch to nourishing food a few months ago, I am finding I spend more time in my kitchen, which I actually love. It is great to be efficient where you can though, so that there is no time wasted.
My biggest problem is space! I have a very small kitchen with little bench space, now that I have jars of things fermenting and soaking away all over the place, my bench space is even more limited! It is forcing me to become very creative, for example, I now have a cover for my sink so that I can use that hole as bench space when required. I do still struggle though.
I’m very happy that I found this blog, so many wonderful recipes and ideas. Thanks!
Jessie
I am glad to read this post & hopefully more on the same topic.
My husband gave me a gift certificate to a cooking school & I am planning to take a knife skills class – so hopefully can get better at chopping, etc!
Anna
For days I don’t have a lot of time to prepare meals (or the day’s schedule changes at the last minute) I like to keep basic ingredients on hand so I can through together “no-brainer” meals that don’t require consulting recipes, lots of prep, or a fussy sequence of timing. Frittata is one of my favorite “in a hurry” meals, so I get nervous when I have less than a dozen eggs on hand, for example. Frittatas are good served any time of day, at any temperature, can be embellished with a variety of veggies, meats, cheeses, or whatever bits need to be used up, and are economical. Everyone in the family likes frittata, too.
Lindsey @ The Herbangardener
Nice post! I’ve never really paid much attention to my own speed in the kitchen, so now that idea has been planted in my brain.
Great comments too; I like hearing how other people save time in the kitchen. It’s given me the idea to make a double batch of soaked cookie dough and freeze half. I never know when I’ll want to bake cookies, and often waiting for dough to soak will put me off completely. So, always having a batch waiting in the freezer will be my new routine, for sure!
Annie
oooooh! I must have missed this post last week. I need to definitely speed up my pace in the kitchen. A few tips here have helped. I think if I were more efficient w/ my knife skills, that’d really help a LOT. I’ve started using our large cutting board, which has to be hand washed – doesn’t fit in the DW. But it saves me a lot of time trying to keep chopped up food from falling off the cutting board, lol. I wish I knew a way to keep diced veggies from sticking to the knife. I have a nice chef’s knife, but wonder if those santoku(?) knives (w/ the bevels along each? or one? side of the blade) keep food from sticking to the knife so much. I’m constantly making a cut or two, then clearing the blade, or making a cut, then using my fingers to keep the onion or whatever in place on the cutting board before making the next cut. Anyone use one of those beveled (not serrated) knives? How do they work? Might they help me cut food quicker?
Katie
I have been very frustrated when I see recipes that say they take 30 minutes to prepare, and they’re taking me an hour! This gave me some great ideas. I realized my two biggest problems aren’t really lack of skills, they are “keep your thinking brain on in the kitchen” and “stay focused”. Most of the time that I’m trying to cook, I’ve got a two year old trying to help (with the chef’s knife), crying if I say no, begging to nurse, or off somewhere else in the house making a huge mess or doing something dangerous 🙂 Even if the kids are calm and helpful, I tend to daydream and time slips away unnoticed.
Allison
As you add to this could you maybe mention how to set up our kitchen in a more efficient manner. For example keeping baking things together, etc. It seems like it would be really common sense but for someone like me who has moved around and am always adjusting to different kitchens it seems like there should be a no brainer set up plan.
Tamara
This entry has had me reflecting my kitchen habits since I read it. What a simple concept; basically, “just go fast!” It made me realize that I treat my cooking like a leisure activity. It’s a little confronting to realize that part of my slowness in the kitchen is b/c of a relaxed feeling, and that if I want to save time, I have to concentrate and go FAST. I have to focus on getting DONE rather than just enjoying the process. It sure works though!
bryson
Its important to sit down and think what your going to make. Just don’t go to the grocery store and put things in the cart, making a list or meal plan is always a good idea. As well if your in a hurry utilize your kitchen equpment properly. Big jobs first small jobs last. Prepare large roasts or sear your chicken ahead of time and leave it in the fridge. When you get home prep your sauce and your vegetables your oven is preheated so by the time sauce and veg is done chicken is out of the oven.
WilliamB
Here’s one I use to keep me faster in the kitchen: prep food far in advance. In particular: chop onions, wash and cut produce.
I used to resist doing this because it can lead to more waste. Gradually I realized that, given my overall low level of waste, I would be better off saving more time to cook healthy and wasting a bit more.
The two things I most benefit from doing in advance is chopping onions and washing & cutting produce. I used to chop an onion only when I was about to cook with it. But just about everything I cook has onion, so now I keep a container of chopped onion in my onion drawer.
I also wash and prep my produce. Broccoli is washed and in cooking-sized pieces; it still can last a couple of weeks. Lettuce ditto; there’s more waste here but it means I actually eat the stuff. At least a couple days’ worth of berries or melon is washed and easy to grab as a snack.
I also compromise by buying pre-minced garlic. FYI: garlic loses it’s savor in air or water so if you do this, buy garlic in oil and not garlic in water. Garlic in water is much cheaper but it has no taste at all, and where’s the savings in that?
Tiare
Great tips that tie in well with your post titled “Eating Healthy Does Take Work (and Here’s Why That’s Okay)”.
justin
finally someone with some kung fu in the kitchen.
Motions. You described it sweetly. In my mind I see all of the motions and timing involved in the kitchen and I’m charting a path of least resistance, least change of tempo.
Dipeeka mehta
I have one query . please solve it. The query is that I work do slower . It getting slower due to my thinking process. I can’t do work faster . I tried hard but I can not change my habit to think anything during my working hours at home. I want to genuinely change my habit and get work fast.please give me a best suggestions.thus I can control on my thoughts.i m really very tensed for it.