If you’ve been cooking for a long time, you’ve probably experienced burning or overcooking your food. Most cooks would just throw it away but that’s such a waste – there are plenty of quick fixes you can try to salvage your dish! It depends on what type of dish you’re cooking, but if you want to learn some useful cooking hacks for fixing burnt food, read on!
Meat
If you burn steak or any meat over a grill or on the pan because of high flames, chances are the inside is underdone. What you can do is sear the meat in a pan (preferably oven-proof) then move it into your oven (300F) until cooked through.
If you’re cooking meat to put in a stew or soup and it starts to burn, stop cooking. Wash the pan before cooking the meat again or cook the meat in an entirely different pan.
Vegetables
If you steam or boil produce too long, drain them and plunge them into ice water in a bowl. This stops the cooking process. After a few minutes, drain again.
If vegetables are way overcooked, you can still use them for other dishes! Overcooked vegetables can be pureed, broiled with butter or cheese, or frozen to be used later for soup or gravy.
Rice, pasta or potatoes
Carbs like rice, pasta and potatoes cook quickly that’s why they’re very easy to overcook, even if you just left them for a couple of minutes. If you overcook rice, place it in a strainer, rinse and drain well to remove the stickiness. If this doesn’t work, you can turn it into fried rice.
For soggy pasta and potatoes, just let them dry then fry them in the pan with some butter, olive oil and lots of seasoning. You can also repurpose the pasta by baking it into casseroles and as for the potatoes, they’re good for frittatas or omelets.
Soups and Sauces
Once you realize that you’re soup or sauce is burning, turn off the burner immediately. Typically, liquids will only have the bottom burnt, so do not scrape the bottom part of the pan and just transfer the soup or sauce in a different pan or pot to continue cooking.
Throwing away burnt or overcooked food should be your last resort. Salvage what you can and just repurpose the food into another dish! Follow these 4 awesome cooking hacks for fixing burnt food.
Adrian T. Cheng is a food blogger and a BBQ expert. Through years of barbecue experience, reviewing various grilling accessories and trying delicious and unique recipes, he is sharing his knowledge with everyone through his blog. For more grilling secrets, tips, recipes and more, head over to Adrian’s website where he has other interesting grill-related products and posts.
