As much as I enjoy cooking, I usually don’t want to spend more time in the kitchen than I absolutely have to.
Because we know your time is just as precious, over the past few years, we have started including cooking times in our recipes — active, which is the amount of hands-on time, and total, which includes the active time plus any inactive or hands-off time, such as when a dish is roasting, baking or simmering.
We also know that sometimes our times don’t line up with what you experience, and that’s to be expected. For any number of reasons — equipment, differences in skill levels, distractions, children and pets underfoot, whatever — there’s no way every person will make every recipe at the same pace.
Just remember: Speed isn’t everything. Working too quickly can lead to errors or, worse, injuries. That being said, there are ways to be a faster, more efficient cook. Here are some of our top tips.
Have a tip for how you make cooking faster? Share in the comments below.
Read the recipe. Multiple times.
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Any time you put into studying the recipe before you set foot in the kitchen will pay off once you start cooking. Errors can be just as time-consuming, or more so, than a few rounds of reading in advance, so make the investment up front. Plus, analyzing the ingredients and steps first will familiarize you with the broad strokes of the recipe, meaning less slowing down in the process. Pay particular attention to substitution suggestions, sub-recipes (some cookbooks separate them) and ingredients that are listed once but used at multiple points (often specified as “divided”).