12 Ina Garten Cooking Tips Every Home Chef Should Know

While millions of people prepare meals for their families every week, the process (and prep work) can be overwhelming. It should be creative and fun but the reality for some is: Home cooking can be stressful, time consuming, and expensive. Thank heaven for the Barefoot Contessa: Ina Garten.

She has spent 25 years showing us how to rustle up everything from simple salads to full-on dinner party menus. From her hugely popular TV shows to best-selling cookbooks, her steady, comforting presence has helped us spread our culinary wings. "I just want you to feel like I'm right there beside you, just kind of guiding you through the recipe," she told "60 Minutes."

Garten is a natural at serving up valuable pearls of kitchen wisdom that will bring down any home chef's stress levels, helping you get the best out of every meal. From the benefits of room-temperature butter to the easiest way to cook perfect hash browns: Let's take a close look at 12 Ina Garten cooking tips for all home chefs. 

Ina Garten's pristine kitchen looks amazing whenever it features on her Instagram or one of her cookbooks. You could be forgiven for thinking it's full of labor-saving gadgets and gizmos that help her bring recipes to life. Sure, she has some smart bits of culinary kit — but the one thing the Barefoot Contessa relies on most? Sheet pans.

When asked by Kerry Diamond, host of the Radio Cherry Bombe podcast, what was her most used kitchen implement, she replied: "That's a tough one. Sheet pan. I love a stack of sheet pans because you can cook almost anything on it. You can roast a chicken, you can roast vegetables. I use sheet pans a lot."

Before rushing out to invest in your own stash of pans, it's worth noting that Garten doesn't use silpats or non-stick baking liners with hers. She told Diamond: "I don't use silpats. Maybe I've never used them so I don't understand why I'd want to wash it, so I just [use] parchment paper or nothing depending on if I need the surface."

You can do lots of things with a muffin tray but is there really anything better than that fruity, cakey goodness? Home cooks who can turn out dozens of the delicious treats time after time might agree, but if you're among those whose muffins are more messy than super delicious, Ina Garten's got your back.

She took to Instagram while testing a new blueberry muffin recipe to offer not one but four tips to ensure you get perfect muffins every time. First, remember to grease the top of the pan — not just the hollow part if you're not using paper cases — so they don't stick. Excellent advice for anyone who has destroyed their muffins while scraping them off the pan using a butter knife.

Garten also recommends using an ice-cream scoop so your mini cakes are all the same size (so long, muffin monsters) and keeping a thermometer in the oven to make sure the temperature's always spot on. Her sweetest advice? Give your muffins a crunchy top with a sprinkle of white or brown sugar before they go in the oven. Simple but delish.

No matter which type of flour you use, get the measurement wrong and culinary chaos invariably ensues. As always, Ina Garten is on hand with a nifty solution. Her 2018 book "Cook Like a Pro" includes how to accurately measure out flour. She writes: "Working in a professional kitchen taught me that if you fluff the flour before dipping in your measuring cup and leveling it off the top you will have exactly the same amount of flour each time." Garten makes sure to use cups so home cooks without a scale can still use the recipe.

If you're standing, measuring cup in hand, wondering what she means by "fluffing," let us explain. First you need your flour in a container that has a large opening, so you can get your measuring cup in and out easily. Next, use the cup to scoop up the flour two or three times, letting it fall back into the container each time. Finally, take a cupful of the now lifted flour and use your finger to level it off. Don't be tempted to tap it on the countertop or sift it, and you'll always get an even measurement. 

Should we keep eggs in the fridge or the countertop? The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service notes: "To reduce Salmonella growth, eggs gathered from laying hens should be refrigerated as soon as possible. After eggs are refrigerated, they need to stay that way. A cold egg left out at room temperature can sweat, facilitating the movement of bacteria into the egg." Also, the USDA explains that Salmonella will multiply if it's in or on a room temperature egg. They urge consumers to not leave refrigerated eggs on counter for more than a couple hours.

While all that sounds sensible, Ina Garten likes to keep her eggs at room temperature for baking. Showing viewers around her kitchen in this NYT Cooking video Garten explains why she always has garlic, lemons, and oranges on the countertop, along with eggs, saying: "Eggs are better at room temperature when I'm baking." It's not just those four ingredients that the culinary celeb recommends leaving out to warm up.

In "Cook Like a Pro," she explains the importance of leaving butter at an ambient temperature too. Garten writes: "It won't get soft enough if you leave it on the counter for an hour; it takes hours for it to go from refrigerated temperature (38 degrees Fahrenheit) to room temperature (70 degrees Fahrenheit)." If you forget and need to soften or melt your butter, don't use the microwave, take Garten's advice. "I melt butter on the stove in a small saucepan over low heat. It only takes a few minutes — and no mess!"

Few things elevate a cake like a swirl of buttercream frosting, whether it comes from a can or is made from scratch. Sweet and smooth, it can come in a rainbow of colors and range of flavors. It's easy to make too — simply combine butter (at room temperature) with sifted confectioners' sugar and a splash of milk for the perfect cake topping.

Can this perfection be improved on? According to Ina Garten: absolutely. Nestled among the recipes in her 2006 book "Barefoot Contessa at Home" was the mouthwatering Beatty's chocolate cake. Slathered in rich, chocolate buttercream frosting, the picture looked good enough to eat but the ingredients list contained a surprise. Garten had added one extra-large egg yolk — at room temperature, naturally — to add even more silky richness to that chocolate coating.

She even turned the original cake into smaller, cupcake versions after lots of requests from Instagram followers. Garten told them: "One recipe of the cake makes 24 cupcakes (bake them for 25 minutes) and doubling the frosting recipe makes a little too much frosting but I've never found that to be a problem, have you?"

The hash brown is a tiny but mighty carbohydrate staple of breakfasts around the world. Their earliest cookbook appearance was in "Miss Parloa's Kitchen Companion" published in 1887. Nowadays, this tasty, potato-based snack can be found on the menus of everyone from fast-food giants to indie diners.

Originating in the United States, hash browns are made from shredded, diced or cubed potato, as well as finely sliced onion and an egg. Ina Garten's recipe calls for russet potatoes, and also includes a little flour. There are lots of ways to cook them, but for her, a waffle iron beats them all.

Posting a photo of a batch to Facebook, she said: "Waffle iron hash browns are the easiest and most delicious hash browns you'll ever make. They're really crispy on the outside and creamy inside — and the best part is no splatters on the stove!" Garten's tip to make sure you get really crispy hash browns? Dry 'em out. She encourages home cooks to spread out their potatoes on a clean kitchen towel. Next, roll it up and then squeeze out any moisture, being careful not to press too hard.

There may come a time in a home cook's life when they decide to follow Ina Garten's footsteps and hold a dinner party, or invite lots of people around for Thanksgiving or Christmas festivities. We all know there are a zillion things that can go wrong (and mistakes to avoid when hosting Thanksgiving, for instance) or when you're juggling multiple recipes, timings, and dietary needs for any gathering. 

To prevent it from turning into a version of the Fishes episode of "The Bear," Garten has a clever hack that will reduce stress levels, which she shared on Instagram. "After years of stressing over the turkey, I found that roasting and carving it ahead of time, arranging it on an oven-proof platter over a bed of gravy, and then putting it in the oven before dinner is SO much easier than trying to carve a hot turkey at the table! It's also the best turkey I've ever made."

The Ask Ina section of her website has similar tips for newbie hosts. She says: "I tend to make one thing in the oven, one thing on top of the stove, and one thing at room temp that I can make in advance." For example, Garten might prepare the main course earlier in the day (so she can reheat the already assembled dish later) — she just pops it into the oven before guests arrive. She prefers not to cook and entertain guests at the same time. Being prepared and planning keeps Garten relaxed.

Meringues are a delicious addition to any dessert menu but they can be a beast to prepare. Apart from requiring scrupulously clean kitchen equipment — even a speck of grease or moisture will scupper your meringue plans — whisking the mixture to the right consistency can be super challenging. What does a stiff peak even look like?

Cooking meringues can be just as perilous. A question posted on Ina Garten's Ask Ina page asked for help after a home cook's pavlova dessert was beige, instead of white. The Barefoot Contessa replied: "The problem is either that the temperature was too high or the meringue was in the oven too long. In my experience, the trick with meringues is to keep an eye on them — unfortunately they can go from perfectly baked to overdone very quickly!"

Even if you stick to the meringue-making rules, they can still go wrong and it won't be your fault. What's to blame? The weather. Garten warns home cooks who want to serve up crisp meringues to avoid trying to make them on a rainy day. The extra moisture in the air plays havoc with the mixture, resulting in chewy meringues. If they're a must-have, check the weather forecast and make them ahead of time. 

For the carnivores out there: Is there anything more delicious than roast chicken? The Barefoot Contessa is as enamored as the rest of us, telling her Instagram followers: "The only thing better than a roast chicken is two Perfect Roast Chickens with onions cooked in the pan juices!"

However, serving the perfect chicken can be tricky. To stuff or not to stuff is a question even an adept home cook might ask — while issues such as brining or how to get the crispiest skin can make us want to give up and reach for the take-out menu. As always, Ina Garten has a quick and easy way to make sure every roast chicken we cook is chef's-kiss perfect. For even cooking, all it takes is a little truss — and there are lots of ways to do this but Garten keeps it simple. After filling the chicken's cavity with garlic, fresh thyme, and lemon — along with brushing the skin with melted butter and seasoning — she takes a short length of kitchen twine to tie the ends of the legs together. This trick keeps them tucked in, prevents burning, and the meat on them stays moist. Don't forget to take off the string before serving. 

You don't have to be Heston Blumenthal to know that home cooking can be as much of a science as it is an art. Some techniques rely on understanding what happens at a particular point in a culinary process, and sautéing potatoes is a great example.

All fats have what's called a smoke point: The moment when it stops being useful for cooking and burns. As always, Ina Garten has a neat trick to help home cooks avoid this issue: She uses both oil and butter when she pan-fries. It might sound like bad news for our arteries but what's good for the Barefoot Contessa has to be good for the rest of us, right?

In "Cook Like a Pro," Garten explains that olive oil has a higher smoke point, which means whatever she is frying won't burn, while adding the same amount of butter to the pan infuses the potatoes with more flavor. Fyi: Perfect British roast potatoes only need vegetable oil, according to Emily Blunt's recipe, which Garten showcased on Instagram. 

Cauliflower is packed with fiber, vitamins, and minerals, and is a great source of choline, which is good for our liver. You can boil, steam, deep-fry, and roast cauliflower — but, when it comes to preparation, there's no getting away from it: Cauliflower is a challenging vegetable.

One question about it not only made it to Ina Garten's Ask Ina page, it also provided the inspiration for "Cook Like a Pro." One Garten fan wrote, "I love cauliflower but it is such a messy veggie to prep. I always end up with small pieces of cauliflower florets all over my counters and floor. Any suggestion for a better way to prep it?" We've all been there. Luckily, there's a solution.

Garten replied: "Yes! Turn the cauliflower over, florets down on the cutting board and cut out the core with a knife. Then, just cut through the stems, and then pull the florets apart. You end up with whole florets of cauliflower — and no mess!" Garten also shared a video of her technique on Instagram, demonstrating that if you cut out the core of the cauliflower, the larger florets can be pulled off. Then, cut through their stems and voilà: Perfect florets and a clean countertop to boot.

Ina Garten has shared many things over the years, from insights into her store cupboard staples to why an ice cream scoop is an essential tool in her kitchen. Yet her best pearl of wisdom for home cooks proves that, no matter how glamorous her life looks, she's every bit as human as the rest of us.

In an interview with 60 Minutes' Sharyn Alfonsi, she said: "I'm sure people don't believe this but I'm really a nervous cook and I'm sure every recipe's gonna turn out wrong." She admitted that she has to follow her own recipes to the letter — there's a lesson for those of us trying to wing it — and explained: "I've spent so much time getting the balance of flavors and textures and everything right. I'm really not a confident cook."

As you would expect, she has an answer for this: practice. "To this day I've never made something for a dinner party I haven't made several times," Garten said. She explained how she would make a roast leg of lamb with tomatoes with duxelles — which are finely minced mushrooms (btw, here's all the mistakes people make when cooking mushrooms) — for dinner twice during the week. So, by the time Saturday came along, Garten would know exactly what she was doing.