The top 10 cooking methods to master

Up your kitchen game by mastering these 10 essential cooking skills. From how to cook fish to perfectly cooked steak, these need-to-know cooking techniques are guaranteed to make your food taste better.

Senior Food Editor

Heather Taylor

Top 10 cooking methods everyone should know

These cooking basics can be applied to all sorts of dishes, meaning you’ll be able to up your kitchen skills, whatever recipe you fancy cooking.

Roasting a chicken
Searing a steak
Cooking fish to perfection
Steaming rice
Making a roux
Making a classic tomato sauce
Cooking eggs
Balancing flavour
Making mayonnaise
Knife skills

More cooking tips

1. Roasting a chicken

A golden-skinned roast chicken is one of life’s great pleasures. Not only will it make a cracking Sunday roast, you'll have leftovers for dishes like soup, risotto and stock. The key to a succulent, perfectly roasted chicken is sourcing a good-quality bird, such as our slower-reared Oakham Gold chicken, roasting at a higher temperature first to get the crispiest skin, and allowing the chicken to rest before serving.

Read how to roast a chicken

2. Searing a steak

Choose the best quality steak for the best flavour, allow it to come to room temperature and pre-season with salt, get the pan sizzling hot, be careful not to overcook and allow your steak to rest properly, and you won’t go far wrong when it comes to cooking your steak like a pro.

How to cook steak perfectly

3. Cooking fish to perfection

The key to cooking fish brilliantly is ensuring it doesn’t overcook – there are a few failsafe ways to do this, from steaming en papillote to lock in the moisture to pan-frying in butter for a crisp skin and succulent flesh. Again, choosing fresh, responsibly sourced fish is vital to enjoy the flavour at its best.

How to cook fish

4. Making mayonnaise

Use a neutral-flavoured oil when making mayonnaise, which needs to be whisked with egg yolks and Dijon mustard. The key to stopping it from splitting? Add the oil just a drop at a time. When you start to see the mixture thickening, you can be confident that the eggs are incorporated and add the oil more quickly.

Guide to cooking oils

5. Making a roux

A roux is the base for all sorts of dishes, from hearty lasagne and mac’n’cheese to oozy, cheesy bakes and moussaka. Learn how to properly cook out the flour and carefully incorporate the milk for a velvety sauce every time.

How to make a roux

6. Making a tomato sauce

Learning to make a fresh tomato sauce is an essential kitchen skill. Whether you eat it with pasta, pizza or as the base of a ragu, a great tomato sauce recipe is always worth adding to your repertoire. Getting it spot on is down to allowing the tomatoes to cook slowly with aromatic flavours. Or try this tomato pasta sauce recipe, which uses a classic Italian technique for a shortcut tinned tomato sauce – no chopping required.

How to make a tomato sauce

7. Steaming rice

Want to avoid claggy, sticky rice? The key is to use the so-called 'absorption method' to let it gently steam and absorb the water, rinsing the rice to avoid too much starch, and seasoning it properly.

Guide to cooking rice

8. Cooking eggs

Whether you’re after silky scrambled, a fried egg with a crispy skin and beautifully golden yolk, boiled eggs with the perfect jammy centre or oozy poached eggs, learning how to cook eggs is something no home cook should be afraid of. Master the basic techniques, then eat eggs speedy dinner or use as a topping for dishes like this Thai-style fried rice or Caesar butter beans on toast.

How to cook eggs

9. Balancing flavour

Even if you have top-notch kitchen skills, your food won’t taste good if you don’t understand how to balance flavours. Taste your food and aim for a balance of saltiness, richness and acidity – a dash of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice is often all that’s needed to make a dish taste right.

Recipe ideas

10. Knife skills

Mastering basics such as chopping an onion, cutting up a watermelon or dicing vegetables will make cooking a pleasure rather than a chore. For most jobs, a good-quality chef’s knife will work, as long as it’s kept sharp. Spend some time dicing, slicing, julienning and mincing, choose the right knife and grip it properly, and you’ll find everything feels easier.

Get cooking

More essential cooking tips

Read the recipe from start to finish before you begin.
Keep your workstation tidy – try having a waste bowl you keep on the counter for scraps and clean as you go.
Season correctly – taste continuously, and think about seasoning throughout the cooking process.
Don't forget acid – a splash of vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice can help to balance your dish.
Consider texture – a sprinkling of toasted breadcrumbs, nuts or seeds can take your dish from good to great.
Clear out your store cupboard – remember spices will start to taste stale after a few months. Using them fresh will transform the flavour of your dishes.
Use seasonal ingredients – they'll taste better, and ingredients that are in season at the same time (think tomatoes with peaches or cavolo nero with butternut squash) tend to work well together flavour-wise.

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Published 8.20.2025