Just curious, how many of you do mis en place before baking or cooking? I never used too, but

I do it, especially when a recipe has a bunch of smaller amounts. Good for new recipes also. (nt)

 
Yes and no. Last night I did for "beef stew in 30 minutes" (yep, it can be done, lol) and

sometimes I will for baking at home but usually not for most savory (except Asian dishes like stirfry which need to be all ready to go to combine and cook quickly). It all depends on the complexity of the recipe and menu and my mood at the moment.

.

 
Ditto

I am usually cooking or baking a few things at once so I like to group ingredients on my counter. For instance: Sunday I made Split Pea Soup (I've had two big ham bones in the freezer for a long time), a giant pot of chicken stock out of other bones from the freezer, homemade Naan Bread and a batch of pickled refrigerator cukes (just because I had lots of cukes to use up). If I don't prepare the ingredients ahead of time it just takes more time. The chicken stock went into the freezer but I used some in the Split Pea Soup which we had for dinner along with some Naan Bread. The pickled cukes get served with various things all week.

 
Yes and No. We were taught to do mis en place in school, but now I do some and..

then prep between steps.

Always for stir-fry tho.

I prep everything when baking also.

 
Always, it is what I do every morning, as I cannot stand to do prep work in the afternoons.

It stems from the years we had the kids at home. I used to get all my prep work done in the mornings after they left for school, so when they came home, my time was theirs for homework assist, their various activities or just fun. I have never gotten out of that mode. My afternoons are mostly free to do what I want. I never used to do mise en place when baking but I do now and have it all measured and laid out on the counter from the first ingredient to the last. So much easier on my brain.

 
I should have added that at work,

when cooking in catering kitchens, I usually mis en place primarily to avoid any surprises of missing, spoiled or shortage of ingredients.

 
Sometimes, but I feel like my kitchen is so small sometimes it's more of a pain

Plus, I don't like creating dirty dishes for prep. However, I do have utensils in crocks on the counter and EVOO/vinegar next to the cooktop. Measuring cups/spoons are on both sides of the kitchen.

So, except for stir fry or the like or big tasks/meal events, I prep as I go.

(My entire prep space corner is one side of the sink, as wide as the dishwasher, and a pull out cutting board. The end.)

 
I feeeeel your pain; my kitchen is so small that when I make stir fry I end up lining up. . .

those little bowls and larger bowls on the edge of the sink by the stove. I have had stuff fall in the sink, which is good because I can usually retrieve it. I have also had stuff fall on the floor, which is not so good. . .

I can literally reach from the counter next to my fridge to the stove-top counter, and from my sink counter to the edge of the stove-top counter. My kitchen floor space is as big as I can reach with my arms outstretched. What fun!

 
Small kitchens can be a joy and a curse. Our kitchen gained a lot of space when we remodeled

I had a pantry reversed and put into the front of an outcropped nook instead of off to the side, as it was. I put in custom drawers to accommodate my kinds of vinegar, oils, pans, kitchen tools. No shelving is under my counter tops, only drawers and I gained a ton of space. He also put in pull out cutting boards all over my kitchen which really helps when someone is in the kitchen with me cooking, Or when my husband will not get out of my way and seems to think that my time in the kitchen is his too,

I also took note from all the chefs on TV and bought a big, black Epicurious cutting board to put over 4 burners of my six burner cooktop. With the kids gone, and now that I don't do that much entertaining, I find I only use two of my cooktop burners. This gives me extra space to put my prep boards with all the chopped and prepared ingredients, crock pot, and so on.

Yesterday, I went searching for ideas for a few storage organizers for two drawers in my bathroom and I came across photos of people with really small kitchens and how they utilized storage to the max. It was amazing to see some of the cool ideas folks came up with.

Does anyone visit Closet Cooking? I think that guy does all his cooking in a very tiny kitchen. It might be interesting to email him and see if he has any photos.

 
I always do a "mise en place" when baking several of the same rec.I recently cranked out 5 Foolproof

Cheesecakes, back to back, and if I hadn't measured out ingredients before starting each & every one, I would have gotten about halfway through stirring up the 4th one and begun racking my brain as to whether or not I'd put in the whipping cream! Can't tell by scrutinizing my measuring cup because it has whipping cream residue in it from the 3 previous cakes. I learned this mise en place lesson a LONG TIME ago. ha!

http://eat.at/swap/forum/index.php?action=display&forumid=1&msgid=227484

 
My BIL designed/built my sister's house and I love the kitchen

too bad she hates to cook! But I'm in that kitchen all day when I'm there. I've decided it's my dream kitchen.

One thing he did that's great is he made all the counters extra deep, so you can have toasters/etc on them and still have the space of a normal counter in front of the appliance.

Also, the shape is a wide U with stove in the center, so one person can be in the cooking zone and another in the clean-up zone and they never cross paths - or ditto 2 cooks. There is a long butcher block island in the center that has a second full size sink across from the stove, it great to just turn around to a full size sink that's not a clean-up sink. My BIL even built in a marble section of counter to knead bread on, but the only person that's used it for that is me, lol.

 
One thing I recently learned was my air bake cookie sheets exactly fit over each side of my sink

it was a Hallelujah moment for me and made me wonder why it took me decades to notice this.

 
Thanks, most of these I use

but I don't like stuff on the walls as it looks so cluttered. I need my zen when I'm in there given it's already small. SmittenKitchen has several good ideas I've used as well.

 
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