Butter

Listen, butter is not just fat — it's fat holding water hostage, mostly fat with a good bit of water and milk solids mixed in, and that's why it hisses and spits the moment it hits a hot pan. That noise is the water escaping. Watch it closely: once the pan goes quiet, the water is gone, and the butter can turn from golden to black in seconds. Remember that, and you'll stop wondering why your pancakes suddenly smell of smoke.

How do you choose good butter? Forget the wrapper; look at the cut end. It should shine like wax and be pale yellow, with no white streaks and no beads of moisture on the surface. Smell it — clean, milky, a little sweet. Nothing sour, nothing like a fridge that needs cleaning.

Some people say all butter is the same, salted or not, cheap or expensive, and that there's no difference once it's melted. No! Cheap butter carries more water, and that water dilutes your sauce, weakens your pastry, turns your fried eggs watery instead of crisp at the edges. That's the mistake this misconception leads to — cooks blame the recipe, when really they should have weighed the butter, not the myth.