Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 24
Cooking Tip: Always bake bar cookies on the middle rack in the oven and cookies on the top rack to get the perfect doneness.
Cooking Tip: To prevent ice crystals from forming on ice cream, cover the surface of the ice cream with a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper before closing the container.
Cooking Tip: Keep chili peppers fresh longer by storing them with the stems removed.
Cooking Tip: To rid a cutting board of food smells, such as fish or onions, cut a lemon or lime in half and rub the board down with it.
Cooking Tip: To quickly soften a stick of butter without melting it, cover it with a thoroughly heated bowl.
Cooking Tip: Persimmons are widely available September through December, with a peak during November. Choose persimmons with deep red undertones. Look for persimmons that are round, plump, and have glossy and smooth skin. Avoid fruits with blemishes, bruises or cracked skin and missing the green leaves at the top. Select ripe persimmons only if you plan to eat them immediately. Otherwise, buy firmer fruits and allow them to ripen.
Cooking Tip: Ripen persimmons at room temperature in a paper bag with an apple or banana. Store them in the refrigerator when ripe. Be sure to eat the fruit as soon as possible because overripe persimmons quickly turn to a mushy texture.
Cooking Tip: Soaking pecans in salt water for several hours before shelling will make nut meats easier to remove.
Cooking Tip: When buying Brussels sprouts, avoid yellow or yellow-green leaves, or leaves that are loose, soft or wilted. Small holes may indicated worm injury. Brussels sprouts are high in fiber carbohydrates, low sodium, fat free, and are a good source of vitamins A and C, potassium and iron.
Cooking Tip: Store Brussels sprouts in a loosely sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for no more than 2 days. Before serving, remove from stalk, peel off the outer layer or two of leaves, and take a thin slice off the stem end. Rinse in cold water. Cut an X in the core for even cooking.
Cooking Tip: Turkey can be thawed in the refrigerator, in cold water or in the microwave. Whole turkey takes about 24 hours per five pounds to thaw in the refrigerator. In cold water, changed every 30 minutes, turkey takes about 30 minutes per pound to thaw. When using a microwave to thaw a turkey, follow the manufacturer's instructions for the size turkey that will fit in your oven, the minutes per pound and the power level to use.
Cooking Tip: Never defrost turkey on the counter. Once thawed, keep turkey refrigerated at 40 degrees F. or below until it is ready to be cooked. Turkey thawed in the microwave should be cooked immediately.
Cooking Tip: Giblets are the turkey's gizzard, heart and liver. The giblets and neck, when cooked until tender, are considered by many to be delicious additions to gravy or stuffing.
Cooking Tip: Stuffing should be prepared and stuffed into the turkey immediately before it's placed in the oven for cooking. If preparing the stuffing ahead-of-time, wet and dry ingredients should be refrigerated separately and combined right before stuffing the turkey.
Cooking Tip: Use a two-step test for turkey doneness: First, insert a meat thermometer into the deepest portion of the thigh, not touching bone, and allow it to come to temperature for an accurate reading. Second, once the thigh has reached 180F degrees, move Thermometer to the center of the stuffing. Once the stuffing has reached 160 to 165F degrees, the turkey should be removed from the oven.
Cooking Tip: Sweet potatoes have many varieties, but the two most widely grown are the pale sweet potato with light yellow skin and dry, less sweet yellow flesh; and the dark sweet potato with reddish skin and moist, sweet, dark-orange flesh.
Cooking Tip: Sweet potatoes are a member of the morning glory family and native to Central America. Sweet potatoes are not related to yams or regular potatoes. While yams and sweet potatoes are terms used interchangeably in the United States, the yams sold here are actually sweet potatoes.
Cooking Tip: When purchasing sweet potatoes select firm ones without cracks, bruises or mold. They should have a uniformly bright skin and be heavy for their size. Avoid any with decayed spots.
Cooking Tip: Never refrigerate sweet potatoes or they will develop an off flavor. Store them in a cool, dry place for up to 1 month. If stored at room temperature, use them within 1 week.
Cooking Tip: Versatile sweet potatoes can be prepared in a variety of ways: baked, boiled, steamed, roasted, mashed, deep-fried, simmered in soups and stews and baked in pies and breads.
Cooking Tip: Thaw fish fillets in milk. The milk absorbs the frozen taste and adds a fresh caught taste.
Cooking Tip: Allow cookie sheets to cool in between batches to keep cookie dough from melting or becoming too thin at the edges.
Cooking Tip: Remove eggs from the refrigerator approximately 15 to 20 minutes before you are going to use them.
Cooking Tip: To preserve your wooden cutting board, occasionally rub it down with a couple of drops of edible cooking oil. This will also help prevent food from sticking to the board.
Cooking Tip: Firm up ripe tomatoes by placing them in a bowl of cold salt water and letting them sit overnight.
Cooking Tip: Herbs can be the star of a dish (like insalata caprese with basil, mozzarella and tomatoes), or they can add subtle layers of flavor which highlight other ingredients. Because the flavors of herbs can vary widely from season to season and plant to plant, always taste a bit before you decide how much to add.
Cooking Tip: Delicate fresh herbs such as basil, parsley, chives, dill and coriander are generally chopped, snipped or torn and added at the end of cooking to maximize their flavor impact. Heartier herbs like thyme, oregano and rosemary can be added earlier in the cooking process to allow their flavors to completely infuse your dish. These are often added whole and removed before serving.
Cooking Tip: Because of their more intense concentrated flavor, dried herbs can be substituted for fresh herbs at a ratio of 1 to 3. While dried herbs are convenient and can be great for longer cooking times, they don't generally have the same purity of flavor as fresh herbs and they go stale quickly.
Cooking Tip: Ensure dried herbs are still fresh by checking if they are green and not faded, and crushing a few leaves to see if the aroma is still strong. Always store them in an air-tight container away from light and heat.
Cooking Tip: In contrast to herbs, spices are nearly always dried and are mostly ground before using. Pre-ground spices lose their potency quickly, so they should be stored in airtight containers in a cool, dark place and be replaced around every six months. Whole spices retain their flavor longer (for up to five years) and can be used as is or quickly ground with a mortar and pestle or an inexpensive coffee grinder.
Cooking Tip: After grating cheese, grate a raw potato to clean the cheese out of the holes.
Cooking Tip: If you run out of brown sugar unexpectedly, mix a cup of granulated sugar with two tablespoons of molasses to make your own.
Cooking Tip: If raisins are dried out or sugary, put in a heatproof container and cover with boiling water. Let them stand for approximately 5 minutes, drain and pat dry. This process should plump up the raisins.
Cooking Tip: To preserve your wooden cutting board, occasionally rub it down with a couple of drops of edible cooking oil. This will also help prevent food from sticking to the board.
Cooking Tip: Firm up ripe tomatoes by placing them in a bowl of cold salt water and leaving them sit overnight.
Cooking Tip: A sweet pepper is a mild to sweet flavored pepper that can be eaten raw or cooked. Some varieties have a sweet but bitter taste. There are many varieties of sweet peppers, such as bell, bull horns, cachucha, cubanelle, European sweet, pimento and sweet banana. The different varieties vary in size, shape, thickness and color.
Cooking Tip: Sweet peppers are eaten raw or cooked and are good in salads, savory dishes, stuffed or eaten on their own.
Cooking Tip: A sweet pepper has the strongest taste when considered mature, but not fully ripe. If the peppers are not harvested when mature but are allowed to ripen on the vine, their taste will become progressively mild and sweet until they are fully ripened.
Cooking Tip: When selecting sweet peppers, choose those with shiny, even colored skins that are not blemished or bruised. Avoid peppers with shriveled skins.
Cooking Tip: Sweet peppers can be stored for at least a week if placed in a plastic bag and kept in the refrigerator. The riper the pepper is when harvested, the less time it will maintain its freshness.
Cooking Tip: Food safety experts recommend thawing foods in the refrigerator or the microwave oven, or putting the package in a water-tight plastic bag submerged in cold water and changing the water every 30 minutes. Gradual defrosting overnight in the refrigerator is best because it helps maintain quality.
Cooking Tip: Do not thaw meat, poultry and fish products on the counter or in the sink without cold water; bacteria can multiply rapidly at room temperature.
Cooking Tip: Plums should be stored at 33F degrees for 1 to 2 weeks maximum.
Cooking Tip: When baking tomatoes, whole or stuffed, use a muffin tin liberally coated with oil pan spray. The tomatoes will sit straight and hold their shape.
Cooking Tip: Broccoli rabe looks similar to thin broccoli stalks with small clusters of buds and smooth leaves with sawtooth edges. Broccoli rabe has a somewhat bitter taste and should be cooked to help mellow that taste. It is an excellent source of vitamin C and also contains beta-carotene, fiber, and phytochemicals.
Cooking Tip: When possible, grind whole spices in a grinder or mortar and pestle just prior to using. Toasting whole spices in a dry skillet over medium heat before grinding will bring out even more flavor. Be careful not to burn.
Cooking Tip: Unless the recipe specifically calls for it, don't use more than 3 herbs and spices in any one dish. The exception to this rule is Indian cooking, which often calls for 10 or more different spices in one curry dish!
Cooking Tip: Do not use dried herbs in the same quantity as fresh. In most cases, use 1/3 the amount in dried as is called for fresh.
Cooking Tip: For long-cooking dishes, add herbs and spices an hour or less before serving. Cooking spices for too long may result in overly strong flavors.
Cooking Tip: Because the refrigerator is a rather humid environment, storing herbs and spices there is not recommended. To keep larger quantities of spices fresh, store them in the freezer in tightly sealed containers.
Cooking Tip: Acorn squash is a good source of calcium. Baking is an excellent way to bring out the flavors of this squash.
Cooking Tip: Zucchini blossoms may be battered and deep fried, or cut into strips and used in omelettes or soups.
Cooking Tip: When buying zucchini, look for squash that is firm and heavy for its size. Do not wash until ready to use. Peeling is not necessary and the skin is thin and very fragile.
Cooking Tip: Grated summer squash makes a good substitute for carrots in a carrot cake.
Cooking Tip: The larger the spaghetti squash the thicker the strands and the more flavorful the taste.
Cooking Tip: Air helps mold grow on cheese. If there is a little mold on the outside of the cheese, just cut it off.
Cooking Tip: Most ripened or aged cheese is low in moisture content and can be frozen without drastic flavor and texture changes. Thaw slowly in the refrigerator for 24 hours or more.
Cooking Tip: If cheese is frozen for several months, it may dry out somewhat and become crumbly when thawed.
Cooking Tip: Bring cheese to room temperature before melting. Melt cheese over a low heat to help prevent toughening and separation of oils and liquid.
Cooking Tip: Store cheese in the refrigerator, which approximates the temperature of aging rooms. Keep it wrapped tightly in plastic, away from air.
Cooking Tip: Microwave garlic cloves for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off.
Cooking Tip: Microwave a lemon for 15 seconds and double the juice you get when squeezing.
Cooking Tip: To keep cauliflower white while cooking add a little milk to the water.
Cooking Tip: Lettuce keeps better if you store in refrigerator without washing first so that the leaves are dry. Wash the day you are going to use.
Cooking Tip: Let raw potatoes stand in cold water for at least half an hour before frying to improve the crispness of french-fried potatoes.
Cooking Tip: When you freeze bacon, there is no waiting for thawing if you arrange the strips flat, slice by slice, on waxed paper, then roll them up. Put them in a plastic bag in the freeze. To use, unroll and peel off the necessary number of slices.
Cooking Tip: Toast coconut in the microwave. Watch closely, as it browns quickly once it begins to brown. Spread 1/2 cup coconut in a pie plate and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring every 30-seconds after the first 2 minutes.
Cooking Tip: To keep celery crisp, stand it up in a pitcher of cold, salted water and refrigerate.
Cooking Tip: After stewing a chicken for diced meat for casseroles or other dishes let cool in broth before cutting into chunks. It will have twice the flavor.
Cooking Tip: Place an open box of hardened brown sugar in the microwave oven with 1 cup hot water. Microwave at high for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes for 1/2 pound of sugar or 2 to 3 minutes for 1 pound of sugar.
Cooking Tip: On food labels the word "Light" means that the food has half the fat, one-third the calories or half the salt of its regular counterpart. The FDA still allows it to be be used to describe other properties like color or texture as long as the label makes the distinction clear.
Cooking Tip: On food labels the words "fat-free" or "sugar-free" indicate that none of the substance cited (or only a negligible amount) is in the product. For instance, a calorie-free product must have fewer than five calories per serving, while fat-free and cholesterol-free foods should have less than half a gram per serving.
Cooking Tip: On food labels the word "fresh" means unprocessed, uncooked, or unfrozen (for example, fresh or freshly-squeezed orange juice). Washing and coating of fruits and vegetables are allowed. If a food has been quickly frozen, it can be described as fresh-frozen, which is commonly done with fresh fish.
Cooking Tip: On food labels the word "lean" can be used to describe the fat content of meat, poultry and seafood. To be called "lean," a serving of the product must have less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 grams or less of saturated fat, and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol. "Extra lean" has also been defined to mean less than 5 grams of fat, less than 2 grams of saturated fat and less than 95 milligrams of cholesterol.
Cooking Tip: On food labels the words "natural flavors" mean the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating, or enzymolysis, which contains a flavoring constituent derived from a spice, fruit, fruit juice, vegetable, vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf, or similar plant material; meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional. This broad definition simply means that natural flavors are extracts from these non-synthetic foods.
