Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 28
Cooking Tip: Sweet potatoes are stored in temperature and humidity controlled warehouses that extend the sweet potatoes' shelf life for the entire year. Therefore, the "season" for fresh sweet potatoes is 12 months.
Cooking Tip: Sweet potatoes should not be refrigerated unless cooked. Store between 55F and 65F degrees.
Cooking Tip: Always use a stainless steel knife when cutting a sweet potato. Using a carbon blade will cause it to darken.
Cooking Tip: When selecting fresh sweet potatoes, choose those that are smooth, plump, dry and clean.
Cooking Tip: Sweet potatoes should be peeled deep enough to remove the hard layer beneath the skin; they will turn dark on the outside when cooked if not peeled deep enough.
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. Never defrost turkey on the counter.
Cooking Tip: Once thawed, keep turkey refrigerated at 40F degrees 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 often added 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: Stuff the turkey loosely, about 3/4 cup stuffing per pound of turkey. 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 the thermometer to the center of the stuffing. Once the stuffing has reached 160F to 165F degrees, the turkey should be removed from the oven.
Cooking Tip: Potatoes exposed to bright light develop green patches. This green skin contains the toxin 'solanine' which can cause cramps, headache, diarrhea, and fever. Simply remove the green skin as the solanine is only present there and the rest of the potato is completely safe to eat.
Cooking Tip: Apples, pears, or potatoes dropped in cold, lightly salted water as they are peeled will retain their color.
Cooking Tip: Dry mealy potatoes have a high starch content and their cells separate so they make good mashed or baked potatoes.
Cooking Tip: Waxy moist potatoes have a lower starch content and higher sugar content, so are 'stickier' and are best for boiling, scalloped, and potato salad.
Cooking Tip: Yellow fleshed potatoes contain more vitamin C than white fleshed potatoes.
Cooking Tip: One pound of mushrooms yields a little more than 5 cups of sliced mushrooms, which in turn yields 2 cups sauteed.
Cooking Tip: Saute mushrooms on low to medium heat for the best flavor; saute on high heat for the best texture. Short cooking time yields a more delicate texture.
Cooking Tip: Mushrooms contain protein, B vitamins, and minerals. They're low in calories and may have antibacterial substances to help the body. Cooked fresh mushrooms offer the most nutritional benefit versus the canned version that may have more sodium.
Cooking Tip: Clean mushrooms only when you are ready to use them. Remove any bits of the debris on the surface, rinse with cold running water or gently wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth, paper towel, or soft brush.
Cooking Tip: Dried mushrooms are intensely concentrated in flavor and should be treated more like a seasoning than a vegetable. You'll need to soak the dried mushrooms in hot water for 20-30 minutes, rinse, then chop, and use. Saving the soaking water and adding it to your sauces or soups will intensify the mushroom flavor.
Cooking Tip: Flour should be stored in airtight containers in a cool, dry place. All purpose, bread and cake flour will keep for 6 months to a year at 70F degrees and 2 years at 40F degrees; store away from foods with strong odors.
Cooking Tip: Whole-wheat flour should be refrigerated or frozen, if possible. Before using refrigerated or frozen flour, allow it to warm to room temperature and inspect for rancidity and taste.
Cooking Tip: Any recipe calling for all-purpose flour may use half whole-wheat flour and half all-purpose flour.
Cooking Tip: If wanting a product to be 100% whole wheat, substitute 1-cup whole-wheat flour minus 1-tablespoon for every cup of all-purpose or bread flour the recipe calls for.
Cooking Tip: To create a lighter whole-wheat loaf, add 1-tablespoon gluten flour and 1-tablespoon liquid for each cup of whole-wheat flour.
Cooking Tip: If bananas ripen before they are picked, they lose their taste and texture.
Cooking Tip: Best storage for ripe bananas is 65F degrees with 80 percent humidity and very good air circulation. They should keep for a week or so like that.
Cooking Tip: Do not keep green bananas below 59F degrees. The skin will turn a dark brownish color and they will develop an off taste.
Cooking Tip: Unlike most other fruits, bananas develop their best eating quality after they are harvested. This allows bananas to be shipped great distances.
Cooking Tip: The state of ripeness of a banana is indicated by skin color. Best eating quality has been reached when the solid yellow color is specked with brown. At this stage, the flesh is mellow and the flavor is fully developed.
Cooking Tip: Orange juice can be poured over fresh fruits to prevent browning.
Cooking Tip: One pound of oranges yields almost 1 cup of juice.
Cooking Tip: Store oranges at 35F degrees at high humidity (85 percent or greater) and they will keep almost 2 months.
Cooking Tip: Oranges do not ripen after they are picked, but lemons do.
Cooking Tip: California oranges have a relatively thick skin compared to Florida oranges. This thicker skin helps protect them from the dry climate in the West.
Cooking Tip: Grapes do not continue to ripen after they have been picked.
Cooking Tip: The easiest and best way to pick the freshest grapes in your local market is to hold a bunch by the stem. Shake gently. If grapes drop off the stem, they have been in storage for too long. If the grapes are firmly attached and are plump and bright, they are fresh.
Cooking Tip: Store grapes in the coldest part of the refrigerator in a plastic bag. Wash them well before serving, but NOT before putting them in the refrigerator.
Cooking Tip: Most table grapes available in US food stores are of the European type, grown principally in California and Arizona. Only small quantities of Eastern-grown American-type grapes are sold for table use.
Cooking Tip: American-type grapes have softer flesh and are juicier than European types. The outstanding variety for flavor is the Concord, which is blue-black when fully matured. Delaware and Catawba are also popular.
Cooking Tip: Cocoa butter is one of the ingredients used to make real chocolate, it is gives chocolate the ability to remain solid at room temperature, yet melt easily in the mouth.
Cooking Tip: Cocoa butter is one of the most stable fats known, containing natural antioxidants that prevent rancidity and give it a storage life of 2 to 5 years. It is used for its smooth texture in foods (including chocolate) and in cosmetics and soaps.
Cooking Tip: White chocolate originates from the cacao plant, but it is not chocolate. According to the FDA, to be called chocolate a product must contain chocolate liquor, which is what gives it the bitter intense chocolate flavor to dark and milk chocolates.
Cooking Tip: Adding any liquid to melted chocolate will cause it to seize up. Sometimes even steam or a wet spoon can cause the chocolate to seize up and harden. When chocolate seizes up, adding butter or vegetable oil 1 teaspoon at a time will usually save it.
Cooking Tip: If dark chocolate is stored at 60F to 70F degrees at low humidity, it can be kept for years. If too warm, you may notice a gray surface covering on stored chocolate. This is called bloom and is simply some of the cocoa butter rising to the surface. If too humid, there may be some tiny sugar crystals on the surface, and this changes the flavor and texture very slightly.
Cooking Tip: Add a tablespoon of oil to the water when cooking rice so the grains stay separate and don't stick together.
Cooking Tip: To keep rice (especially brown rice) fresh longer, store it in the refrigerator. Brown rice should be stored at 55F degrees. or lower.
Cooking Tip: Never stir rice while it cooks because it will crush the rice grains, releasing starch, and make the rice gummy.
Cooking Tip: Most foods take 3-4 hours to digest, bur white rice has such a low fiber content it only takes 1 hour to digest.
Cooking Tip: Rice cookers are easy to use and keep rice warm until you are ready to eat. There are several reliable brands available, both automatic and non-automatic. Care should be taken to follow individual manufacturers' directions.
Cooking Tip: Ground beef must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit (71 degrees Celsius). Using a digital or dial food thermometer is crucial because research results indicate that some ground meat may prematurely brown before a safe internal temperature has been reached. Research findings also show that some ground meat patties cooked to 160F or above may remain pink inside for a number of reasons; thus the color of meat alone is not considered a reliable indicator of ground beef safety.
Cooking Tip: Seafood should be thoroughly cooked to an internal temperature of at least 145F (63C). Fish that is ground or flaked, such as a fish cake, should be cooked to at least 155F (68C), and stuffed fish to at least 165F (74C).
Cooking Tip: If you don't have a meat thermometer, there are other ways to determine whether seafood is done. For fish, slip the point of a sharp knife into the flesh and pull aside. The edges should be opaque and the center slightly translucent with flakes beginning to separate. Let the fish stand three to four minutes to finish cooking.
Cooking Tip: If you don't have a meat thermometer, there are other ways to determine whether seafood is done. For shrimp, lobster and scallops, check color. Shrimp and lobster turn red and the flesh becomes pearly opaque. Scallops turn milky white or opaque and firm. For clams, mussels and oysters, watch for the point at which their shells open. Boil three to five minutes longer. Throw out those that stay closed.
Cooking Tip: When cooking seafood in the microwave, rotate the dish several times to ensure even cooking. Follow recommended standing times. After the standing time is completed, check the seafood in several spots with a meat thermometer to be sure the product has reached the proper temperature.
