Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 30
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: When defrosting in the microwave, follow package directions. Leave about 2 inches (about 5 centimeters) between the food and the inside surface of the microwave to allow heat to circulate. Smaller items will defrost more evenly than larger pieces of food. Foods defrosted in the microwave oven should be cooked immediately after thawing.
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: Maintain proper freezer temperature - no higher than 0°F. Use a refrigerator/freezer thermometer to verify setting.
Cooking Tip: Rotate and clearly date your frozen foods - first in, first out. Arrange the contents of your freezer in an orderly way. Store baked goods in one section, meat and fish in another, etc.
Cooking Tip: When making french fries, don't overfill the fry basket. This lowers the oil temperature quickly, and will produce limp fries and they will tend to stick together.
Cooking Tip: Cook french fries at the recommended temperature for the recommended time. It will make all the difference!
Cooking Tip: Old oil, dirty oil or oil that is too hot will produce french fries that will not be an appetizing golden brown.
Cooking Tip: Limp french fries also result from too low a temperature, undercooking, and salting too soon. Wait a minute or so after they are cooked before salting them.
Cooking Tip: Buy frozen french fries from a store with an orderly, well-managed frozen food section.
Cooking Tip: In general, berries should be dry, firm, well shaped, and eaten within a week after purchase.
Cooking Tip: Stay away from containers of berries with juice stains, which may be a sign that the berries are crushed and possibly moldy.
Cooking Tip: After purchasing berries, check the fruit and toss out any moldy or deformed berries. Immediately eat the overripe berries within 24 hours. Return the other berries back to the original container or they should be arranged unwashed in a shallow pan lined with paper towels, and washed just prior to use. The berries may be topped with a paper towel to absorb any additional moisture. Plastic wrap the entire container. This will ensure the fruit retains its freshness, but generally berries should be eaten within one week.
Cooking Tip: Because berries have a short shelf life, an alternative to enjoy them year round is to buy them fresh and freeze them yourself. The secret to successful freezing is to use unwashed and completely dry berries before placing them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in the freezer. Once the berries are frozen, transfer them to plastic bags or freezer containers. Frozen berries should last approximately ten months to one year.
Cooking Tip: When you're ready to use berries, go through the lot once more to sort out any undesirable fruit. Then, rinse, drain, and pat dry the fruit. Commercially frozen berries do not need to be cleaned or thawed. If you froze your own berries, a quick rinse may be necessary.
Cooking Tip: Slow cooking is a cooking method that uses a counter top appliance referred to as a slow cooker. Slow cookers are often referred to as Crock-Pots, which is actually a brand name for a type of slow cooker.
Cooking Tip: A slow cooker generally consists of a stoneware liner that holds the food, a heating unit that holds the liner, and a cover. The unit typically heats to between 200F degrees (on low setting) to 300F degrees (on high setting), with the food often not reaching more than 212F degrees.
Cooking Tip: Food is placed in a slow cooker, covered and then cooked at a low temperature for anywhere from 4 to 12 hours, depending on the type and quantity of food being cooked. The slow cooker maintains a consistent temperature through out the cooking time. This slow cooking process produces a moist, flavorful food.There are many easy slow cooker recipes available. Slower cooking meat recipes, slow cooking soup and stew recipes, and slow cooking whole meal recipes are common recipes used for the slow cooking process.
Cooking Tip: Because of the low temperatures, longer cooking times can be used without burning the food being cooked. Food can be placed in the slow cooker before you leave for the day and it will be ready when you get home. Because of the low cooking temperatures, it is safe to leave the slow cooker unattended and if the food cooks longer than required, it generally does not overcook because of the low temperatures being used.
Cooking Tip: Slow cookers are great for cooking tougher, less expensive cuts of meat and sturdy vegetables. The cover is left on through out the cooking time when using slow cooker recipes, which causes moisture to form and fall back on the food, keeping it moist. The collagens in the connective tissues of the tougher cuts melt and help tenderize the meat.
Cooking Tip: Fresh horseradish should be stored at 35F degrees. The bite and aroma of the horseradish root are almost absent until it is grated or ground. During this process volatile oils are released. Vinegar stops this reaction and stabilizes the flavor.
Cooking Tip: To relish the full flavor of processed horseradish, it must be fresh and of high quality. Color varies from white to creamy beige. As processed horseradish ages, it browns and loses potency.
Cooking Tip: Varieties of prepared horseradish include Cream Style Prepared Horseradish, Horseradish Sauce, Beet Horseradish and Dehydrated Horseradish. Distinguishing characteristics may be ingredients or texture. The true horseradish enthusiast has several favorites, depending on the end use.
Cooking Tip: Cocktail sauce with prepared horseradish has many uses beyond its usual role, as a flavorful accompaniment for seafood.
Cooking Tip: Mustard with prepared horseradish adds a rich and spicy zing to cold cuts or hot entrees.
Cooking Tip: Pineapples, like melons, do not have any starch reserves, so they do not get sweeter after they are picked. They must be harvested after they begin to ripen. The sweetest part of the pineapple is at the base.
Cooking Tip: Pineapples should be ripened at room temperature. Ripe pineapples can be stored at 40F degrees for several weeks.
Cooking Tip: Select pineapples with a nice fragrant smell. If possible choose pineapples that have been jet shipped from Hawaii or Central America because they will be the freshest.
Cooking Tip: Avoid pineapples with sour or fermented odors. It is really ripe if you can easily pull one of the leaves out of the top.
Cooking Tip: Store pineapple at room temperature for 1 or 2 days before serving to allow the pineapple to become softer and sweeter. Store in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days or cut pineapple into chunks and store for up to 7 days. Cut up pineapple also freezes well.
Cooking Tip: To ripen green bananas quickly, keep them at 70F degrees, with very high humidity and no air circulation for 2 or 3 days.
Cooking Tip: The best way to store ripe bananas is at 65F degrees with high humidity and very good air circulation. They should keep for about a week like that.
Cooking Tip: Do not keep green bananas much below 59F degrees. The skin will turn a dark brownish color and they will develop an off taste.
Cooking Tip: The best eating quality of a banana 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: Avoid bruising (indicating rapid deterioration and waste), discolored skins (a sign of decay), or a dull, grayish, aged appearance (showing that the bananas have been exposed to cold and will not ripen properly) when choosing bananas.
Cooking Tip: Spinach should be stored at 35F degrees, use as quickly as possible, will keep several days.
Cooking Tip: In addition to being tasty, spinach's popularity stems from its high nutritional value. Not only is spinach low in calories, it is also a good source of iron and essential nutrients such as vitamins A and C, minerals, and fiber. Spinach also contains 3 grams of protein per serving.
Cooking Tip: Iron and calcium in plant foods are not highly absorbed by the body. Spinach contains a chemical called oxalic acid, which binds with iron and calcium and reduces the absorption of these minerals. To improve iron absorption, spinach should be eaten with vitamin C-rich foods such as orange juice, tomatoes, or citrus fruit.
Cooking Tip: Fresh spinach should be dried and packed loosely in a cellophane or plastic bag and stored in the refrigerator crisper. If stored properly, it should last 3 or 4 days.
Cooking Tip: Spinach grows in sandy soil, so wash it thoroughly to get rid of the grainy, sandy particles. Make sure to tear off the stem. Separate the leaves, and place them in a large bowl of water. Gently wash leaves, and let the sand drift to the bottom of the bowl. Remove leaves from the water, and repeat the process with fresh water until the leaves are clean.
Cooking Tip: Store nuts in air tight containers in a cool place away from light to prevent them from becoming rancid.
Cooking Tip: Nuts in the shell store the best, nuts with skins are next, then whole nuts and finally sliced or chopped nuts. Due to their generally high oil content, nuts can turn rancid, so be sure to store in a cool, dry place. Shelled nuts will keep that way for several months, longer in the refrigerator, and up to a year in the freezer.
Cooking Tip: Toasting nuts and seeds brings out their flavor and aroma.
Cooking Tip: Toast nuts in a 350F degree oven, spread on a baking sheet in a single layer, for about 3 to 5 minutes. Watch carefully because as soon as they start to color they toast very quickly. Remove them from the baking sheet as soon as you take them out of the oven, otherwise they will continue brown.
Cooking Tip: The difference in fat content between dry-roasted nuts and oil-roasted nuts is really very small. Oil roasted nuts are roasted so fast that they absorb very little of the oil, and then the excess oil is drained off.
