Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 37
Cooking Tip: If you've forgotten which eggs you've hard cooked and which are raw, give them a spin. Hard boiled eggs will spin quickly. Raw eggs will wobble and spin slowly.
Cooking Tip: When making gravy from pan drippings, pour it into a tall, narrow jar. The grease will rise to the top for easy skimming and fat free gravy making.
Cooking Tip: Double the amount of the favorite casserole recipes you cook. Place half in a freezer container for dinner on a busy day.
Cooking Tip: Add some cold water to the bottom of the broiling pan before cooking. It will cut down on smoke and grease from the meat and make clean up easier.
Cooking Tip: Sprinkle a bit of salt in the frying pan before adding meat. It will cut down on the amount of grease splattering.
Cooking Tip: A damp paper towel or cloth brushed downward on an ear of corn will remove the silk.
Cooking Tip: To keep liquids from sticking to the measuring cups or spoons, lightly coat them first with a bit of oil or nonstick cooking spray.
Cooking Tip: To keep chocolate cakes brown, dust the pans with cocoa powder instead of flour.
Cooking Tip: If granulated sugar is lumpy, place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Cooking Tip: To test if baking powder is still effective, place 1 teaspoon in 1 cup of water. If it bubbles, it's still good.
Cooking Tip: To substitute for 1 teaspoon baking powder in a recipe, use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.
Cooking Tip: You can substitute baking powder for baking soda (but not vice versa) in some instances. You will need to add more which may affect the taste. Baking powder contains baking soda but is not an equal substitute for it.
Cooking Tip: To substitute for 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar in a recipe, use 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses plus 1 cup granulated sugar.
Cooking Tip: To substitute for each 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa in a recipe, use 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate and decrease fat called for in recipe by 1 1/2 teaspoons.
Cooking Tip: 1/2 cup fruit juice can be substituted for 1/2 cup wine in desserts. 1/2 cup chicken broth can be substituted for 1/2 cup wine in savory recipes.
Cooking Tip: Placing flour in a custard cup in the oven next to a roast will assure nice brown flour for gravy when the meat is done.
Cooking Tip: Sprinkle a little flour on potatoes before frying them and they will be extra crispy and crunchy.
Cooking Tip: For perfectly chopped eggs, place them in an egg slicer and cut through. Carefully turn the egg sideways and slice again.
Cooking Tip: Chill a can of warm soda fast by swirling the can in ice water for five minutes.
Cooking Tip: If you are only using half an avocado, leave the pit in the unused half and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap. This will retard discoloration.
Cooking Tip: Romaine lettuce is loaded with vitamins compared to iceberg. It has three times as much Vitamin C and six times as much Vitamin A.
Cooking Tip: To keep the chiles fresh for a longer time, remove the stems before storing.
Cooking Tip: When cooking with wine, leave the pan uncovered so the alcohol will burn off. The resulting liquid will have a rounder, firmer, fruitier flavor.
Cooking Tip: If a recipe calls for fresh herbs and you have only dried, use 1/3 the amount called for. If a recipe calls for dried herbs and you have only fresh, use 3 times the amount called for.
Cooking Tip: For a light, tender crust on bread, use very hot water and stir only 20 times. Stirring the dough too much will make the crust tough.
Cooking Tip: Substituting applesauce for half of the amount of vegetable oil called for in your baking recipes will reduce the fat content. Or use all applesauce, which produces a low-calorie, moist product.
Cooking Tip: To lower fat in a recipe, use 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute instead of one whole egg.
Cooking Tip: If a recipe must have fat to work, try using half the fat called for. You will have to experiment, but in the majority of recipes you can reduce the fat content to some degree.
Cooking Tip: To lower the fat, use de-fatted broth, fruit juice, wine, water, or cider to saute meats and vegetables instead of oil or butter.
Cooking Tip: Many vegetables and fruits, including potatoes and apples, retain many of their nutrients in their skin. So when possible, leave the skin on your fruits and vegetables and cook them whole.
Cooking Tip: If you are only using half an avocado, leave the pit in the unused half and refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap. This will retard discoloration.
Cooking Tip: To unsalt nuts for a recipe, drop salted nuts in a pot of boiling water for 2 minutes; drain. Dry on a baking sheet in a 200 degree F oven. Cool and use.
Cooking Tip: When working with dough, don't flour your hands. It's true the flour will keep the dough from sticking to your fingers, however, it can also add too much flour to the mixture causing overdry dough. Instead, oil your hands with olive oil. Not only will the dough keep from sticking, but your hands will get the benefit of a natural moisterizer.
Cooking Tip: To caramelize onions, combine a blend of about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter per 4 cups of thinly sliced onion. Brown the onions slowly and steadily in the melted oil/butter over medium heat for about a half hour. Toward the end, add a generous pinch of salt.
Cooking Tip: When melting chocolate chips for decorating, seal them in a zipper sandwich bag and put it in a pan of hot water. After a few minutes, knead the bag to smooth the chocolate, then cut a small hole in a corner of the bag to pipe out the chocolate. You can let the leftovers in the bag cool, then crumble for other uses.
Cooking Tip: When a recipe calls for adding oil, garlic, and onions to a pan, always add garlic last. This keeps it from burning and tasting bitter.
Cooking Tip: Most recipes calling for dried beans recommend soaking them overnight; lots of us don't have the time or inclination to think that far ahead. To speed up the process, place washed beans in a large covered bowl with water (they will absorb lots) and microwave until it comes to a full boil. Let sit in the micro for about 1 hour and you have pre-soaked beans; then cook as desired. This works on almost all beans; they are ready to be cooked in your recipe, will be soft and cooked in about one hour.
Cooking Tip: To keep marshmallows from turning hard, store them in the freezer. When thawed, they're like fresh.
Cooking Tip: When flouring a cake pan, take into consideration the flavor of the cake. If you plan to serve the cake dusted with powdered sugar, a white ring on the side of a chocolate cake takes away from the appeal. For light cakes, use white flour to flour your pans. When making a dark cake, use powdered cocoa. The cocoa works in the same manner as the flour with regard to release and it doesn't leave a white ring around the edge or on top of the cake.
Cooking Tip: To keep loaf cakes fresher longer, cut slices from the middle rather than from the end. When you're finished slicing, firmly push the two leftover sections together to reform a loaf. This way, you eliminate leaving an exposed, quick-to-dry-out end slice.
Cooking Tip: Many fresh commodities must be shipped in firm condition, such as pears, avocados and tomatoes. Better retailers are conditioning these products to just the stage of ripeness the consumer likes by the time they arrive at the point of sale.
Cooking Tip: Never cut a fruit or vegetable until it is ready to eat. Another general rule-of-thumb; never attempt to cause the ripening of a product while under refrigeration. Ripen first, then refrigerate.
Cooking Tip: Buy mature fruit. A green peach or nectarine, for example, will not ripen but merely soften some and wither. A cantaloupe picked too green will soften but will not be sweet and juicy. Some commodities do not gain sugar after harvest, because they have no reserve starch for conversion to sugar. On the other hand, bananas and pears gain sugar as well as tenderness after harvest.
Cooking Tip: Handle with care. Fresh fruits and vegetables, because of their perishability, require constant attention to keep their fresh appearance. The less you handle them when purchasing, or in the home, the longer their life. Don't pinch, squeeze or poke them, for bruising leads to damage and damage results in more spoilage.
Cooking Tip: To freeze fruit, choose firm, sound, uniformly sun ripened fruit. It is not essential to use sugar but it is often preferable. To sugar fruit, place it in a shallow tray. Just before you pack, sift the sugar over it until evenly coated. Don't let the mixture stand or the sugar will draw the fruits' juices. When packing, allow some room for expansion on freezing.
Cooking Tip: If you've forgotten which eggs you've hard cooked and which are raw, give them a spin. Hard boiled eggs will spin quickly. Raw eggs will wobble and spin slowly.
Cooking Tip: If fresh veggies are wilted or blemished, pick off brown spots and sprinkle with cold water. Wrap in a paper towel and refrigerate for about an hour.
Cooking Tip: To speed up ripening of avocados and tomatoes, place in a brown paper bag at room temperature for a few days.
Cooking Tip: If you turn the oven off after the meringue is brown, and leave the door ajar, the pie cools more slowly, preventing the meringue from cracking.
Cooking Tip: To keep chocolate cakes brown, lightly dust the pans with a layer of cocoa powder instead of flour.
Cooking Tip: Dipping bacon in cold water before cooking will cut down on it's curling up. To separate frozen bacon, heat the spatula under HOT water, bacon will separate easily.
Cooking Tip: Add some cold water to the bottom of the broiling pan before cooking. It will cut down on smoke and grease from the meat and make clean up easier.
Cooking Tip: Sprinkle a bit of salt in the frying pan before adding meat. It will cut down on the amount of grease splattering. Rub both sides of a burger with water before grilling. It will make the burger juicier.
Cooking Tip: Chill chicken for one hour after coating it. The coating will stick better when cooking. When trussing poultry, use unwaxed and unflavored dental floss. It won't burn.
Cooking Tip: Thaw fish filets in milk. The milk absorbs the frozen taste and adds a fresh caught taste. Place a layer of celery and onions under fish when baking. Besides adding flavor, it will prevent the fish from sticking.
Cooking Tip: To freeze fruit choose firm, sound, uniformly sun ripened fruit. Pears and bananas do not freeze well. It is not essential to use sugar but it is often preferable.
Cooking Tip: To sugar fruit for freezing, place it in a shallow tray. Just before you pack, sift the sugar over it until evenly coated. Don't let the mixture stand or the sugar will draw the fruits' juices. When packing, allow some room for expansion on freezing.
Cooking Tip: Apples and plums should be immersed briefly in a solution of 3 tablespoons lemon juice or 1/4 teaspoon Ascorbic acid to 1 quart water and drained to prevent browning. Blueberries should be steam blanched 30 seconds to a minute to keep skins tender.
Cooking Tip: Fragile berries and cherries should be washed in ice water to firm them. And any commercial or suspect fruit should be washed to clean them. Drain well on paper toweling. After culling, hulling and stemming they are ready for freezing with or without sugar.
Cooking Tip: Unsweetened raspberries may be frozen in a single layer on trays and packaged after freezing to keep them whole and uncrushed. This way they will weep less if thawed and used whole as garnishes.
Cooking Tip: Many vegetables and fruits, including potatoes and apples, retain many of their nutrients in their skin. When possible, leave the skin on your fruits and vegetables and cook them whole.
Cooking Tip: Substituting applesauce for half of the amount of vegetable oil called for in your baking recipes will reduce the fat content.
Cooking Tip: Get into the habit of measuring the oil you use while you cook, rather than just pouring it out of the bottle. It will be much easier to moderate the amount you use.
Cooking Tip: When sauteing, use a small amount of chicken broth or wine instead of butter or oil.
Cooking Tip: To lower the fat in eggs, use 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute instead of one whole egg.
Cooking Tip: For each 1 teaspoon baking powder called for in a recipe, use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.
Cooking Tip: You can substitute baking powder for baking soda in some instances. You will need to add more which may affect the taste. Baking powder contains baking soda but is not an equal substitute for it.
Cooking Tip: For each 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar called for in a recipe, use 1 1/2 tablespoons molasses plus 1 cup granulated sugar.
Cooking Tip: To make light brown sugar from dark brown sugar, use 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar.
Cooking Tip: To make dark brown sugar, use 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar plus 1 tablespoon molasses; or 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup molasses.
Cooking Tip: Be sure that the block of chocolate is cool and firm before grating. Grate on hand grater, cleaning the grater often so that the chocolate doesn't clog the surface of the blade.
Cooking Tip: Toast nuts on a cookie sheet in a preheated 375°F oven to a light golden color, about 6 to 8 minutes. To ensure all pieces are toasted, do not pack them too tightly on the sheet.
Cooking Tip: 1 medium orange will yield approximately 1/4 cup of juice.
Cooking Tip: 1 medium lime will yield approximately 2 tablespoons of juice.
Cooking Tip: One lemon will yield approximately 2-3 tablespoons of juice.
