Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 38
Cooking Tip: When you return from the grocery with raw turkey, place it in the original wrapper in the refrigerator; a hard-chilled turkey should not be placed in the freezer. If the turkey is frozen and the thawing process does not need to begin, store in the freezer.
Cooking Tip: Care must be taken to properly store leftover cooked turkey. The leftover turkey should be carved from the bone and the stuffing removed. All leftovers should be stored in shallow containers and refrigerated or frozen within two hours of cooking.
Cooking Tip: Cooked, sliced turkey should reach 40 degrees F within two hours or less. When reheating, be sure the turkey reaches a temperature of 165 degrees F. Turkey gravy should be used within 1 to 2 days, be sure to bring the gravy to a boil before serving.
Cooking Tip: Whether purchasing a fresh or frozen turkey, consumers can be confident they are buying a quality product. The decision of which to purchase is based on personal preference in price and convenience.
Cooking Tip: Oven-ready fresh and frozen turkeys are tucked into snug, air and water resistant plastic wraps immediately following processing. Air is removed as bags are sealed and shrunk so they fit the turkey almost as tightly as its own skin.
Cooking Tip: Bouquet garni are little bundles of herbs and spices tied together with twine or wrapped in cheesecloth. These packets are added to soups, stocks, sauces, braises, or any other dish with a lot of liquid and a long simmer.
Cooking Tip: Parsley, thyme, and bay leaf are the standard trio for bouquet garni. Use four or five parsley stems, a sprig or two of thyme, and a bay leaf.
Cooking Tip: Other aromatics can give your dish a more complex flavor. A few whole cloves add a touch of warmth and sweetness; a strip of citrus zest enhances meat-based stews and braises; a sprig of rosemary, sage, or savory sets a Mediterranean tone; and a garlic clove is a welcome addition to almost any selection of herbs.
Cooking Tip: You can tie a bouquet garni with twine, but if you're using small spices like peppercorns or cloves, or if you're worried about thyme leaves getting into a clear soup, you should bind everything in a more secure wrapping.
Cooking Tip: Some cooks leave a few inches of twine on the bouquet garni and tie the end to the pot handle so it's easier to retrieve.
Cooking Tip: The shallot flavor is a pungent blend of onion and garlic. Their color can vary from pale brown to rose, and the flesh is off-white and barely tinged with green or purple.
Cooking Tip: Shallots burn easily because of their high sugar content. For this reason, saute briefly over low to medium heat.
Cooking Tip: When using raw minced shallots in salad dressings, lessen their pungency by reducing the juice; wrap the minced shallots in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze the shallots so the cloth absorbs some of their juices, then add the shallots to the recipe as directed.
Cooking Tip: Shallots will keep for approximately six months if stored in a cool, dry location.
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: Thaw fish filets in milk. The milk absorbs the frozen taste and adds a fresh caught taste.
Cooking Tip: Place a layer of celery and onions under fish when baking. Besides adding flavor, it will prevent the fish from sticking.
Cooking Tip: Chill chicken for 1 hour after coating it. The coating will stick better when cooking.
Cooking Tip: When trussing poultry, use unwaxed and unflavored dental floss. It won't burn.
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: The oil must reach a good temperature to brown the exterior of the food quickly while deep frying it. That temperature is almost always between 350°F and 375°F degrees. To be sure the oil is right use a frying thermometer.
Cooking Tip: Use canola oil for frying. It is low in saturated fat, has a high burning point, and does not detract from the flavor of the food you are frying.
Cooking Tip: Avoid crowding food that is deep-fat-fried. The food must be surrounded by bubbling oil, and you must keep the temperature from falling too much. If you add too much food to a small amount of oil, the temperature will plummet, and the food will wind up greasy and soggy.
Cooking Tip: Never fill the pot more than halfway with oil; this will prevent bubbling over when the food is added.
Cooking Tip: Dry food well with paper towels before adding to the pot; it helps reduce splattering.
Cooking Tip: Ancho powder is ground poblano peppers and is a chile powder. Ancho Chili is a dark smoky chili with a deep rich flavor and mild to medium heat. This pepper is the most commonly used in authentic Mexican cooking and is a staple in red chili and tamales.
Cooking Tip: The almond is not only a delicious and versatile nut, but also one of the most nutritious. High in fiber and protein, one ounce of almonds contain 12% of our daily protein needs. Low in saturated fat, no cholesterol almonds comprise other protective nutrients including phosphorus, zinc, calcium, and magnesium.
Cooking Tip: For strong bones, almonds contain vitamin E, folic acid, and compounds call rhizveritrol (an inflammatory and phytochemicals), a possible protector against cardiovascular disease.
Cooking Tip: A hot dog is a cooked sausage that consists of a combination of beef and pork or all beef, which is cured, smoked, and cooked. Seasonings may include coriander, garlic, ground mustard, nutmeg, salt, sugar, and white pepper. They are fully cooked but are usually served hot. Sizes range from big dinner frankfurters to tiny cocktail size.
Cooking Tip: Hot dogs are among America's favorite foods. Every year, Americans consume on average 60 hot dogs! Hot dogs are primarily regarded as a fun, summertime food, and most are eaten between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Cooking Tip: Store spices in a cool, dark place. Humidity, light and heat will cause herbs and spices to lose their flavor more quickly. Although the most convenient place for your spice rack may be above your stove, moving your spices to a different location may keep them fresh longer.
Cooking Tip: As a general rule, herbs and ground spices will retain their best flavors for a year. Whole spices may last for 3 to 5 years. Proper storage should result in longer freshness times.
Cooking Tip: When possible, grind whole spices in a grinder or mortar & 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: 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: Use a light hand when seasoning with spices and herbs. Your goal is to compliment your dish without crowding out the flavor of the food.
Cooking Tip: Use a gentle touch when shaping ground beef patties. Overhandling will result in a firm, compact texture after cooking.
Cooking Tip: Make sure a beef package is cold and has no holes or tears. Excessive liquid in a package may indicate improper storage or beef that is past its optimum shelf life.
Cooking Tip: Choose beef with a bright cherry-red color, without any grayish or brown blotches. The exception is vacuum-packaged beef, which, due to a lack of oxygen, has a darker purplish-red color.
Cooking Tip: Store cheese in your refrigerator, which approximates the temperature of our aging rooms. Keep it wrapped tightly in plastic, away from air.
Cooking Tip: Air helps mold grow on cheese. If you get a little mold on the outside, just cut it off.
Cooking Tip: Cool leftovers as quickly as possible. Reheat to 165°F before serving again.
Cooking Tip: Wash ALL fresh produce thoroughly. When preparing lettuce, break into pieces then wash.
Cooking Tip: It's a good idea to use a separate cooler for drinks, so the one containing perishable food won't be constantly opened and closed.
Cooking Tip: When preparing dishes like chicken or cooked meat salads, use chilled ingredients. Make sure your cooked chicken has been cooked and chilled before it gets mixed with other salad ingredients.
Cooking Tip: When taking foods off the grill, put them on a clean plate, not the same platter that held raw meat.
Cooking Tip: Microwave garlic cloves for 15 seconds and the skins slip right off.
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: Buy mushrooms before they "open." When stems and caps are attached snugly, mushrooms are truly fresh.
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: A roast with the bone in will cook faster than a boneless roast as the bone carries the heat to the inside of the roast quicker.
Cooking Tip: Mushrooms freeze well. Wash quickly, dry, then put them, sliced or unsliced, in a plastic bag and freeze. Use them without defrosting. In any cooked dish, they will taste exactly like fresh mushrooms.
Cooking Tip: Whirl almost any kind of leftover soup (minus bones) in blender to get a sauce or gravy for vegetables or meat.
Cooking Tip: Be sure to measure your ingredients carefully. Use metal or plastic nested cups for dry ingredients like flour and sugar, and graduated glass or plastic cups with spouts for liquids.
Cooking Tip: For the best flavor and texture, be sure to use the exact type of fat - butter, margarine or vegetable shortening - called for in each recipe.
Cooking Tip: After you have used a stick of margarine or butter, save the wrappers and put in a ziplock bag in the freezer. The next time one of your recipes call for greasing a baking pan pull out one of the wrappers and use it for that purpose.
Cooking Tip: Brownies are cooked when the edges look hard, the top has cracked slightly, and the surface has a glassy appearance.
Cooking Tip: As they cool, brownies shrink from the side of the pan and set. Don't cut until they've reached room temperature.
Cooking Tip: Substitute 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa and 1/4 cup shortening for 4 ounces of chocolate.
Cooking Tip: Store cheese in your refrigerator, which approximates the temperature of our aging rooms. Keep it wrapped tightly in plastic, away from air.
Cooking Tip: Air helps mold grow on cheese. If you get a little mold on the outside, just cut it off.
Cooking Tip: Young beef with the most marbling is given the Prime or highest quality grade. Prime is usually sold to restaurants, but may be available in some specialty markets. Choice is the most widely available grade in the retail market. Select has the least amount of marbling, but may not be as tender, juicy or flavorful as Prime or Choice.
Cooking Tip: Beef tenderloin steak is also called filet or filet mignon. These extremely tender, boneless steaks are cut from the whole tenderloin.
Cooking Tip: Round tip steaks, also called minute, breakfast, or sandwich steaks, cook very quickly; take care not to overcook or they will be dry.
Cooking Tip: A Porterhouse steak differs from a T-Bone in that the Porterhouse tenderloin diameter is no less than 1 1/4 inches measured across the center compared to the T-Bone tenderloin, which is not less than 1/2 inch.
Cooking Tip: Delmonico is a fancy name for ribeye. You'll find the word Delmonico more commonly in the Northeast (the original Delmonico's Restaurant was in NYC); rib eye is the label of choice in the Southeast.
Cooking Tip: To remove baked on food from your baking dishes, scrape off loose bits of food. Put a couple of tablespoons of dishwasher detergent in the dish and add hot water. Stir the solution. By morning, the baked on food will have lifted right off the surface of the dish.
Cooking Tip: To remove cooked on cheese, scrape off loose bits of food with a spatula or wipe them off with a paper towel. Then, blast the cheese with blazingly hot water while scraping with a brush or spatula.
Cooking Tip: To remove cooked on rice, pasta or other starchy food, remove all the nicely cooked rice to a serving dish before the scorched food imparts a nasty flavor. Then, soak the pan in cold water.
Cooking Tip: To tell if an egg is fresh, lower uncooked eggs into a bowl of water. If the egg settles horizontally, the egg is fresh enough for human consumption.
Cooking Tip: Espresso/Cappuccino Machine Owners: You may know the trick of blowing a shot of steam into a towel and wiping down the steamer with the cloth to keep it clean. This doesn't work well if the milk has caked on. Soak the steam wand in a tall glass of cold water to soften the hardened milk, then wipe with a towel to remove it.
