Cooking Hints & Tips Archive 46
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: To slice meat into thin strips, as for Chinese dishes, partially freeze and it will slice easily.
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: Cake will be less like to stick to the pan if you put it on a wet towel to cool as soon as you take it from the oven.
Cooking Tip: Sprinkle a little flour on potatoes before frying them and they will be extra crispy and crunchy.
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: No dry bread crumbs? Just get some bread, tear it up into small chunks, saute in a skillet with a little butter until browned.
Cooking Tip: To hull strawberries, use a sturdy plastic straw. Push it up through the bottom of the strawberry and through the top. It does a great job quickly and neatly. The berries look excellent if you want to leave them whole.
Cooking Tip: For a different flavor and less fat, use chicken stock instead of butter or milk when whipping up mashed potatoes.
Cooking Tip: When cooking any kind of strawberry dessert, add a splash of aged Balsamic vinegar to the recipe to enhance the flavor of the strawberries.
Cooking Tip: Two drops of yellow food coloring added to boiling noodles will make them look homemade.
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: Sausage patties rolled in flour before frying won't crack open during cooking.
Cooking Tip: When separating eggs, break them into a funnel. The whites will go through leaving the yolk intact in the funnel.
Cooking Tip: When tossing a salad with a basic vinaigrette, always make the vinaigrette at least 1/2 hour ahead of time and let the mixture sit to allow the flavors to marry. Pour the vinaigrette down the side of the bowl, not directly on the greens, for a more evenly dressed salad.
Cooking Tip: For the perfect boiled egg, cover eggs with cold water and a pinch of salt. Bring the water to a full boil. Remove the pan from the heat and cover. Let the eggs sit for 8-9 minutes. Drain the water and place the eggs in ice water to cool to stop the cooking process.
Cooking Tip: When braising meat, cook it at a low temperature for a long time to keep the meat tender and have it retain all the juices.
Cooking Tip: To prevent cream whipped ahead of time from separating, add one quarter teaspoon of gelatin to each cup of cream during whipping.
Cooking Tip: A jar lid or a couple of marbles in the bottom half of a double-boiler will rattle when the water gets low and warn you to add more before the pan scorches or burns.
Cooking Tip: Use a gentle touch when shaping ground beef patties. Over handling will result in a firm, compact texture after cooking. Don't press or flatten with spatula during cooking.
Cooking Tip: When slicing a hard boiled egg, try wetting the knife just before cutting. If that doesn't do the trick, try applying a bit of cooking spray to the edge.
Cooking Tip: It's important to let a roast beef, pork, lamb or poultry, sit a little while before carving. That allows the juices to retreat back into the meat. If you carve a roast too soon, much of its goodness will spill out onto the carving board.
Cooking Tip: Create your own colored sugar by placing granulated sugar in a plastic bag. Add a few drops of your favorite food coloring and shake to blend. Pour out into a plate and let dry, then use.
Cooking Tip: When baking and you need to cut in the butter, an easy way is to keep the sticks of butter in the freezer. When needed, use a cheese grater to grate the butter into fine pieces.
Cooking Tip: When making potato salad, add the dressing to warm potatoes for the best flavor. Once cooled, the potatoes will not absorb the dressing as well.
Cooking Tip: For extra smooth, well-mixed oil and vinegar salad dressing, combine all ingredients in a screw top jar, add an ice cube and shake then, discard what's left of the ice cube.
Cooking Tip: If you put onions in the freezer 15 minutes before you chop them, you'll reduce the spray of vaporized onion oils, which means your eyes won't tear when you cut the onions.
Cooking Tip: To easily peel fresh ginger, use a tablespoon to scrape down the length of the ginger, removing the skin.
Cooking Tip: To keep fresh parsley fresh, store it dry in a jar, with the stems facing downward, in the refrigerator. Pour off any liquid that accumulates in the jar and it should last for a few weeks.
Cooking Tip: To quickly and easily proof yeast, dissolve the yeast in a large glass measuring cup, using the recipe's measurements for the amount of warm liquid. Place the measuring cup inside a large bowl that's filled with hot water. The heat is transferred to the measuring cup and quickly proofs the yeast.
Cooking Tip: To make perfect meringue, beat the whites until they form soft peaks, then sprinkle sugar on top of the whites. Let the egg whites and sugar sit for 5 minutes without stirring, then beat the eggs again until stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the pie and bake according to recipe.
Cooking Tip: When grating cheese, spray the grater with nonstick cooking spray before beginning. The cheese will not stick to it and clean up will be much easier.
Cooking Tip: Buying olive oil in small sizes is a practical way to buy it. Olive oil purchased in bulk should always be poured into smaller containers, preferably in a can or a dark-colored bottle.
Cooking Tip: Don't pay much attention to the color of an olive oil. Good olive oils will come in all shades, from vivid green to gold to pale straw. Official tasters actually use colored glasses to avoid prejudicing themselves in favor of greener oils.
Cooking Tip: Unlike many wines, which improve with age, extra virgin olive oil is perishable and does not improve with age. Olive oil's flavor and aroma begin to deteriorate within a few months of milling.
Cooking Tip: Air, heat, and light will cause olive oil to turn rancid. Since prolonged contact with oxygen is the rot cause of oxidation, rancidity is a common defect, so it should be stored in a cool place in an airtight container.
Cooking Tip: The ideal temperature for storing olive oil is 57??F or 14 degrees C, although a normal room temperature of 70°F works very well if the olive oil is stored in a dark area where the temperature remains fairly constant. A kitchen cabinet located away from the stove and away from direct sunlight will work quite well.
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: Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon baking powder to a frying batter for an especially delicate crust.
Cooking Tip: Beaten egg whites will have more body if you whip in a little sugar toward the end of beating - when whites stand in soft peaks. Add sugar a little at a time, whipping as you go.
Cooking Tip: To clarify a quart of stock, beat 2 teaspoons water with 1 egg white, then add the eggshell (crushed in small pieces) and stir into the stock. Boil 1 or 2 minutes, then strain through a square of fine cloth draped over a large strainer.
Cooking Tip: Mushrooms freeze well. Wash quickly, dry, then put them, sliced or un-sliced, in a plastic bag and freeze. Use them without defrosting. In any cooked dish, they will taste exactly like fresh mushrooms.
Cooking Tip: For crispy fish skin, rest the fish on paper towels skin-side down for a few minutes before cooking (the towels absorb moisture). Then saute skin-side down over medium heat in oil and butter. Flip over for the last few minutes of cooking.
Cooking Tip: Caramelize onions very quickly by cooking them in a dry nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat. They will caramelize beautifully in a lot less time than with traditional methods.
Cooking Tip: When making caramel, use a nonstick pot. That way, when you pour the mixture out, there is no waste, and cleaning the pot is a breeze.
Cooking Tip: Don't be afraid to ask the butcher or fishmonger to see the products up close and to smell for freshness. Fish should never smell fishy.
Cooking Tip: When baking cookies, be sure your dough is thoroughly chilled when it goes on your baking pan. This will allow the leavening ingredients to work before the butter flattens out and your cookies lose their textural distinctions.
