It is a no-brainer. We need to eat to live. Why limit yourself to subsistence-grade gold leaf food? It is better to cook something great than to eat something wonderful. Consider these tips, and watch your cooking know-how jump to a new level of expertise.
Ensure that you are getting the most out of your chef’s knife by holding it properly during use. The thumb and the index finger should be on either side of the blade, at the point where it meets the handle. This will give the ultimate control when slicing through ingredients.
Do not be afraid to experiment. There is no rule that says you need to follow a recipe exactly. If you do not care for an ingredient, leave it out. If you think a different ingredient would taste better, substitute it. If you think the dish is missing a little something, add it.
Frozen vegetables should only be used as a last resort in home cooking. Though they are cheap and usually available year-round, they fall far short of fresh vegetables in several important areas. Frozen vegetables have lost some of their healthy vitamins and nutrients. They often have unhealthy food additives. They also tend to taste worse than their fresh counterparts.
When cooking steak, make sure the pan you are using is really hot so that it sears the outside of the meat and keeps all of the juices inside. This will make your steak taste great, and it won’t be dried out since all of the flavors are still sealed inside of the meat.
When cooking, make sure that you never put anything metal in the microwave, as it will cause sparks given the electromagnetic energy. Always make sure that the items you are microwaving are safe to put in there. This will help to increase your level of safety when you are in the kitchen.
Using smaller amounts of cooking oils will help you lose weight and make your diet healthier. Butter and oils have fat that you do not need! As an alternative, try using the non-stick cooking spray as it works the same while containing fewer unhealthy ingredients and fats.
When you are cooking a hamburger patty, use a fork or other utensil to poke a hole in the middle of it. This way, the hamburgers will cook faster. Do not worry; once the hamburger is cooked, it will still have its great taste, and the holes do eventually disappear.
Pour off the grease from your browned hamburger before you add the rest of the ingredients. Your health will thank you for this small step, and the meal extremities trauma devices is likely to taste much better without the unneeded fat. Keep an empty can or another container on your stove top expressly for that purpose.
When using a chopping board, make sure to always sanitize it before going on to a different ingredient. Making this a habit will prevent cross-contamination of bacteria. It is also useful for keeping your flavors from being muddied by being chopped with other ingredients’ residue. A clean chopping board is a safe and useful chopping board.
When cutting corn kernels on the cob, try this tip: Use the side of the knife that is not sharp to scrape the cob. This will extract the excess sweet juices from the cob, which can be applied to your corn dish, and add a hidden burst of flavor to it, creating a new taste to the dish.
Use your hands to cook the perfect steak. Pressing the fleshy pad at the base of the thumb when your hand is making an OK sign will give the same resistance as steak will during cooking. Start with the index finger OK sign, and the thumb base will resist at a “rare” temperature. Moving towards the pinky, you will register medium-rare with the middle, medium with the ring finger, and well-done with the pinky. Look for the resistance in your steak to match the resistance when pressing your hand.
A great grilling tip to improve flavor and consistency is to try to cut similar foods into the same size pieces. This ensures that foods stay moist and grill evenly. A nice side benefit is that it also makes your workload a little easier. By cutting out the hassle of constantly monitoring foods for doneness, you have the peace of mind of knowing your foods will all be ready right about the same time.
During cooking, if the consistency of a sauce or gravy is too thin for your liking, try adding some corn starch to it in order to thicken it to your taste. Avoid using flour, as it can make the sauce taste “chalky.” Corn starch is an excellent thickening agent and blends very well with the sauce or gravy.
Adjust your baking time for smaller items. For example, if you are making mini cookies, crank the oven up to 500 degrees, and bake the cookies for only 4 or 5 minutes at the most. The end result is perfectly cooked, delicious cookies that will fly out of your cookie jar!
If you are using raw onions in a salsa that will not be eaten in less than 20 minutes, then be sure to rinse the onions with cold water followed by thorough dry blotting. Onions that are fresh have sulfurous gas. It can affect the taste of your homemade salsa. Once the onions are rinsed and dried, the gas is gone.
When cooking with thick and sticky ingredients like molasses or honey, make it easier with non-stick cooking spray. Simply spray the inside of a measuring cup before adding the viscous liquid. When pouring, it will slip out completely and cleanly, with no need to scrap the inside of the cup.
Learning to cook and be as funner than eating. Try out a few of the tips provided here, and you’ll be on your way to enjoying your cooking experience even more. You will become such a good cook that everyone will be requesting your meals and desserts.
Cooking Tips That Anyone Can Use
