Cooking might be something you do in order to prepare your food for your daily meals, but the truth is that cooking is much more than that. Cooking is a way to show creativity, scientific knowledge, and people skills all at once. Enhancing your cooking skills means enhancing your life. Try these tips, and make your meals, and life, that much better.
Try plunging your veggies in a container of ice water right after you blanch them so that they do not become pale and unattractive. The ice water will allow them to settle without losing their appetizing, bright colors. This is especially important when serving food at functions where pleasing aesthetics at the table are a primary goal.
Feel free to play around. Recipes should be a guideline; you can do whatever you want. Don't like a certain ingredient? Try using a different one. But remember, some ingredients are integral to certain recipes, and you will figure out which ones you can't ever omit by experimenting over time.
Take the guesswork out of reducing liquids. When a recipe calls for you to cook until the liquid is reduced by a certain amount, dip the handle of a wooden spoon into the liquid to mark the depth. This will leave a line on the wooden spoon. Later, you can dip the spoon again to see how much the liquid has actually reduced.
When you are cooking pasta the best way to do so is to rely on using at least one gallon of water for every pound of pasta. If you do not use enough water and a pot that is big enough the pasta will surely stick and become starchy when cooking.
If you are cooking for someone special, do not try a recipe that you have never tried before. Because you are trying to impress this person, you want to make sure you make a satisfying meal. Try something you are very familiar with, and make sure you have all the ingredients you need to make it.
Timing is everything when cooking several courses. Anything that has to be baked for a long period of time should go in the oven first. If you have to have a pot of boiling water to whip up some instant potatoes put it on next. Then gather up the rest of your ingredients for various stove top dishes that are quickly prepared.
Whenever possible, avoid canned ingredients in your cooking. They have numerous disadvantages. Canned food has lost vital nutrients that you want in order to cook the healthiest possible meals. They also taste different - if not downright worse - than fresh ingredients, potentially ruining your recipes. Finally, canned foods have unhealthy additives - especially extra sodium - that you do not need in your food.
To keep your burgers flat, indent the middle of the burger with your thumb, nearly leaving a hole, before frying or grilling the patties. As the meat draws up and shrinks while cooking, the indentation will close itself, leaving you with flat burgers instead of small patties with extra thick middles.
When you broil a steak, heat your broiler to the appropriate temperature before putting the steak in. The result will be a seared steak on the outside, with a very juicy inside. The broiling process should also be quick, but will vary depending on how well done you want your steak to be. Over cooking can lead to a dried out end result.
As we previously mentioned, upcoming holidays mean lots of cooking. A lot of people do get concerned about getting started on their holiday menus, because they can be so vast. However, the tips and tricks you read in this article will make your cooking woes and inhibitions disappear and get you ready to conquer that holiday cooking!
Try plunging your veggies in a container of ice water right after you blanch them so that they do not become pale and unattractive. The ice water will allow them to settle without losing their appetizing, bright colors. This is especially important when serving food at functions where pleasing aesthetics at the table are a primary goal.
Feel free to play around. Recipes should be a guideline; you can do whatever you want. Don't like a certain ingredient? Try using a different one. But remember, some ingredients are integral to certain recipes, and you will figure out which ones you can't ever omit by experimenting over time.
Take the guesswork out of reducing liquids. When a recipe calls for you to cook until the liquid is reduced by a certain amount, dip the handle of a wooden spoon into the liquid to mark the depth. This will leave a line on the wooden spoon. Later, you can dip the spoon again to see how much the liquid has actually reduced.
When you are cooking pasta the best way to do so is to rely on using at least one gallon of water for every pound of pasta. If you do not use enough water and a pot that is big enough the pasta will surely stick and become starchy when cooking.
If you are cooking for someone special, do not try a recipe that you have never tried before. Because you are trying to impress this person, you want to make sure you make a satisfying meal. Try something you are very familiar with, and make sure you have all the ingredients you need to make it.
Timing is everything when cooking several courses. Anything that has to be baked for a long period of time should go in the oven first. If you have to have a pot of boiling water to whip up some instant potatoes put it on next. Then gather up the rest of your ingredients for various stove top dishes that are quickly prepared.
Whenever possible, avoid canned ingredients in your cooking. They have numerous disadvantages. Canned food has lost vital nutrients that you want in order to cook the healthiest possible meals. They also taste different - if not downright worse - than fresh ingredients, potentially ruining your recipes. Finally, canned foods have unhealthy additives - especially extra sodium - that you do not need in your food.
To keep your burgers flat, indent the middle of the burger with your thumb, nearly leaving a hole, before frying or grilling the patties. As the meat draws up and shrinks while cooking, the indentation will close itself, leaving you with flat burgers instead of small patties with extra thick middles.
When you broil a steak, heat your broiler to the appropriate temperature before putting the steak in. The result will be a seared steak on the outside, with a very juicy inside. The broiling process should also be quick, but will vary depending on how well done you want your steak to be. Over cooking can lead to a dried out end result.
As we previously mentioned, upcoming holidays mean lots of cooking. A lot of people do get concerned about getting started on their holiday menus, because they can be so vast. However, the tips and tricks you read in this article will make your cooking woes and inhibitions disappear and get you ready to conquer that holiday cooking!
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