When it comes to cooking, you are extremely comfortable with your skills and love the food that you make, but for some reason not everybody that eats your food feels the same way. Follow some of the tips provided, and you will find that you will be able to improve on your already honed skills.
It’s nice to have a pie quickly when unexpected guests arrive. When you don’t have time to create the crust from scratch, use a quality pre-made mix. Add a few tablespoons of sour cream to make the crust flaky so no one will notice that you didn’t create the pie from scratch.
Have you ever wondered how your neighbor’s pie crusts turn out to be golden brown and glossy while yours is always pale? There is a trick to learn which guarantees the desired result every time. Beat some egg whites and brush it over the pie. You will take out beautiful, glossy, golden brown pies from your oven.
One of the things that you will need to realize when you are making meats or fish is that you need to spread your seasoning evenly. Adding too much seasoning in one area of your food can reduce the flavor or lead to a tangy taste that will reduce the quality of your meal.
Boiling and other long preparation methods tend to eliminate key nutrients in vegetables. When you use faster cooking methods, such as steaming and sauteing, vegetables keep more of the nutrients intact. The best way to make sure you get all the vital nutrients housed within veggies is to eat them raw.
If you have ever questioned the freshness of the eggs you bought and you don’t know whether the eggs in your fridge are still useable or not, you can break them individually into a cup to see if they are good or not. If you need to test several eggs, put them in a pan of cool, salted water. Use the ones floating on top and throw away the ones that sink to the bottom of the pan.
If you plan to let your chicken sit in the oven for a while after it is baked, then subtract a few minutes from its baking time. Since chicken continues to bake even after it is taken away from a heat source, it can dry out quickly in an oven that is still hot.
If you are following a recipe take extra caution to make sure that you don’t skip a step, or that you are reading the measurements correctly. Especially in baking, a small mistake can completely ruin a dish. To avoid this just check the recipe a couple of times before adding in the ingredient to the mixture.
Do a little research and find out if there is a farmers’ market within shopping distance. These markets – usually held on a weekly basis – are your ticket to purchasing the very freshest ingredients available. Treat food from a farmers’ market with respect; usually, the less cooking you do to such ingredients, the better-tasting the results will be.
When you want to add a bit of protein to your diet, tofu and beans are a great source of it. Both can be found at any grocery store. Seasoned tofu is a wonderful alternative to meat, and can be cooked in a variety of ways, such as pan frying. Beans can always be cooked with some spices and herbs for a meal full of flavor and protein.
One useful tool to use when chopping herbs into smaller sizes is the cutting board. Often while cutting, herbs move around instead of staying in place. To stop this from happening, simply apply a little salt to the cutting board before you begin cutting your herbs. This will keep them in place and make your cooking much easier.
You can save time and energy by cooking larger batches of a meal at one time, and then storing some of it in the freezer for later. Divide the meal into several serving-size containers and put them away. On a night when you don’t have time to cook from scratch, just pull a container out and defrost it.
When cooking with raw meat or eggs, it is very important that you keep your hands and cooking station very sanitary. This is because the raw form of these materials can spread illnesses, such as salmonella, to you. If you do contract an illness, you will be very sick and won’t be cooking for a while!
Rather than using a traditional store bought dressing when making a salad, try making your own vinaigrette. A vinaigrette that is homemade will contain less ingredients than store bought ones and have no preservatives. This makes the vinaigrette more natural and better tasting. Simply shake the ingredients in a sealed container and enjoy.
Put your fresh herbs together in a bunch and use kitchen shears to cut them all at once. This results in light and fluffy herbs, and prevents the wetness that can occur when you chop them.
Avoid limiting yourself to white potatoes in your cooking. They are very high in starch and have the least amount of nutritional content of any of the potatoes. Try varieties that come in blue, red, yellow, and orange. You can substitute almost any root vegetable as your usual white potato.
Use a few tablespoons of sugar in the boiling water when cooking orange and yellow vegetables. Foods like squash and corn have a natural sweetness to them that is brought out when cooked in sugared water. This is a great way to get some healthy veggies into a kids diet as well as yours.
In conclusion, you need to know that there is always room for improvement when it comes to cooking. Even if you may love what you do, your style might be a bit too personalized. Follow the advice that is in this article, and you will find people drooling every time you cook.
