After you have gained an understanding of some of the basic concepts, you will find cooking to be a very enjoyable activity. This article will help you to improve your confidence in the kitchen, and will start you off on your journey towards becoming an award-worthy chef with exceptional culinary skills. The fun will truly start once you have these items under your belt.
Rub your hands against your sink after cooking with garlic. Garlic can be an undesirable smell to have cling to you. It might sound a bit odd, but next time you are cooking with it, rub your hands against your sink. If your sink is stainless steel, it should remove the smell.
Cooked turkey freezes beautifully, as does stuffing. When making a big holiday meal, be sure and make plenty so you not only have enough for turkey sandwiches, but to enjoy another turkey dinner in a month or two, without all of the work. Use a spare 9″ X 13″ pan that you line and divide with aluminum foil into two or three compartments. Cut some turkey for one compartment, add some stuffing in another and if you would like, leftover mashed potatoes can be put in the third compartment. Drizzle some gravy over everything you desire, cover with aluminum foil and freeze. When ready to enjoy turkey again, or perhaps when pressed for time and out of ideas for dinner, grab the pan from the freezer and place in the oven at 350 degrees. Remove the foil from the top of the pan after 45 minutes, bake uncovered for another 15 to 20 minutes and enjoy!
Complete as much of the preparatory work as possible for your meals ahead of time to speed up the process of cooking. Check the recipe you’re using to see if some preparation can be done without the partially prepared dish spoiling. It is often possible to prepare your ingredients as much as 24 hours ahead of time. This can make harder recipes easy, and complicated ones a fun, fast experience.
When you are chopping onions for a home cooked salsa make sure you rinse them. Rinse your onions immediately after you cut them then blot them dry with a napkin. This will remove the sulfurous gas and will make your salsa taste better. This works well for other recipes too.
Do you know how long your meat should be grilled? A good quality, digital, meat thermometer is a good investment for your kitchen as it can tell you precisely the internal temperature of the meat, and this will let you know when it is cooked to perfection. Think about closing your grill’s lid to cut down on grill time any time you grill meat thicker than an inch and a half.
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 using fresh herbs in your meal, including dill and parsley, place the herbs together in bunches, and cut them with scissors. When cut in this way, these herbs will have a lighter, fresher appearance.
When you have a large or complicated meal to prepare, you can eliminate a lot of the stress by doing any prep work the day before. Get everything together beforehand; ensure you have all the ingredients, and chop or measure anything you can in advance. When you are ready to get started with the meal, you will only have to deal with the actual cooking.
Store vegetable trimmings in the freezer for a tasty vegetable stock. Save money and increase the flavor of your dishes by making your own vegetable stock. Throughout the week or even month, place vegetable trimmings and peels into plastic bags and store them in the freezer. When you have a spare afternoon, throw them in a pot with some water and let simmer. Once strained, you will have a flavorful broth that can also be frozen for later use.
When shopping for meat, always get the freshest cuts available. If you are shopping for meat at the butcher shop the meat is being fresh cut or ground. However, when shopping at the grocery store try to find out when the store typically cuts meat for the day and try to arrive near that time. Otherwise ask at the meat counter for a fresh cut or grind if you do not know the time of the last cut.
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “A cook who doesn’t taste his own food is no cook at all.” Well if you want to be a good cook, make sure you taste your own creations. The better the taste to you, the more likely it will taste good to the other people tasting it.
Reserve some pasta water for use in your pasta sauce. Save approximately 1/4 cup of water after cooking your pasta. When you combine the sauce and the pasta, add this little amount of water to the mix. Starches present in the retained water can contribute to a creamier sauce when combined.
Save your leftover sauces, and freeze them into ice cube trays. When you’re looking for a quick meal, the sauce cubes are easily tossed into a frying or sauce pan to reheat. By keeping the frozen sauce in smaller pieces, the sauce thaws and heats quickly, and your family thinks you spent all day making a homemade meal for them!
As was indicated in this article, you can pick up new cooking skills and enhance the ones you already have. You just need to take the time to learn about cooking. Using the advice in this article will have you well on your way to being proficient in the kitchen. Use a positive attitude to raise your level of enjoyment in the culinary world.
