Cooking Tips
Sent in by readers, gleaned on the Internet and
some just came from dear Mom!
An easy way to chop up spinach and lettuce for dinner is to use
kitchen shears. Wash and dry the leaves, then place them in a large
plastic bowl. Easy to do and less mess.
The best way to get juice from a lemon is to use a room temperature
lemon and roll it on the counter with the palm of your hand before
squeezing. You can feel the juice loosening up through the lemon
rind.
Wrap celery in aluminum foil when putting in the refrigerator;
the celery will keep for weeks.
To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the
potatoes.
When making the wonderful, and now popular roasted potatoes, every
recipe I've seen calls for adding the herbs and spices to the olive
oil and then stirring, or putting in a plastic bag and 'mooshing
around' until all potatoes are covered with the mixture. Stirring
seemed to take forever, and the plastic bag always popped a seam
somewhere, leading to a major mess, besides the ecology question.
Got the bright idea one day to mix the oil and spices in a large
plastic container with a tight lid. Add potatoes and shake. Easier
than pie!
Store celery and lettuce in paper bags, not plastic. Remove the
tops of carrots, beets, etc., before storing.
When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring
out the corn's natural sweetness.
Freeze ripe bananas. Peel, wrap in plastic wrap and store in freezer
bags.
Lemons - keep at room temperature and you'll greatly increase the
amount of juice you can extract. If you must refrigerate, bring
to room temp on a kitchen window sill before using. If using the
juice for a marinade, use the cut lemon halves to rub the chicken,
fish or whatever, before discarding. Rather than just toss the used
lemon, throw it in the garbage disposal to freshen it. Rubbing lemon
on your fingers will help remove cooking odors.
Lemons will give you more juice if stored in a jar of water in
the fridge.
When removing diced food such as onions from the cutting board,
always use the back of the knife. If you use the blade side it will
dull the knife.
Tomatoes added to roasts will help to naturally tenderize them.
Tomatoes contain an acid that works well to break down meats.
Garlic - Toss a few large cloves in the water boiling for pasta.
It imparts a lovely, subtle garlic taste to the pasta. Mash the
cloves after boiling for use in the sauce or to spread on crusty
bread.
When cooking pasta, toss a couple of peeled garlic
cloves in the pot with the water. When you drain the pasta, fish
the cloves out, crush them into a paste and mix with a little bit
of butter. Makes a delicious spread!
When cutting up tomatoes or other canned vegetables, drain the
liquid first (into the pot if the recipe calls for it), then use
your kitchen shears to cut them right in the can. Saves time, mess
and hassle!
Egg slicers aren't just for eggs, you know! I use my egg slicer
to slice olives, mushrooms, even strawberries! The egg slicer makes
them have a nice, uniform look in much less time.
Three large stalks of celery, chopped and added to about two cups
of beans (navy, brown, pinto, etc.) will make them easier to digest.
To avoid water boil overs when cooking spaghetti make sure to
spray the edges of you pan with a non stick vegetable spray before
the water starts to boil and your pan will not boil over.
Use flavored coffee creamers (hazelnut, french vanilla, etc...)
in with your pancake mixes instead of regular cream. It adds a distinctive
flavor.
When you go away on vacation, place a baggie with a few ice cubes
in the freezer. If there's a power failure while you are gone and
the food thaws and then refreezes, you will know about it when you
get home.
We have found that a pair of scissors does a much better job of
cutting pizza than any pizza-cutting tool we've bought.
If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking,
drop in a peeled potato -- it absorbs the excess salt for an instant
"fix me up."
The tips were broken off a pair of my kitchen scissors. Instead
of throwing them away, I learned that the best way I have of mincing
herbs is to put the herbs into a coffee cup and snip them with those
blunt-tipped scissors. If I ever lose them, I plan to snap the tips
off another pair!
To dot a casserole or pie with butter, use a coarse grater to shred
cold butter over the dish. It's quick and effective.
I always place a paper towel under a hard-boiled egg before peeling.
I tap it a few times, roll with my hand and then begin taking the
shell off. When done, the paper towel is folded a few times and
discarded without any annoying pieces on counter or table-top.
When making pancakes for breakfast, did you know you can make up
to 3 months ahead? Stack. Place in freezer bag or airtight container
and freeze up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in fridge, then cover
with foil and warm in oven before filling or eating with syrup.
Since I make 200 or so meatballs at a time and then freeze them,
it seems as though they keep getting larger and larger so to make
them all the same size, I mix them in a 9x13 or other flat pan,
spread them out evenly and cut into squares, then roll out each
square. If you mix and cut them on a rimmed cookie sheet you can
also bake them on it.
1/2 cup of ground beef weighs approximately 1/4 pound. Useful info
for quickly measuring out "quarter pounders" or preparing patties
for the freezer that will thaw fast when needed. 8/28
Tomatoes added to roasts will help to naturally tenderize them.
Tomatoes contain an acid that works well to break down meats.
Tired of those pesky burgers you're grilling getting all shrunk
up, turning into "burger balls"? Serve nice, flat, fit-on-your-bun
burgers by putting a hole in the center of your patty before you
cook it. The hole should be about the size of a nickel. The meat
will shrink to the center, filling in the hole while remaining flat!
When making a roast in the oven, add as much ice as you can. This
keeps the meat getting too warm before it actually starts to cook,
and it makes liquid for the gravy.
To stretch that big batch of Sloppy Joes, just add a bit of oatmeal
and stir in thoroughly. It makes a very good filler. Not noticeable
and doesn't change the taste of the meat mixture. To save time during
the week, on the weekend, I precook hamburger and chicken to use
in many recipes. I stew the chicken (with onion and celery) and
after cooling, debone it, pack in zip lock bags and freeze until
needed. I do the same with hamburger. When you work, the time this
saves is a big help. As you know, hamburger and chicken can both
be used in to many different recipes.
I like this tip with Thanksgiving coming up. Before you stuff
the turkey, line the inside cavity with cheesecloth. Then
stuff the bird. Leave a few extra inches of cheesecloth outside
the cavity to close. When the bird is done, pull the cheesecloth
and all the stuffing will come out. (from WWWRecipes.com)
I have stretched hamburger with a number of things like bread and
oatmeal, but have found a couple of tips that keep the meat more
meat-like.
When making tacos, brown a pound of ground beef and then mash 19oz
can of kidney beans with a fork, then combine into the meat, add
the taco spices and voila! you have twice the amount of "meat".
I don't even like kidney beans, but have found this tastes great
and nobody knows the difference. (from Stretcher.com)
The other tip I have found to stretch meatloaf or hamburgers is
to combine 1/2 cup of bulgur with the 1 lb of lean ground beef.
Add eggs, and spices and mix well. The bulgur assumes the shape
of the meat grain. It is very healthy, and very tasty. (from
Stretcher.com)
We use a typed grocery check-list (tacked on the refrigerator)
with items as they would be found going through our favorite supermarket.
It saves time when you shop: everything is in order and you don't
have to double back to another aisle because you forgot something.
I have found a wonderful way to save and organize all the recipes
I copy off this great ezine. I bought a regular loose leaf binder,
filled it with clear 3-ring Page Protector pockets, added dividers
and wrote in the categories such as meats, breads, poultry, pies,
cakes, etc. To make it even more "special" , I chose a binder that
is also used for photos, and the front cover has different sized
pockets to add photos. Instead of inserting photos, I inserted my
all-time family favorite recipes. I can change these favorite recipes
according to the seasons also.
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See also:
Kitchen Tips
Baking Tips
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