Some people feel intimidated by cooking, especially if there is already an expert cook in the family. The truth is that anyone can be a good cook with the right knowledge and a desire to learn. Read the following tips on cooking if you need some help in the kitchen.
Substitute Greek yogurt for mayonnaise in creamy salad dressings. If you are on a diet or just trying to eat healthy, you can still make creamy salad dressings with healthy ingredients. Just substitute the mayonnaise in them with a low-fat Greek-style yogurt. This will make the dressing much healthier.
Learn some proper knife-work techniques to make your time in the kitchen safer, more productive, and more enjoyable. Proper cutting techniques not only help to ensure safety in the kitchen, but food cut properly and uniformly looks better (which of course makes it tastes better!) and cooks more evenly. Stop cutting off your fingertips and burning half of the French fries with proper cutting skills!
Cooking a big meal? Do the preparations the day or night before! This way, you will have less to do on the day you are going to make your meal. For instance, if a salad will be part of your meal, make it the night before.
When you are going to make vegetable soup, add your onions, tomatoes, carrots, peppers and other vegetables to oil or butter before you add them to water. By doing this, you will find that the soup has a richer taste to it and the sugars are more normalized this way.
You may or may not have heard of schmaltz, but it is a very useful component when cooking. Schmaltz, otherwise known as chicken fat, is very rich. The flavor of schmaltz is deeper than duck fat and can be used for many things, such as cooking meats or poaching fish.
When baking, here is a tip for eggs and butter. Let your eggs and butter set out overnight at room temperature. Doing so will soften the butter which will make it easier to spread, melt, and mix with other ingredients. The eggs will be easier to beat, and foaming egg whites will be easier as well.
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.
If you want a creative and efficient way to store your sauces, pour them in ice cube trays and leave them to freeze. That way you can choose how many cubes you need to make the right amount of a particular sauce, dinner or soup, plus they can be easily reheated.
Use a substantial amount of salt in the water when you are cooking pasta. The salt will hold better while cooking because it is absorbed by the pasta along with the water. Salting after boiling your pasta will not give the same effect of absorption.
Prepare ingredients for the week's dinners. One great way to get a jump on time is to plan your dinners for the week on Sunday. When you know what you will be fixing each night you can take some time to portion and precook some of your ingredients. Vegetables can also be chopped and stored in Tupperware which will easily keep until used later in the week. By utilizing weekend time, you can save a lot of time during the week.
A great help for achieving your best baking results is to bring your butter and eggs to room temperature before use. By allowing these ingredients to lose their chill, you allow heat from cooking to activate the oils and fats within them at the right time as opposed to waiting for them to achieve the right temperature while cooking.
It sounds kind of funny, but to be a better cook, one should make sure they have a large enough kitchen. Some kitchens, simply put, are not large enough to accommodate a good cook. The more space you have, the more free you'll feel. The more free, then the less confined, cluttered, and un-inventive you will feel.
When you are planning to cook a big meal try prepping all of your foods the day before. This will help you save time and it will also be less mess to clean up after the big dinner. Chop all vegetables and cut up all your meat and store appropriately.
Take care to not overfill your pan when you are sauteing. If there is too much, there will be extra moisture, and the foods will steam instead of sauteing. You will lose crispness. Do not raise the temperature too much.
When it comes to cooking, be sure that you are not using ingredients that are obviously bad for your health or the health of others. This is important because your diet is one of the most important ways that you can help to control your own health and well being.
When you open a can of tomato paste for just a spoonful and are wondering what to do with the rest, place dollops on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and stick the sheet in the freezer. When the blobs of paste are frozen solid, transfer them to a freezer bag. You can then pull out just enough tomato paste for your next few recipes, without wasting partial cans.
To prevent dense pie fillings like pumpkin from cracking after cooking, allow the pie to cool on the oven rack. Removing a pie from the hot oven and placing it on a cool counter can cause the filling to expand or contract and as a result crack. Allowing the pie to cool slowly on the oven rack is the best way to get an even, glossy finish on the filling.
As previously mentioned, anyone can be a good cook with the right information. Do not be intimidated by others, by following the tips in this article you can improve your cooking skills and become more comfortable in the kitchen. If you have the desire to improve then these tips are a great start.
Orignal From: Use These Tips To Master The Art Of Cooking
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