Cooking Tips To Help You In The Kitchen
Here you will find some useful cooking tips that can make cooking and clean up, much easier.
If you are looking for U.S. measurement equivalents, check out my cooking measurements page. This will tell you things like “how many teaspoons in a tablespoon, or how many ounces are in a half gallon”.
If you need to convert my recipes to metric measurements check out my Cooking Conversion charts to help you do this easily.
If you would like to learn how to use a knife more efficiently and safely, check out my knife skills page. You will find a description as well as a video demonstration.
Too Much Salt?
If you are cooking soup or stew and discover that you have over salted it, there is something you can do. Add 1 or 2 cut up potatoes to the soup/stew and this will help absorb some of the excess salt.
Get Rid of Garlic or Onion Smell
After cutting onions or garlic, do you find it difficult to rid your hands of the smell? Well I’ve got a great solution for you. Grab a stainless steel spoon. Only stainless steel seems to work with this. Rub the spoon with your hands under cold water. This alone should magically take care of the smell. Try it and see for yourself.
A Trick For Whipping Cream
Whipping cream for your dessert? Substitute confectioners sugar for regular sugar and your whipping cream will be fluffier and will stay firmer longer.
Three Cooking Tips To Undress Your Garlic
Want to remove those garlic skins easily? Try one of these methods:
Put the clove in the microwave on high for 10 -12 seconds. Skins peel right off.
Use a rubber jar opener. Lay clove in the middle of rubber jar opener and cover clove with the other half. Rub clove vigorously and skin comes right off.
Use a large knife and lay the blade horizontally across the clove. Place one hand carefully on the blade and push down with your hand cracking open the clove. The skin comes right off.
I have used all three of these approaches and they all work beautifully. I like number 3 the best because I usually already have a knife in my hand anyway, so it’s the most convenient for me.
Here Is a Cooking Tip to Keep Herbs Fresh
My father-in-law likes to grow his own herbs and he always picks them fresh. He them loosely wraps them in a damp paper towel and places them in a plastic bag. They keep several days in the refrigerator and are ready whenever he needs them.
Can You Tell If The Egg Is Fresh Or Not?
Place the egg in a dish filled with cool salted water. If it rises to the top throw it away. It’s fresh if it sinks.
Brown sugar Hard As a Rock?
You have probably heard of several cooking tips on how to make brown sugar soft again. Well here is one that I like: Put a slice of bread in the package and seal tightly. The sugar will absorb the moisture from the bread and soften up after a few hours or overnight.
Slightly Burn Your Stew?
What do you do? Here is a cooking tip to try. If you slightly burn a stew you are making, add a little milk to take the burn taste away.
How To Undress Your Chicken The Easy Way
This is one of my favorite cooking tips because it works so well. I use this technique often as we eat chicken frequently.
The best way to take the skin off chicken parts is to use a paper towel to grab the skin with and pull. The paper towel gives you a great grip and the skin comes right off. This is especially useful for the leg which can be the most difficult skin to remove.
Easy Blender Cleaning
Add 1 cup of warm water to the blender and blend for a few seconds. Pour out the water. Now add 2 cups of warm water and add a drop of dishwashing liquid and blend again.
Don’t forget to put the lid on! Rinse and you are done.
Best Way To Store Potatoes
Put potatoes in a paper bag with an apple in a cool place. This will prevent the potato from sprouting. If you are storing potatoes for more than a week, replace the apple every week.
Cooking Tips For Hamburger
Want to cook your hamburger quicker? Make patties and push your pinky finger in the middle to make an indention. This will help the heat to circulate more evenly and will cook faster. Remember to wash your hands after handling raw meats.
Kitchen Tip For Your Dishwasher
Instead of adding rinse solution to your dishwasher, add white vinegar instead. It’s cheaper, healthier and will rinse your dishes sparkling clean.
Since discovering the usefulness of white vinegar, I have been using it in most of my cleaning around the house. This stuff works great and is safe to use.
Clean Stainless Steel Pan The Easy Way
I have a stainless steel frying pan that occasionally gets stains from cooking. Instead of scrubbing my fingers to the bone, I first remove the food particles and then add about 1 cup of white vinegar and let it soak, sometimes over night. After soaking, my pan is stain free and clean with almost no effort. I wash it out with a little soap and water and my pan sparkles.This stuff works great!
Avoid Running Out Of Water and Ruining Your Pan
Sometimes when I am cooking veggies in a steamer or heating pesto or chocolate in a double boiler I get concerned that the water might boil away without my noticing and ruin my pan. Solution? Throw a penny, another coin, or a metal lid in the bottom with the water. If I hear a rattle, it’s time to add water.
Left Over Soda With No Fizz?
If you have left over club soda that has lost its’ fizz, use it to water your plants. The chemicals left behind will give vigor and color to your plants.
Sweet Spaghetti
Add a carrot to your simmering spaghetti sauce to sweeten it with out sugar. It will also make it less acidic. Don’t forget to remove the carrot before serving.
You can find newly added cooking tips on my cooking blog.
I hope you have enjoyed my cooking tips and they they are helpful to you in your cleaning and cooking.
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