A list of informative cooking tips for the home kitchen.
If you have purchased a piece of fish, such as Bluefish, which has a high oil content, put the fish in a plastic container and cover it completely with whole milk. Place the container in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, you will see a pool of oil on the surface of the container. Discard the milk and oil and rinse the fish with cold water. The fish, when cooked, will now have less of a “fishy” taste to it.
If a soup you have made is too salty, add one teaspoon each of white sugar and cider vinegar to the soup pot. Stir it well and wait 5 minutes and you will notice a decrease in the salt content of the dish.
To get your mashed potatoes to look fluffy, add ¼ tsp of baking powder to the potatoes when you are mixing them.
To avoid honey or molasses sticking to the inside of a measuring cup, simply spray the interior of the measuring cup with a nonstick cooking spray before you measure your ingredients.
To get a glossy appearance on your pie crusts, brush beaten egg whites around the outside of the crust before placing it in the oven.
One method of preventing a tomato sauce from leaving a stain in your Tupperware is to spray the inside of the Tupperware with a nonstick cooking spray before you put the tomato sauce into the container.
If a box of brown sugar has turned hard, place a slice of fresh apple in the box and the sugar will become softer within a day or two.
When forming meatballs, use a small ice cream scoop. It saves time and your meatballs will have a professional appearance.
If you have leftover brewed coffee, freeze it in ice cube trays for future use in a recipe that calls for coffee as an ingredient.
To prevent strips of bacon from shrinking when you fry them in a pan, rinse them with cold water first.
Before cooking a beef or pork roast, let the meat stand at room temperature for one hour before placing it in the oven. The meat will brown more evenly on all sides and require a shorter cooking time.
You can keep a bunch of celery crisp for a long period of time if you wrap it in aluminum foil before placing it in your refrigerator.
In the specialty food aisle of your supermarket you will find bottles of a product called Liquid Smoke. Using this product is a great way to add a smoky flavor to foods. Be careful when using Liquid Smoke, as just a drop is usually all that's needed to enhance a dish.
To add extra flavor to your fried chicken, always add spices to the flour you use to coat your chicken before frying it.
When using a deep fryer at home, always keep your fry basket submerged in the hot oil. If it isn't in the hot oil, the room temperature basket will cool down the oil when you begin frying foods.
To achieve a sweeter flavor when preparing corn on the cob, add 1 teaspoon of white sugar to the pot when the corn is boiling.
If a recipe calls for butter, always use it in the form of a stick instead of a tub of the whipped variety. When they produce whipped butter they pump it up with air to give it a fluffy appearance; if you use this type of butter in a recipe, you will not get a true measurement of that ingredient.
To prevent egg shells from cracking when you prepare hard boiled eggs, simply add a teaspoon of salt to the pot when the eggs start to boil.
If you place a lemon or a lime in a bowl of hot water, the fruit will yield more juice when you squeeze it.
It's easier to remove the skin from cloves of fresh garlic if you microwave the cloves for 15 seconds.
