Cooking does not have to be a scary thought! Understandably, cooking is easier for some than others. It takes know how, practice, and patience, but you can do it! Below are some helpful tips to make your cooking a pleasure:
Learn to use your hands when cooking (after washing them thoroughly first of course!). Hands are the most sensitive yet versatile cooking utensil you will own. They can be used for mixing, measuring and testing whether a product is cooked enough. A cake, for example, will show that it is done by springing back when touched lightly with a finger on its top.
In brief, learning how to cook is learning how to avoid pre-packaged foods and meals. These convenience food products, all too common today, have speed as their solitary real benefit. Home-cooked meals will always beat them in taste and cost. In most cases – even with meals that are not especially healthy – the version made in the kitchen will be healthier than the packaged version.
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.
There is an easy way to peel garlic. There are many tips and techniques for peeling garlic, but there is a simple way that doesn’t involve any fancy gadgets. Take a rubber jar lid gripper and lay it on the counter. Place a clove of garlic on it and fold it over. Using a little pressure, simply roll the garlic clove around a few times inside the rubber gripper, and the skin will instantly be removed.
If you have a lot of pets around the house, they should not be with you in the kitchen, if the stove is near the ground. This can present a safety hazard because you want to reduce any risk of your animals getting hurt. Keep all animals and small children away from hot ovens.
When making sandwiches, follow this tip. Take a portion of mayonnaise and spread it on the bread from corner to corner. Spreading from corner to corner rather than the widely used method of spreading down the middle allows every area of the bread to be evenly coated with mayonnaise, making a more flavorful sandwich.
Before frying raw potatoes, let them sit in cold water for at least a half an hour. By doing this, the fries will be more crispy. Also, letting them sit in cold water will cut down on the time it takes for them to cook thoroughly.
When you are cooking a hamburger patty, use a fork or other utensil to poke a hole in the middle of it. This way, the hamburgers will cook faster. Do not worry, once the hamburger is cooked, it will still have its great taste and the holes do eventually disappear.
While your cooking it is important to be passionate and interested about what you are doing. With cooking, the taste you get out of your food isn’t only linearly connected to the effort put in, it’s exponential! If you don’t put effort into your food while cooking it, you will get something you don’t even want to eat or feed to anyone!
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.
When it comes to cooking the fresher the better. Sure the bottled and shaker spices cost less but there is no taste comparable to the taste of fresh cut spices such as garlic and parsley. So make sure that you spend the extra fifteen minutes cutting your spices, instead of shaking them.
Cooking Skills
If you would like to know more about cooking, do not be ashamed to go to cooking classes. These classes can give you some really good ideas to increase your cooking skills. Many locations offer cooking classes at reasonable prices and some even give you supplies that you can bring home with you.
If you are looking to improve your cooking skills, learning from experienced cooks is a great way to avoid making their same mistakes. While testing out new recipes on your own can be fun, messing up in the kitchen can end up wasting time, as well as money that was spent on ingredients.
Are you ready to get started? The helpful tips above, no doubt, will contribute to you making a delicious meal! This is just a few suggestions to inspire you to give cooking a try or perhaps a second chance! Enjoy!
