However, like any skill, learning to cook takes time and practice. Regardless of why you want to cook, knowing what you are doing will help. The following paragraphs have some ideas you can use to find your way to delicious dishes.
A cool and dark location is best for storing spices and herbs. If they are exposed to light, moisture, or heat, they will lose much of their flavor. Generally, ground spices and herbs keep most of their flavor for a year. You may retain your spice’s flavor for about 5 years. As long as they are stored properly, they will hold onto their flavor for several years.
If you can, do all the preparing of the meal’s ingredients in advance. Be prepared in advance to make your cooking go smoothly. Sometimes even when the prep work is done, the deadline for when the meal must be completed can still loom large and become stressful. Get everything prepared at least a day ahead of time.
You can always save the sauce that you put so much effort into. In a bowl, combine 2 tablespoons’ worth of water with 1 of corn starch. Stir this solution into the thin sauce to thicken it. Add the mixture slowly and keep stirring to make sure it does not thicken too much.
When you are having an important person over for dinner, prepare a meal that you are experienced with. That would be a bad time to experiment with the unknown, whether it is an untried recipe or ingredient. Cooking will be less stressful this way.
It’s important to include beans and tofu in your diet if you’re trying to increase your protein intake. These can be found at most grocery stores these days. For a meat alternative, try pan frying seasoned tofu. Beans may be boiled with herbs for a delicious protein source.
That way, fruit can stay crisp and fresh all year. Plus, you will have fruits which are not available during certain periods of the year.
Rather than using water or milk in a specific recipe, try a different liquid to add a new flavor. If the recipe has called for water, you could easily use chicken broth, beef broth, or juice when suitable. Rather than using milk, think about yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream. Mixing up the base of your sauces and soups is a great way to liven up old recipes.
Leave the bone inside the roast if you want to cook it faster. It will cook faster because the bone will evenly distribute the heat inside your roaster. Once cooked, carve the bone out and serve the meat as normal.
If you are often pressed for time when making dinner, try doing a little preparation work before hand, perhaps on the night before you plan to cook the dinner. Try cutting up onions and vegetables, making a sauce or marinating the meat before you go to sleep in the evening. You won’t be as stressed when you prepare the meal the next day.
Keep your herbs and spices in a cool, dark place where they will stay fresh. Spices and herbs lose their flavor when they are stored in warm areas.
Save leftover meat and bones from poultry. Instead, cut it into smaller pieces, and place in the freezer in airtight containers. Freezing can add weeks to the life of your leftovers and turkey can be pulled out as desired, and thawed for sandwiches or shredded for salads.
When you are making pasta you need to be sure to add a liberal amount of salt to the water. Adding salt at this stage will ensure that the pasta absorbs it completely. Salting cooked pasta will not have the same effect.
To improve your pasta sauce, put aside some of the water used during the cooking of the pasta. Remove approximately a quarter of a cup and set it aside. When you mix your pasta and sauce, also add the water you reserved. The starch from the pasta water will add body and a “creaminess” to your sauce through amalgamation.
Before chopping fresh herbs sprinkle some salt on the cutting board. This adds flavor and keeps the herbs on the board. Do not add too much salt to your dish. The salt that has been sprinkled onto the board, will also have the extra benefit of adding a little bit of extra flavor when it adheres to the herbs.
Cutting Boards
It is important to take proper care of wood cutting boards. Exposure to moisture or dryness can damage a wooden board easily. Cutting boards should never be immersed in water, but cleaned with a soapy sponge and rinsed off. You can do some restoration to a damaged board by regularly oiling it with a product specifically for this purpose. Before you use the board, make sure it is dry.
Trussing is the method of using string to bind the wings and legs of the turkey. This process tucks the legs and wings closer to the bird’s body, which allows everything to cook more evenly. If the legs and wings aren’t tied together, the tips could burn, cooking much more quickly than the main part of the turkey.
By now you are hopefully chomping at the bit to get started. Use the many tips provided above as your guide to cooking delightful food! No matter why you decided to learn how to cook, nothing tastes quite as good as a meal you fixed with your own hands. The truth is, you will need a certain amount of skill to become a good cook. Now that you have learned the information presented, continue building on your cooking skills.