Cooking is a science and an art. It is a harmonious union of both elements. Cooking tips are given by many sources nowadays. In some instances, these tips may have been retrieved from kitchen magazines and online cooking websites. For every homemaker, cooking tips on proper selection, preparation and cooking of food are helpful as they face their day-to-day culinary battles. Here, are a few guideposts and cooking ABC’s that may come handy in the kitchen.
Appetizers
Appetizers are small dishes served before a meal. They help in stimulating one’s palate and in triggering one’s appetite. Examples of appetizers are olives, chips and dips, and thin slices of spicy meats. Bite-size food is preferable to prevent the hassles of mess and clutters. As for cold foods such as shrimps and cheese, you can serve it above a block of ice.
Barbecuing
Barbecuing is to smoke meat for a couple of hours using heat from charcoals or wood fire. When chicken is to be barbecued, the ideal weight of the meat is 2 pounds. This allows the chicken to be juicy and of the perfect texture. If the chicken is more than 3 pounds, this may take a greater length of time to cook and may compromise the meat’s tenderness. As for pork, it is highly preferable to cook it in thin slices. Lastly, when you want to cook beef barbecue, see to it that the beef’s thickness must be more than half an inch or else it will easily dry out. When making beef steak, the ideal thickness is one inch to one and a half inch. This size is good for rare, medium rare and well done.
Cooking Vegetables
When cooking vegetable, you can apply any possible method such as sautéing and stir frying, except for deep frying. Before engaging with the cooking process, one must wash the vegetables first. This is to avoid contaminants that lodge in the vegetables. Moreover, it also prevents foodborne illnesses associated with immediate eating of raw vegetables. Before dropping the vegetables in the casserole, check if the water is already boiling. In this way, nutrients from the vegetables are retained.
Deep Frying
Deep frying is when you immerse food in oil at a high temperature. If you do not have an electric fryer at home, you can use the conventional way of deep frying. The traditional way in doing this is to use a deep saucepan that can hold around 4 quartsof cooking oil. In order to prevent spillage of oil out of the pan when the cold food is placed in, the cook must see that the oil completely covers the food to be fried. In addition to that, the oil should never go beyond half the depth of the saucepan.
Emergency Control and Management
In the kitchen, you can’t avoid stumbling upon a problem or two. One of the most common problems is when the meal cooked is too salty. The potatoes that are thinly sliced can be added to the dish to remedy the overpowering salty taste. The potato will absorb the excessive saltiness. If your cooking pan caught fire, do not pour water. To extinguish the fire from the saucepan’s grease, dash salt or baking soda to extinguish it.
Cooking tips are tantamount to pillars of delectable cuisine, similar to how the alphabet acts as the foundation of the English language. If one understands the art of cooking by heart and is willing to share such knowledge to others, then gradually many will find cooking as a self-gratifying hobby and no longer a labored obligation to be done at home.