1. When cooking meat on a grill of sautéing it in a pan, always dry the meat off first. This will allow for caramalazation (browning). Not drying will cause the heat to have to first evaporate the water before it browns it giving it an unappealing gray color
2. When grilling meats, only turn them over once. Continuous flipping will drain all of the liquid that rises to the top during cooking, causing the meat to lose moisture and dry out rapidly.
3. Do not cut into meat to check doneness, this will allow the juice to drain out of the meat and cause dryness. If you are unsure when the meat is cooked to the proper temperature, use a meat thermometer.
4. When grilling, rub oil on the grates before cooking, this will prevent sticking. Oil also, being a better conductor of heat than metal will allow for dark grill marks on the surface of the food.
5. Take meats off of heat a few minutes before you are ready to serve them, this will allow for the juices to recirculate through the meat and be juicier.
6. When cooking to a certain temperature, remove meat about 5 degrees before it reaches “target” temperature. The meat will continue to cook from the residual heat trapped inside, thus raising the temperature 5 or so degrees. On a large mass of meat, such as a turkey, allow for a few more degrees because the meat has more heat stored in it. If you remove the food from the heat at the desired temp, it will raise to a temp over the point you are looking for, thus causing the meat to be overcooked.
7. When sautéing food, make sure you heat the pan thoroughly before adding oil, when pan is very hot add oil. Wait a minute and allow the oil to heat up, until a slight ripple forms, very hot but not smoking. Adding foods to a cold pan will not allow them to caramelize, so they will basically boil or steam and not actually sear.
8. When sautéing or pan frying food, don’t overcrowd the pan. This will not allow even browning and will rob you pan of temperature.
9. When deep frying in oil, add small batches of food, they will cook faster and more evenly. Before adding the next batch, allow oil to heat back up for about 1 minute, the food you put in will take away temperature. Allowing the oil to get back to target temperature (350-375 degrees) will let the food fry. Adding food to oil that is not hot will cause it to absorb more oil than desired thus making it very greasy.
10. When deep frying, the food must be salted as soon as it comes out of the oil, waiting any amount of time will cause the salt not to stick to the food.
11. Do not open oven door during cooking (with the exception of once in the middle of cooking time to rotate it), set a timer and trust it, or get a food thermometer with a wire that can be inserted into the food and plugged into a digital timer on outside of oven. (Available anywhere you can buy kitchen gadgets, about $20)
12. When boiling or blanching green vegetables, toss them with a small amount of baking powder, this will keep them bright green and vibrant without effecting the flavor.
13. When bringing water to a boil, put a lid on the pot, it will heat at a much more rapid pace than an uncovered pot.
14. When boiling pasta always salt the water before cooking, this is the only way to get noodles salted. (2 Tbls salt to 1 pound pasta)
16. To store cooked pasta, toss with a little bit of olive oil to prevent it from sticking together. This is also beneficial when pasta is sitting on the stove in a pot waiting to be eaten.
17. When cracking eggs, crack them on a flat surface, never on the side of a bowl. This will cause egg shell to be forced up into the egg and could possible get in you food.
18. To make perfect hard cooked eggs with no green or grey on the yolks: Put eggs in a pot and bring water to a boil. When water comes to a boil, put a lid on the pot, set timer for 3 minutes. When timer goes off, turn off the heat and reset the timer for 15 minutes (without removing the lid) After the 15 minutes has elapsed, put the eggs in ice water to stop the cooking process, this step in imperative. Let eggs sit in water 5 or so minutes. Voila, perfect eggs.
19. When cutting, or grating potatoes, put them immediately into cold water. This will prevent them from oxidizing (turning brown) the same goes for apples, although you can add a little bit of lemon juice to the water for them to last even longer.
20. Potatoes are done cooking when you can easily slide a knife through them.
21. Over boiling potatoes for mashed potatoes will cause them to be gummy.
22. When cooking food, (any food, and any method) cut it in uniform size, this will allow for even cooking throughout. Food cut in different sizes will cook at different speeds, hence making one piece overcooked, and one piece undercooked.
23. Never refrigerate or buy refrigerated tomatoes. Refrigeration stops the ripening process immediately and will give you hard not so flavorful tomatoes. Always buy fresh between late April and early October.
24. Store onions and potatoes in a cool dry spot like the pantry or cupboard. Never refrigerate.
25. To quickly ripen avocados, mangos, or pretty much any other unripe fruits, put them in a paper bag with a ripe banana, or apple. The ripe fruits will produce ethylene gas (the chemical that ripens fruit) and ripen the others faster than the normal ripening time.
26. When storing fresh herbs, or leafy green vegetables, always remove any dead or brown patches or leaves. The disease will quickly spread to the other leaves and cause them to rot at a faster pace
27. To store fresh herbs, remove any excess moisture, wrap them in paper towels, and put them in a plastic baggie. Press out all extra air and store them in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. They should keep up to 2 weeks.
28. To store fresh ginger for up to 3 months, peel it and place it in a jar with a tight fitting lid and cover it with dry sherry. The ginger will only lose a small amount of flavor to the ginger. You also now have created a gingered sherry that can be used in other foods like soup.
29. Pick through dried beans before cooking, the way they are grown and harvested they may have small rocks in them.
30. To test eggs to see if they are fresh, float them in salted water, if they are fresh, they will sink. If they float they are not good.
31. To tell the difference between raw and hard cooked eggs in your refrigerator, spin them on the counter, the hard cooked ones will spin; the raw ones will wobble and stop.
32. When beating egg whites for meringue, let the whites come to room temperature, you will get more expansion. Also, if you get one drop of fat, (egg yolk) in the whites, they won’t whip.
33. Keep eggs stored in the carton they came in because they can pick up other odors from the refrigerator if they are exposed.
34. Add a Tbls. Of salt to the water you are going to boil eggs in to keep them from cracking during cooking.
35. When baking, always use unsalted butter so you can control the salt content. If salted butter is the only thing available, omit ¼ tsp of salt [in recipe] per 1 stick of butter.
36. When making whipped cream, chill the bowl and the beaters in the freezer, the result will be a faster, firmer whipped cream. Refrigerate immediately.
37. Use an egg slicer to slice mushrooms perfectly and quickly.
38. When chopping nuts in a food processor, dust them with a little flour so they don’t stick to the blades.
39. To make brown sugar in a pinch, add ¼cup of light molasses to 1 cup of sugar.
40. When measuring sticky ingredients like honey, molasses, or corn syrup, spray the measuring cup or spoon with nonstick cooking spray.
41. To hold a cutting board or a mixing bowl still, place a damp rag under it.
42. Use an ice cream scoop to fill muffin pans with batter; it will be more even and less messy than a spoon.
43. When deep frying, never fill pot or fryer more than half way full with oil, doing so may cause overflow, and severe burns.
44. If there is ever a grease fire in the kitchen, NEVER put water on it. If you do not have a chemical fire extinguisher, pour flour or cornmeal on it.
45. To make a whole chicken very moist and flavorful, put an opened beer can in the chicken cavity so that it stands upright. Bake or grill for about an hour or until chicken reaches 170 degrees. The beer can also be flavored with herbs and garlic. If doing this on the grill, don’t do it over direct heat.
46. When making a meatloaf, put two slices of raw bacon on the bottom of the loaf pan so it does not stick.
47. Always cut vegetables or fruits on cutting board before raw meat to avoid cross contamination.
48. To sanitize kitchen surfaces, mix 1 Tbls.of bleach to 1 quart of water. This mixture will kill everything and is totally safe. It cost pennies compared to other name brand cleaners.
49. To get the most juice from a lemon or lime, roll it on the counter with pressure from your palm, or put it in the microwave for 10 seconds.
50. To peel garlic easily, place the flat side of a large knife on top of the clove and smash down with your palm. The peel will come right off.
51. To easily peel tomatoes, cut a small X in the end(opposite the stem side) and submerge them in boiling water until the peel just starts peeling(about 1 minute) then transfer them to cold water to stop the cooking process. The peels will easily come off now.
52. When refrigerating any custard, sauce, or paste, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and remove any air between the two surfaces. This will prevent a skin from forming.
53. When melting chocolate, do so in a mixing bowl sat on top of a pan with simmering water, this will prevent the chocolate from scorching in the bottom of the bowl.
54. Don’t salt mushrooms until they have cooked down by about half, they are composed of about 25% water, so if you salt them before, the water evaporates, they may be too salty.
55. Dry potatoes off before deep frying so the water doesn’t cause a large splatter which could burn you.
56. When frying potatoes, use one with high starch content, such as a russet, this will ensure a crispier crust.
57. To make French fries crisp on the outside, and done on the inside, they must be cooked twice. First drop the potatoes into the oil until they become just barely brown around the edges. This cooks the inside. Pull them up, let them sit for about 3 minutes, and drop them in the oil again. This time, the oil will crisp up the outside giving you perfect crispy fries that aren’t soggy.
58. When adding a starch to a soup to thicken it, make a slurry. Take about 1 tsp of the starch, (flour, cornstarch, ect.) and mix it with ½cup of water until it is well combined. Add this to the soup. Adding straight starch will just turn into little dumplings throughout the soup and never incorporate.
59. Cutting lettuces and leafy greens with a knife can bruise the cell walls and cause discoloration along the edges of the cuts. It is recommended that the leaves be gently torn to prevent this.
60. When cooking fresh spinach, use a lot more than you think you will need. It may look like an enormous pile of greens, but they will reduce by almost 2/3s.
61. After cutting avocados, and artichokes, rub them with lime, and lemon juice respectively. This will avoid them turning brown.
62. When using fresh tomatoes for tomato sauce, remove the seeds, they are bitter and will make a sub par sauce.
63. Red and Yellow bell peppers have more vitamin C than citrus fruit.
64. To peel freshly roasted bell peppers, or any roasted vegetable for that matter, remove the peppers from the heat after the skin has charred. Place peppers in a mixing bowl tightly covered with plastic wrap for about 5 minutes. The steam created during this process will loosen the skin away from the flesh and peel right away.
65. When buying fresh fish, let your senses guide you. Fish should look fresh and not smell like fish, but like nothing, just fresh sea. Whole fish are the easiest to buy because you can look at the eyes. The eyes should be clear and bright and have no haze. The gills should be bright red, and the scales should look like it just came out of the water. Buying fillets and steaks is a little more difficult. The flesh should be bright, firm, and have good fat lines running through it (fatty fish only, salmon, Tuna, ect.) It is best to buy from somewhere you trust and has a good reputation. The further away from the ocean you are, the longer the fish has been out of the water.
66. Mushrooms shouldn’t be washed under running water because they will absorb it. If the mushrooms have dirt on them, wipe them off with a moist towel.
67. Store cheese in paper bags, or “cheese paper” in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator. Wrapping it in plastic robs it of flavor.
68. Serve cheese (and cheesecakes) at room temperature, this brings out a more pronounced flavor of the cheese.
69. Allow soup and other hot liquids to come to room temperature before putting them in the refrigerator. This will prevent the warm temperature to drastically lower the temp. in the fridge.
70. If liquids are warm, poke holes in the plastic wrap, or tilt the top to allow them to breath in the refrigerator, if not, they will go rancid.
71. When adding any hot mixture to egg yolks (for baking and such) the yolks must first be tempered to avoid curdling (scrambling) the eggs. To do this, add a small amount of the hot liquid or mixture to the eggs and incorporate to raise the temperature of the eggs. Then gradually add the remaining mixture.
72. When storing any delicate prepared foods in the refrigerator, such as cake, make sure it is tightly covered so it doesn’t pick up any other aromas like onions or fish.
73. Bacteria thrive between 40 and 145 degrees. Always keep refrigerator at 40 or below to ensure safe food storage. Pasteurization, named for Louis Pasteur, means raising the temperature to 145 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes to kill bacteria, and then lowering it back down to 40 degrees. Milk stored below 40 degrees should stay drinkable for about 10-18 days (McGee, 22)
74. Keep a thermometer hanging in the oven to ensure that it is cooking at the temperature it reads. Most ovens are not exactly right. When baking, if its 10 degrees off, that could prove to be costly to the final result.
75. When using heavy cream, or ½ and ½, set the carton in a hot spot on the stove when it is empty, this will thin out the remaining milk, and yield another couple of Tbls.
76. When measuring, use the large cup for liquid and the small individual cups for dry goods, there is a difference in the volumes.
77. When poaching eggs in liquid, add a shot of whit vinegar, this will hold the egg proteins together so they don’t go everywhere in the water.
78. When making scrambled eggs or omelets, take the eggs out of the pan a minute before they look done, the residual heat will finish cooking them. If they look done in the pan, the will be overdone on the plate.
79. When baking, remember to rotate the pans halfway through the cooking time. Top to bottom, left to right while also rotating, back to front.
80. Don’t store chocolate in the refrigerator, this will cause it to “bloom” meaning the cocoa butter will extrude from the chocolate thus giving it that white gritty coating. Store it in an airtight container at room temperature.
81. When deep frying foods, monitor the temperature. You must use a candy, or fry thermometer because a meat thermometer will explode under the intense heat.
82. putting a pizza stone in the bottom of the oven will make it heat more evenly.
83. To get the onion smell off of your hands, rub them on stainless steel for a minute before washing.
84. When buying lump crab meat, even if it says Pre-picked for shells, it is still always a good idea to pick through it. To do this quickly, spread crab meat out on a sheet pan and pop it in the oven for 2-3 minutes. The remaining shell will turn white from the heat and will be easily seen. If not heated, they will be opaque.
85. After washing a wooden cutting board, cover it with kosher salt, this will draw out the water and prevent it from warping.
86. If there is a green sprout growing in a garlic clove, remove it. Leaving it in causes a bitter taste.
87. Buy a cheap coffee grinder to use as a spice grinder, works great for about $12
88. When cooking with garlic, always add it last, adding it first will cause it to burn and turn very bitter. It only takes a minute to cook garlic.
89. When cooking fish with the skin on, score the skin slightly to prevent it from tightening and curling the fish up. To do this, take a sharp knife and just cut through the skin trying not to penetrate the flesh. Do this at regular intervals from the top of the fish to the bottom.
90. Baking soda can become inactive and cause recipes not to rise properly. To test your baking soda, combine 1/4 teaspoon with 2 teaspoons vinegar. If the mixture bubbles, your baking soda is active.
91. When Frosting a Cake, they should be completely cool before being, cut, filled, and/or frosted. Warm cake layers melt frostings and cause layers to slip and slide
92. To ensure a juicer roast, always bake, or roast it with the fat side up.
93. Dried fruits such as raisins, currants, and dried cherries benefit by being plumped before being added to a recipe. Plump them by soaking in warmed or boiling spirits, fruit juice, or any liquid in the recipe they are to be used in for 10 to 15 minutes before use.
95. To keep sweet corn yellow, add one teaspoon of lemon juice to the cooking water just about a minute before taking off the stove. Never salt the water you cook corn in. It will only toughen the corn.
96. To prevent boil-over, apply a thin coat of cooking oil around the top of the inside of pots.
97. A slice of soft bread placed in the package of hardened brown sugar will soften it again in a couple of hours .
98. When coffee becomes burned to the bottom of the coffee pot, just add about a cup of ice and two tablespoons of kosher salt and give it a few swirls, it will quickly remove the gunk.
99. When sautéing with olive oil or butter, add a small amount of a different oil to raise the smoke point (temperature at which the oil begins to burn and smoke). For instance, extra virgin olive oil and butter have a relatively low smoke point, so adding an oil like canola or safflower oil will raise the smoke point and still give the flavor of butter or extra virgin olive oil.
100. Place a few charcoal briquettes in the refrigerator to absorb odor.
101. When cutting a cheesecake, dip you knife in very hot water then wipe it off; this way the knife will slide easily through without the cheesecake sticking to it.