Cooking/Baking Tips

Grinningcat
Posted: 3/17/2014 6:58:52 AM
I have three:

1) Get an oven thermometer and use it to gauge how off your oven is compared to the buttons/dials.

2) Read all recipes thoroughly before starting.

3) Gather all ingredients/equipment before starting.

Julie333W
Posted: 3/17/2014 7:11:07 AM
A dash of sesame oil is the key to good stir fry.

pjaye
Posted: 3/17/2014 7:11:12 AM
1) Get an oven thermometer and use it to gauge how off your oven is compared to the buttons/dials

Absolutely number 1 in my opinion too.
I did a 'for fun' cupcake course a couple of years ago, but it was being taught by a lady who has a very successful cupcake business.
She said this was vital, buy an oven thermometer and make sure the oven is at the right temperature each time you bake.
I'd never thought about it before, but when I got one and started using it I discovered my oven temp is always below what is selected on the dial.

Now that I use the thermometer my baking is always ready at the time the recipe says and my cakes come out perfectly.

Photohorse
Posted: 3/17/2014 7:20:45 AM
Wash dishes as you go so it's not so overwhelming when you're done.

Double what you make for lasagna, enchiladas, meatballs, and other things that freeze well. Prepare an oven-ready dish you can freeze then bake later.

ChildOfThe60s
Posted: 3/17/2014 7:25:06 AM
Put a couple of marshmallows in your brown sugar container to keep it soft. (I use those gigantic, Fireside marshmallows from WM.)

schooby
Posted: 3/17/2014 9:56:36 AM
Cookies will come out fluffier if you use self-rising flour.

Also, cookies will cut better and not spread as much if you refrigerate them for an hour or so before baking.

For real food - Learn how to chop!!! Don't pulverize your seasonings in the food processor. It will greatly improve your cooking.

styxgirl
Posted: 3/17/2014 10:04:14 AM
One tip I got from my grandma is whenever you are baking something, take a paper towel and wipe any slops along the edge of the bowl before baking. It really helps with cleanup so you don't have burned junk along the edges to scrape off.

oh yvonne
Posted: 3/17/2014 11:44:30 AM
roasting things before adding the ingredients to a dish brings out the flavor.

I like to toast nuts before adding to dishes/baking

roast the chile peppers, roast the garlic for the salsa

Good brand of soy sauce is a great flavor enhancer for many meat dishes. Its salty and adds such a depth of flavor. I keep it with my arsenol of spices, etc. I never run out.

Clean up as you go. While something is on the stove, clear the counter, rinse off the prep bowls/spoons etc. Clean, clean, clean.

Learn to make good rice. No, seriously, learn to make a dish, and make it again fairly soon again after. Then you'll learn the technique and build on the skill you learned.

I had a Wok cooking cookbook when I was much younger and I was determined to learn the process. I learned how to cut the veggies in different cuts for stir fry. I learned how to marinate the meat, freezing it first makes it easier to slice thin. Those skills have translated into all my cooking.

Brine your chicken starting the day before you roast it. Seriously. It makes the chicken so moist and tender, you can roast it and it comes out amazing.

<ed to add>

Here is my brining recipe. I got it years ago from Family Circle. This is off the top of my head but here it is:

I take a large tall stock pot, and I dump in:


one big handful of kosher salt
1 smallish handful of brown sugar

add enough warm water to get in there and swirl it around a bit so it all dissolves.

then add your spices. Now I don't have the exact listing but I always just use herbal blend, a lot of time I just use herbs de Provence. It has thyme, basil, marjorm, oregano, tarragon, bits of lavender. I just dump in a small palmfull.

A small palmful of black peppercorns

about 4-6 smushed, flattened garlic cloves

a couple of lemons, sliced in half, then squeeze them a bit and dump in the pot. If I have oranges I'll add one too

Add a bit more water, but be careful not to fill even to half way. Once you ease in the chicken the water will rise a by a lot

a couple of bay leaves

Then fill the rest of the pot with cold water once you've got the chicken submerged.

I buy my whole chickens at Costco, they come in two to a bag. Usually on Saturday morning I pull one out of the deep freezer, and put it in the pot to brine totally frozen. By Sunday afternoon its perfectly defrosted/brined and ready to roast in the oven after I've trimmed it up.

I also use the lemons from the brine to finish squeezing over the top and put them in the cavity while it roasts.

kelly.8875
Posted: 3/17/2014 12:28:21 PM
Take your time when baking. Unless it's a recipe you know by heart and have made a million times or more.

Read the instructions all the way through before you start, so you have some sense of the time and steps it will take.

Practice, practice, practice. Perfect your own recipes. I have spent a lot of time to get me cookies right. What works for you, may not for others, vice versa. I like margarine in my cookies, which to the Peas is a huge no-no...but when the same recipe is made with butter, they aren't good. I also do NOT refrigerate my cookie dough...I don't like how they bake then.

Don't be afraid to make something and have it be horrible, lol. Experimentation will only cost you the time and ingredients. Take that recipe, and tweak it for the next time...keep doing it until it's what YOU like.

I am making cinnamon rolls from scratch today for the first time ever...it's been fun to go through all the steps. The agony is in the waiting between rises. But they're 5 min from coming out of the oven now, and the morning wait is totally worth it


Regina Phalange
Posted: 3/17/2014 12:29:43 PM
I came up with an alternative to using "cream of" soups in recipes. I make a simple garlic cream sauce and use it instead.

8 oz. cream cheese, cold, cut into chunks
3 T butter
1/2 - 1 cup milk (depending on how thick you'd like the sauce to be)
2-4 cloves of garlic, grated (depending on how much you garlic flavor you prefer)

melt butter on medium heat and add garlic and let it cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add chunks of cream cheese and whisk until melted. Add milk a little at a time until you get the consistency you like.

(You can also make an alfredo sauce from this by adding 3/4 - 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese)


This brings me to another tip that I learned from Rachel Ray. Instead of mincing garlic (it always sticks to the knife and I never get small enough pieces) use a microplaner and grate the garlic cloves. It creates really tiny pieces/strips of garlic that make it easier to work the garlic into the recipe.

Restless Spirit
Posted: 3/17/2014 2:13:50 PM
I'll just echo what GrinningCat said:

1) Read your recipe all the way through before cooking.

2) And then read it again.

3) If it's a new recipe I've never made before and need to omit or substitute items, I usually work from a print-off from the internet or copy the page from the cookbook on my home printer so I can make notes on the recipe so I know what I changed for future reference.

3) Before you start, gather all of your ingredients (as well as the bowls, pans, etc you need) on the counter. Place the ingredients in the order you will use them. For beginning cooks or recipes with a lot of small amounts of ingredients (such as spices), pre-measure the amounts into small glass prep bowls. They are inexpensive and very handy to have in the kitchen.

4) Once again, for future reference, I will a "rate" new recipe. I make notes about what was good and what needs to be or could be changed the next time I make it. Often this might be something simple like oven temperature, length of time to cook, adding, reducing or omitting an ingredient.

5) If the recipe is a loser, toss it or make a note in your cookbook not to use it again! Clearly, not all recipes are for all people. Just because someone else loves it, doesn't mean your family will. (Ask me how I know this. ha)

SabrinaP
Posted: 3/17/2014 6:57:37 PM
Roll out sugar cookies using powdered sugar instead of flour. Makes a great difference!

Maryland
Posted: 3/17/2014 7:29:57 PM
I try to empty the dishwasher before cooking so I can fill it up as soon as I finish cooking. If I can't fit all the stuff in (which happens all the time), I rinse the dishes so they are ready for the next dishwasher cycle. I never wash by hand.

My husband's tip is clean as you go. My tip is clean when you finish! It takes me too long to clean as I go.

I always have rice, noodles and Hormel canned chili on hand. It's easy to make when you don't feel like cooking! And rice is so easy and good!

Spongemom Scrappants
Posted: 3/17/2014 7:46:16 PM

I keep extra butter (real butter) in the freezer. And occasionally I find I need some of that butter that is still frozen. I simply grate it using a regular grater and that makes it easy to incorporate into whatever I'm making without having to wait for it to thaw.

littlefish
Posted: 3/17/2014 8:13:54 PM
One I learned this weekend: tall cookie dough stacks on the cookie sheet result in thicker cookies. The ones I made this weekend looked like snowmen on the cookie sheet but they were thick and chewy and amazing!

Miss Ang
Posted: 3/18/2014 6:35:44 AM
One thing that I see less experienced cooks doing is stirring ingredients so agressively that the food gets destroyed. Most often, fold the ingredients instead of just stirring them.

Insert spoon/spatula at the side of the bowl before starting to mix. Scrape down the side of the pan/bowl all the way to the bottom and lift the ingredients up to the top. Repeat. All the way around the pan/bowl until ingredients are mixed.

If my sister makes macaroni and cheese the pasta is all broken. If my sister makes green beans, they look like they have been sat on. She never quite mastered the gentle handling of food.

Pasta: Do not cook until soft, it will be mushy. It should still have a "bite" to it.


Perumbula
Posted: 3/18/2014 11:19:49 AM
When softening butter, don't use the microwave on full power. Use the power level settings. Do 20-30% power in 20 second increments and flip the butter between settings. Remember you will probably have to tell the microwave to use 20% every time. It will soften perfectly.

You can also warm up eggs with the same method. Break the eggs in to a cup and then warm on 20% power in short bursts.

My microwave has a soften setting that will soften refrigerated butter perfectly. You might want to see if yours has one of those.

Get a scale. All purpose flour weighs 5oz per cup. It will change your baking for the better. If you are writing recipes for a blog or website, please use a scale to determine your flour amounts. It's so annoying to try a recipe from a website and find it doesn't work because the writer measures things differently than the standard.