5 really useful cooking tips
Cooking is about recipes, of course, but it is also an impressive collection of small gestures, ways of doing things, knowing what to do and what not to do.
All these little tips and tricks can be very important: they can affect the way a recipe turns out, simply because you did just the right thing at the right time.
I'm starting here with a series of 5 very effective tips. I hope they will help make life – and cooking – easier for you…
All these little tips and tricks can be very important: they can affect the way a recipe turns out, simply because you did just the right thing at the right time.
I'm starting here with a series of 5 very effective tips. I hope they will help make life – and cooking – easier for you…
22 K 4.9/5 (15 reviews)
Last modified on: March 29th 2016
5 really useful cooking tips
1) When melting butter, cut it into small pieces first
Don't:
When you put butter to melt in a hot pan, it is easy just to put in the required weight as a whole lump, without thinking.This is not the way to do it, as a large lump of butter will start to melt around the outside. It will then start to burn before the middle has even melted.
Do:
It is better to cut the butter into small pieces before putting it in the pan. Then it will melt more evenly without burning.
2) Don't try to pick out a bit of eggshell with your fingers
When breaking eggs for an omelette, sometimes a bit of eggshell falls into the bowl.Don't:
It is no use trying to catch it with your fingers – the viscosity of the egg white makes this almost impossible.
Do:
Take a broken half shell and use this like a spoon to pick out the small piece of eggshell – you'll find it works very well.
3) Pastry in a flat cake, rather than a ball
Don't:
Although many recipes tell you to do it, you should NOT gather sweetcrust or shortcrust into a ball. When cooled, it becomes brittle in a ball and tends to crack.
Do:
Gather the pastry into a large flattish cake. This will be much easier to roll out after it has been refrigerated.
4) Grill your bacon
Don't:
When cooking bacon, avoid frying the rashers in a pan as they will shrink and become tough.
Do:
Cook them under the grill on a wire grid to allow the excess fat to drain off.
5) Squeeze a lemon over your hand
Don't
When adding lemon juice to a recipe, it is easiest just to squeeze half a lemon over the pan or bowl.But this is how we end up with pips in the recipe, which is not what we want.
Do:
Squeeze the lemon with one hand, holding the other hand underneath to strain out any pips that fall. Hold your fingers just far enough apart to let the juice flow through, but not the pips.Lasts posts
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...August 8th 20253095
Add a bay leaf
Bay leaf: small in size, but big in flavor. You'll find it in hundreds of recipes, and it's often added to cooking meat, in a sauce or broth, usually accompanied by other herbs or products. It's a staple of Provençal, Mediterranean and Oriental cuisine, but not the only one. Usually, in a...July 31th 20251,0945
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?July 28th 20251,106 13
A drizzle of olive oil
Often in a recipe, you have to "baste" vegetables, for example, before sending them to the oven. What the author means by this is that you need to put oil on top of the vegetables to cook them in the oven. Typically, we just quickly drizzle oil over the vegetables, hoping not to miss any, but...July 13th 20251,3455
Always secure your cutting board
When using a cutting board, it's very important that it's stable and doesn't move while you're cutting, for safety's sake. Boards have a natural tendency to slide on the work surface, but here are 2 ways to block them effectively.July 1st 20251,4205
Other pages you may also like
Steam for baking bread
What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...June 16th 2021141 K4.5
The march forward
When professionals get to work in their kitchen, lab or bakery, they are (if they are conscientious) very sensitive to hygiene and cleanliness. It is impossible for a good baker for example to do a day's work without regularly cleaning the table where he or she works, and it is even more...June 30th 202117 K5
Cooking time for pasta
What is as good and simple as pasta? Not much, I think, and it's so easy to prepare: boiling water, salted (or not, depending on your taste), a few minutes of boiling and it's ready. The only "difficulty", so to speak, is the respect of the cooking time and the risk of, unfortunately, overcooking...July 18th 201921 K4.6
Croutons
Do you use croutons, that typically French trick of toasting small pieces of bread on the side to add to a recipe? They're just delicious, but you need to know 2 or 3 things about them. .December 30th 20207,6065
The "pith" of the cauliflower
When using cauliflower in a recipe, there is a lot of preparation work at the beginning: removing the leaves, taking the tops or florets, etc. It's a bit tedious, but in the end you're left with the best of the cauliflower, ready to be used in your recipe.February 5th 202211 K4.9
Post a comment or question
Follow this page (as 2 people already do)
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.