I've learned a lot of things from my mother and the cookbooks that I've been given. Now, I'd like to share some of these helpful hints for storing/preparing food:
Fish:
Place a layer of celery and onions under fish when baking. Besides adding flavor, it will prevent the fish from sticking.
When trussing poultry, use unwaxed and unflavored dental floss. It won't burn.
Rub both sides of a burger with water before grilling. It will make the burger juicier.
Add some cold water to the bottom of the broiling pan before cooking. It will cut down on smoke and grease from the meat and make clean up easier.
You can make individual servings of meatloaf by using muffin tins. Remember that cooking time will also change.
Meatloaf won't stick to the pan if you put a slice of uncooked bacon in the bottom before baking.
Dipping bacon in cold water before cooking will cut down on it's curling up.
To seperate frozen bacon, heat the spatula under HOT water, bacon will seperate easily.
When making gravy from pan drippings, pour it into a tall, narrow jar. The grease will rise to the top for easy skimming and fat free gravy making.
Add a pinch of instant coffee to gravy that is too pale.
Try browning flour well before adding the liquid when making gravy. It will not turn lumpy or be too pale.
You can also brown the flour for gravy by placing it in a custard cup or other oven safe dish and putting it next to the meat in the oven as it cooks. When the meat is done the flour will be browned.
You can also brown your gravy with a little "Kitchen Bouquet".
If gravy is too thin, gradually add a paste mixture of cornstarch and water, stirring constantly.
Rinse cooked pasta under HOT water to prevent stickiness.
Rubbing a bit of oil inside of the cooking pot before adding water and pasta will prvent boil overs.
Egg whites won't run when poaching if you add a bit of vinegar to the water first.
Extra large eggs used in recipes may cause cakes to fall when cooling.
Egg shells come off of hard cooked eggs more easily if briefly rinsed in cold water, first.
To get hard boiled eggs with centered yolks, stir them gently as they boil.
If you've forgotten which eggs you've hard cooked and which are raw, give them a spin. Hard boiled eggs will spin quickly. Raw eggs will wobble and spin slowly.
You can also save yourself the egg confusion by adding food coloring to the boiling water when making hard cooked eggs.
For fluffier omelets, add a pinch of cornstarch before beating.
To reduce the mold on cheese, store in an air tight container with a few sugar cubes.
A light coating of butter on the exposed ends of cheese will reduce drying out.
Use pretzel sticks instead of toothpicks when serving cubes of cheese.
Cream will whip up more quickly if your bowl, beaters and cream are chilled.
To keep whipped cream from seperating, add 1/4 t of unflavored geletin per C of cream.
Soften frozen or extra hard butter for recipes by using a grater.
Soften hard butter for spreading by inverting a HEATED BOWL over it for a few minutes.
Similarily, run the measuring spoon under HOT water before measuring shortening or tub butter. It will slide right out.
Ripen green fruit in a perforated plastic bag. The bag lets the air circulate but holds in the gases for ripening.
Freeze over-ripe bananas for later use in coffee cakes and breads.
Warm a lemon in the oven slightly and you'll get more of the juice out of it.
Create a delicious applesauce with sliced apples and a can of Fresca cooked in a sauce pan.(no sugar needed)
The syrup from canned fruit (2 C) can make a good coffee cake topping when combined with 1 T of lemon juice and 1 T of butter. Heat until bubbly and thicken with 2 T flour or cornstarch.
Don't add sugar to stewed fruit until they've cooked for about 10 minutes. Less sugar will be needed, then.
Adding a pinch of salt to sour fruit, when cooking, will cut down on the amount or sugar needed.
Keep sliced apples, bananas, pears and other fruit from discoloring by coating them with orange juice or diluted lemon juice.
Soaking peeled apples in cold water with a pinch of salt added will also cut down on browning.
You could also get ride of the extra salt by adding raw, uncooked potatoes and discard them aafter they've cooked and removed the salt.
If you've over-sweetened the veggies, add teaspoon of cider vinegar.
A lettuce leaf dropped onto the top of a pot of homemade soup will absorb the excess grease.
If you cook the soup in advance. Put a sheet of waxed paper on top of it in the refrigerator. It'll peel off along with the hardened fat.
Lettuce and celery will keep longer in the refigerator, stored in a paper bag.
If fresh veggies are wilted or blemished, pick off brown spots and sprinkle with cold water. Wrap in a paper towel and refrigerate for about an hour.
To easily remove a lettuce core, pound the core on the counter. It should twist and remove easily.
Potatoes will bake more quickly if preboiled in salted water for 10 minutes.
A thin slice taken off the ends of potatoes will also reduce baking time.
You'll shed fewer tears if you cut the root end off of the onion last.
You can also put the onion in the freezer for 4 to 5 minutes before slicing to create fewer tears.
To speed up ripening of avacados and tomatoes, place in a brown paper bag at room temperature for a few days.
A damp paper towel or cloth brushed downward on an ear of corn will remove the silk.
Marinate carrot sticks in dill pickle juice for a different flavor.
If your brown sugar has turned into a rock, grate the amount you need.
Then, place a slice of soft bread in a sealed container with the rock-hard brown sugar. It should soften in a few hours. Remove the bread and seal the sugar in an air-tight bag or container.
Muffins will slide right out of the baking tin if you set it on a wet towel first (but I still prefer muffin liners).
Rinse a pan in cold water before scalding milk. Then it won't stick to the pan.
To keep sticky liquids from sticking to the measuring cups or spoons, lightly coat them first with a bit of oil. Rinse in Hot water
It is easier to center a geletin mold, when unmolding, if you wet the serving dish first.
Add a teaspoon of cornstarch to the sugar before beating it into the egg whites and your meringue won't "weep".
To cut the meringue without it sticking to the knife, lightly coat it with butter.
When storing a meringue pie, coat the plastic wrap with butter. It won't stick.
If you turn the oven off after the meringue is brown, and leave the door ajar, the pie cools more slowly, preventing te meringue from cracking.
If you don't want to worry about remembering a cake plate at a carry-in dinner, save the cardboard from under frozen pizzas and wrap them in foil.
To keep chocolate cakes brown, dust the pans with cocoa powder instead of flour.
Add a layer of mini marshmallows before pouring in the pumpkin pie mixture. It will make a nice topping as it rises to the top during baking.
Use milk instead of water when making pie crust. It will never be hard or dry.
If granulated sugar is lumpy, place it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
To keep fresh baked cookies soft in the cookie jar, keep a fresh piece of bread in with it.
To test if baking powder is still effective... place 1 t in a cup of water...if it bubbles, it's still good.
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