Cooking is a vital skill that everyone should have. But it doesn’t always come easily to everyone. So below are a few tips that’ve been accumulated to help you become a better cook. With these tips, you won’t have to worry about producing a meal that nobody wants to eat again.
Preparation is a very important part of cooking. You want to make sure you have every item you might need. You also want to make sure you have all the supplies you might need. You don’t want to be in the middle of a dish and find out you are missing something important.
Flouring the baking pan is called for by lots of recipes. It is necessary for the baking, but leaves an unattractive white coating on the side of the cake. Change the recipe a little and use dry cake mix instead of flour. The unattractive white residue from the side of the cake will disappear.
Apples are used in cooking mostly during the fall, but you must make sure they are properly kept so that they do not rot. Warm, dry air will make apples rot, so keep them in the fridge or cellar in plastic bags. You’ll want to monitor them, though, because if one goes bad, it can cause the all the others to spoil also.
Always use the freshest ingredients you can find for your cooking. Fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood all taste better when they are fresh. Besides better taste, fresh ingredients are usually healthier than pre-packaged, canned or frozen ones. Fresh foods have superior nutritional content and lack the unhealthy additives found in packaged foods.
To maintain a vegetable’s quality, cook it quickly. Vegetables that are slowly and thoroughly cooked, are less tasty and nutritious than vegetables that are cooked briefly. These methods usually create healthier vegetables. You should only cook them just as long as it takes for them to be done.
When heating oil on the stove top to use for frying, use a low setting and slowly turn the burner up to reach the desired temperature. Most foods do not require much more than 350 degrees, for the oil to fry it to a nice golden brown and not end up burnt to a crisp on the outside, while raw on the inside. If you crank the temperature setting knob to its highest point, you not only run the risk of spattering and burning yourself, as well as the food you are trying to fry, but you are also wasting time while you wait for the oil to cool down enough to use. Oil heats up quickly, but it is very slow to cool down, once it has gotten too hot.
These are only a fraction of the tips that’re out there to help you become a better cook. Hopefully you’ve learned some valuable information and are on your way to becoming a great cook. Even if you’re only cooking for yourself, it’s always nice to be able to make a good tasting meal!