If you
use a food processor or blender to chop dried fruit, freeze the fruit first. It will be
less sticky and easier to chop.
Instead
of salting gravy, enrich both the gravy's color and flavor by using a little soy sauce.
Bacon
strips won't stick together if you roll up the package like a jellyroll before opening it.
Soup too
thin? Prick a baking potato several times, wrap in a paper towel and microwave 5 minutes
at 100% power until soft. Peel, mash and add the potato into soup.
To
prevent boil-overs, apply a thin coat of cooking oil around the top of the inside of pots.
To keep
a bowl steady while you mix or whip ingredients, place it on a dampened cloth.
For
uniform pancakes, use measuring cups designed for dry ingredients (a 1/4-cup medium-size,
1/3-cup for big ones). Grease the cups inside and out so the batter will slip out easily.
To keep the batter from dripping en route to the griddle, scrape the bottom of the measure
on the rim of the mixing bowl.
When a
sauce curdles, follow this procedure: Remove pan from heat and plunge into a pan of cold
water to stop the cooking process. Beat sauce vigorously or pour into a blender and
process until the sauce is smooth.
When ice
cream is rock-hard, dip the scoop in hot water to make scooping easier.
To chop
or grind nuts fine in a food processor without turning them into nut butter, add 2 or more
tablespoons sugar from the recipe.
You can
easily adjust the position of your holiday gelatin mold or fancy frozen bombe on its
platter by slightly wetting the platter before you unmold.
Always
cook pasta in salted water, but don't add the salt until the water boils. You'll need 2
tablespoons of coarse (kosher) salt for 1 pound of pasta. Salted water has a higher
boiling point, so will take longer. Taste the pasta to determine if it is done. Perfectly
cooked pasta should be "al dente," or firm to the bite, yet cooked through.
Another
advantage to cooking pasta al dente is that it preserves some of the vitamins and minerals
that are lost into the cooking water with longer cooking times.
If the
pasta is to be used as part of a dish that requires further cooking, undercook the pasta
by 1/3 of the cooking time specified on the package.
The only
time you should rinse pasta after draining is when you are going to use it in a cold dish,
or when you are not going to sauce and serve it immediately. In those cases, rinse the
pasta under cold water to stop the cooking process, and drain well.
For
perfectly clean-cut slices of cheesecake, briefly run a thin-bladed slicing knife through
an open flame, then cut. Wipe the blade and reheat between cuts.
You can
thicken soup without using flour and butter or eggs — just purée a portion of the
soup and stir it back into the pot.
