Is cooking becoming a boring chore? Cooking is a task that should be enjoyable, and not one that you dread. In this article, you’ll find a collection of great tips that will help take the stress out of making meals. After you put the information from this article to good use, you will undoubtedly wish that you’d come across it sooner.
If you want to eat well and lose weight, it’s a good idea to decrease the amount of oil you use in cooking. Butters and oils frequently contain unnecessary fats. Replace them with a nonstick cooking spray and you won’t notice the difference.
Keep all dried spices in a dark space that stays room temperature. Their flavors are weakened significantly by things like heat, light and humidity. When stored correctly, your spices can stay spicy for up to a year. Whole spices can retain flavor for about three or five years. If you keep them correctly, they will last a lot longer.
When cut and exposured to the air, many fruits will turn brown. Apples, bananas, pears and avocados are good examples of fruits that brown after being cut. Dipping the fruit in a mixture of salt water and lemon will help to stop the fruit from browning. Cut fruits can also be dipped in pineapple juice for a similar effect. Quickly dipping the fruit will be sufficient. There is no reason to soak it for expended periods of time.
Rather than using water or milk in a specific recipe, try a different liquid to add a new flavor. Use chicken broth, beef stock or vegetable broth instead. Use yogurt, buttermilk or sour cream in place of milk. Mixing up the base of your sauces and soups is a great way to liven up old recipes.
Sometimes when someone’s grilling a hamburger, it will get stuck to the grill which makes it difficult to get off the grill. To prevent this in the future, brush a bit of vegetable oil onto the grates before adding the food.
If you’ve made a big pot of sauce, freeze the leftovers by pouring the extra sauce into ice cube trays. For a quick and easy sauce on another night, simply remove as many cubes as you need and reheat in a pan. Don’t worry; the sauce will taste delicious after being frozen in an ice cube tray!
Before preparing any sort of dish, you must ensure that your utensils are clean. Any leftover food residue can ruin the food you are preparing. This can allow harmful bacteria to spread.
Cooking pumpkins requires a few steps that are necessary. First, you must make sure it is standing upright. Second, you must cut it evenly in half by cutting down the middle. Place them on an ungreased baking pan with the cut side down. Sprinkle some water on the sheets and bake the pumpkin for about an hour at 350 degrees.
Changing the sauces and spices you cook with will break you out of eating the same thing day in and day out. Because these things flavor your food so much, changing them drastically alters the taste. An often overlooked and easy way to get some interesting spices and sauces is to shop at foreign food stores in your area.
When cooking, it is always a good idea to get a little creative. Following a recipe word for word and teaspoon for teaspoon is not always what cooking is about. In some cases by making little modifications to the recipe here and there will result in a dish that is tastier than if you had used the original recipe. That’s the true indication of a skilled chef!
Cooking for your family can seem like a little too much sometimes. That said, there are many ways to make cooking for your family less of a hassle. With these tips, you can make fixing a good meal a snap.