Cooking Secrets

If you add too much salt to a soup or stew, drop in a raw potato and boil for 5 minutes. When you remove the potato, the overt salty taste will be gone

When making soup, to absorb the grease that settles to the top, place a leaf of lettuce on the top of soup while cooking. Remove when it has done its job

Add a little vinegar to the water when an egg cracks during boiling. It will help seal the egg.

Sprinkle a little salt in your frying pan before cooking to keep the grease from splattering.

For lighter fritter batter, substitute an equal amount of club soda or beer instead of liquid called for.

Butter the rim of a pan in which you cook rice or macaroni so it won't boil over.

"Dredging" in flour is simply when you lightly coat food (meat or fish) with flour in preparation for frying or sautéing. After dredging it in the flour, lightly shake off the excess and proceed with the recipe. You should dredge your ingredients just before you are ready to cook them. Dredging is not the same as breading.

Spray a bit of non-stick spray on your grater before shredding cheese. It prevents the cheese from sticking to the blade. 

Never have rice boil over again. Put amount of rice and recommended amount of water in a roaster, cover put in cold oven-turn oven to 350F and 25 minutes later, you have perfect rice with no mess and almost no sticking to the roaster. Try it-it really works.

A marinade should completely cover the food. If needed, weigh the food down by placing a plate on top of it.

Quickly discard marinade that was used for raw meat. You don't want someone dipping into the marinade after it's been used!

A "stick" of butter or margarine weighs 4 oz and is 1/2 cup US. Each 1/4 cup or half stick butter or margarine in US recipes weighs about 50 g. There are 8 tablespoons in 1/4 pound butter

Cook the low-fat way, rather than frying -- broil, roast on a rack, back or steam poultry, meat or fish.

Cut the Fat: removing fat from homemade soup with a paper towel or skimming it is a messy and slow process. Simply add three or four ice cubes and the fat will congeal around them so you can remove it with a spoon. You may need to reheat a little when you are done.

To avoid a mess when cooking thick soups: Pureed soups and other thick soups tend to splatter when they bubble. Protect your stovetop by using a splatter screen or by partially covering the pan with a lid. Or loosely cover the pan with foil that has been punctured in a number of places so that steam can escape.

To encourage soup to cook more quickly: Cut ingredients into small pieces.

To stretch a pot of soup that is slightly short for your number of guests: Serve it in wide shallow soup bowls. They can only hold a ladle of two.

Pasta: To Rinse or Not to Rinse?  The only time you should rinse pasta is after draining, when you plan to use it in a cold dish, or when you are not going to use sauce and plan to serve it immediately. In those cases, rinse the pasta under cold water to stop the cooking process, and drain well.

Cooking Pasta:  Boil water till it bubbles...shut fire off...place pasta in pan stir once to separate ....cover....set timer for 20 minutes...after 5 minutes stir again then cover ..... wait till timer goes off...perfect each and every time...

To rescue a burning stew:  Immediately pour the stew into a new pot. Do not scrape any of the burned stew from the bottom of the first pot. If necessary, add more liquid to the new pot

Don't EVER bother boiling corn again!!!!  Save the nutrients, flavor and time.  Toss corn, husks, silks & all, into the microwave, 3 min. per ear on high.  Let sit for a couple of minutes.  Handle carefully with a couple of kitchen mitts.  Stand next to trash can, peel off husks and silks in one sweep each side.  Butter and enjoy!  You will be amazed at the difference!