Tips, Tricks, and Techniques
If you don't want butter to burn when you're trying to fry something, clarify it, which merely means take out the solids. Heat it in a pan and set it aside and as it cools the solids will rise to the top. Spoon them off, and your butter is clarified.
To save yourself the headache from one to many glasses of wine just to finish off the bottle, try freezing it in an icecube tray instead of drinking it. You can use it for sauces, etc., and many times it’s just the right amount.
In the vein of using low-cost tools for kitchen chores, when you pick up a nice new clean plastic shoehorn, use it to remove muffins from tins. They’re usually the perfect shape and size.
Did you know you can drown your shellfish? If you want to hold shellfish until you’re ready to cook, place mussels and clams on a bed of ice, not submerged in ice water. They won’t open when cooked, and you won’t know how long ago they expired. If you drown them, all will have to be discarded.
You want to know how to properly set a table? Check this site out!
I spend a lot of time in the shop as we have 25 acres to maintain, and often times find my shop tools cross-over to the kitchen. A rubber mallet works fine to tenderize meat. Some fancy, kitchen-expensive, tools are easily replaced with much less expensive shop items. Fancy molds for salads and other dishes, for instance, are replaced with pvc joints that cost 1/3 the price and clean up nicely in the dishwasher. And you can buy almost any size. Be inventive and creative in the kitchen...and thrifty if you want.
Has your cooking rack taken a hike. I have trouble keeping a roast rack that doesn’t rust and quickly go to the devil. Forget it, rack your chicken or roast up out of the drippings by using a couple of carrots or potatoes, an edible rack. Or use a burner grate off your stovetop...of course it’ll need cleaning, but the carrots or potatoes can be eaten along with the meat!
Dealing with the bountiful bean? Soaking beans overnight is the traditional way to pre-prepare them for cooking, but when I’m in a hurry I use canned beans and wash away all the fat stuff they’re cooked in. Or you can soak a lot of beans well ahead of time, and freeze them after they’re softened.
Are the briquettes in your bbq not lighting fast enough to suit you. Grab the hair dryer to add a little breeze to the problem.
Other kitchen and chow-down tips to make cooking and eating easier and more fun....
My good friend Dr. Ed Fischer taught me not to be such a prude while eating corn on the cob. He put a cube of butter in a flat saucer on the table, and passed it to each guest who spun the cob on the cube, a quick, even, and easy way to cover your corn on the cob with a delicious coating.
Before you enjoy it, you’ve got to husk it. And make it easier by cutting the ends oft the cob, husk on, back an inch or so from each end. The husk and silk fall away easily.
Each week more kitchen tips will be posted, so check back regularly!
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