Cook vegetables with one or more bouillon cubes instead of saltimproves flavor. Tossing in a few garlic cloves when boiling vegetables makes things tastier too.. Place crackers, dried bread, cookies or sugar which has lumps in a sturdy plastic bag (make sure it has no holes). Roll with a rolling pin or fruit jar as coarse or as fine as you like then pour into a measuring container. If you have more than you need at the time, just tie the bag and place in a pantry or freezer for later use..
For fried foods that require flouring, try pancake flour for a change, its quite nice.. Add a few sprigs of fresh peppermint to leftover tea while it is still warm, then refrigerate. Serve over ice.. To pare pineapple easily cut into rings and peel each slice separately.. Canned fruit is much better if opened and removed from the can an hour or two before using to restore the oxygen..
To liven up day old bread or rolls you can put the bread in a large bowl and place in a pot with a shallow level of boiling water. Remove from heat and cover the pot to steam the bread briefly. The bread will be warm and soft in a couple minutes. You can also use stale breads to make big batches of breadcrumbs and delicious homemade croutons..
Remove the skin. Forty percent of the fat in poultry is attached to the skin and therefore can be easily removed. This is in contrast with other meats, where the fat is dispersed throughout the meat and not so easily removed. One point, though. If you’re broiling or baking or grilling chicken, leave the skin on until you’re finished cooking; otherwise the meat will lose too much moisture and become tough. I’ve watched tests done at the Perdue Tenderness Laboratory in which they measured the tenderness of breast meat roasted with the skin and without the skin. The meat cooked with the skin retained its moisture and was startlingly more tender than the meat cooked without the skin.. If you’re really counting every single calorie, you may want to choose Cornish hens rather than the older broilers and roasters. Cornish hens and broilers are young birds and they bear the same relationship to the older roasters that veal does to beef: the younger the animal, the lower the fat content. For comparison, the white meat of a Cornish is 35 calories per ounce of cooked meat; the white meat of a broiler is 45 calories per cooked ounce..
Give the package a little squeeze. Are there signs of ice along wings, backs or edges? Frank explained to me that some chicken producers blast their birds with air as cold as -40o F, but he never does. Freezing causes a breakdown in protein, loss of natural juices, and reduced tenderness. Also, when you cook a frozen bird, the bones and nearby meat may turn an unappetizing dark color.. Notice the pull date. Most stores are scrupulous about removing chicken before the pull date expires$but sometimes there’s a slip-up..
To prevent rusting potatoes, store them along with an apple.
If you go overboard with the vinegar in the salad, place a ball of bread crumbs between the ingredients to absorb all the excess. To increase the heat, you can push coals together, add more coals or lower the grilling surface, or fan the fire and tap the ashes from the coals..
To reduce the chance of overbrowning, apply tomato- based sauces or those containing sugar or other sweeteners only during last 20 to 30 minutes of grilling..
To make breast quarters grill more quickly and evenly, cut through the wing joint to break it and bring the wing closer to the grill..
Substitute for a large egg is two tablespoons of mayonnaise.? Be sure to measure your ingredients carefully. Use metal or plastic nested cups for dry ingredients like flour and sugar, and graduated glass or plastic cups with spouts for liquids. If you use the liquid measuring cup for flour you may get an extra tablespoon or more per cup, which could make cookies hard and dry. To measure flour, lightly spoon it from the canister into the measuring cup and level it with a straight edge of a spatula or knife. Do not tap or shake the cup to level it. When measuring brown sugar, pack it firmly into the dry measuring cup so that it holds its shape when it is removed..
When boiling milk, first stir in a pinch of baking soda. This will help keep the milk from curdling.
Be sure the food coloring is completely blended so there are no “stains” on the eggs. Carefully submerge hard cooked eggs in the color bath, rotating frequently, until of desired intensity..
Make your own CELERY SALT for a fraction of what you’d pay at the store. Dry celery leaves thoroughly, crush to a powder or rub them through a sieve and mix with salt.. They will not form such a gummy mass.
If you plan to un-mold a baked custard, beat the eggs only slightly before you add them to the liquid. This will keep the custard firm when baked. (Too much beating produces a light, porous custard). For a juicy grilled hamburger, add a little cold water to the ground beef (1/4 cup to 2 pounds of meat is enough). I found this hint in some of my Mom’s notes and had forgotten that I had seen her do this many times..
To keep celery crisp, stand it up in a pitcher of cold, salted water and refrigerate. Here’s a tip for leftover whipped cream and a recipe for homemade whipped cream.
Leftover ham: Lay ham slices in a baking dish then cover with maple syrup. Never stick anything into an electric mixer or blender while it’s running.. A couple more ideas for leftover ham.
Grease the pan with a little butter before you start.
Get the biggest pot you have. Use more water than you think you need (more is better).
Do add salt. If you’re on a salt-restricted diet, use low sodium salt. Add salt to boiling water.
Visit Chicken Recipes for more information.
