Kitchen Tips and Hints

Our List of Helpful Hints for the Kitchen and Cooking : Useful Tricks and Best Ideas to Help the Home Cook .

1. Tongs are your kitchen friend – good for handling all kinds of food, not just meats. I love to use tongs for serving big salads instead of a salad fork and spoon set.
2. Forming meatballs so they don’t fall apart, here’s how: – wet hands, then roll each ball between your hands for a minute.
3. How to separate eggs the old-fashioned way, using the eggshell itself! Get two small bowls, then crack your egg in half (careful to keep the egg-shell halves intact) – toggle the egg yolk back and forth between the two halves while the egg white drips into one bowl. When separated, use the second bowl to hold the yolk.
4. Save the wrapping paper off butter sticks to use later for buttering/greasing pans.
5. Clean as you go! You’ll enjoy the meal you are preparing more in the end if you don’t have to face a big mess.
6. Get a set of pinch bowls/prep bowls (or you could use a muffin tin) to hold the different herbs and small amounts of ingredients needed in your recipe. Then as you cook, each item you need is already measured and ready to go!
7. My latest trick – use a fork instead of a toothpick to hold a sandwich together. Then the fork can be used to eat your side dish (or help with a messy sandwich).
8. Save chicken innards and scraps in bags in the freezer to use later for making homemade chicken broth. Always use homemade chicken broth instead of canned for better flavor when cooking.
9. Reheating in the oven tip : put the food to be reheated in a baking pan, then use your fingers to sprinkle a wee bit of water around the food – cover your pan with foil. This keeps moisture inside the pan and the reheated food from getting too dry. (Probably not good for foods you want to keep crispy).
10. Do use cast iron pans; every kitchen should have one big cast iron frying pan! Don’t clean your cast iron with soap.
11. For an impromptu cooking rack for roasting meat – cut some thick slices of onion and place meat on top.
12. To defrost a package of frozen meat quickly, run cool water over it until defrosted.
13. I like to use my potato peeler to peel thin slices of Parmesan Cheese for pasta or salad toppings.
14. Save wine corks to use on the ends of cooking skewers or sharp things that go in your kitchen drawers – will keep you and your family from getting poked.
15. Be sure to have a pair of kitchen scissors that are only used for cutting food. I like to cut herbs with scissors – you can also use scissors to cut pizza slices!