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Ingredients
- For Better Browning:
- Meat will brown better if you blot any moisture off its surface. A paper towel makes a great blotter.Karen West, Duluth, GA
- Directions:
- Better Bacon:
- Dorothy Osgood, Lincoln, ME
- Flour duster:
- to a shaker container filled with flour in your kitchen for use dusting everything from meat to sauces. It’s also handy for flouring your work area when rolling out pie and pizza doughs.
- Joyce Hill, Dallas, TX
- Drip Free Gravy:
- To keep a gravy boat or cream pitcher from dripping onto the dinner table, rub a dab of butter on the pour spout. No drops on the tablecloth. This trick also works on syrup dispensers.
- Renee Rinehart, Odessa, FL
- Easy Thawing:
- to to easy way to store ground meat so that it will thaw faster when you’re ready to cook it. Put one pound of ground meat into large resealable freezer bag, then flatten it like a pancake. it stores better and thaws in half the time.
- Audry Devaty, North Olmsted, OH
- Aromatic Rice:
- to to white or brown rice, toss a few stems or leaves of fresh herb, such as basil, rosemary or thyme, in with the water before cooking. Cook rice according to package directions. The flavor of the herbs will subtly permeate the rice.
- Maria Thelma Mamaid, Dublin, CA
- Avoid Soggy Rice:
- Micky Stickas, Pawleys Island, SC
- Hands Free Meatloaf:
- If you don’t like getting your hands messy when mixing meatloaf, put the ingredients into large resealable plastic bag. Close the bag, then knead everything together until the ingredients are well mixed. Kids like helping with this, too.
- Kate Berry, Montpelier, VT
- Bamboo Skewers:
- E. Hansen, North Quincy, MA
- Skimming Fat:
- to remove excess grease from browned ground beef or sausage, blot extra fat from pan using a piece of bread. This also works for skimming fat from top of soup or chili, and it’s good for absorbing oil when cleaning the bottom of a pan.
- Kathy Driggs, Chicago, IL
- Holding Onto Flavor:
- Lee Findley, Portland, OR
- Chilly Shrimp:
- to keep shrimp cold on a buffet table, cover a frozen plastic ice pack with a cloth napkin. Set your platter of shrimp on top of the napkin. There’s no melting ice and the shrimp will stay cold for hours.
- Petty Teters, Grass Vally, CA
- Grilling Bacon:
- to you need to cook just a few pieces of bacon, try using your George foreman grill. It cooks bacon perfectly, controls splattering and the grease drips right into the drainage cup.
- Bill Harding, Chatham, IL
- Vegetable Rack:
- to of a metal roasting rack, make a grid of carrots, celery, and onions. This acts like a mirepoix to flavor the pan drippings for gravy while elevating the meat for even roasting.
- Peeling Butter:
- to to butter is too cold to spread easily, use a Y-shaped peeler to shave it off the top, like slicing cheese. You’ll get a thin strip that will soften quickly for easier spreading.
- Arline Photiades, Chicago, IL
- Storing Ice Cream:
- to to ice crystals from forming on ice cream, place a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrap directly on the surface. Press it firmly onto the ice cream so that it forms a tight seal. Cover with lid and return to the freezer.
- Katie Kyles,St. Augustine, FL
- Whipping Cream Stand In:
- Chef Chris Foltz, Bend, OR
- to Butter:
- M. Limpert, Grand Rapids, MI
- Solid Omelet:
- Cuisine Test Kitchen
- Centering Yolks in hard Cooked Eggs:
- Cuisine Test Kitchen
- Cream Shake:
- 5 you want whipped cream and don’t have electricity or a mixer, place heavy cream in a chilled glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Shake, shake, shake. Whipped ream in 5 minutes.
- Kathy Berry, Barre, VT
- Storing Cheese:
- To store a chunk of Parmesan or Romano cheese, place it in an airtight plastic container along with two or three sugar cubes. The sugar cubes absorb moisture and will prevent the cheese from getting moldy. Replace the sugar cubes when they get soggy.
- Meltem Birkegren, Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Perforating Cheese:
- Before cutting into cheese topped baked dishes such as lasagna, first perforate the pieces using a fork. This simple step helps prevent the knife from pulling the layer of cheese off the top.
- Karen E. Sunman, SaddleBrooke, AZ
- Cooling Rack Dicing:
- Becky (Bee) Conrad, West Mifflin, PA
- Zesty Cheese:
- to to to little grated cheese to top your pasta. Try using your zester. It’s easy to use and faster to clean than a box grater.
- D.B.Gonzalez, Jr, West Mifflin, PA
- Freezing Blue Cheese:
- S. S. Stansfield, Sussex, NJ.
- Color Coded Eggs:
- To distinguish between raw and hard cooked eggs, tint the water in which you boil eggs with beet juice or food coloring. The shells will pick up the color, and you won’t confuse cooked eggs with raw ones.
- Gabriel Mangino, Broomall, PA
- No Weep Meringue:
- W. Saglett, Canandaigua, NY
- Hole Some Meatloaf:
- Heather Turner, High Point, NC
- Frozen Gel Packs:
- Chilling the bowl helps cream whip faster and increases its volume. If you’re in a hurry, grab a frozen gel pack from the freezer and put it beneath the mixing bowl. The cream will whip like magic. Best of all, the packs are reusable.
- A. Persico, Bismarck< ND
- Garlic Butter in a Squeeze:
- Put cold butter and a couple of cloves of garlic into a garlic press. With just a squeeze, it makes perfectly manageable, soft garlic butter in seconds.
- Debra Lucas, Pelham, AL
- Preserving Feta:
- Kathleen Bailey, Anahola, HI