What are your cooking or baking "tricks?"

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

danbuter

Senior Cook
Joined
Aug 12, 2011
Messages
350
Location
Pennsylvania
Do you have any little tricks you use while cooking or baking that make life easier, or make the food turn out better than it might? I love little tips like that.

My own:
When baking cookies or other things on a flat sheet, I put aluminum foil down on the sheet and the cookie dough on top of it. Makes for very easy clean-up and provides a slightly non-stick surface.
 
I use parchment paper for baked goods. It provides a very non-stick surface and is also good for easy clean up.

Cookies made with butter tend to spread out and bake flat. If you chill the dough and keep it chilled until it goes on the cookie sheets, the cookies will bake up thicker.
 
Another way to get thicker, more soft cookies, is to cut the fat by half and add a tbs. or so of water to the recipe.

Cooking with stainless steel can be virtually stick free, if you heat the pan without any fat in it. When the pan is hot, then add the oil. Food will slide around on the cooking surface with ease, and still brown beautifully.

Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North
 
I use parchment paper for baked goods. It provides a very non-stick surface and is also good for easy clean up.

Cookies made with butter tend to spread out and bake flat. If you chill the dough and keep it chilled until it goes on the cookie sheets, the cookies will bake up thicker.

I totally agree. I was amazed at the difference between cookies that came from chilled dough and cookies that came from room temp dough.

One of my favorite tips is after frying something in a cast iron pan or a stainless steel pan, in order to make clean up easier, slowly add hot water to the pan after you remove the food but while it's still hot. Same principle as deglazing a pan for making gravy.

Another tip, if you are trying to figure out what spices to use with something, smell whatever you're going to season and then smell the spice you're thinking about using. If it smells good together it will probably taste good together too. Not foolproof, but a good starting point and less risky than just randomly picking something and adding it (cause, um, I've never randomly picked something and added it :rolleyes:). :mrgreen:
 
When you start a cooking or baking project fill the sink with hot sudsy water and clean as you go. When I started out I had to do this because I only had one bowl, spoon, knife etc... now it is a habit.
 
Cake and cookie baking tips.
Tip 1 Lick the bowl.
Tip 2 Lick the spoons
Tip 3 Lick your hands.
Water conservation is very very tasty:)
 
Cake and cookie baking tips.
Tip 1 Lick the bowl.
Tip 2 Lick the spoons
Tip 3 Lick your hands.
Water conservation is very very tasty:)

:LOL: In my house it's
Tip 1 Lick the bowl while the hubby isn't looking.
Tip 2 Give the spoon to the hubby and when he protests about the bowl tell him I didn't share the bowl because I needed to taste test to make sure it was good enough for him and it took until the bowl was finished to be sure. :angel:
Tip 3 Let hubby lick off my fingertip :angel:
Yes, water conservation is tasty indeed.
 
As someone already mentioned, I always have a sink of hot soapy water at the ready when I'm cooking. I also have multiple sets of measuring spoons and measuring cups, which, in the end, saves me time as I'm cooking. Actually, the most time-saving and mess-free device in my kitchen is my electronic kitchen scale. I couldn't cook without mine. I can make a whole batch of cookies and only dirty up the bowl they're mixed in and the spoon or beaters used to mix them.
 
I really do need to get a scale. I'm starting to bake regularly (mainly cookies) and it seems a scale would be extra useful.
 
When cutting meat into strips do so when it's still partially frozen, it cuts evenly and it's much easier.

Making crepe batter with sparkling water instead of still will make lighter crepes.

Soak raw cut fries in ice cold water and pat dry before frying for crispier fries.

Line crisper drawer in fridge with paper toweling to keep veggies fresh for longer. The toweling will absorb moisture and should just be replaced when damp or dirty.

Adding a splash of W/sauce to ground beef while browning will help brown the meat faster.

Add a few marbles to your water in a double boiler. When the water level gets too low the marbles will rattle and warn you to top it up.

Add one or two raw peeled potatoes to a casserole or stew if you over salted it by mistake. The potatoes will absorb the salt as they cook. Remove and throw the potatoes out when done.

Check eggs for freshness by placing them in a large bowl of water. Rotten eggs will float and fresh will sink.

If you a baking something that calls for buttermilk and you don't have any just add a tbs of lemon juice to fresh milk and allow to sour for 15mins and use that instead.

Heat lemons for 20 seconds in the microwave to get more juice out.
 
>>potato removes salt

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f17/potatoes-will-not-make-a-soup-taste-less-salty-25085.html

>>Adding a splash of W/sauce to ground beef while browning will help brown the meat faster.
I can make red meat brown with a crayon.
adding water will not assist in creating a brown crust - the dreaded M thing - on meat -water absorbs huge amounts of heat as it boils off and does not permit the pan temperature to get sufficiently over the water boiling point to "brown" meat.
 
Actually, older eggs float. They aren't necessarily rotten. The white shrinks a bit, leaving more air in the shell.
 
Last edited:
>>potato removes salt

http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f17/potatoes-will-not-make-a-soup-taste-less-salty-25085.html

>>Adding a splash of W/sauce to ground beef while browning will help brown the meat faster.
I can make red meat brown with a crayon.
adding water will not assist in creating a brown crust - the dreaded M thing - on meat -water absorbs huge amounts of heat as it boils off and does not permit the pan temperature to get sufficiently over the water boiling point to "brown" meat.

Firstly adding W/sauce to ground beef to brown may be a cheats method but it's tastes a whole lot better than crayon I assure you. Personally I don't like cooking ground beef within an inch of it's life since it ends up dry.

The potato method may be an old wives tale and obviously if you've added a ton of salt there will be no rescue remedy but I have found slightly salty dishes do benefit from this and it has worked for me.
 
If ur going to cook onion u can put salt to prevent any burnings of the onion
 
I use parchment paper for baked goods. It provides a very non-stick surface and is also good for easy clean up.

Cookies made with butter tend to spread out and bake flat. If you chill the dough and keep it chilled until it goes on the cookie sheets, the cookies will bake up thicker.

I also use parchment paper. Love the stuff!

Thanks for the cool trick, (no pun intended)!

I love homemade cookies and have never heard this one!
 
Do you have any little tricks you use while cooking or baking that make life easier, or make the food turn out better than it might? I love little tips like that.

My own:
When baking cookies or other things on a flat sheet, I put aluminum foil down on the sheet and the cookie dough on top of it. Makes for very easy clean-up and provides a slightly non-stick surface.


ditto, i use the non stick foil and make sure the non stick surface is the one up. saves a lot of time and makes it very easy to remove the cookies. i transfer the foil with cookies onto the cooling rack,. frees up pans for the nest batch.
 
Something I learned from a cooking show: many older recipes (and some new ones) expect eggs to be at room temperature for cooking. So, while prepping before cooking your eggs, put them in a bowl of warm water. It may improve your results.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom