Ten Hot Tips for Correcting Cooking Mistakes

[Raine]

Ten Hot Tips for Correcting Cooking Mistakes

Practically everyone has experienced that dreadful moment in the kitchen when you're in the middle of a recipe and you reach for that next ingredient and . . . . it's not there!

Too sweet - Add a little vinegar or lemon juice.
Too salty - Add a little sugar and vinegar. For soups, add a raw potato.
Sticky rice - Rinse with warm water.
Lumpy gravy or sauce - Use a blender, food processor or simply strain.
Soup, sauce, gravy too thin - Dissolve 1 tablespoon cornstarch in 1/4 cup water and add while boiling and stirring. Repeat if necessary.
Hands smell like garlic or onion - Rinse hands under cold water while rubbing them with a large stainless steel spoon.
Hard brown sugar - Place in paper bag and microwave for a few seconds.
Really hard brown sugar - Place chunks in food processor.
Out of honey - Substitute 1 1/4 cups sugar dissolved in 1 cup water.
No tomato juice - Combine 1/2 cup catsup in 1/2 cup water.

 

[kitchenelf]

Thanks rainee 8)

 

[GB]

Great list Rainee. The only one I don't believe in is the too salty, add a potato thing.

Here is a link that will show you why I say that.

 

[mudbug]

[quote="RaineeHard brown sugar - Place in paper bag and microwave for a few seconds.[/quote]

This works. What also works is to put a slice of bread (you weren't going to eat the heel, anyway) or piece of apple in the container that you store your brown sugar in.

 

[norgeskog]

Great list Rainee. The only one I don't believe in is the too salty, add a potato thing.

Here is a link that will show you why I say that.

GB I have used that method. Also, when I am making a pot roast or stew, after I add the potatoes, and taste 30 minutes or so later, I always have to resalt.

 

[GB]

That is because you are leaving the potatoes in the finished product (I am assuming). The added food would mean you would need to add more salt. If you were just trying to remove salt by adding potatoes and then removing the potatoes then I bet you it would not make a difference. Yes some salt would be removed and if you taste the potatoes then they would taste salty, but the concentration of salt would not have changed. Think of it like dropping a sponge in a gallon of salt water. The sponge would taste salty, but it would not selectively remove salt from the solution. It would just soak up some salt water.

The bottom line, no matter what I say, is that if you do something and it works for you then keep on doing it

 

[Raine]

That's what is so amazing about cooking, folks can do the same thing so many different ways, and it works for them.

 

[nicole]

Thanks Rainee, that will be handy to me! Here's another tip: I use salt and lemon juice to get the smell of garlic and onion off my hands.

 

[buckytom]

anyone know why the stainless steel thing works for garlic? does it remove the oil or just change the sulphur compounds? i've seen stainless steel blocks made for that purpose in cookware shops and have always wondered...

 

[GB]

I believe it does change the compound somehow, but I don't know the specifics. I do know that ANY stainless steel will do the trick. I run my hands on my stainless steel water faucet as I wash my hands.

 

[DampCharcoal]

The way I learned to get rid of the garlic smell was to rub your hands in used coffee grounds. Works great but then your hands smell like coffee. :roll: I think I'll try the stainless steel method.

 

[GB]

but then your hands smell like coffee. :roll:

I see that as a good thing

 

[DampCharcoal]

It's definitely better than the alternative, GB!