Cooking Tips
by:
Ronald Yip
You open the cookbook and see a recipe
title or a photo that tempts your taste buds.
Then you start to read the recipe, realize the
preparation is more difficult than you first
thought, and put the book back on the shelf.
Sound Familiar? Well here's a simple
cooking tip to help get you started:
1. Abbreviations for Measuring
Tsp. = teaspoon
Tbsp. = tablespoon, which equals 3
teaspoons
C = cup.
Cooking Tip:
Get a set of measuring spoons. The set will
usually have 1/4 tsp., 1/3 tsp., 1/2 tsp., 1
teaspoon and 1 tablespoon.
Dry measure cups look like little saucepans
and can be leveled off with a knife or other
straight-edged tool. They come in sets like
the measuring spoons. Liquid measuring cups
have ounce marking lines so you can measure
however many ounces you need.
Cooking Tip: Some recipes require exact
measurements to turn out right so learn to
measure correctly.
2. Common Ingredients
Make sure you know what you need.
Cooking Tips:
Baking powder and baking soda are not the
same.
Ask the produce manager at the market about
fruits and vegetables, the meat manager about
cuts of meat.
When trying something new, buy ONE. You can
always go back for more if it turns out well.
3. Common Terminology
Bake:
Dry heat in the oven. Set oven control to
the desired temperature while you're preparing
the dish to be baked. Once the light that says
it's heating turns off, the oven is at the
proper temperature. Then put in the food--for
best results, center it in the oven.
Boil:
Heat a liquid until it bubbles. The faster
the bubbles rise and the more bubbles you get,
the hotter the liquid. Some recipes call for a
gentle boil--barely bubbling--or a rolling
boil--just short of boiling over. Watch so it
doesn't boil over.
Braise:
A moist cooking method using a little
liquid that barely bubbles on the top of the
stove or in the oven. This is a good way to
tenderize cheaper cuts of meat. The pan should
be heavy and shallow with a tight-fitting lid
to keep the liquid from boiling away. There's
a lot that can be done for flavoring in your
choice of liquid and of vegetables to cook
with the meat.
Broil:
Turn the oven to its highest setting. Put
the food on broiler pan--a 2 piece pan that
allows the grease to drain away from the food.
In an electric oven on the broil setting only
the upper element heats, and you can regulate
how fast the food cooks by how close to the
element you place it. Watch your cooking
time--it's easy to overcook food in the
broiler.
Brown:
Cook until the food gets light brown.
Usually used for frying or baking. Ground beef
should usually be browned (use a frying pan)
and have the grease drained before adding it
to a casserole or meat sauce.
Fold:
A gentle mixing method that moves the spoon
down to the bottom of the bowl and then sweeps
up, folding what was on the bottom up over the
top. This is used to mix delicate ingredients
such as whipped cream or beaten egg whites.
These ingredients just had air whipped into
them, so you don't want to reverse that
process by mixing too vigorously.
Simmer:
Heat to just the start of a boil and keep
it at that point for as long as the recipe
requires. The recipe will usually call for
either constant stirring or stirring at
certain intervals.
Now you are ready to do the shopping and
prepare that recipe that you've always wanted
to try!
Happy cooking..
