Preparation Tips
Banking
- Use a flour dredger or sifter to flour cake pans, cookie sheets, and work surfaces.
- To hold a mixing bowl in place when you are whipping or blending ingredients, place a damp cloth under the bowl.
- If sifting of dry ingredients is called for in a recipe, instead of sifting, add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix with a wire whisk.
- When baking, it is best to allow ingredients, such as eggs, butter, and milk, to become room temperature before mixing with other ingredients.
- When mixing batter for pancakes, muffins or cupcakes, mix the batter in a large liquid measuring cup with a spout. This will make it easier to pour the batter into muffin tins or pancake batter onto a hot griddle.
- Be sure eggs are fresh and cold when you have to separate the whites from the yolks.
- Tips for whipping egg whites:
- Be sure there is no yolk in the whites.
- The whites should be at room temperature.
- The bowl and beaters must be clean.
- A pinch of salt added to egg whites will help them whip up more quickly.
- When whipping cream, the cream, bowl, and beaters should be chilled to produce the best volume.
- Chill a glass or stainless steel bowl for whipping cream by filling a sealable bag with ice cubes and then placing the bag in the bowl for 5 or 10 minutes.
- When making a two-crust pie, moisten the edge of the bottom crust with water before placing the second crust on top. The moistened edge will help create a good seal once the two crusts are crimped together.
- Keep the crust of a custard pie from becoming soggy by carefully adding a raw egg in the shell of the pie crust. Slowly swirl the egg around the pie crust shell until the crust has all been coated with egg white. Once it is coated, pour the remainder of the egg use it in the filling.
- Prevent meringue from shrinking by adding it to the pie while the filling is still hot and making sure that it is touching the crust around all the edges.
- Rather than discarding pie crust scraps, lightly butter them, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, and bake until golden brown.
- For best results when making pastries, use whole milk rather than low-fat or fat free milk.
- White or milk chocolate make better chocolate shavings because they are a softer chocolate and will curl better.
- For cake-like brownies, increase the amount of eggs used. For chewier brownies, decrease the amount of eggs used.
- For baking recipes that call for oil, replace half or all the oil with applesauce to produce a low-fat version of the recipe. Reduce baking time to prevent the recipe from becoming too dry.
- To keep a layer cake in place on the cake plate, place a dab of frosting on the cake plate before adding the bottom layer. This will hold the cake in place while you are frosting it.
- When making powdered sugar frosting, add a pinch of baking powder to make the frosting creamier and keep it from cracking.
- Dust the surface of a cake with cornstarch to prevent the frosting from running off.
- Have drop cookie dough on hand and ready to bake by making up a large batch of dough, roll the cookies into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer. When the cookies have frozen, take them off the cookie sheets, place in a freezer proof sealable bag and store in the freezer. When you want fresh baked cookies, just take them from the freezer, place them on a cookie sheet and bake. They do not need to be thawed.
- Use powdered sugar instead of flour when rolling out sugar cookies. The powdered sugar will add sweetness to the cookies and you won't have to worry about adding too much flour.
- If you have bread rising and your schedule is interrupted so that you will be unable to attend to the bread when it is done rising, you can slow down the rising process by placing the bread in the refrigerator.
Preparation Tips - Fruits
- Slice fruit immediately after removing from the refrigerator. It is firmer and easier to slice when cold.
- To chop dried fruit in a food processor, freeze the fruit first and they will chop better.
- When it is desirable to remove the white membrane from a peeled orange, the process can be simplified by first placing the unpeeled orange in boiling water for 5 minutes.
- Save the rinds from lemons, limes and oranges to use for citrus zest. Place the rinds in a sealable bag and store in the freezer until you need it.
- To prevent the seeds from getting into you citrus juices when squeezing fresh juice, place a piece of double thick cheesecloth over the cut end of the fruit and squeeze the juice through the cheesecloth. The seeds remain behind.
- Do not use fresh pineapple in a salad that contains gelatin. The fresh pineapple contains an enzyme that will prevent the gelatin from setting. Use canned pineapple instead.
- To keep apples, bananas, avocados, peaches and pears from turning brown, sprinkle with lemon or lime juice. Keep a spray mister with lemon juice or lime juice in the refrigerator so it is handy for when you need it.
- If only using half of an avocado, leave the pit in the half you are not going to use, wrap it in plastic, and store in the refrigerator. The pit will help slow down the discoloration. If the cut edge does become discolored, it can be cut off and the fruit underneath will be usable.
Preparation Tips - Vegetables
- Potatoes will cook faster if they are soaked in salty water before they are baked.
- Potatoes can be peeled a day ahead of cooking and then stored in the refrigerator. Place the peeled potatoes in a bowl of cold water that has had a few drops of vinegar added. Be sure potatoes are covered with water and then place in the refrigerator.
- When cooking potatoes to use in potato salad, add a little vinegar to the water when boiling the potatoes. The vinegar causes the potatoes to form a thin crust, which helps them hold their shape.
- Do not overcook potatoes that will be used for potato salad. Overcooked potatoes will turn the salad into mush.
- Boiled potatoes can be easily sliced in even thicknesses to use for potato salad or for frying by using a metal egg slicer.
- Slice mushrooms using a metal egg slicer.
- Do not peel mushrooms because the outer layer contains most of its flavor.
- To produce good tasting, crisp onions, slice or chop onions and place them in a bowl. Cover the onions with water and then add some ice to the water. Let the onions soak for 15 minutes to an hour and then drain before serving.
- For crispier fried onions, soak the sliced or chopped onions in milk before frying.
- To seed a tomato, cut it in half crosswise and squeeze to remove the seeds and excess juice.
- If you need to peel tomatoes before adding them to a recipe in which they will be cooked, cut them in half and place them face down on a microwave safe plate. Microwave the tomatoes for approximately 5 minutes and the skins should peel off easily.
- Tomatoes that have become too ripe and soft to use for sandwiches or salads can be chopped up with a little garlic added and then boiled for three minutes in the microwave. They can then be stored in the freezer to use later in casseroles, soups, stews or sauces.
- If you have a large crop of bell peppers or purchase more than you can use at one time, you can freeze them to use for future recipes. Slice, remove seeds, and chop into desired size pieces. Place them single layered on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer. Once they are frozen you can place them in a freezer proof sealable bag and store them in the freezer. When you are ready to use, remove the desired amount from the bag.
- Sautéing vegetables in oil or butter before adding them to a soup will seal in their flavor and help keep them firm after they are added to the soup.
- When peeling vegetables, peel over an open plastic bag and allow the peelings to fall into the bag. Clean up will be much easier.
- Use an ice cream scoop to remove the seeds from a squash.
- Do not cut salad greens with a knife because it may cause the greens to become discolored. It is best to gently tear the greens into pieces the size you desire.
- Dry lettuce and other salad greens before adding dressing by tossing a couple of paper towels with the greens in a large bowl. Once the towels have picked up the excess moisture, pull them out and throw them away.
Preparation Tips - Miscellaneous
- When trying to cut thin slices or strips of raw meat, it is easier if you put the meat into the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour before cutting to help firm up the meat, or if the meat was frozen, slice it before it is completely thawed.
- Thaw frozen fish in milk to help remove the frozen taste and provide for a fresh fish flavor.
- To remove pin bones from a fillet of fish, lay the fillet, bone side up, across an inverted mixing bowl. The curve of the bowl will cause the bones to stick out, making them easy to find. Use a needle-nose pliers to pull the bones out.
- Cut hard-boiled eggs smoothly by dipping the knife into a glass of cold water or run it under cold water for a few seconds before making each cut.
- Sprinkle a little salt on garlic when mincing or chopping the cloves to prevent the pieces from sticking to your knife or working surface.
- To obtain more flavor from parsley, remove the stems and only use the leaves. Use a scissors to cut the leaves into pieces instead of chopping with a knife. Chopping generally causes the leaves to become mushy.
- For an easy way to pour out just the right amount of pancake batter, pour the batter into an empty, clean squeeze bottle, such as a ketchup or syrup bottle. Squeeze out the desired amount into the pan for the size pancake you want. This will also make a nice round pancake.
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