Learn Everything You Should Know About Cooking

New recipes and cooking techniques can be learned by even the most seasoned chef. You can transform an unremarkable meal into a memorable feast if you learn and practice the right techniques and recipes. The following tips will aid you in your quest to get some unique, mouth-watering flavors brewing in the kitchen.

You can remove the garlic odor from your hands by rubbing them for thirty seconds on your stainless steel stove before washing them. Garlic adds a delightful flavor to many recipes, but the unmistakable odor can linger on your hands. Using this tip, you can enjoy your dinner without your hands smelling strongly of garlic.

Keep a potato masher in your kitchen at all times. This useful device can be used to mash more than just your typical potatoes. Try mashing carrots, cauliflower, and other root vegetables. You can mix any of these in to your usual mashed potatoes to make them more vibrant, nutritious, and interesting.

A salad spinner can be a great addition to your kitchen. It will help to spin the water out of your lettuce so your salads arent soggy and droopy. Salad spinners are inexpensive and can be found at most discount stores. Theyre also small so they store easy.

Never use oil when you are boiling pasta. Try not to let any oil get in the pot when you are boiling water to cook your pasta. The oil will transfer to the pasta. This will leave the noodles slick, which means any sauce you put on them later will not stick.

If you are having a big party, one of the worst things that you can do is to put dressing on the salad. Since the salad will sit out for a long time, it will probably get soggy after a while. Instead, leave an assortment of dressings out for people to choose.

When you are cooking a dish that requires it to be sauteed, add oil around the edges of the pan rather than directly on the food. This gives the oil a chance to heat up before it reaches the cooking food that is in the center of the pan. Hot oil will give you improved results and makes your dish taste better.

Fresh herbs can add a great deal to most recipes. Herbs can be tricky to handle, though, because they need to be chopped so finely. Sprinkling salt over the cutting board before chopping herbs can cut down on mess. The salt encourages herbs to stick to the board instead of flying off.

Prepare as much of the food as you can the night before. The cooking process will go much smoother when you can concentrate on the more difficult parts of cooking instead of worrying about the mundane tasks. Many dressings and vegetables, for example, will stay in the refrigerator quite well.

Nutrition

Many liquids are interchangeable within a recipe; try replacing the water or milk with something new. When you cook vegetables you can use chicken broth or add beef instead of water. To replace milk, yogurt, sour cream and buttermilk can make good substitutes. Using different liquids can add nutritional value, while at the same time punching up bland, old recipes.

To preserve more of the nutritional value of your vegetables dont cook them for too long. As you cook a vegetable, its nutrient content diminishes. Good techniques for quickly cooking vegetables are steaming and stir-frying. Slow cooking has its place, but dont neglect the quicker techniques with their greater nutrition.

If you want to get a better hand in cooking, you have to use the advice and tips that are offered to you. Here, we have compiled some great examples of tricks and techniques that will help you use your cooking to win the hearts of your family and friends.