When you are cooking with garlic and you do not want to deal with the smell on your hands, cutting board, or utensils, follow this tip. Take a thicker plastic bag and smash the garlic inside of the bag. You can then just simply dump the garlic into the pan!
While it may seem somewhat counter-intuitive, you should actually increase the baking temperature of very small quantities of food. The smaller the dish, the higher the temperature should be. This is also true for the allotted time to bake. Generally, the time needed to fully cook the food is much shorter.
Whenever you are cooking and you feel the need to add more oil, the best way to add oil is to add it through the side of the pan. By doing this, the oil will be heated when it gets to the ingredient that is being cooked. This is a good tip to remember.
The most difficult and time consuming thing about cooking is doing all of the prep work. You can buy pre-prepped vegetables or prep your ingredients the day before to cut down on the time you are in the kitchen. This is very helpful if you need to get dinner out in a hurry.
To have meat stock on hand, freeze it in ice cube trays. Homemade stock is delicious and cheaper than ready made. Two large cubes is equal to 1/4 cup of liquid stock. By freezing your stock, you can make large batches of your own and then it will be on hand when you need it.
To make it easier to peel boiled eggs, run them under cold water immediately after removing from them the stove. Once they are cool enough to touch, tap them lightly to crack and roll on a counter. Once you begin peeling and have an opening in the shell, run this under cold water and you will find the rest of the shell will peel off with the greatest of ease!
Drinks are an essential part of every meal as you will want to have the appropriate wine with your dish if you are eating meat. Make sure that you choose a fine red wine if you are having a quality meat, and this is sure to maximize the quality of your experience with friends and family.
There can be no doubt that cooking provides great pleasure to many, and can also serve as a wonderful creative outlet. Acquiring skills in the kitchen can be rewarding for you, not to mention your friends and family, and is well worth the effort. Putting these tips to work will set you quickly on the path to culinary mastery.