Search
Recommended Products
Related Links


 

 

Informative Articles

Christmas Recipes: Cakes & Tarts. No.7 of 7 - Christmas Swiss Roll
Christmas recipe makes 8 slices calories per serving: 720 cals Preparation time: 45 minutes Cooking time: 10 minutes Not suitable for freezing Christmas recipe ingredients: * oil for greasing * caster sugar, 125 g (4 oz) * flour,...

Is Your Recipe Safe?
(NC)—Sure, it tastes great and earns rave reviews from everyone sitting at the dinner table. But is your favourite recipe also a safe one? To prevent serving up foodborne illness at the dinner table, follow this helpful checklist when preparing...

Looking for a Great Italian Meatball Recipe?
Wrap your lips around this one. The Best Meatball Recipe Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Ingredients 1 pound combined beef, veal, pork (must be fresh) 3 large eggs 1 cup grated Romano Locatelli Cheese 1 cup bread...

One Chef, or a Bevy of Chefs?
Most cooking tours feature one chef who gives you two to four cooking lessons in the same kitchen on your three to six day cooking adventure. Some tours take you to a variety of restaurants and homes so you cook with many chefs or good home cooks....

What's So Special About Cinnamon?
I don't know about you, but just the smell of cinnamon makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. My favorite cookies to make is Snickerdoodles because I just LOVE the smell of them baking. There's just something warm and delicious about it. The...

 
Google
Kitchen Survival Recipe Guide

You open the cookbook and see a recipe title or a photo that tempts your tastebuds. 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 guide to help get you started:

1. Abbreviations for Measuring

Tsp. = teaspoon

Tbsp. = tablespoon, which equals 3 teaspoons C = cup.

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.

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.

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...

Visit: www.cookbookonline.net

About the author:

I love the creative aspect of cooking - that you can make anything you want - living it out in the creative caverns of your mind and then finally putting into something for others to share the experience. Go to www.cookbookonline.net and try some of the free recipes, or publish your own!