DawgTalkers.net Forums Thread Like Summary - Cooking tips

For those who like to and know how to cook, we all have tips. For those who don't know, you need to know. We all eat food, and the better you can cook, the better your life.

Share your tips here. If you can eat better, and make it easier, why the heck not? I'll start with a few of mine. I am a pretty good cook and have a lot, but am eager to learn more.

Herbs...use a pizza cutter. Just roll that sucker over the herbs you want to use. A lot easier and safer that using a sharp knife. You are also going to get a finer chop, and the finer the chop, the more flavor you get.

Poached eggs...nobody does that because it is a hassle. Use a muffin tin.

Spray the tin lightly, add a tablespoon of water and vinegar mixed 4:1 water, ( you can skip the vinegar) crack in the egg and bake in the over at 350 for maybe 10 minutes or so. Just check and take out when the yolks are the way you want them. You can cook a dozen at a time if you want. Add some diced ham or whatever you want at the beginning. Cheese near the end.

If you want Egg McMuffin style, use a bigger sized tin, and crack up the yolk before cooking. If you want runny, don't open up the yolk and cook to your liking.

Thick Rubber Bands...

Keep a few sizes in your drawer. They are great to use to open hard to open jar lids. Just strap them around the lid, now you get a grip.

Disposable shower caps.

If you have a mound of potato salad or something, just put a shower cap over the bowl. Keeps contaminents out and smells in.

If you own an Ecko potato peeler (the kind with the serrated edged blades), then you have the perfect tool for coring hot peppers (like Jalapenos, and upward on the Scoville Scale).

This is the tool I'm describing:



(apologies for the screen resolution. The pic is 6X bigger than the actual tool...)

I slice off the tops of the peppers, run this tool down and around the inside of the fruit, and extract the membrane/seeds in about 1.5 seconds. The cupped blade cradles the innards, and pulls them out with zero effort. With stubborn specimens, I actually twist the fruit in my left hand, while sawing the membranes with the serrated edges of the tool's blades. On those occasions, I can gut and core a pepper in 2.5- 3.0 seconds.

With this tool, I can also tailor the amount of heat I wish to impart to a dish by simply being neat or sloppy with my carve-outs: clean pepper = mild heat. Sloppy pepper = spicy.

Added benefit: I can core a pint/quart of hot peppers in record time, without ever touching the capsaicin-producing pepper parts.

I've never used gloves to prepare peppers (of any Scoville rating) for cooking, quick-pickling or canning. I've never needed to. The tool is the key.



.02

I use the potato peeler maybe twice a week, I never knew you could do that, thanks.

I’m ordering these tomorrow, sister highly recommended them. Boil some water, lightly spray with pam, crack egg put it in the poacher, put it in the boiling water, 10 minutes. Done, no oil jumping all over the place. I love poached eggs, but wife hates to make them cause of the oil everywhere.

https://www.amazon.com/Egg-Poacher-COZILIFE-Build-Microwave/dp/B01LXBW1UI/ref=mp_s_a_1_6_sspa?crid=1KM1RJXXT17BL&keywords=egg+poachers&qid=1695404085&sprefix=egg+poachers%2Caps%2C176&sr=8-6-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1

For the chopped onion, you can also chop onion, then lay the bits out on a cookie sheet and pop it in the freezer. Do a few sheets at a time if you have enough onion. Then, once they are mostly frozen, you can dump them all into a large freezer bag and you'll have ready-to-use frozen onion that won't stick together in clumps. This is a great way to store onion if you have a large garden and produce more than you can use right away. You can do the same thing with entire slices.

Alternatively, GFS (Gordon Food Services) sells 5 pound bags of diced onion and diced green peppers. You can buy those, divvy the contents into smaller bags, and freeze everything.

Marinades: making your own marinades is just needing to mix up an Acid, an Oil, and seasonings.

Acids are the part that tenderize the meat. This can be things like vinegar, buttermilk, lemon juice, pineapple juice, teriyaki or soy sauce, etc...

Oils should be chosen for flavor, but also for the cooking method. Make sure the oil can handle the temp you'll be cooking at without smoking/scorching.

Seasonings are complementary flavors to your acid and oil to enhance the complete package.

Avacado oil is also great on the Blackstone, for both seasoning the cooktop and cooking.