Tips And Secrets From Cooking Experts And More / Cooking Tips / By Bary Smith No ratings yet. No ratings yet. For most people, cooking is nothing more than a daily chore they have to take care of. However, cooking can be an enjoyable activity. It can also become your gateway to a healthier life. Good cooks never stop learning, and you can increase your knowledge and your joy of cooking with this article. You should store your spices and herbs in a cool dry space out of direct sunlight to avoid flavor loss. Their flavor will suffer if they are exposed to heat, humidity, and light. Usually herbs and ground spices tend to stay fresh for about a year. It is possible for whole spices to hold their flavor for several years. If you store them the right way, they will be fresher. A cool, dark storage area will preserve your herbs freshness for the longest period of time. If they are exposed to light, heat or humidity, they will lose much of their flavor. Generally, ground herbs and spices stay fresh for around a year, after that they begin to lose their flavor. Whole spices typically last longer than ground spices. Depending on the advice youâre reading, they can last from one to several years. In terms of lasting, remember it is the flavor of the spices that is usually the issue with the older spices losing their flavor. The color, fragrance and condition of the spice will often indicate its freshness. If stored correctly, they will remain fresher longer. TIP! If you are just beginning to cook more of your meals, go straight to the nearest bookstore or library to find a cookbook that has simple, fun recipes. Try a few recipes, and be patient with yourself as you are mastering this new skill. Don’t add the dressing until right before serving. Having your preparation done ahead of time is very important. However, when you are ready to start cooking and have a deadline for when your meal needs to be finished, it can be a bit stressful. Do the prep work as early as you can to avoid stress later. Cooking a large meal for friends or family requires a great deal of preparation ahead of time. This will allow you to make sure that all the necessary ingredients are accounted for. Get out everything that you’ll need including the ingredients and utensils a day ahead of time. Doing so allows you to focus on the cooking itself. A good piece of advice you can observe when cooking with oil is to pour it down the sides of the hot pan. When the oil reaches the food in the middle, it will already be hot. This will optimize the flavors in your food in your final dish. Do you feel bad for getting rid of fruits that are moldy? You may have wondered if it is okay to cut out the rotten part. There are no two ways about it; rotting fruit is unhealthful. It is important to throw moldy fruit in the trash because eating moldy food can cause you to become very ill. There is often more mold on the fruit than can be seen by the naked eye. TIP! Give pre-cut, raw potatoes a cold water bath for a half-hour prior to frying for crispier French fries. Soaking the potatoes helps to make the fibers within them stronger, which makes them better able to handle the heat during frying. Did you ever feel badly for throwing moldy fruit in the garbage? Are you tempted to just cut off the moldy part and save the rest for your meal? Unfortunately, you cannot save half rotten fruit and expect it to be healthy. Mold goes a lot deeper than you see and it can make you ill. Before frying raw potatoes, allow them to soak for half an hour in a bowl of cold water; this will result in crispier fries. Cold water will allow the sliced potato to retain its internal fibers, meaning that they are less likely to completely break down when cooked at a high heat. These seasonings work equally well on other foods. It can add flavor to all manner of foodstuffs, such as scrambled eggs. Everyone will ask what you used for spices. Do you enjoy using fresh basil in your dishes? If you want to keep it fresh, first place it in a glass. Put enough water into the glass to cover the stems but not the leaves. Keep on the kitchen counter so it’ll be fresh for weeks! If you provide the basil with fresh water, it will eventually root in the water and sprout a new plant. If you maintain the basil by trimming the outgrowth, you can get quite a lot of free basil using this method. Fresh Ingredients Fresh ingredients are always preferable to dried or frozen ones in all of your recipes. Use fresh ingredients, as they bring out the flavor in a dish, and they are also less expensive. Whenever you have a meal to cook, if you do your all your prep work ahead of time, it will be much less stressful and quicker. Look over your recipe and determine which items can be prepared in advance and not spoil. Many different prep tasks can be finished a day or so before cooking the meal. Prepping before you cook can make even advanced recipes fun and accessible. A lot of preparatory work can be done ahead of time in order to speed up time spent cooking. Look at your recipe ahead of time and draft up a list of what you can do to get ready, but don’t risk spoiling any ingredients. Much of the preparations can be finished one day prior to cooking. This will enable you to enjoy the process of creating dishes that ordinarily would be a real task. TIP! Reduce the amount of cooking oil you use if you are looking to lose weight and make your diet healthier. These types of foods contain many unnecessary fats you can live without. A wonderful cook is forever learning new ways to achieve delicious meals. People find that the enjoyment in cooking is not solely from the practice itself; it’s also from learning about new foods and different cooking methods. In addition, it means passing on your cooking knowledge to others. Cooking is about sharing tips and secrets with your friends and family. Please rate this Please Rate Winnellie Supermarket Post navigation ← Previous PostNext Post →