cooking 'tips' you learned and want to pass on

meritaten

I was thinking about this yesterday while cooking the roast dinner with two granddaughters 'help'.

while putting the carrots on, C said to me that her mums carrots weren't as nice as mine. or the peas. so I let her into my secret. taught to me by my nan - add a bit of sugar to them along with the salt.

While making the gravy K wanted to know why I add a little cold water to the flour when mixing it with the meat drippings - my MIL taught me to do that - and it does result in a gravy with no lumps! and use a whisk!

Many people taught me to cook over the years, and I am passing as much 'knowledge' as I can to my grandkids, as I think 'cookery' is becoming a lost art! despite all the tv shows!

and I am still learning! OS is brilliant for tips and recipes and I do like to share my own 'tried and tested' ones.

I am also gratified to see how many younger posters are now trying to 'cook from scratch' and asking for advice. So, how about 'sharing' your 'cooking' tips? I do lots of things 'automatically' and its only when teaching my grandkids I realise that almost a whole generation has missed out on basic cooking knowledge. I think we owe it to this generation to pass on tips and skills!

sillyvixen

meritaten wrote: »

while putting the carrots on, C said to me that her mums carrots weren't as nice as mine. or the peas. so I let her into my secret. taught to me by my nan - add a bit of sugar to them along with the salt.

thanks for this, i had forgotten that my Nan used to do that, and her peas and carrots were the best.

beautiful_ravens

My mum alwasy greased and base lined a cake tin, despite the fact that her mum used lard and flour. My mum swore by greaseproof paper and I agree, having tried both. BUT, I have those cake tins with a turny thing, so I dont even need the paper. I still think its useful to know all the options!

Also from my mums ancient tattered Be-Ro cook book is the melting moments recipe, and the quick bread recipe: 1lb flour, 1/2 pint milk, teaspoon salt mixed in a bowl and dolloped in a cake tin, cooked for 45m at 180 = some kind of bread!

notanewuser

Half a tsp of bicarb in with hard boiling eggs - shells slide off.

A marshmallow in a bag of soft brown sugar stops it from going hard.

MrsAtobe

Leave your Yorkshire pudding batter to rest for half an hour before pouring it into the preheated tin - it rises far better that way.

Use parmesan in anything cheesy, you can use far less other cheese for the same taste. A teaspoon of parmesan is all you need to make a cheese omelette.

Put dark chocolate and a pinch or so of smoked paprika into your chilli, you won't believe the difference in the taste.

Delia's recipe for carrot cake doesn't need the icing, it's gorgeous just with the syrup spooned over it.

If your non stick baking trays are losing their non-stick coating, buy the Teflon liners.

notanewuser

MrsAtobe wrote: »

Use parmesan in anything cheesy, you can use far less other cheese for the same taste. A teaspoon of parmesan is all you need to make a cheese omelette.

Parmesan isn't veggie friendly.

I add english mustard to cheese sauce, as it makes it taste cheesier.

Also, adding some strong coffee to chocolate cake mixture makes it taste more chocolatey.

notanewuser

I freeze butter and grate it into the flour when making pastry/crumble etc. Makes for flakier pastry as you're not using hot hands to rub it together.

topsyturphy

If your using cloves of garlic, you don't need to peel them before you put them into a garlic crush, the skin stays in the garlic crusher and just the fresh garlic goes into your cooking.

[Deleted User]

a few grains of salt in the salt celler keeps it from clogging up as the rice absorbs any dampness and keeps the salt dry.
I always make my yorkshire puds with adding a dash of milk at a time until a thick batter then some ice cold water to thin it down aa little then stand the jug in the fridge for an hour or so to make it really cold .Just before you spoon it into the trays give it a good whisk and pour into trays that are almost smoking hot fat (very carefully) and you will have light as a feather yorkies.The hotter the fat and oven the more they will rise

Chris25

Keep your fresh ginger in the freezer & don't bother de-frosting it or peeling before grating: the skin justs slides away.

lucyhope

Put your wrists under cold running water when making pastry, cools the hands for rubbing in. Learned at school many more years ago than I care to remember. Lecturer when I was doing a catering course was very impressed when I passed it on to a fellow student,