In the Age of Enlightenment, James Boswell defined cooking as a distinctive
mark of humanity. Humans, he argued, are “the cooking animals.” While most
living creatures eat, only human beings cook.
Most of us have or had mothers and grandmother who not only cooked but
turned a simple casserole into a gourmet dish.
Those grandmothers and mothers lived in different times where food was not
wasted and if a small cooking problem occurred, they had the wisdom to turn
that into a boon.
These same pearls of wisdom were passed on from mother to daughter and thus
from one generation to the next.
Here
are some of those helpful cooking secrets we need everyday to make life easier.
MILK
When milk is burnt a little, add a pinch of salt
and it will take away the scorching taste of burnt milk.
Dough kneaded with milk makes tastier and softer
chapattis or puris.
To have an instant sour cream, add 2 tsp of lemon
juice to the cream and keep for 5 minutes and your sour cream will be ready.
While whipping cream for cake decoration, if it is
turning into butter, immediately add 2 tbsp of milk cream and continue to beat.
EGGS
To test the freshness of an egg dissolve 1 tbsp
salt in 2 cups of water and put the egg in it.
If the egg is fresh, it will lie flat at the bottom. If slightly old, it will lie with the broad
end raised a little. If it is bad, it
will float.
Do not wash eggs before storing as they have a
protective film which counteracts evaporation through the porous egg shells.
Don’t buy dirty eggs because shells are porous and
dirt is quickly absorbed by the whites and yolks.
Do not beat eggs in a plastic bowl as some
chemical in the plastic deters volume development.
To shell hard boiled eggs easily and neatly add
some coarse salt to water in which they are hard boiled.
VEGETABLES
Add 1 tsp of white vinegar to beetroot and red
cabbage to retain their red color.
Cook white vegetables like cauliflower or cabbage
uncovered with a tsp of lemon juice to retain their whiteness.
Garlic peels easily if the cloves are separated
from the bulb and kept in a bottle in the fridge for 24 hours before use.
Peel onions and save tears by soaking them in
water for about an hour before chopping them.
To remove the odor of onions from your hands, pour
a little table salt or vinegar or lemon juice on your hands and rub them well
together.
Peeling off potatoes results in brown
fingers. Rub your hands with slices of
lemon to clean them.
Grease potatoes first with a little butter before
baking and when cooked they will be brown and crispy.
Put some peeled potatoes in your curry if you feel
it is too salty. Give one or two gentle
boils and the extra salt will be absorbed by these potatoes.
To hasten the ripening of tomatoes from your
garden, wrap them in a brown paper bag and keep them in a dark, dry place for
3-4 days and you will get your red tomatoes.
To improve the color and flavor of the green
vegetables, such as peas or spinach, add ½ tsp of sugar while cooking. It restores their natural sweetness. Add salt only when about to be cooked
CAKE
To find out if your cake batter is well beaten,
drop a little in water. If it floats the
batter is ready.
For testing if the cake is done, incase a toothpick
is not handy use uncooked spaghetti.
When a cake gets stuck to the base of the baking
pan, easy way out is to set the pan on a cloth wrung out in hot water. The cake can then be easily removed from the
pan.
Put a cup of granulated sugar in a glass bowl and
add a few drops of food coloring. Mix
well until the coloring is evenly distributed.
Let it dry. Store in a bottle with a sprinkle top. This is perfect for cake decoration.
When a cake or pie recipe requires lemon or orange
zest and the skin is too fresh or soft to grate, put the fruit into the freezer
for 10 minutes or so and it will be firm and easy to grate.
If a recipe requires self rising flour and you
don’t have it, you can make your own by adding 1 tbsp baking powder to 1 cup of
regular flour.
For removing bundt cake from the pan grease the
pan and sprinkle it with sugar instead of flour, the cake will easily slide
out.
