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7 Life Hacks for the Perfect Steak

Prepare the same steak as in a restaurant? Easily. The meat tenderloin will turn out to be wonderful in taste and appetizing in appearance if you learn these simple rules. And an open fire with a grate can be replaced with a frying pan.

  • Secret # 1: you need the meat of a young bull, not a cow. For this steak, only bull meat is used. Not cows! Moreover, the animal must not be older than 20 months. Such meat is distinguished by its special juiciness and taste. And in its raw form, it looks a little dry, liquid should not flow out of it. The shade is deep red. If you touch it, the effect of a silky-smooth surface will appear. An important nuance: the meat for the steak should be matured, slightly rest in a cool room. Ideally dried. Fresh meat, only after slaughter, is not suitable for a steak – the dish can come out tough. Even marbled meat!
  • Secret number 2: marbled meat is desirable, but not at all necessary. It is commonly believed that the most delicious steaks are made from marbled meat – VIP steaks, elite, gourmet cuisine. Thanks to the intramuscular fat, such meat looks like a marble pattern, and after frying the fat it gives a unique taste. Not all meat breeds of bulls are “capable” of this. In Russia, this is Hereford, Aberdeen Angus, which sellers can proudly tell you about.
  • Secret number 3: Choosing the right piece. A steak is essentially a piece of meat that has been fried in a pan or over a fire. But meat is different from meat. Depending on the type of meat, steaks are divided into classic and alternative. The classic is carved from the dorsal or lumbar part of the bull. Each has its own name, usually, it is on the price tag. The main ones: ribeye, aka “cowboy”, club, tailbone – on a T-shaped bone, porterhouse, aka double steak, striploin, aka “New York”, and mignon. Each has its own flavor, color, and even juiciness. To choose the perfect one, you will have to try each one! However, they are all good.
  • Secret number 4: choosing a pan with a thick bottom. A modern grooved beauty or grandma’s cast-iron punt is not the point. The main thing is the thick bottom because it accumulates heat and even gives it to the steak. Alternative steaks are marinated in red wine, soy sauce, tomato pulp, onion, or pineapple juice for at least half an hour before being sent to the fire. Then the meat should be dried with cooking napkins. Necessarily! It should come dry into the pan.
  • Secret number 5: fry without unnecessary spices. The taste of a classic steak is formed by two spices: salt and black ground pepper. But if there is a craving for experimentation, you can add little caraway seeds and pink pepper. The pepper must be freshly ground. In the case of alternative steaks, add it when the meat is dry after marinade.
  • Secret number 6: choose the degree of doneness. As you know, there are no comrades to taste. Therefore, steak masters use different degrees of roasting of meat, there are only four types of them. Knowing them will come in handy when communicating with a waiter in a restaurant. And for home cooking, it is important to know the temperature inside the finished piece. You will have to regulate it with a kitchen thermometer or experimentally. Depending on the degree of doneness, cook the steak for three to nine minutes.
  • Secret # 7: fry in butter. Frying steak oil is the source of the flavor. It is customary to fry steaks in butter, the taste is softer. To make the steak as close as possible to the “live” taste of meat, you need to fry in odorless vegetable oil, especially if you like Too Well Done – a deep-fried steak without juice when the temperature inside reaches 100 ° C. This heat will burn the butter and ruin the steak.
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Cooking Tips

10 Life Hacks for Perfect Baking

We’ve put together helpful tips and tricks to help you avoid dirtying your dishes, avoid culinary mishaps, and make divinely delicious baked goods.

  1. Do not use glasses for measuring. In recipes, the amount of ingredients is often determined by the glasses. This method is not very reliable, if only because at the exit each chef can get a different weight of the product. In addition, you can be mistaken by measuring half or a third of the glass by eye. It is better to buy a kitchen scale and follow the recipes that indicate the exact weight of the ingredients.
  2. Cover the scale with a paper towel. Ingredients such as cocoa often crumble and stain the surface of kitchen scales. To avoid this, simply cover it with a paper towel and throw it away after weighing. The scale will stay perfectly clean.
  3. Determine the age of the eggs. Eggs of different ages may be required to create certain confectionery products. For example, ice cream is good for fresh eggs, and meringues are good for older ones. You can determine your age with a bowl of water. Put an egg in it: if it falls to the bottom, then it is fresh; if it rises with a blunt end up, it means that it is older; if the egg pops up like a float, it is better to throw it away.
  4. Break the eggs into separate dishes. If you break an egg straight into a bowl of dough, it is likely that shell particles will also fall into it. Therefore, it is better to prepare the eggs separately and then add them to the general container. If a mistake has already been made, you can remove the shell after the cake is cooked and cooled. All the shells will sink to the bottom and can be easily removed.
  5. Be careful when mixing dry ingredients. To avoid a hurricane of flour and other bulk ingredients while using the mixer, add small portions to a bowl and start stirring at minimum speed. Cover your work surface with paper towels for extra protection.
  6. Use different utensils for sweet and savory foods. To avoid odd tastes in baked goods, divide your knives, spatulas, and planks into the ones you use for savory and sugary foods. This way, your cake will definitely never turn salty.
  7. Mix the sticky ingredients with the confectionary sugar. Pieces of sticky ingredients (like marzipan or dates) tend to clump together into a huge sweet bite. You can prevent this by adding a couple of tablespoons of confectionery sugar to them.
  8. Pick up heavy ingredients. Foods like raisins, nuts and frozen berries often end up at the bottom of baked goods. You can fix this by mixing them with a little cinnamon, cocoa powder, or flour. Choose the right ingredient depending on the recipe.
  9. Use butter to remove the stickiness from the dough. To prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, it is often advised to use flour. But there is another way – canola (rapeseed) oil. Lightly wipe your palms and work surface with it – the dough will not stick and no excess flour will appear in it.
  10. Cool the liquid quickly in an ice bath. If you need to quickly chill sweet cream, pour it into a metal saucepan and place it in a large bowl of cold water. Metal helps heat to escape quickly, and cold to penetrate. Note that the larger the pan, the faster the hot cream will cool down.
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Food

8 Life Hacks for the World’s Most Delicious Burger

These secrets will surely come in handy!

  1. Fresh onions can be added or pickled (vinegar, salt, pepper).
  2. We recommend using lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, or wine vinegar instead of vinegar. They will give a less harsh and more sophisticated aroma and taste.
  3. Onions can also be caramelized. To do this, melt the sugar in a frying pan, then, putting the onion in it, hold it for another couple of minutes. It is appropriate to add a couple more spoons of red wine.
  4. For a change, make onions in batter.
  5. Mix egg, flour, salt, add spices to taste. We recommend oregano. Onion rings should be dipped in batter and fried in a large amount of vegetable oil (deep-fried), and after a couple of minutes on the grill.
  6. The sauce is a moment of creativity in the process of preparing any dish. Pesto (Italian – based on olive oil, basil, and cheese), salsa (Mexican – made from tomatoes and chili, with garlic and black pepper), dzatziki (Greek – based on yogurt with herbs and garlic). In general, play fantasy, prepare the sauce!
  7. The most commonly used ketchup. You can do it yourself. One of the recipes: peel tomatoes (6 pcs.). Boil sugar (4 tablespoons) with vinegar (half a glass), add tomatoes. Add mustard powder (2 tablespoons), garlic (2-3 cloves), salt, pepper to taste, tomato paste (2 tablespoons), and chili pepper. Cook everything over low heat until the tomatoes soften – about 15 minutes. Turn into a homogeneous mass with a hand mixer, cool.
  8. We recommend adding fresh thyme or some rosemary.
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Food

7 Life Hacks How to Cook a Steak

We often give up the idea of pleasing ourselves with a steak at home because of the stereotype that a self-cooked piece of meat will not be as juicy and tasty as in a restaurant. But this is a mistake. Steak can be fried at home no less delicious. The main thing is to find the best recipe, choose the right meat, marinate it (or not marinate: the secrets of this kind will be discussed below), and voila – the culinary masterpiece is ready!

  1. Quality meat – 80% success. The chief market brings the highest quality – from trusted manufacturers. We also pickle it in advance!
  2. The steak should be no thinner than 2.5 cm (filet mignon – from 5 cm).
  3. Before frying the steak, let the meat “breathe” at room temperature for at least 30 minutes (up to 2 hours).
  4. The meat must be dry: pat dry with a paper towel. The main thing is not to wash.
  5. Don’t put more than 2 steaks in one pan. Otherwise, the meat will be cramped: the temperature inside the pan will drop, and the steaks will begin to stew instead of frying and delighting you with a golden crust. By the way, the crust not only crunches deliciously, but also preserves appetizing meat juice inside the steak.
  6. Use the tongs to turn the steak over – not with a fork! You can pierce the meat with a fork: this will drain the precious juice.
  7. Let the cooked steak “rest” for 1-3 minutes, then you can cut it and eat it.
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Cooking Tips

13 Useful Life Hacks To Make Salad Without Problems

Cooking salads is not difficult. But this process can be made even easier and more convenient. There are many helpful hints and tips for cooking, cleaning, slicing and stacking food. Today we will introduce you to the most interesting life hacks.

  1. To arrange a salad “like in a restaurant”, you can use an ordinary plastic water bottle as an improvised means. It is cut off at both ends – a tube is obtained. The form is placed on a flat plate and the products are laid out in the desired sequence. Pick up the tube with a gentle scrolling motion.
  2. Before grating the cheese, grease the grater with vegetable oil. As a result, the pieces of cheese will not stick together, and the grater can be easily washed.
  3. If you need to coat a layer of cheese in a salad with mayonnaise or sour cream, but first, it is better to gently crush it with wet hands. In this case, the grated cheese will not stick to the spoon, and it will be convenient and easy to grease.
  4. If the greens had time to wither by the time the salad was prepared, then you can reanimate them by alternately lowering them into hot water and immediately into cold water.
  5. For salads, potatoes are often boiled in their skins. To prevent the peel of this vegetable from cracking, it is recommended to add vinegar to the water – just a few drops.
  6. Beets for salads are usually cooked for a very long time – about two hours. To shorten this time, boil the beets without vinegar for 50-60 minutes. After that, the hot broth is drained and the vegetable is poured with new cold water. Another 20 minutes and the beets are ready.
  7. Carrots and green peas will retain their beautiful vibrant color when boiled in sweetened water.
  8. So that in the morning after eating garlic salad you do not smell of its smell, you need to remove the green sprout from the garlic cloves during cooking.
  9. The onion will not slide on the cutting board when finely sliced if you leave a “tail” on it from which the green feathers grow. For it, you can hold the onion, and then discard the “tail”.
  10. Small onions and garlic are sometimes poorly peeled. To facilitate this matter, they are first immersed in water for a couple of minutes.
  11. It is preferable to cut raw vegetables on a plastic cutting board, as it does not absorb juices, unlike wooden ones.
  12. If mayonnaise is not at hand, then it can be made from sour cream. To do this, add the yolk of a boiled egg and a spoonful of mustard to it. The yolk is thoroughly ground, and the mustard is added to taste.
  13. To clean boiled eggs without any problems, you need to add salt to the water when boiling them. As a result, the shell will peel off easily.
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