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Tips and tricks of cooking.

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Homemade ice cream is incomparable to the commercial one containing milk, diluted with water, sweetened with cheap sweeteners and stuffed with synthetic flavors and stabilizers. An ice cream maker will make your life easier when making ice cream. Usually the volume of the mixture due to the air driven into it increases by 1.8–2 times (the more, the better the ice cream).

  1. When freezing, the ice cream temperature is brought to minus 14-15 ° C. The freezing time is different for different ice cream makers. When the ice cream is half frozen, it needs to be transferred to a plastic container and the process completed in an ordinary freezer.
  2. You can store homemade ice cream for about 1 month in a glass, plastic or metal container, covered with foil or a lid.
  3. You can do without an ice cream maker altogether, it is important only during the entire freezing time in the freezer (from 2 to 5 hours) every half hour to stir the whole mass in a metal dish with a dough spatula or mixer. In addition to an ice cream maker, you need special metal or glass bowls for whipping and freezing, as well as a form for a round ice cream – “ice bomb with a lid”. You can also successfully use a soufflé dish or regular round bowls. To stir the mass during the freezing process, you will need a wooden dough spatula. Storing ice cream requires plastic containers with tight lids.
  4. You can serve ready-made ice cream with sweet sauces, biscuits, waffles, crushed nuts, candied fruits, dried fruits and, of course, fresh fruits and berries.
  5. The options for homemade homemade ice cream are endless. Experimenting with the addition of certain ingredients, you can come up with your own unique varieties of ice cream, and no book can accommodate the possible ways of decorating this dessert.

Classic muffin is an airy and soft dessert with the addition of dried fruits and decorated with icing and sprinkles. It can be large or small, cooked in the oven or right in the mug. How to make a treat perfect, read my selection of recommendations.

  1. When choosing products for baking, give preference to natural ingredients.
  2. Before preparing the classic raisin muffins, take out all the ingredients of the recipe on the table – they should be at natural temperature.
  3. Always pass flour through a sieve. From this, the baked goods become weightless and rise well. The silicone mold is a handy baking tool. Compact, not afraid of heat and cold, it is easy to get baked goods and wash. Use paper cups for mini cupcakes as well.
  4. Put a piece of dough in the mold, filling two or three containers – it will increase from heating.
  5. When you are fiddling with the dough, turn on the oven to warm up. Do not place baked goods in a cold oven.
  6. Do not slam the oven door, move the grate or sheet on which the cake is standing – it may settle.
  7. Place dessert on the middle oven shelf for even baking.
  8. Do not leave ready-made muffins inside the pan. Choose recipes carefully in order to adequately cope with all the manipulations.
  9. Decorate your creation. The decor enhances the appearance of the baked goods and keeps them from hardening.

Creating the perfect steak is more challenging than just choosing a stove to cook your food until it’s cooked! Here are some practical tips to help you with this task:

  1. The right choice of meat. For flavor and tenderness combined, Ribeye is considered one of the best cuts. A high degree of marbling, which means juiciness, allows you to cook a steak quickly and easily. Inspect the piece before you start cooking. A large number of veins allows you to cook meat without losing juiciness. Even with a great desire and ability to cook the perfect steak from low-quality beef, it will not work;
  2. The use of marinades. Good beef for a steak is expensive (from 2,000 rubles per piece), you can buy more affordable tenderloins and then use various marinades to improve the taste. The meat, of course, will not become expensive, but it will be softer and juicier;
  3. Grill beef should be at room temperature. Before you start frying the steak, remove the meat from the refrigerator, leave it at room conditions for a couple of hours. After such a rest, the pieces will be evenly fried, the texture and color of the finished product will be uniform;
  4. Steak thickness. The thickness of a classic piece of beef for a steak is 3-4 centimeters. Minions are cut 5-7 centimeters thick and the width of the piece is made smaller;
  5. Oil use. The oil is applied in a thin layer on both sides. The need to use the product is that when frying, the oil burns out, and a golden crust forms on the piece, which holds all the meat juices of the steak. It is not recommended to use cold-pressed oil, the taste and aroma are too pronounced;
  6. The use of spices. The perfect grilled steak does not require a large amount and variety of spices, just freshly ground black pepper and salt is enough. Grilled marbled beef will be great without adding unnecessary ingredients. The real taste of the meat is lost when the steaks are seasoned with a lot of aromatic herbs. Never pre-salt the meat you are going to fry. The salt will draw out all the juices and the finished product will be dry and tough;
  7. Fire. A delicious steak requires good grill heat. The coals are distributed evenly so that the temperature on the surface of the grate is uniform. A small fire will not hurt, it will quickly fry the meat on top, while it will not be completely fried inside;
  8. Don’t turn the steak. For a deliciously tasty meal, don’t flip the piece too often. Constant fussing on the grate will not give a beautiful trellis pattern, the spices will be burnt;
  9. The degree of doneness of the steak. From what kind of meat is preferred, so much it is necessary to fry it on fire. With a crust and red cold meat inside, the dish is cooked for 1-2 minutes on each side (the meat should cool down under the foil for nine minutes after cooking). The steak is cooked with blood for 2-3 minutes (cools down for 8 minutes). A more fried piece with less blood is fried for 3-4 minutes (cools down for 7 minutes). To get pink meat cut and blood inside the piece, grill it for about 4-5 minutes, then let it brew for six minutes. After frying the meat for 6 or 7 minutes on each side, you will get a baked gray-brown steak, as a rule, this roasting makes the meat dryish. The need to cool the steak after frying is necessary to distribute the temperature and juiciness inside the piece;
  10. Serving to the table. Steaks are best served with vegetables and herbs, this combination will emphasize the tenderness of the meat and give it spicy notes. Red wine perfectly sets off the unique taste of grilled beef.

Not everyone succeeds in cooking the right and perfect steak the first time; a little practice and patience will fix this defect with ease. Cook, use the proven advice of professionals, enjoy delicious and aromatic steaks, cooked with your own hands!

Are your buns, cakes and cookies still far from ideal? Don’t get discouraged, it’s never too late to learn the art of culinary. These simple life hacks will help you successfully prepare any dessert.

  1. Do not deviate from the recipe. The most important thing in preparing desserts, and especially baking, is to follow the recipe. Of course, no one denies that experimenting with ingredients is possible and sometimes even necessary. But only if you are sure of the final result. For example, adding honey to baked goods can make them less moist and airy. You don’t want to get such a dessert, do you? Therefore, when deciding to cook sweets, be sure to follow the sequence of actions and proportions. Try not to mix all the foods randomly. Otherwise, instead of a soft and porous dough, you will get a hard lump that no one will like.
  2. Sift flour. Most housewives treat this important stage of cooking negligently. And in vain! After all, it is the sifting of flour that mainly affects the structure of the baked goods, as well as how quickly it rises in the oven. Sifting flour allows baked goods to become more airy, as more air bubbles appear between the grains. Accordingly, the yeast in the dough begins to react faster. Do this before preparing your dessert. And if you have time, then generally sift the flour twice. So you will definitely be sure of the splendor and tenderness of the texture of your baked goods.
  3. Do not measure ingredients in glasses. When preparing desserts, almost every housewife uses an ordinary faceted glass as a weight meter. On the one hand, it is very convenient and in many recipes the weight of the ingredients is indicated in the glasses. But there is one nuance in this manipulation. Measuring ingredients with a glass is unreliable because different product weights may result. In addition, during the preparation process, you can make a mistake with the proportions, measuring half or a quarter of a glass by eye. If you want the perfect dessert, get yourself a kitchen scale. With them, you will be sure of the result of the work done.
  4. Choose your eggs correctly. Few people know, but eggs of different ages are required to create a certain type of confectionery. So, for example, for making ice cream, it is better to choose fresh eggs. But for making meringues, give preference to the old ones. Here it is quite logical that the question may arise: “How can this be done?” You can determine the age of chicken eggs using a regular bowl filled with water. Place an egg in a bowl and observe its behavior. If the egg falls to the bottom of the bowl, then it is fresh. If it rises with a blunt end up, it is older. But if it floats up on the surface of the water, then it is better to throw it away.
  5. Set aside special utensils for desserts. You cannot use the same utensils for the preparation of desserts, side dishes, meat and fish dishes. If you don’t want your baked goods to taste like salty foods and have distant aromas, separate kitchen knives, boards, and spatulas. And if there are not enough tools in the kitchen, be sure to purchase new ones, especially for desserts. This will prevent your sweet treats from becoming salty and smelling like other foods.
  6. Don’t forget about time. When you start making dessert, remember to keep track of the time. If the recipe says the biscuit should bake for 30 minutes, set the timer to 28 minutes. Stay close to the kitchen while the baked goods are in the oven. When you smell a pleasant aroma, check the baked goods. Trust your instinct more than the recipe, and this way you will definitely avoid the dessert sticking.
  7. Monitor the temperature of the oil. It turns out that butter with the wrong temperature can ruin almost any dessert. When using melted butter to make cakes and muffins, the dough will not be porous and will not rise well. Most often, oil at room temperature should be used for desserts, which, when pressed with your finger, will easily knead. But for making muffins and cookies, the butter must be completely different. For this test, it is important that the butter only melts slightly after being stored in the refrigerator. Otherwise, you will never be able to achieve a delicious golden crust.
  8. Use a different flour. Do not be limited to trivial ideas and use different types of flour for baking. Wheat flour makes excellent shortbread dough, and oatmeal makes delicious cookies and pancakes. A mixture of wheat and oat flour is very suitable for making cakes and biscuits. But buckwheat flour can give baked goods not only a special and aromatic taste, but also real benefits. Buckwheat flour can be safely used for making muffins, pancakes and pies. When choosing flour for baking, pay attention to its protein content. Flour with a higher protein content usually produces excellent baked goods and cakes. A product with a minimum protein content is best used for making fluffy cakes, pastries and cupcakes.
  9. Use quality parchment paper. If you are used to baking desserts directly on the baking sheet, rather change your habit. Use parchment paper. This will prevent the bottom and top of the dessert from scorching. In addition, this will allow you to avoid an unpleasant fate for a long time at the sink and wipe off the carbon deposits from the baking sheet. If necessary, you can even fold the parchment paper in half to keep it warm.

If you want to make the most delicious salad, then our advice will definitely come in handy!

  1. Conventionally prepared radish salad takes on a savory flavor when sprinkled with ground walnuts.
  2. Eggs for salad must be boiled for at least 10 minutes.
  3. Bean and pea pods for salads are boiled in highly boiling salted water; they should boil vigorously until they are cooked to maintain a rich green color.
  4. The flavor of the salad depends a lot on how the food is cut. Slice vegetables into a salad evenly and thinly. The slices should literally show through! Then they are well soaked in the dressing.
  5. Try to stir the salad with careful movements from bottom to top.
  6. Don’t forget to garnish the salad. To do this, choose the most beautiful vegetables, slices of ruddy apples, mouth-watering pieces of meat or fish, fresh sprigs of parsley, dill, celery.
  7. A salad decorated with a “net” of mayonnaise will be very attractive.
  8. Finely chopped onions will not burn and will acquire a beautiful color if you first roll them in flour.
  9. After you have peeled and chopped the onion or garlic, rub your hands with damp salt or half a tomato and then wash.

Cooking delicious, juicy steaks at home is a snap. It is necessary to learn and clearly follow certain rules. They will help to avoid the difficulties faced by both beginners and experienced chefs.

  1. Cooking a steak is allowed only from fresh, refrigerated products. If the meat has been previously frozen, it should be allowed to thaw overnight.
  2. Before you start creating culinary masterpieces, the meat is heated at room temperature for several hours. Subsequently, it will be much easier to control the uniformity and degree of roasting.
  3. The meat should not be wet, so it is wiped dry with paper towels before cooking.
  4. The width of the meat is of no small importance. The ideal piece of steak is 2.5 to 4 centimeters in size.
  5. When cutting meat yourself, you need to move the knife across the fibers.
  6. Do not place more than 2 pieces of steak in the skillet, as the more there is on the surface, the lower the frying temperature will be, and this will lead to excessive juicing.
  7. Do not be afraid to season the meat well, because exactly “that” restaurant taste is achieved precisely due to the abundance of used seasonings.
  8. The frying process is best done in a heavy pan. This will make it easier to control the process. If it is not a cast-iron product, it is better to warm it up well, but avoid the appearance of smoke, otherwise, the steak will burn before it is cooked inside.
  9. Begin to fry the meat on a high and then at a moderate temperature. This approach ensures uniform roasting, rich taste, and color of the dish. The protein on the surface of the meat curls up and prevents the loss of juice.
  10. A good cook knows how long to fry a beef steak! According to cooking rules, a medium-rare steak takes 4 minutes on each side. With blood, it will fry from 1 to 3, for medium roasting it takes about 3 minutes each, and 6-8 minutes from each side – for a full one.
  11. Do not use forks when turning the steak. This can lead to loss of fluid, so it is best to use special cooking tools.
  12. If in doubt about the readiness of the meat, you can control the process with your fingers. The softer and more pliable it is when touched, the more blood is inside. Be careful not to burn yourself.
  13. Serving meat is desirable on warm plates. In this case, the knives must be sharp.

Few of us dislike desserts. Today we will tell you the secrets of making the most delicious desserts! 🙂

  1. Brush the dough with egg yolk for about 5-10 minutes. before baking.
  2. When whisking the egg white, be careful not to get the yolk on it, as this will make whipping difficult.
  3. Bake small items at a high temperature, large and thick cakes at a lower temperature, but for a long time, so the whole dough will bake well.
  4. The readiness of large pies can be seen by the bottom crust: in the finished product it will be ruddy and will easily separate from the sheet.
  5. The product will feel soft (top and bottom crust) if covered with a cloth while it is still hot.
  6. There are three types of baking temperatures: moderate (130-180 ◦ C), medium (180-220 ◦ C), high (220-270 ◦ C). The temperature in the oven depends on the type of dough, the size and shape of the product.
  7. For frying donuts, pies and other similar products, the fat temperature should be 170-180 ◦ C.

I think we all would like to be able to cook delicious desserts?) We have selected some important tips for you for their preparation!

  1. Peeled apples will not darken if you put them in water to which you have added lemon juice.
  2. If the nuts are kept in the oven hot for 15-20 minutes, it will be easier to peel them from the shell and the taste will be softer.
  3. To squeeze more juice out of the lemon, it must be kept in hot water for 5 minutes and the zest will not taste bitter.
  4. If an open jar of jam is sprinkled with sugar sand on top, then it will be stored longer.
  5. Dried apricot pits replace almonds.
  6. To prevent the peel of baked apples from bursting, you need to make several punctures in the peel before baking or bake them in foil.
  7. If gelatin is added to fruit puree when making marmalade, then the transparency, taste and aroma of marmalade are lost.
  8. To turn 10% of cream into 30%, one third of their volume must be evaporated in a water bath.
  9. To prevent lumps from forming in the jelly, it must be poured into a heated bowl to solidify.

Good and tasty desserts (as well as food in general) can be beneficial for such a difficult thing as drug addiction treatment. After all, it is very important for a person struggling with his addiction to find some kind of outlet, and the sweet just can become it.

  1. The flour you use to make cookies, cakes, etc. be sure to sift, even if you only need a few spoons. Why? Flour tends to cake quickly, and when sifting it is enriched with air, then your dough will always rise well.
  2. Fresh flour absorbs less liquid than old flour, so when you seem to bake a cake according to the same recipe, it can come out differently every time. This is precisely the reason. Only with experience can you learn to determine whether you need to add a little more water or flour to the dough than indicated in the recipe.
  3. Store flour in a cool and well-ventilated place. Try to sift and ventilate it at least once a month. In a humid room, flour becomes musty, and when stored in a very warm place, it tastes bitter and takes on an unpleasant odor.
  4. Before adding to the dough, the baking soda should be diluted with a little water or mixed well with flour.
  5. Grease the sheets or baking dish with thick grease.
  6. To help the egg whites churn easily into a firm foam, place the eggs in the cold for about 1 hour.
  7. If yeast is added to baked goods, then their average dose is per 1 kg. flour is from 20 – 40 gr.
  8. Yeast should be stored at a temperature not exceeding 3-4 ◦ C.

Salad is a very important part of the diet regardless of the season!

  1. The radish salad will become tastier if seasoned with onions lightly fried in vegetable oil.
  2. It is recommended to refrigerate vegetables for salad. It is not necessary to combine warm foods with cold ones, this quickly spoils the salad.
  3. A few drops of lemon juice or vinegar added to the salad immediately after cooking will retain more vitamin C.
  4. Salt should be salted just before serving. Vegetables produce a lot of juice if done beforehand.
  5. Vegetable salads are seasoned with sour cream, mayonnaise or vinegar just before meals.
  6. Lettuce with mayonnaise and vinaigrette will taste good if you briefly put a lemon rind in them before serving.
  7. It is good to add pickled vegetables to salads from meat and fish.
  8. Mayonnaise in a salad can be replaced with sour cream with crushed yolk of a hard-boiled egg, adding a teaspoon of mustard.
  9. Vegetable oil should be added to the salad only after the salad has been salted by adding vinegar and pepper (salt does not dissolve in oil).
  10. For the vinaigrette to acquire a delicate and pleasant taste, pour a tablespoon of milk into it and add a teaspoon of sugar.