Post any amazing cooking tips you've picked up over the years :)

[CustardD123]

Post any amazing cooking tips you've picked up over the years :) e.g. in prepping stuff, flavour combinations, cooking times, techniques, food pairings, etc

You can soak uncooked pasta overnight in water and when you cook it you will only need to hear it for a minute.

Time saving tip that also saves on the cost of heating a pan.

Heat not hear

A spoonful of plain flour will thicken any sauce or stock

My friend lives in Mexico. When she makes guacamole she uses both lemon and lime juice. It tastes amazing.

You can make delicious pancakes with one meshed banana combined with two eggs

A spoonful of sugar also helps the medicine go down :)

When making roast potatoes - put your potatoes on to boil and then put your tray of oil or lard or goose fat into the oven to heat up immediately after. That way it will be properly hot for when the potatoes are ready.

Use sparkling water in your batter
Chop chillies with scissors - and if what you make is too hot add some yoghurt
If you are using honey/treacle/golden syrup then measure it using a hot spoon and it will slide straight off
Put a piece of clingfilm directly on top of custard or any other sauce where you don’t want a skin to form

Yes REALLY hot oil for roast veggies and yorkshires

To create a crunchy exterior on roast potatoes either rake with a fork or (my lazy way) shoogle in a colander (preferably a metal one - sharper edges) after boiling and before roasting.

Let yorkie batter rest for 20mins before cooking

You don't need to peel garlic cloves before putting through a press it will come away as part of that process.

Tomatoes and eggs are best kept at room temperature not in a fridge.

Invest in good sharp knives and cooking scissors I also love my apple corer/slicer - it gets used for more than just apples, ditto egg slicer

Frozen herbs and spices are almost as good as fresh.

For a quick lazy herb crust on casseroles etc use stuffing mix - transformative with almost no effort. Especially nice on sausage and bean casserole.

When making stir frys remember to cook the ingredients that take longest to cook first.

If a roux sauce starts to go lumpy add a little butter and whisk like crazy!

To easily peel boiled eggs don't crack them but roll them, until the shell is in loads of small pieces, lift WITH the membrane just under the shell and peel the lot off in one go. Rolling before peeling also works for oranges.

Don't store bananas with other fruit and veg.

When using eggs for a recipe if shell gets in the raw egg scoop out with a larger piece of shell - works like a flipping magnet! Best way to avoid this in the first place though is to crack eggs using a sharp knife with a quick but forceful tap. This also helps you stop spitting the yolk.

Slicing sweet peppers without getting seeds everywhere - cut in half around its "equator" rinse under a cold tap - any loose seeds will easily come out. Then slice in sections going around the central core of seeds and then slice more thinly from there if desired (in curries and stews I like them quite chunky)

To slice tomatoes more easily - cut in half top to bottom, lay flat side on chopping board and slice from bottom to top (where the stalk was Which is the firmest most stable area and easiest to keep a grip on)

Looking forward to seeing more

Make cheese sauce with olive oil rather than melting butter. Mix oil and flour then add milk...then heat. No lumps ever.

Potato waffles taste better if you cook them in the toaster rather than grill

When using butter to fry something add a little oil it stops the butter burning

To get crisp crackling on pork the skin needs to be dry. I cut it off and leave it on a plate for a few hours, then put it back on top of the meat to roast

At Christmas the Turkey needs to rest. Take it out of the oven and put it in a cool box lined with foil and it can rest in there for an hour, leaving the oven free to cook everything else.

When lining a tray with baking paper, scrunch it and then flatten it. It works much better that way.

To stop water bubbling over when cooking vegetables add a small knob of butter or a teaspoon of cooking oil.

When chopping carrots for sauce bases (bolognese,chilli etc) instead of finely chopping into matchsticks then tiny squares you can just pulse blender for a few seconds and get a very similar result. Wish I had worked that one out ten years before I did!!

Add a good dash of balsamic vinegar to to tomato based sauce (Jamie Oliver tip)

Biological washing powder soaking removes burnt on food from pans etc

As Blondie and Graphista have said, use scissors... pizza, chopping meat for stews, chopping rind for marmalade:

Put a wooden spoon over a pan that's likely to boil over..it just won't!

You can but ready chopped onions, fresh or frozen. Amazing tip from MN a few years ago.

Easy pancakes

One cup self raising flour
One cup milk
One egg

Whisk

Don't store bananas with other fruit and veg.

Unless you want to ripen something, then put it in a paper bag with a banana.

If you want to saute something but you have a habit of burning butter use ghee, it gets to a higher temperature than butter and doesn't burn.

Not really cooking but if you keep cling film in the fridge it 'peels' better and you don't get that annoying stringy bit.

I might upset a couple of people here, but, you don't need to parboil potatoes to roast them.

The easiest way to get 'mashed'sweet potato is to microwave it and then cut in half - you can squeeze the potato out.

Put lemons/limes/oranges in the microwave for 10 seconds and you will get more juice.

If you are making something that needs a lot of steaming use the slow cooker - eg make a steak and kidney pudding in a pyrex dish, put the pyrex into the slow cooker and pour 2-3 inches of boiling water around it.

Kitchen scissors are the best utensil ever invented. Throw out your pizza cutter wheel in particular.

Grate butter or margarine into flour for pastry. Much quicker and easier than slashing lumps of solid shortening with a fork or knife or shortening cutter-inner. To use the grater, dip your lump of shortening into the flour periodically as you grate so you won't end up with a big clump stuck to your grater.

Use a crock pot if you need a warm, draught-free place to prove yeast dough - turn it on to low for a while until it's nice and warm, turn it off, then place your dough in its own bowl into the slow cooker, and put the slow cooker lid on. Use a dry kitchen towel for insulation between the dough bowl and the slow cooker. You can take out the slow cooker bowl or put your bowl into it - depends on fit. The slow cooker is warm and draught free and will stay warm for the duration of your rise. You can turn some models to 'warm' if you think you are losing heat or your rising has stalled.

If your crock pot came with a little warm dip pot, use this for bubbling citrus slices, cloves, rosemary twigs, cinnamon sticks, etc. for nice Christmas scents. Or use a small size crock pot. (Add water and whatever ingredients you choose and leave simmering for a few hours).

Stick an onion in the blender rather than trying to chop it into tiny pieces. Like the carrot tip that adagio posted.

Rub a bit if olive oil & lots of salt & pepper into jacket potato skins before baking, they taste amazing!