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

cook poppadoms under the grill, less fattening

Sometimes I wipe mushrooms with kitchen roll

To open a stuck jar lid, turn the jar upside down on a chopping board and insert a flathead screwdriver between the rim of the jar and the lid. Gently twist until you hear the vacuum seal go. The jar will now be easy to open.

Buy 2 good knives - a cook's knife and a paring knife and hold them in your hand before you buy them to check that they feel comfortable and are weighted correctly - try a few, everyone is different.
And learn 2 things - how to cut with them and how to sharpen them. Watching Nigella faffing around with bloody scissors annoys the crap out of me - why on earth has she never learned how to use a knife properly, saves time and effort!

I cut up pizza with clean scissors. Quick and easy.

Great thread!
Here are mine:

Yorkshire puddings: use half the amount of milk specified in the recipe and replace the other half with water

Poached eggs: get a ramekin, line with a large-ish square of cling film, rub a small amount of olive oil on the cling film, crack your egg into it. Lift out the clingfilm, twist the ends and make a knot in it, so you end up with a little cling film pouch with an egg inside. Try and get most of the air out when twisting the tops. Drop into a pan of gently simmering water, simmer for 5 minutes (or so, depending on how soft you like your poached eggs), lift out and snip the cling film. Perfect poached eggs every time! This was revolutionary for me as before all my poached eggs disintegrated in the pan.

When baking your own bread and you can’t be arsed kneading it for ages just give it a quick knead and leave to rise for an hour. Repeat this process several times, then bake - the rising action will stretch the gluten as much as your kneading does. Takes several hours longer but I sometimes do this when I just potter around the house all day and can’t be bothered with vigorous kneading

Great thread although I’m struggling to imagine how you peel ginger with a teaspoon? I’ll have to give it a try.

When preparing a casserole or a slow cooker dish, stir a spoonful of flour through the dry ingredients before adding liquid. It thickens the sauce while cooking and avoids the wetness that you can get with a slow cooker.

Probably quite well known but add a couple of squares of very dark chocolate to a chilli near the end of cooking. It makes it rich and glossy and it doesn’t taste of chocolate.

deshell boiled eggs with a teaspoon. Its amazing!! its like sccoping the egg out wihtout all the mess

When chopping onions put on a flame, cooker ring, candle, tea light nearby - it helps to burn the fumes from the onion and less sore eyes

made toast thats gone cold and hard (kids distracted you) 10-20 seconds in microwave revives it and yummy

Only 2 stale slices of bread left and your starving and after a sandwich. Microwave the bread for 10 secs and voila no longer stale bread.

Loving this thread

@coffeehabit does it not break the casserole dish? My slow cooker is huge so will try that.

Another vote for ready chopped onions and herbs

Tesco do a great range (and the bags stay sealed) the onion, garlic and ginger is brilliant for curries

Have used the frozen coriander in salads just left it to defrost for 15 min before mixing with salad

You probably all know this but just in case, add tomatoes or can of tomatoes to beef stews and casseroles, they tenderize the meat.

potatoes and Apples in the fridge,
tomatoes and eggs out of the fridge

if cooking red lentils, cook before adding tins of tomatoes, the acidity of the tomatoes prevents the lentils cooking

I was nearly 60 before I decided it was ok to use frozen chopped onions etc! I was always worried my 1950’s housewife mother would have apoplexy and denounce me as the worst most wasteful and laziest person on the planet.

Store onions in the fridge and they won’t make you cry.

I use ghee instead of butter when hot butter is required. I can thoroughly recommend for roasties and also vegetarian yorkies.

1/2 teaspoon of sugar and salt per tin of tomatoes added to dish. Add whilst cooking not at the end

Soak breadcrumbs in milk before adding to meatball mixture.

Slow cooked brisket instead of mince for spag/ragu

Miso paste for quick noodle dishes

Cheap jar red peppers from Lidl/aldi instead of adding fresh peppers to most sauce based recipes

@coffeehabit does it not break the casserole dish? My slow cooker is huge so will try that.

Put a folded tea towel under the smaller casserole and pour an inch of water around if you are worried.Mine has a metal 'dish' so not likely to crack but I do this for steamed puddings.

Argos do a small slow cooker 1.5 litres.

Just a thought on slow cookers - if you make chicken stock, use a SC liner, add the chicken carcass, onions etc for your stock.

Once cooked allow to cool, get a bowl or large jug, pot a sieve on top, put the entire sc liner with bones etc in the sieve and cut a hole, the stock will drain quickly and you can throw the liner away with little mess.

SummersB

Forget the cling film, grease the ramekin and crack the egg into it, use a knife to pierce the yolk and microwave on low for 2 mins.

And in a link to slow cookers and breakfast, you can make a cooked breakfast over night in a slow cooker, you need to roll the bacon and if you are doing beans put them into a mug.

Grease and line a cake tin or anything can be done as: grease with butter all over, and shake flour round covering everything. A tablespoon does it normally.
I get nothing sticking and saves the faff and waste of baking paper.
Read in a recipe once as how to line, and found it the easiest way ever since. No more strange creases in the bake, or stuck baking paper.
Only thing I don't do it on is for flat bakes that don't ask for lining.

To make a chocolate sponge cake that isn't dry, but still has lots of cocoa powder in:

When the cake is out the oven, leave it a few minutes then wrap it in foil while it's still warm. Leave it to cool completely in the foil. It slightly steams the cake and stops it being dry.

Half a teaspoon of ginger in just about any savoury dish makes it taste incredibly rich, without it being detectable as ginger.

Silicone cake tins are really good for making oven baked Spanish omelette/crustless quiche.

The popadums that you usually deep fry can be microwaved. Think it now suggest this on some packets but been doing this for years!! Brush a little oil on them, if they are large balance on a ramekin or similar and zap in microwave few seconds at a time until cooked.

Baking parchment, as others said, scrumple it up makes it fit better but getting it a bit damp makes it fit even better!!

Is it OK to recommend a product? (No connection with merchant or manufacturers at all.) Fat Trappers on your grill pan really do soak up all the fat off grilled foods like bacon or sausages and make cleaning your grill pan a doddle.
Creaming butter for cakes -- I never have any success softening butter in the microwave, it's always too hard for creaming up to the point where it turns into an oily puddle.
If you've sorted this then no need to read further but if not, try this - put your cold butter onto a flat plate. Fill a Pyrex or ceramic pudding basin with boiling water, leave for a few seconds to heat up, tip the water out then invert the basin over the butter on the plate. In about five minutes the butter will be uniformly soft throughout and perfect for creaming.