'tis the food prep season: Tips, peeves. Gourmands welcome; gourmets beware!1

[UTUSN]

Last edited Thu Nov 26, 2020, 12:17 AM - Edit history (1)

The best tip I ever got was right here in Lounge: About a score and a half years ago, I realized that my mum was getting on and that at some point her delicious, mostly holiday meals would not be available to me, so I sat her down and interviewed her, as in: "For the (cod casserole or whatever) what are the ingredients; what do you do first; next... etc." When DU came around, I posted one of the recipes, including, "heat the olive oil to smoking..." and I was properly excoriated (not that that happens a lot in DU, cough cough), by somebody who screamed, "Do NOT heat it to *SMOKING* - that releases carcinogens!!!!!!!!!!!1" However, that person didn't enlighten further. So a DUer of the polite persuasion posted, "I am a professional cook, but am a German male (huh?), and the correct temperature for oil is when the waves appear." And ever since, many years, that's what I do.

But on to tips, peeves.

* I dislike chopping (dicing?) celery stalks. The curved canal thing is a ... oh, I said that already.

* Peeling hard boiled eggs - terrible!!!!!!! But, tip, discovered on my own: RINSE the peeled thing to be rid of stray bits of shell.

* When I was young, before doing any cooking, I didn't like onions. Now in old maturity, I love them! And (dicing?) them is one of the least objectional of the items for me, seldom have the tears people complain about. I use them in cooking, but also love them raw.

* A hippie said, "Always spread the filling of a sandwich to the edges, nothing worse than biting into just bread crust!" And when the Hippie Age had wound down into the health foods and FONDA fitness era, one last lesson was, "Avoid fried foods!" Plus, "milk fat is the worst!" I do do fried, still use fat free milk.

* I modified my mother's recipes somewhat. She was shocked when I kept the potato skins on for potato salad (and everything).

[applegrove]

1. My mom always added a chicken bouillon cube to her turkey gravy

as she made it. It was the best.

[fierywoman]

2. Hint learned 45 + years after I started to learn how to cook: to get hard boiled eggs to peel

more easily, STEAM them! I know it sounds nuts, but it works.

[yellowdogintexas]

7. I plunge them into a bowl of ice water when they are done

Really helps, and I peel them under running cold water.
Also, poke a pinhole in the large end of the shell. I use a pushpin.
Definitely rinse any shell bits off LOL I let some get in my deviled eggs once...ugh
I read somewhere that extremely fresh eggs do not peel well at all. I grew up in the country, and we got fresh eggs from my aunt and those damn things would not peel nicely at all. So I guess that's true then.

[3catwoman3]

9. Or but them already peeled...

...from Trader Joe’s -

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I avoid chopping celery by not eating it because I don't like it. To peel eggs,

get this thing: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/dining/egg-peeler-gadget-negg.html#:~:text=This%20clever%20plastic%20egg%20peeler,be%20a%20cinch%20to%20peel.

?

I have one and it's brilliant.

[3catwoman3]

10. Oh, I want one!

Thnx for the tip.

[brewens]

4. When making an omelet, I can slam the eggs on the side of the bowl any which way and never break

a yolk. But a fried egg, a have to handle it like a surgeon, and still break one out of three. Why is that?

[dhol82]

6. It is a mystery.

[dhol82]

5. I find peeling eggs under running water (after cracking and rolling on a hard surface

like the top of my sink) to be very effective.
Also, very fresh eggs, like from the farmers market, are a bitch no matter what you do. Let them age a bit.

[MissB]

19. Actually an instant pot solves that

I raise backyard chickens do my eggs are super fresh. I used to hate hard boiling eggs because peeling them was nigh impossible.

Enter the instant pot. Eggs peel easily every time.

[dhol82]

20. How do you cook them in the Instantpot?

[MissB]

21. 5-5-5

Put the eggs on a rack and then put a cup of water in. Seal it and set it for 5 minutes. When it shuts off, let it set for five minutes. Next grab a bowl of ice water and plop the eggs in there for five minutes.

Then peel. Magic.

[dhol82]

22. Thanks. I'll have to give it a try.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. regarding celery stalks here is a tip

split the stalk longways right in that curve; if it is a wide stalk, cut the two pieces longways.
Gets rid of that annoying problem, plus you can get finer dice

[UTUSN]

11. "split the stalk right in that curve' - will do it, have been sort of doing it partways (3 inches)

Doing the whole length at a time sounds good!

[Freddie]

16. Thank you, I love celery

And hate chopping it. For soups, stew or salad, big pieces (not splitting the stalk) is fine. But I do the same for a smaller dice. Just spent a half hour chopping celery for tomorrow’s turkey “filling” (the proper PA term) which requires quite a bit of it. Yum.

[UTUSN]

12. Frying eggs - still remember Martha STEWART saying, "the cooked part"

As in, I now don't break the yolks, let the whites cook, then bust the yolks to cook, keeps some of the yellow coloring. The Hippie wanted contortions, like whipping the eggs and adding milk and tearing a hole in a slice of bread. Nah, for me. Martha saying "the cooked part" is stuck in my mind forever.

[UTUSN]

13. Avocados, 2 things:

A graduate student from Kansas, of German heritage, had never seen an avocado. When it was sliced in half, he said, "What a huge SEED!"

Then Martha STEWART again. In one of her techniques, she cut the thing in halves and the seed was of course in one half. She then showed off what she had seen a guy do in Mexico: Holding the seed half in one hand, then slinging a large cook knife at it, embedding the seed on the blade and popping it out. I will never do that. Martha of course showed off doing it.

Then I saw somebody in Mexico do it much safely and smoothly: With a SPOON. Edge the spoon around the seed to dig it out. Both halves, hold whichever half in one hand, and edge the spoon between the meat and the (rind? skin?) and scoop it out.

[dawg day]

18. I tried that knife/pit thing

And cut my palm pretty good. Back to spoon.

[UTUSN]

14. Spoons vs forks.

All the way to middle age I used a spoon only for soup or ice cream. At some late point it occurred to me that forks are for PIERCING.

So now I use a spoon for just about everything - big bowls of salad (when I'm on a salad binge), popcorn (I hate to have greasy fingers), meats or whatever that have already been cut. Potato chips, and I crush them in the bag first.

Even for spreading mayo/mustard, peanut butter, preserves - spoon!

[procon]

15. To quickly slice celery stalks, use a mandolin - best

kitchen gadget I own for making uniform slices of whatever you need. To easily chop/dice celery, or anything else, use a food processor and it's done in seconds.

[UTUSN]

17. I was going to go for a cheap joke - "mandolin" ACOUSTIC or ELECTRIC, haha. Yea I use machine for

chopping/grinding for, like, chicken salad, but need the larger hand choppings for cooking.