Find The Way To Cook Great Food With These Tips

Cooking is a necessary and valuable skill to have. Eating food made in the home is a yummy and healthy way to eat, and it also conserves money.

Store your spices and herbs in a cool and dark spot when you decide where to keep them. Humidity, light and heat can cause your spices and herbs to lose their flavor. Do not expect your spices to last more than a year. It is possible for whole spices to remain flavorful for up to five years. When stored in the correct place, they will keep their freshness for longer.

Give pie and tart crust a little longer baking time than you normally would for the best results. It will help if you achieve a darker, more delicious golden caramel color, rather than stopping when the crust is still pale. This golden color means that the sugar used in the crust has caramelized, giving the crust a crisp and sweet flavor.

Keep spices tucked away in cool, dry and dark areas. Exposing spices to heat, humidity, and light will shorten their lifespan. Storing your spices in a cool location far from direct sunlight will help them last longer and taste better. Using fresher spices can make tastier meals.

When cooking with oil, add it not to the bottom but to the pan's sides. This will allow the oil to heat up as it works its way down to the center. This helps to enhance and maximize the taste of your cooking.

If you want to slice meat into thin strips, freeze it partially before bringing it to the cutting board. This method is especially useful when preparing Chinese or Thai entrees. By marginally freezing meat, slicing it is made cleaner, as its fibers will not tear quite as easily. However, so they are evenly cooked, you want to make certain the meat strips are thawed before cooking.

A nutritious way to reduce the calories from your mashed potatoes is to replace some of the potatoes with cauliflower. Cauliflower does not have a strong taste and will be virtually undetectable when mixed with the potatoes and other ingredients. Cauliflower has the same texture and color as mashed potatoes, so the dish will be transformed into one that has more vegetables and fewer calories.

By doing so, the mushrooms will absorb the water like a sponge. The right way to clean the mushrooms would be by hand, using a clean, wet cloth.

If you have made sauce, put the leftovers into an ice cube tray and freeze. All you need to do next time you want to use it, is reheat in a saucepan. Not to worry, it freezes well and is perfectly edible when stored this way.

Follow these tips and you will quickly develop better cooking skills and an affinity for good home cooking. If you get more practice you can make better food and save some money. In addition, cooking meals from home can be much healthier for the whole family. Start using these tips and make wonderful tasting meals.