Having Trouble In The Kitchen? Read This Useful Cooking Advice

A lot of people think of cooking as annoying. This article has many excellent tips that can help you do just that.

Make sure to keep herbs and spices in an area that is cool and dim. Elements such as light and heat can cause your herbs to lose flavor quickly, resulting in less taste being added to your favorite dishes. As a general rule, keep your ground spices no more than one year. Whole spices, on the other hand, can retain their freshness for 36-60 months. If you keep these properly stored, they can sometimes stay fresh for an even longer period of time.

You can start cooking simple meals out of a cookbook you can borrow from the library. That way you can try different meals that you can prepare and when you are done you can take it back. Be as patient as you can be when you are learning how to cook.

If your stir fry recipe calls for meat, make sure to slice it very thinly on the bias. Very often this is difficult to master and takes a lot of time. Once the meat has become more firm, you should slice against the grain at 45 degrees.

A good tip when using cooking oil is to put some on the sides of the pan while cooking. This way, it will already be hot when it gets near the food. This will optimize the flavors in your food in your final dish.

Fresh apples can be a delicious ingredient for a wide variety of recipes. Store apples in a plastic bag in a cool, dry location to keep them fresher longer. Watch your apples so that you can catch any rotten ones, a rotten apple will make the others spoil.

Before frying raw potatoes, allow them to soak for half an hour in a bowl of cold water; this will result in crispier fries. Soaking the potatoes helps to make the fibers within them stronger, which makes them better able to handle the heat during frying.

You can sprinkle it on many other foods besides meat. Sprinkle the seasoning on top of roasted pumpkin seeds and make a tasty snack, or sprinkle it on scrambled eggs. Everyone will beg you to let them in on the secret ingredient.

Make your meal preparation go more quickly by preparing some of the ingredients ahead of time. Complete as many steps in advance as you can without risking spoilage. Lots of prep work can be completed the day before cooking. Even if you are faced with a challenging recipe, it can make everything go quickly.

Many people love the taste of garlic, but cooks are more ambivalent about it because its scent sticks to the hands. To remove the odor, simply take your hands and rub them against the sides of a stainless-steel sink. This works for garlic and for other foods that leave behind a strong odor on your hands. This cleanses you hands thoroughly to avoid transferring the flavor of garlic to other foods.

As was shown in the above article, there are numerous ways for cooking to be more interesting and less of a hassle. If you use the tips in this article you'll find that you can make cooking creative and fun, enjoying every minute of it.