[QUOTE=Philster]
Stock your shakers with Kosher salt and look for a very refined pepper, or mill your own. These last two spices can make or break your hard work.
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Will kosher salt fit through the holes of a shaker? I would think a person would be better off just getting a little handheld salt grinder and filling it with sea salt or some equivalent.
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen]
My plain knives are very sharp- I just prefer serrated. I got it as a tip on a cooking show (I’m blanking on the chef’s name- famous french guy, worked with Julia Child- Jaques Pepin maybe?). He reccommended it and I’ve never gone back.
What’s all the serrated blade hate anyway? It’s works really well, so why not?
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I dunno - It’s not that I hate them, it’s just that I keep the saws in the garage.
Seriously though, I just don’t find serrated knives to be as controllable as properly sharpened plain bladed ones - especially for things like tomato and cucumber. And trying to cut something harder such as carrots with a serrated knife is pretty much equivalent to waving your fingers goodbye.
My favourite knife for tomatoes is a Victorinox paring knife
A good serrated breadknife is nice.
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
I dunno - It’s not that I hate them, it’s just that I keep the saws in the garage.
Seriously though, I just don’t find serrated knives to be as controllable as properly sharpened plain bladed ones - especially for things like tomato and cucumber. And trying to cut something harder such as carrots with a serrated knife is pretty much equivalent to waving your fingers goodbye.
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I only use a serrated blade for tomatos and bread- never with hard vegetable of course! I meant serrated blade hate for cutting tomatos specifically.
I must have compliant tomatos- it always works well for me. 
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen]
What’s all the serrated blade hate anyway? It’s works really well, so why not?
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They are a royal PITA to sharpen, so they tend not to be. One reason they work well is that people understand you need to use them with a slicing (sawing) motion. A plain blade used the same way works nearly as well, but people tend to use a chopping motion rather than a slicing motion. Serrated blades are great for slicing bread, and cutting rope, but othewise give me a well sharpened plain blade any time.
Speaking of which: TheLansky knife sharpening system has made a huge improvement in our kitchen. There are a number of clones which I assume work well too. I had one of these in my car when it was stolen, (I sharpen my sister’s knives when I visit) and it was one of the first things I replaced. Most sporting goods stores sell these or clones.
[QUOTE=Foxy40]
Well, I read the link and still disagree. In the past I have had such a time **keeping the lasagne noodles from sticking together in the pot of cool water ** before I was ready to use them. Then I was given advice about the oil.
I have never had the problem since that time. Coincidence? Perhaps but since that is my signature dish, I would prefer not to test the theory again.
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There’s your problem- you have to take them out of the water. Lay them on wax paper to cool and they won’t stick.
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen]
I only use a serrated blade for tomatos and bread- never with hard vegetable of course! I meant serrated blade hate for cutting tomatos specifically.
I must have compliant tomatos- it always works well for me.
[/QUOTE]
Dunno - I just find a plain blade more predictable and controllable, even for tomatoes - with a serrated blade, I feel like all that sawing back and forth is going to have it skipping out of place and cutting into my thumb, plus you can’t really cut right up to your fingertips with a serrated blade (which is OK for bread, but not so much for thin slices to tomato).
Maybe it’s just personal preference - I nearly hacked off a finger with a serrated knife that cut an arc, instead of a straight slice, through a cucumber.
[QUOTE=ForumBot]
Will kosher salt fit through the holes of a shaker? I would think a person would be better off just getting a little handheld salt grinder and filling it with sea salt or some equivalent.
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Kosher salt comes in different grinds, either coarse or fine.
Do you have a timer on your oven so that it will turn itself on during the day? Toss an assortment of sliced vegetables in olive oil on a jelly roll pan and put it into the oven, and time the oven to come on about half an hour before you get home from work. A few hours out of the fridge won’t hurt sliced carrots, cauliflower and asparagus, and it’s nice to have the roasted vegie part of your dinner taken care of. Line the jelly roll pan with foil and you have saved washing time, as well.
This is also good for those nice little fingerling potatoes we’re seeing in the markets. Wash but don’t peel them, roll them around in olive oil in a baking dish, add a few unpeeled cloves of garlic, and set the oven timer so that they roast for about 40 minutes just prior to your getting home. Luckily the garlic cloves take exactly the same time to roast as the little taters.
You can make your own low-sugar granola if you use unsweetened applesauce to stick the dry rolled oats/puffed cereal/nut mixture together. Add a shake of Splenda if you want it sweeter, and bake it at 320 for 30 minutes or until toasted and golden. Way cheaper than storebought and not encrusted with its own weight in sugar, either.
When you’re making a pot roast or short ribs, after you have let the meat reach a nice tender consistency, contrive to let it brown for awhile outside of its cooking liquid. I remove the tender beef chunks to a piece of foil to continue roasting dry while I deal with defatting and thickening the stewing liquids. This results in a brown, slightly crisp exterior of the meat and a meltingly tender, soft braised interior. I saw them do a boeuf bourgignone once this way in France and I’ve been sold on it ever since.
When you are handling slippery stuff (pasta, raw chicken) around a sink with a garbage disposal, cover the drain. (Please don’t ask)
Sweets, cheese and all other fattening stuff should be on the bottom drawer. Veggies and stuff that spoils, should be right in front of your eyes when you open the fridge.
If you really like toasty, crisp pizza, don’t preheat the oven. The long burn will crisp your crust while the toppings won’t burn.
Buy cheap knives and a good sharpener. Learn how to use it. You will laugh the next time you see a knife over $10. Let alone $100.
(oh yeah, and no serrated knives and no oil in pasta water)
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen]
Always used a serrated knife for tomatos!
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This might be “duh” for most people but I used to hate slicing tomatoes because my knives weren’t sharp enough to break the skin. Then I realized knives have a sharp pointy end. Stab the tomato where you’re going to slice, thereby making an opening. Even a relatively dull knife slices tomatoes just fine once it’s got that first opening through the skin. Roll the tomato a bit as you slice, rather than trying to slice straight down.
[QUOTE=Sapo]
Sweets, cheese and all other fattening stuff should be on the bottom drawer. Veggies and stuff that spoils, should be right in front of your eyes when you open the fridge.
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Perhaps from the point of view of diets, yes, but in terms of food hygiene, it should be:
-Raw meat at the bottom, so it can’t drip on anything.
-Vegetables in the middle - any pathogens in soil adhering to these will only fall onto meat you’re going to cook
-Cooked foods and things that will be eaten without cooking (cream cakes, desserts) at the top, where they are least likely to be cross contaminated
I use ground turkey in every recipe that calls for ground beef. No need to drain the fat.
Whole lemons in the microwave for a short while before juicing.
Evaporated milk instead of whole milk is my secret to delicious mashed potatoes.
For people like me who have trouble cutting onions due to tears - put the onion in the freezer for 5-10 minutes or so before cutting. It seriously works. Normally I can’t get more than a few cuts into an onion before having to pause due to pain and tears, but chilling in the freezer gets rid of it.
[QUOTE=Sapo]
Buy cheap knives and a good sharpener. Learn how to use it. You will laugh the next time you see a knife over $10. Let alone $100.
[/QUOTE]
Eh, sharpening a knife that often is not worth it to me. One of the quality differences in cheap knives and pricier knives is not just the sharpness, but the ability to hold an edge. Also few cheap knives feel good in my hands, and I loves me a full tang with riveted handle, which are more likely to come loose and fall apart in the cheapo ones.
But whatever works for me. Different strokes and all that.
Here’s a simple tip…
When seasoning meat for cooking, lay down a thick layer of salt and a generous grinding of fresh ground pepper, or your favorite seasonings on a plate ahead of time. Turn over the steak or cut of meat directly from the container onto the seasoning. Add more seasoning to the top, press in the seasoning.
This is a simple thing to do, and is much more effecient than seasoning one side, pressing and flipping the meat with your hand and then seasoning the other side. It will save handling the salt and pepper, or spice conatiners with slippery, meat juice contaminated hands.
[QUOTE=IvoryTowerDenizen]
Dicing an onion- cut onion in half. With flat side on the board, make a series of cuts parallel to the board towards (but not through) the root end. Now make a series of slices perpindicular to the board, the length of the onion. Now when you slice the onion from one end toward the root the pieces come off in little dices! It sounds complicated, butit is really easy after the first time.
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I’ll do you one simpler: Just cut off the tippy end (the stem end) of the onion, then cut a grid into it as far down as you can from that small flat edge. Yes, some of the time your knife will be starting on a rounded edge. It’s not hard, though. Then you lay the whole onion sideways and slice off the little diced pieces. You can get through most of the onion in one go this way, rather than having to do it twice for each half of an onion (which I think is harder to hold anyway).
If you’re careful you can use the same method for dicing tomatoes, but you have to use a serrated knife and a sawing motion, or it loses its shape from even a little bit of pressure when you make the 3rd series of cuts and just sort of splays out everywhere.
Ok, my tips, many of which are probably totally obvious:
IMO most recipes that call for herbs and spices don’t call for enough. If it says one teaspoon of basil, it will likely taste better with two. Mind you this isn’t always the case and you have to learn what “ups” better than other things, and what things are best left in small amounts… but generally speaking, most recipes create food that is too bland. At least for me.
If you’re making a cheese sauce and will be thickening it with flour, mix the flour into the shredded cheese before you melt it. It will coat the cheese evenly and you won’t have to fight so hard to smash out all the flour clumps.
As for olive oil in pasta water, it seems to me like it makes the water less foamy and likely to boil over, but I haven’t conducted a scientific study or anything. Stirring the pasta just as it’s starting to soften seems like the most important part to me with regards to pasta not sticking to itself.
If you want to make a bunch of pancakes on Saturday morning and freeze most of them for groggy early morning microwaving, spread them out on a cookie sheet and freeze them like that for about an hour before trying to stack them into a bag or other container. Otherwise they’ll stick together when they freeze and it’s a pain in the butt to get them apart.
Leftover Chinese food with rice in those square paper boxes? Use the sink sprayer to hose off the top of the rice before you put it into the fridge. The water will percolate down through it and keep it from drying out much longer. Put in more water than you think you should. Don’t worry, rice is renowned for soaking up water.
To peel an avocado (if you don’t need it to look nice–I’m talking about avocado headed for a guacamole recipe or something, not nicely sliced) cut it in half, pop out the seed in the middle, pop off the little button stem at the end, and then fold the half-avocado lengthwise. Most of it will pop right out, and what doesn’t you can squeeze out like toothpaste. It’s a lot faster than using a spoon.
A pizza cutter (the rolling wheel kind, preferably the big 4" one) works great for chopping fresh herbs into tiny bits very quickly. Zing! Zing! Zing!
The smaller you cut your potatoes before putting them in boiling water, the less time you have to boil them to get them soft enough when making mashed potatoes.
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
As for olive oil in pasta water, it seems to me like it makes the water less foamy and likely to boil over, but I haven’t conducted a scientific study or anything. Stirring the pasta just as it’s starting to soften seems like the most important part to me with regards to pasta not sticking to itself.
[/QUOTE]
it can help with that sometimes, but the best way to prevent boil overs is to use a bigger pot and more water. Most people don’t use enough water for pasta. Really, for 2-6 servings, use at least a whole gallon, if not more.
[QUOTE=bouv]
Eh, sharpening a knife that often is not worth it to me. One of the quality differences in cheap knives and pricier knives is not just the sharpness, but the ability to hold an edge. Also few cheap knives feel good in my hands, and I loves me a full tang with riveted handle, which are more likely to come loose and fall apart in the cheapo ones.
But whatever works for me. Different strokes and all that.
[/QUOTE]
I have to concede on the issue of a good handle. Nothing like a good tall handle to keep your knuckles from banging the cutting board.
And amen to the pizza cutter for herbs. Works like a charm.
[QUOTE=OpalCat]
If you’re careful you can use the same method for dicing tomatoes, but you have to use a serrated knife and a sawing motion, or it loses its shape from even a little bit of pressure when you make the 3rd series of cuts and just sort of splays out everywhere.
[/QUOTE]
Dear Og, do not mention serrated knives and tomatoes.
Nothing to look at here folks, move along… 
The heretic is back! Get the burninating sticks!
Herbs: instead of going straight from canister to pot, crush them up in your hand a bit before dropping them. This will release the aroma a bit better and cause the flavor to be absorbed faster.