general TIPS

kitchen tips

Organize your refrigerator by using plastic storage totes. This might seem like a strange thing to put in your fridge, but it actually works really well. Keep liquid containers on bottom shelf in case of spillage.
Tidy up after each step in a recipe or after a dish is completed. Wash and put away pots and equipment you won’t be using again. Doing this creates an orderly kitchen and makes the final clean-up ever so much more pleasant.
A kitchen is a crowded, hectic place. Let people know where you are at all times. Yell "Corner" when walking around a corner. Say "Behind You" when walking behind someone. Say "Sharp" if you're walking by someone with a sharp knife and say "Hot" if you're walking around the kitchen with a hot pot.
Always keep your knives sharp; this will enable you to cut with ease in a smooth motion.
Put a damp cloth under your chopping board to prevent slippage.
A proper cutting board will help you cut sharper, improve your precision and organization in more ways than one, let alone give you a sense of comfort that is much needed in the kitchen.
If your bowl slips along the counter when you’re trying to stir ingredients, just place it on top of a damp dish towel before mixing and the bowl will stay put.
Always marinate foods in a glass or ceramic dish. Most marinades contain an acidic ingredient such as lemon juice, vinegar or wine that can react with metal and cause off-flavours in your food.
Wet your hands to make fat easy to clean off: if you are going to be getting fat/oil on your hands (e.g. when working with minced meat by hand), wet your hands first and you’ll find your hands loads easier to clean.
If you have a problem opening jars, try using latex dishwashing gloves. They give a non-slip grip that makes opening jars easy.

To keep food from sticking to the bottom of your pans, try to avoid ever putting cold foods into a hot pan. Also, don’t put food into a pan that is not perfectly clean, otherwise the resulting build up could lead to burned food.
To thaw foods more quickly, place frozen foods on a metal surface, like a metal tray or heavy frying pan. Metal conducts a room's temperature better than formica, wood, glass or tile.
To keep pans from boiling over when cooking, add a thin layer of butter around the rim of the pan. This works well for rice, pasta and potatoes.
Spritz your cheese grater with non-stick spray before using it to make shredding and cleaning easier.
Cheese won't harden if you butter the exposed edges before storing.

The key to perfect frying is to get the oil hot before you put the food in. Not so hot that it is smoking though – be careful! However, if you don’t get the oil hot, your food will absorb too much oil and taste greasy.
To test whether the oil is hot enough for frying, throw in a small piece of what you’re cooking. If it bubbles rapidly, then you know it’s ready.
To prevent butter from over-browning in your pan, add a little bit of lemon juice.
When you’re going to sauté garlic, slice it rather than mincing it; it's less likely to burn that way.
After handling garlic, rub your fingers on stainless steel, like your sink, to get rid of the odour.

Most ovens take between 5 to 7 minutes to preheat, and it is a step well worth remembering to do! If you don’t preheat, then the center of baked goods comes out wet, and meat doesn’t cook evenly. So just start the oven before you start to cook. This is one of the easiest techniques that will instantly improve the deliciousness of your food.
Using parchment paper for most of your baking will save clean-up time – always a good thing. It also saves having to use extra oil to lubricate your baking pans.
The proper way to crack an egg is to break it on the flat surface of your counter, and then pull the two egg pieces apart. This will allow the egg to drop safely into the bowl without any egg shells going with it. Wet your fingers when trying to remove broken egg shells from the yolk or egg white.
Before baking, remove butter and eggs from the fridge and let them reach room temperature.
When poaching an egg, add a teaspoon of white vinegar to simmering water to help keep the yolk from breaking.
Make an ideal sunny-side egg by covering your pan with a lid and letting the steam cook your egg. No flipping required.

Whenever you make a substitution or addition, be sure to make a note on the recipe so you remember next time whether you liked the change or not.
Instead of using water that your recipe calls for, try substituting it for juices, bouillon, or water that you've cooked vegetables in.
Keep chicken broth handy. Not only is chicken broth an easy way to add seasonings and flavours to sauces, it can also be used to add moisture to dry stuffing.
Don't throw out all that leftover wine ... freeze it into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.
Whenever possible, warm your dinner plates slightly in the oven before serving so that the meal stays hotter.