Souffle's Cooking Tips

Cooking might seem at first glance, a complicated art that few of us can master. However, even the those who are highly skilled at the art of cooking agree that anyone can learn to cook. Whether you are a beginner at this art or you are quite skillful these easy tips will surely help you.

From the simplest recipes to the most complicated ones, our work is always made easier when we know some simple cooking secrets and techniques. Preparation stages are just as important as the actual cooking process because often the preparation stage takes up a lot of time. All stages of cooking are equally important in order to get the results you desire. If properly presented, even the simplest food can have an extraordinary effect. Just watch the video below if you need any other additional evidence. Here are a few easy tips to make cooking easier and more flavorful:

Onions are difficult to work with because most times we cannot help but burst into tears everytime we try to chop them. To prevent this from happening, try the following technique: choose a well ventilated place then, using a good chief knife remove the root area and peel the onion under a steam of running water. Put a thin layer of vinegar on the cutting board and put your cutting board near a heat source like the gas cook stove. Either use a small food chopper or a knife to chop it as quickly as possible.

If you want to boil milk without constantly having to stir, try placing a small porcelain or stainless steel bowl inverted in the pan before putting the milk. This will prevent the milk from burning at the bottom of the pan. To prevent the milk from spilling rub butter along the top edge and inside the lip of the pot.

To keep the milk from curdling add a pinch of baking soda when the milk starts boiling.

If you only plan to use the yogurt later and you are concerned that it might get sour try carefully putting water on top of the curd without breaking it. This will prevent or reduce sourness.

When making a sponge cake use orange juice instead of water to make it tastier and add two tablespoons of flavored jello and continue beating until you get a smooth consistency.

When making chocolate cake dust cocoa powder instead of flour after greasing the pan. This will add flavor while making the cake more flavorful.

If you want your chocolate cake to have a reddish color add soda to the recipe instead of water.

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When you are baking muffins put the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then make a well in the dry ingredients bowl and put the wet ingredients in there. To get a round muffin top grease only the bottom of the muffin and half way on the side.

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When cooking meat you can enhance the flavor of oil or margarine-based marinades by sautéing onions, spices and chiles before adding the meat. Don't keep the meat too long in acidic marinades as it will become chewy. Keep the meat from shrinking by cooking it on medium or low temperature.

To make sure that the steak turns out to be as delicious as you thought it would be, knowing what temperatures you should use at each type of meat can turn out to be very useful. Fresh cuts of pork and ground meat should be cooked at 160 °F, beef,veil and lamb steaks at 145°F,while ground poultry should reach 170 °F.

Last but not least,the way you present and decorate the food is also very important. To make any food more appetizing try some simple decorating techniques like making a flower from lemon peels for example.

Take a look and see how a plain apple can be transformed into a beautiful swan with a few simple cuts: