Cooking Tips You Won't See on Food Network

[Jester]

I do hope your fingers feel better soon, though. Ouch.

They've been off and on all day. Earlier tonight, when I was eating dinner, they were on fire, but overall, they haven't been too bad. Right now, there's virtually no burn going on. But all that with my hands made my day very amusing, as Wednesday is the day I do magic in two different businesses, and most of the magic I do is cards...and most of the burning I was getting today was on my fingertips. Which, ya know, you kind of use A LOT when you do card magic.

...whether or not you have the ability to "mentally taste test" things.

Heh. Apparently I have that ability. The time it became most apparent to me was not any time in the kitchen or for a cookoff, but actually for a bartending competition. It was a cocktail-creation contest sponsored by Finlandia vodka, in which we each had to create three different cocktails using Finlandia's fruit fusion vodka flavors. Being a non-vodka drinker, I created all three completely in my head. Right before the competition, the only one I had any reservations about I made up a quick test cocktail of, and immediately modified the recipe slightly to make it better. The other two, I didn't even test, because I knew they would work....and they did. Of all nine contestants, I was the only one (as far as I know) that didn't drink or like vodka.

I came in fourth.

Never use a dull knife. You are far more likely to injure yourself with a dull knife than with a sharp knife.

This should be hammered into the brain of anyone who ever picks up a knife in a kitchen. You should know that a sharp knife will almost certainly cut you deeper....and a deep clean cut is far preferable to a shallow ragged cut. Trust the klutzy cook, I know of which I speak.

make sure you have thermometers in your oven, fridge, and freezer. Monitor the temps of all three, don't just assume the thermostate is working properly.

Heh. I think I own a thermometer. At least one. Somewhere. As for using it.....while it is a good idea for newer cooks and dishes that have to be a precise temp, I know I and many of my cooking friends don't bother. Why? Not to be arrogant, but we do know what we're doing. Hell, I even know my oven/stove well enough to know that it runs a little hot, so if a recipe calls for 400, I'll set it at 375, and it will be perfect.

If the produce is in the refrigerated display case at the store, store it in the fridge at home. If it's not refrigerated at the store, don't put it in the fridge at home.

Yes, but.

Just like wine, your individual tastes may vary this. For example, I like to eat my oranges and peaches cold, so while the supermarket has those out and unrefrigerated, they go right into my fridge when I get home. But for most instances, this is the correct way to go.

There are a few instructional videos on YouTube you can watch, but if you do better in person, see if a chef instructor at one of your local culinary schools is willing to show you.

Or, if you work at a restaurant, you can often get your head chef or one of the cooks to show you. They are usually pretty good about that, unless they are busy or are the always-foul-tempered-type.

Also, make sure you invest in QUALITY knives the best you can afford---and know the correct use for each one.

You don't need to invest in a WHOLE block of them at once, and nor do you need to spend that much.

I have three blocks of knives. The first 2 are ones I picked up use along the way, and my roommates are allowed complete freedom with them. The 3rd one is the only one I bought new, which is not a high dollar pro chef type, but good enough for my uses, and I have added one scarily sharp knife I use exclusively fir fish to it....and have told my roommates that if they use these knives, I will stab them with them. Too many instances of coming home to find a knife dirty in the sink. They can do that to my other blocks, but not to my good knives. Not if they want to retain their blood on the inside of their skin.

The 'garbage bowl' isn't a Rachael Ray invention...professionals have been doing this for many moons.

Yes, but almost every home cook that uses it got the idea from her, since most home cooks don't usually know that many professional chefs. (And I have never seen it used in a restaurant myself, though I have been in the business for 25 years now.) She didn't invent it, but she certainly popularized it.

Baking recipes are more of a chemical formula (rudimentary molecular gastronomy) that if you deviate, add, or forget something, it can be hard to fix, if not impossible.

I've been saying for years that cooking is an art, but baking is a science.

I don't have the patience for baking.

Taste as you go along. Build flavor and spice gradually.

I'd say the number one mistake most home cooks make is not tasting their dishes or sauces as they go. If this is your first time making something, don't blindly follow the recipe...taste it as you go. You may prefer less vinegar or more salt, or have an inspiration to add something not in the original recipe, or see that it needs some particular flavor counterbalanced with something else, etc.

Invest in two thermometers: one for meats and one for oils/fats/candy.

Thermometers.

I have been known to shout tourette's-style at the TV screens in the gym because I hear/see something said (or done) incorrectly. I will refrain from naming them here unless asked to do so.

Oh, HELL yeah. I'm asking you to do so. Details, details, details!

[akwaitress]

Whenever you make chicken fried steak after you dip it and flour it chill it before you cook it and your breading won't fall off as much. I always prep it then chill it while I peel the potatoes. I live in Alaska so I use this for halibut would probally work for any white fish. When its been in the freezer for a while but is still good soak it in milk before you cook it to refresh it.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Or, if you work at a restaurant, you can often get your head chef or one of the cooks to show you. They are usually pretty good about that, unless they are busy or are the always-foul-tempered-type.

Target audience for this station are the ones who don't work in a kitchen or don't have experience or access to this. I suggested culinary schools because you are more likely to get someone who is not trying to run the kitchen and has time between classes to help you. Plus there are chefs out there who have bad habits they don't realize they have.

Thermometers.

The restaurant I externed in used them religiously (not the cheapies, but the probe and laser type) because consistency was more important. Experience you may have but even the pros at The French Laundry, The Plaza Hotel in NYC, and Charlie Trotters use thermometers to ensure the correct consistent results.

Plus using them will help know what to look for and eventually a home-cook may not need them as much.

Oh, HELL yeah. I'm asking you to do so. Details, details, details!

Wow you're as bad as a housewife for gossip, lol!

Martha Stewart (not Food Network, but does a daily cooking show).

Also, Paula Deen is often 'guilty' in the using incorrect technique/vocabulary, southern-hick-drawl pronunciation notwithstanding...

[FuzzyKitten99]

This may be an obvious one, but since I currently nursing an injured hand, I would like to add:

NEVER. CUT. FRUIT. IN. YOUR. HAND !!!!!

Or anything for that matter.

I did on the weekend and ended up in the doctors having them glue my finger back together. and tetenus shots hurt

well... this may not be applicable if your recipe calls for supreme-ing an orange or other citrus fruit.

Just know what you are doing and BE CAREFUL.

I can supreme an orange with my 11" chef knife, yet once I nearly cut off the whole tip of my left thumb while chopping chives. (on my first day of my externship, 1/2 hr before dinner service, Valentines weekend no less...)

[lordlundar]

There is that, but did he ever say how much money you could save by picking up your latex gloves there? I've never heard him say that.

He's mentioned it a couple of times, usually when he's dealing with meat/poultry/fish though. I know he mentioned it the first time when he started using them on meat. He also mentioned a preference to buying from a hardware store in an episode dealing with, coincidentally enough hot peppers.

[zombiequeen]

But much tastier to cook when it's fresh, and has never seen the inside of a freezer.

I've actually only had fresh salmon once in my entire life. It tasted nasty, because it already spawned. I feel like I'm missing out living here in the poor part of Michigan.

[Jester]

Target audience for this station are the ones who don't work in a kitchen or don't have experience or access to this.

Yes, but my tip was not for the target audience of Food Network, but for the members of CS.com, many of whom DO work in the food service industry.

The restaurant I externed in used them religiously (not the cheapies, but the probe and laser type) because consistency was more important. Experience you may have but even the pros at The French Laundry, The Plaza Hotel in NYC, and Charlie Trotters use thermometers to ensure the correct consistent results.

Yes, and I am not saying that they shouldn't. I am saying I don't (though I am not opposed to using them if I feel I need to), but then, I am not cooking for thousands of high-dollar customers. I am cooking for friends, dates, and/or cookoffs. And I don't need to have each dish I make be exactly like the way I made it before. I don't need to have that restaurant consistency. Most home cooks won't need to either. It's nice to be able to if you want to. And a lot of home cooks should probably strive for that, especially if they are new to cooking. So for new cooks, yes, thermometers are probably a must have.

But for those cooks, like myself, who fly by the seat of their pants, who improvise and change recipes before they've ever even cooked the original recipe, who use measurements like "a palmful" or "a few circles of [whatever] around the pan," thermometers are not quite as necessary a tool. Hell, I wasn't kidding when I intimated that I wasn't sure where my thermometer is...I think it's in the drawer with the scissors, but I can't swear to it. That's how often I use it.

To each their own.

Interesting note on this subject...I've been typing this during commercials of Monday's Master Chef episode (it's On Demand, but the fast forward function is annoyingly disabled for this series), and at one point, one of the cooks presents a pork dish to the judges that is, much to her shock, somewhat raw. While one of the judges verbally chastises her for this, the following conversation takes place....

COOK: "I trusted the thermometers--"
JUDGE: "You should have trusted your eyes."

Thought that was very appropos to this particular subject.

Wow you're as bad as a housewife for gossip, lol!

Well, you said you had details, I wanted to hear details. And you only said WHO, you didn't say WHAT they did or said incorrectly. I am curious to hear what it was. (Especially since I despise Martha Stewart!)

[Food Lady]

Fresh and dried herbs/spices are two different things. My friend A got it mixed up and made this peach ginger cobbler that was so gingery that we made jokes for months. "Hey, can I get some ginger ale with this?" The general rule is to use 1/3 the amount of dried as fresh. For instance, 1 T fresh chopped parsley=1 tsp dried. I know, I know--fresh is better, but sometimes you only have dried on hand.

[pitmonkey]

For when you are making pastry or bread get a cheep plastic drywall knife for scraping the board.
Jester, your story about the peppers reminded me about the time felt like my foot was on fire. I had been cooking with some Serrano chillies and dropped a piece on the floor. Brushed it off my foot with other foot and didn't think about it. Later put shoes on for work and could not figure out why my foot was burning. I ended up taking off my shoe and washing my foot with soap and water. I also used vinegar to try and counter the chillie.

[Marmalady]

Hell, accidentally getting some in your eye is good enough reason to use gloves.

I'll add something to this... when I was making some spicy chutney a year or two back, I was cutting up a chili pepper and some juice squirted up, straight into my eye.

I ran for the medicine cabinet, where there was some Optrex and an eyebath and washed it out, before heading to get it checked out... my eye watered for the rest of the day but everything was OK (I'm very nervous of anything happening to my eyes, I have darned good eyesight - touch wood - and want to keep it!)

Now, when I cut up any kind of pepper I wear a pair of safety glasses from the hardware section of my store.

[Jester]

Now, when I cut up any kind of pepper I wear a pair of safety glasses from the hardware section of my store.

When I was cutting up the ghost peppers for my Devil's Ass chili earlier this year, I not only gloved up, I double gloved. Yep, I put a second pair of latex gloves on over the first. Hey, gloves can rip! I also wore a surgical mask over my mouth, plus I had on my normal glasses. At first I thought I might be overdoing it....until some of the seeds started flying up towards my face as I was cutting up the ghost peppers. Yeah, suddenly I felt like a freakin' genius! (For those not in the know, ghost peppers are one of the hottest peppers in the world, being three times hotter than habaneros.)

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Hell, accidentally getting some in your eye is good enough reason to use gloves. I once got cayenne pepper on my fingers and thought I washed my hands good. I found out otherwise when I went to put my contacts in...

Right? You cannot wash it off! I do not know what is up with that, it gets on you and it's like it bonds to your skin on a molecular level or something!

A friend of mine got hold of a ghost pepper salt blend at an Asian cooking thing once. It was basically salt infused with ghost pepper. She put a little on her tongue and then proceeded to retch for something like fifteen minutes. It was bad. Evidently, you just use a touch of the stuff in very large portions of food.

Here's a trick for not lopping off the ends of your fingers when chopping stuff: sharp, wide bladed knife (cleaver or chef's knife...I prefer a cleaver). Brace the knife against the knuckles of the other hand. In other words, hold the food you're cutting with the KNUCKLES of your fingers, not your fingers. Brace the side of the blade against your knuckles. Rock the blade only enough to cut the food, NOT clear your knuckles. You can move very quickly this way and not cut yourself.

[lordlundar]

Right? You cannot wash it off! I do not know what is up with that, it gets on you and it's like it bonds to your skin on a molecular level or something!

DINGDINGDINGDING! WE HAVE A WINNAR!

That is actually how it works. Capsaicin is the chemical that causes the inflammation when dealing with peppers (yes, even bell peppers have it, just in such small levels that it doesn't register on the Scoville scale) and is a defense mechanism. It quite literally bonds to flesh at the molecular level through the oils that the body produces. Because of the effects, it deters animals from going back to it because of the very long memory of being "burned without flame". Water is useless on it as it is extremely hydrophobic, though alcohol and fats are viable means of controlling it's levels, though in the case of alcohol, almost pure mixes (190 proof or 95% minimum) are needed for any real relief.

[AdminAssistant]

Re: Knives. I sold CutCo knives for about a minute a few years back () but I did get some training about what makes a good knife. It should have a full tang, which means that the knife blade goes all the way through the handle, if that makes sense. If there are rivets, they should be tight with no gaps. And it should have some weight to it. Despite questionable business practices, they do make a very good knife (*sigh* why did I let Mom have my sales set again?) But Henckels also makes a good product.

My other favorite kitchen advice comes from Anthony Bourdain, about pots and pans. All should pass the 'head' test. That is, if you were to knock someone in the head with it, you should feel confident that the pan is heavy and sturdy enough to not dent. Actually a while back he did a 'techniques' episode of No Reservations with people like Thomas Keller and Jacques Pepin. Definitely worth a look, and available on Netflix.

ETA: Someone mentioned Paula Dean. I hate her. I hate her fake Georgia drawl and her nasty looking food. Real Southern people do not cook like that!! We don't deep-fry everything or drench it all in butter. Honestly, there are few FN 'cooking' shows I can bear to watch...Good Eats, Rachael Ray, Ina Garten, and Anne Burrel's are just about it. Sandra Lee frightens me, Giada is all bobblehead and boobs (bring back Molto Mario!!!!), Guy Fieri is just...lame, and the Neely's seem like sweet people, but again, that's not Southern cooking.

[FuzzyKitten99]

Here's a trick for not lopping off the ends of your fingers when chopping stuff: sharp, wide bladed knife (cleaver or chef's knife...I prefer a cleaver). Brace the knife against the knuckles of the other hand. In other words, hold the food you're cutting with the KNUCKLES of your fingers, not your fingers. Brace the side of the blade against your knuckles. Rock the blade only enough to cut the food, NOT clear your knuckles. You can move very quickly this way and not cut yourself.

I was doing this but also using my friend's chef knife...meaning a different feel and balance than what I was used to with my own (which was getting washed). As I inched my hand back, I stuck my thumb out by accident and then the chives 'gripped' my thumb, just as I brought the blade down...

I damn near fainted. My friend saw that I was about to, and got me to sit down. We grabbed the superglue, some gauze, tape, and a finger cot. I should have gone to get stitches but I refused to leave on my first day. I drank some ginger ale with bitters and ate a roll and got back on line. Chef was impressed and I was under his wing from then on.