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Whether you are a college student just beginning your own culinary experiments or a seasoned chef with many dinner parties under your belt, there is always something new to learn about cooking. Browse these tips for excellent advice that you can implement in your kitchen tonight, and get used to fabulous home-cooked meals.



Indenting the center of a hamburger patty by up to one half inch will prevent bulging during cooking. Just a poke in the middle prior to cooking will allow a more even distribution of heat and will stop your burger from swelling on the top, something most of us are all too familiar with.



To take the metallic taste out of canned pumpkin pie filling, heat the filling with all of your spices first. Simply mixing your filling with the other ingredients and then baking traps the metallic taste in your finished pie. But by heating your pumpkin filling alone with the spices first, you release the metallic taste of the filling and simultaneously imbue it with the richer taste of spices like nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger.



When you are going to the butcher to get meats or fish, do not be scared to ask to smell the product before purchasing it. Sometimes the meat or fish is bad and the butcher does not even know it, which is why it is important for you to smell it.



Prepare your ingredients, cookware, and cooking utensils in advance of starting to cook. Your time spent in the kitchen will be greatly reduced, and you will have less chance for error, when you do this. Make sure you remember to get the spices you will need ready as well.



A coffee grinder isn't just for coffee. A coffee grinder actually works just as well as a food processor for some jobs. This is especially true with small jobs when you don't want the trouble of lugging out a huge processor and then having to wash all the parts. Nuts and peppercorns grind perfectly in a coffee grinder, even sugar if you need a quick substitute for powdered sugar in a recipe.



You want to cook healthier meals, and one place to consider with regard to changing your menus is in sauces and dressings. Rich, creamy dressings and sauces tend to be extremely unhealthy. You do not need to eliminate these meal-toppers entirely; simply learn how to make lighter, healthier alternatives. Healthier sauces and dressings can go a long way towards making your entire diet healthier.




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If you would like to bake a berry desert in the winter (when most berries are out of season), use frozen berries as a delicious and more eco-friendly alternative to fresh ones! Thaw your frozen berries for 45 minutes, drain the excess, then use as you normally would when making a berry pie or cobbler.



Do not forget to replace your spices twice a year. If a spice is kept for a long time, it could lose some of its flavor. If you don't use a spice very often, and it will go bad before you have to replace it, give some to family and friends.



If your family tends to eat a lot of chicken and often, remember to always brine the poultry as it will lock in flavor. Otherwise you are left with a dry piece of chicken that merely has whatever spices and herbs you chose coated on the outside rather than penetrating every bite.



Buy fresh cloves of garlic and mince them yourself for use in read this article . Garlic that is fresh is sweeter than garlic that is not. If it isn't soft, bruised or shriveled and it has some firm skin then you know that the garlic is fresh.



Make sure eggs are still fresh before using them. Eggs that are no longer good can cause salmonella poisoning among other deadly diseases. You can test an egg's freshness by lowering it into a bowl of water. If it settles horizontally, it is still good. If it rises to the top, it is bad.



When making sandwiches, follow this tip. Take a portion of mayonnaise and spread it on the bread from corner to corner. Spreading from corner to corner rather than the widely used method of spreading down the middle allows every area of the bread to be evenly coated with mayonnaise, making a more flavorful sandwich.



Put vegetables in cold water after you blanch them. Blanching - also known as boiling - a vegetable can be a tasty way to prepare them. Unfortunately, caterers sunnyvale can quite literally &blanch& your veggies. While this is only an aesthetic problem, it can be easily avoided. By putting the vegetables in http://www.techtimes.com/articles/189624/20161221/overwatch-holiday-comic-reveals-tracer-is-gay-the-internet-reacts-to-the-time-hopping-heros-transformation-into-an-lgbtq-symbol.htm after blanching, they will retain their green color.



Get creative to make cooking fun. Feel free to adapt a recipe to suit your particular needs. Change up the recipe until you perfect your own variation. The ability to think creatively shows the heart of a real cook.



Even veteran cooks should always be willing to learn new cooking techniques that will make their experience in the kitchen simpler and more enjoyable. Beginner cooks need a ton of information while learning how to cook. Try applying the tips from this article and come up with your own tips and secrets as you experiment.