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Kitchen Survival Recipe Guide
You open the cookbook and see a recipe
title or a photo that tempts your tastebuds. Then you
start to read the recipe, realize the preparation is
more difficult than you first thought, and put the book
back on the shelf.
Sound Familiar? Well here's a simple
guide to help get you started:
1. Abbreviations for Measuring
Tsp. = teaspoon
Tbsp. = tablespoon, which equals 3 teaspoons
C = cup.
Tip: Get a set of measuring spoons.
The set will usually have 1/4 tsp., 1/3 tsp., 1/2 tsp.,
1 teaspoon and 1 tablespoon.
Dry measure cups look like little saucepans
and can be leveled off with a knife or other straight-edged
tool. They come in sets like the measuring spoons. Liquid
measuring cups have ounce marking lines so you can measure
however many ounces you need.
Tip: Some recipes require exact measurements
to turn out right so learn to measure correctly.
2. Common Ingredients
Make sure you know what you need.
Tips:
- Baking powder and baking soda are
not the same.
- Ask the produce manager at the market
about fruits and vegetables, the meat manager about
cuts of meat.
- When trying something new, buy ONE.
You can always go back for more if it turns out well.
3. Common Terminology
- Bake: Dry heat in the oven. Set oven
control to the desired temperature while you're preparing
the dish to be baked. Once the light that says it's
heating turns off, the oven is at the proper temperature.
Then put in the food--for best results, center it in
the oven.
- Boil: Heat a liquid until it bubbles.
The faster the bubbles rise and the more bubbles you
get, the hotter the liquid. Some recipes call for a
gentle boil--barely bubbling--or a rolling boil--just
short of boiling over. Watch so it doesn't boil over.
- Braise: A moist cooking method using
a little liquid that barely bubbles on the top of the
stove or in the oven. This is a good way to tenderize
cheaper cuts of meat. The pan should be heavy and shallow
with a tight-fitting lid to keep the liquid from boiling
away. There's a lot that can be done for flavoring in
your choice of liquid and of vegetables to cook with
the meat.
- Broil: Turn the oven to its highest
setting. Put the food on broiler pan--a 2 piece pan
that allows the grease to drain away from the food.
In an electric oven on the broil setting only the upper
element heats, and you can regulate how fast the food
cooks by how close to the element you place it. Watch
your cooking time--it's easy to overcook food in the
broiler.
- Brown: Cook until the food gets light brown. Usually
used for frying or baking. Ground beef should usually
be browned (use a frying pan) and have the grease drained
before adding it to a casserole or meat sauce.
- Fold: A gentle mixing method that
moves the spoon down to the bottom of the bowl and then
sweeps up, folding what was on the bottom up over the
top. This is used to mix delicate ingredients such as
whipped cream or beaten egg whites. These ingredients
just had air whipped into them, so you don't want to
reverse that process by mixing too vigorously.
- Simmer: Heat to just the start of
a boil and keep it at that point for as long as the
recipe requires. The recipe will usually call for either
constant stirring or stirring at certain intervals.
Now you are ready to do the shopping
and prepare that recipe that you've always wanted to
try!
Happy cooking...
1howto.com
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