Cooking Tips — little secrets from the pros
Why does rice turn out fluffy, why won’t dough rise, why does meat get tough? 2163 tips tested by chefs and the community — sorted into categories and explained one by one.
All Tips
2,163 tips listed
How Do You Cook Menemen Without Making It Watery, with Soft Curds?
The first rule for preventing watery menemen (Turkish tomato-and-egg scramble) is to cook the tomatoes until they release and cook off their own liquid before a...
What Does a Bulging Lid on a Home-Canning Jar Mean?
If the lid on a home-canning jar is bulging, or the metal disc in the center of the lid has popped upward, this almost always means gas-producing microorganisms...
How Can You Keep Fruit from Sinking in a Cake?
To keep fruit from sinking to the bottom of a cake, coat it with a spoonful of flour before adding it to the pan. The flour sticks to the fruit’s wet surface an...
How Can You Soften Overcooked Chicken Breast?
Although you cannot completely restore overcooked chicken breast, slicing it and soaking it in a hot, liquid sauce (such as tomato sauce or chicken stock) for 5...
Why Does Turkish Coffee Fail to Foam?
Turkish coffee most often fails to foam when the coffee is stale or not ground finely enough, or when it is overheated or stirred during brewing. Foam forms as...
Can You Fry With Olive Oil? What Is a Smoke Point?
Extra virgin olive oil has a smoke point of roughly 190–210°C / 375–410°F, while most home frying happens around 170–180°C / 340–355°F. That means frying with e...
How to Reduce the Odor of Organ Meats
The most effective way to reduce the strong odor of organ meats is to soak them in milk or lemon water for at least 30 minutes before cooking. Milk mellows the...
Why Are Vegetables Blanched Before Freezing?
Vegetables are briefly blanched before freezing because blanching deactivates their enzymes. Otherwise, the enzymes continue working slowly in the freezer and c...
What Goes Well with Yogurt?
Yogurt can be served plain or with garlic alongside mantı, dolma, stuffed vine leaves, and pilaf. Two cloves of garlic per cup of yogurt are a starting amount y...
How to Ferment Homemade Kombucha
Homemade kombucha is a lightly sour, fizzy probiotic drink made by fermenting sweetened tea with a gelatinous culture called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacte...
How to Score Bread Dough Before Baking
Bread dough is scored with a sharp blade just before it goes into the oven to prevent it from cracking open at a random spot as it bakes. As the oven heats the...
Can You Put Hot Food in a Plastic Storage Container?
Putting hot food directly into a plastic storage container is generally not recommended. High temperatures can increase the risk of chemicals in some types of p...