Cooking secrets simple and quick cooking recipes. Little secrets of great cooking

Even if you have a personal chef, or you yourself are a culinary guru, this does not relieve you of the obligation to learn and learn the following secrets.

1. To prevent vegetable oil from splashing in all directions, put a little salt on the bottom of the pan.

2. Scrambled eggs will be fluffy if you add 2 tablespoons of cold water to 1 cup of eggs, and beat them well.

3. Add diluted potato starch to the dough, and it will be fluffy, soft. Even the next day.

4. Usually beets are cooked for 3-3.5 hours. But experienced chefs deal with it differently: after 30 minutes of boiling, they remove the pan with beets, drain the boiling water, and put the vegetable under running water as cool as possible. The temperature difference after 15 minutes makes the beets ready for use.

5. Instead of yeast, cognac can be added to the dough. So it will be more fragrant, and baking - tastier.

6. Egg white will froth faster if you cool it first and add a couple of drops of lemon juice or citric acid. The yolk, on the contrary, loves heat and sugar.

7. To fry or bake meat with a golden crust, before that it must be smeared with honey.

8. The liver will be soft if sprinkled with sugar before cooking.

9. So that the eggs do not burst during cooking, rinse them before that in cold water.

10. To make carrots tastier, cook them for only 5-10 minutes over medium heat. Closer to the finish line, do not forget to salt.

11. So that rice is rice and not rice porridge, soak it in cold water for 30 minutes before boiling.

12. So that rice does not boil soft, it can be fried a little. But keep in mind: in the latter case, it can significantly increase in volume.

13. To prevent milk or milk porridge from trying to fade, put a wooden spoon on top of the pan.

14. Withered greens will come to life if you put it in water slightly diluted with vinegar.

15. To make vegetables tasty, they should be immersed in already boiling water. If the taste of the broth is a priority, then put the product in the pan from the very start.

16. So that the potatoes do not stick together and have less starch, rinse them in cold water before frying and dry them.

17. You can easily turn sour cream into mayonnaise if you add pounded hard-boiled egg yolk and a teaspoon of mustard to it.

18. So that the fish does not burn, grease it with vegetable oil, and not a frying pan.

19. To make an ordinary vegetable salad spicier, add a little vanilla to it.

20. So that hard-boiled eggs do not crumble when slicing, soak a knife in cold water.

See what else besides a knife should be in your kitchen:

1. Add a little vegetable oil to the mixture of cottage cheese eggs flour for syrniki. They turn out richer and tastier.
2. It is good to add skins from lard when cooking jelly from any meat (cut off and freeze when cutting meat). Aspic turns out to be thick in the skin with a lot of gelling substances.
3. A slice of onion placed in the refrigerator will help eliminate all unpleasant odors.
4. Banana skins help to cook the meat. Put the banana skin into the pot with the meat. You will be pleasantly surprised by the result. The meat will be soft, juicy and fragrant.
5. To prepare the vinaigrette, first cut the beetroot and fill it with vegetable oil, then you can cut the rest of the vegetables - they will not be stained with beetroot juice and the vinaigrette will have a “multi-colored” color.
6. Always add sugar to minced meat (1 tablespoon per 1 kg of minced meat). Your cutlets, belyashi, chebureks and other products made from cutlet mass. will always be very juicy. Put in minced meat, plus to the main spices (salt, pepper), dry celery - it improves the taste of meat.
7. In a dish with meat for stewing, put cherry sprigs for the smell of aroma and indescribable taste.
8. If you add a little dry mustard to the brine with pickles, they will become tastier and last longer.
9. Harmful for spices: light, high temperature, high humidity. You need to store in tightly closed opaque ceramic. porcelain or dark glass jars, each spice in a separate container away from the stove.
10. To prevent the board from moving, you need to lay a wet terry towel under it that you use in the kitchen. It does not have to be large, but it should be terry, with a pile. Wooden boards do not slip on the pile and adhere to it a little due to water.
11. The secret of borscht: beets for borscht must be peeled and boiled whole in the broth all the time while the broth is being cooked. Then take out the meat and beets, strain the broth and cook the borscht as usual, only at the very end of cooking, rub the boiled beets on a coarse grater, put in the already prepared borscht. Let it boil and turn off. The taste is special and the color is great.
12. Do not pour spices from a jar in which they are stored directly into a pot with a boiling dish - they will absorb moisture from the steam and lose their quality.
13. So that the raw onion in the salad does not taste bitter and is tastier, it must be finely chopped, put in a colander and pour over with boiling water. And the radish salad will become much tastier if it is seasoned with onions, previously fried in vegetable oil.
14. Chops will be juicy and tender if, well beaten, salted and peppered, they are dipped in the following mixture on both sides: mix 1/2 cup of milk with egg, salt and pepper to taste (slightly diluted with water, salted and peppered mayonnaise will do) . Place the chops in a small enamel bowl, pour over the rest of the mixture and refrigerate overnight. In a cold place in such a mixture, raw meat can be stored for up to 5 days without losing taste and without acquiring unpleasant odors.
15. Shchi and borscht will be richer and tastier if you boil whole potatoes in them and then mash them. Mash in a saucepan or frying pan.
16. If you want the breadcrumbs to form a crispy golden crust, pieces of fish or meat should be brushed with a beaten egg and only then rolled in breadcrumbs.
17. It is useful for lovers of potato cutlets to know that beaten egg white will add splendor and delicate taste to such cutlets.
18. Apples are usually added to sauerkraut salads, but this salad can be varied with orange or tangerine slices.
19. The juiciness of chicken breasts baked in the oven can be preserved if, before cooking, spread them with a mixture of ketchup and sour cream, taken in equal amounts (sour cream can be replaced with mayonnaise, and ketchup with adjika).
20. Never throw away lard that has turned yellow or weathered. Pass it through a meat grinder and store it in the refrigerator in a jar, if necessary, add it to cabbage soup or borscht. To do this, take the lard, add the garlic and grind the garlic together with the lard in a mortar or cup, an unusual taste is provided. Pour this dressing into the borscht when it is ready, stir and turn off the heat.
21. For many, sausages are an everyday dish. It seems that there is nothing simpler than their preparation, however, it is also useful to know some subtleties here. If sausages are cooked in a small amount of water or steamed, they will be much tastier and more aromatic. And in order to prevent sausages from bursting in boiling water, if they need to be pricked in several places with a fork before cooking or make cross-shaped cuts at the ends.
22. When heating the broth, do not tightly close the lid of the pan, because it is the free exit of steam that protects the broth from clouding.
23. If the bird carcass fried in the oven is not yet ready, but is already heavily browned, cover it on top with a piece of greased parchment paper or wrap it in foil.
24. And this advice is for lovers of vegetable soups, in which there are no cereals and potatoes. Seasoning this soup with lightly toasted flour will make it thicker and more delicious.
25. If you add a little milk to sour cream, it will not curdle in sauce, gravy or soup.
26. If you bake an open pie with fruit or berry filling, the juice escapes during baking and burns on a baking sheet. But there is a way out: stick several pasta with a hole vertically into the filling. Boiling juice rises through these tubes, but does not pour out of the pie. From the finished pasta pie, remove.
27. Boiled potatoes without skin can be made white without much difficulty, just add a little lemon juice to the water.
28. If you like crumbly porridge, then you need to take 2 glasses of liquid per glass of cereal. You can cook crumbly cereals in broth or on water, cereals should be poured into boiling water.
29. The taste of boiled vegetables can be improved by adding two pieces of sugar to the pan.
30. Bitter cucumbers can be dipped in milk for a while by adding a little sugar. The bitterness will go away.
31. You can remove the smell of boiling cabbage with a piece of bread placed in a saucepan - it perfectly absorbs an unpleasant smell.
32. To prevent bugs in rice cereal, put a few metal bottle caps in it.
33. The best and most affordable way to descale your kettle is with citric acid. It is she who will help your teapot shine again. You can clean the kettle with various chemicals, but why take the risk? After all, you can even ruin the kettle. It is better to choose a citric acid product without any chemicals. Naturally, if scale has appeared in the inner surface of the teapot, then it is no longer possible to brew tea there. I need to clean the kettle. Citric acid will help us with this. So, we need a pack of citric acid (for one teapot). Pour a pack of acid into the kettle, then fill with cold water and leave for several hours. Never boil the kettle. If the scale layer is small, then it will disappear in a quarter of an hour. Next, pour this water out of the kettle, dry it and boil it twice.
34. Melted chocolates and mints with 1-2 tablespoons of water or milk make an excellent icing for the cake.
35. Did you know that an apple goes well with pastries? To prevent the sponge cake from drying out, put half an apple in a container with it.
36. When kneading yeast dough, it is useful to know that cooled boiled potatoes will make it softer and more airy. Grate it on a fine grater in the proportion of 2-3 potatoes per 1 kg of flour and add to the dough before baking.
37. The biscuit will not lose its taste and tenderness if it is kneaded quickly and baked immediately, because otherwise air bubbles will escape from it and it will become heavy and tasteless.
38. Has its own tricks and pastries. In order for the finished cake or cake to easily come out of the mold, you need to put it on a cold wet towel without removing the product from the mold. But you should not immediately take out the cake in the cold - it can settle.
39. Apples will not lose juice during baking if, after removing the core, lower them for 3-4 minutes in boiling water.
40. Vegetables boiled in their skins will be much better cleaned if, after cooking, they are poured over with cold water, allowed to cool and only then peeled.
41. Banana peels are a wonderful plant food. When transplanting a plant, add crushed peels to the pot - you can pre-dried for future use. The crusts rot very quickly and feed the plant with microelements, especially the most valuable potassium, which affects the growth of green mass.
42. In a pot of roses, you need to dig an iron nail under the roots. In the garden, iron tin cans dug closer to the roots are perfect for these purposes. When iron rusts, it turns into a ferrous form and becomes available for absorption by plants. Roses that receive enough iron oxides are healthier and bloom brighter.
43. Tangerine peels, dried and laid out in a wardrobe, will scare away moths and give a light aroma.
44. Orange peels - there is nothing better for cleaning the microwave. Put peels of 1-2 oranges in a bowl, pour enough water to cover them and heat at maximum power for 5 minutes. Wash the oven with a sponge and warm water. It cleans up easily and smells good. If this procedure is carried out regularly, you will not need any chemical detergents.
45. Walnut shells (peeled of partitions) are excellent natural drainage for houseplants. When transplanting, lay the shells on the bottom of the pot.

1. Loose dough. I advise you to make a depression in the center of the dough and add a little milk. Mix gently with a fork, and then knead the dough into a uniform ball.
2. The dough does not rise. If your dough does not rise, there can be only two reasons for this: either it is too cold in the kitchen - the temperature is less than 22 degrees, or you did not heat the milk before mixing it with yeast. The temperature of the liquid mixed with yeast should be approximately equal to body temperature, that is, 36 degrees.
3. Egg whites do not whip into a stable foam. Beating egg whites is not the easiest thing, but problems can be avoided by following a few rules. First: the bowl in which you will beat the whites must be completely dry, even a couple of drops of water can interfere with whipping. The second is how carefully you separate the whites from the yolks, this should be done very carefully. But if after 3 minutes the proteins have not acquired a stable form, then you did something wrong.
4. When baking, the raisins sink to the bottom. This problem indicates that the dough is very liquid. If the batter doesn't spill out of the spoon when you transfer it to the pan, the raisins will stay in place. The solution is simple - add a small amount of flour.
5. The cake will settle while baking. You may have used more liquid than indicated in the recipe. Or you have beaten the dough with an electric mixer for too long. In both cases, the dough will start to rise, but will settle as it bakes. Therefore, it is very important to follow the advice given in the recipe. In both cases, the solution to the problem is to add some extra test.
6. The cookie stuck to the pan. It is best to bake cookies on greaseproof paper, then there will be no problems with sticking. But if you still didn’t have it, and you didn’t have time to quickly shift the finished cookies from the baking sheet and it stuck, then you should do the following: heat the oven again to the required temperature, put the baking sheet back into the oven and heat the cookies. After that, you can easily shift the cookies, but you need to do this immediately.
7. Cookies break when removed from the pan. Again, it is worth saying that perhaps the most convenient solution to this problem would be the use of greaseproof paper. Thanks to her, the baking sheet does not need to be greased and you will not have any problems when removing cookies. An additional benefit of greaseproof paper is that it does not need to be washed and can be reused multiple times.
8. Dough with vegetable oil and melted cheese is too soft. This happens if the processed cheese or cottage cheese is too wet. Therefore, it is always advisable to squeeze the curd before use or wrap it in a towel to dry.
9. Ready cottage cheese cake settles. You must remember that ready-made cottage cheese cakes always decrease in volume, especially in the center. Therefore, you need to put a little more dough in the center than at the edges. When the baking time is up, leave the cheesecake in the oven with the door closed until the temperature drops.
10. Burnt cake. All you can do is scrape or cut off the burnt crust with a sharp knife. For masking, it is best to cover the cake with icing.
11. Wet fruit pie. Many fruits release juice when baked. Sprinkling bread crumbs on the dough before adding the fruit will keep the cake from getting too wet.
12. The caramel hardens too quickly. It can stay smooth and runny if you add a little lemon juice while cooking.
13. So that the filling does not “run away” when baking a fruit cake, stick a few pasta into the cake - the juice will rise up these tubes, and the baking sheet will not burn.
14. When frying donuts, vegetable oil forms foam. If the vegetable oil forms foam, then it has not reached the required temperature, which can destroy a thin layer of dough. To prevent this, check the temperature by dipping the handle of a wooden spoon into the oil. The oil has reached the right temperature if small bubbles form around the handle.
15. Loose cake is difficult to cut. When you cut the cake, the knife should not immediately reach the very bottom, but move with sawing movements through the entire cake. It is best to use a serrated knife for this.
16. Congealed custard. Move 3 tbsp. spoons of custard in a bottle. Cool it down by immersing the bottle in cold water. When cool, shake vigorously and the custard will come back to normal.

1. Mushroom broth will be more flavorful if you use mushrooms of different sizes. Large ones give the broth taste and color, and small ones give aroma. For puree soup, the best mushrooms are champignons, porcini and morels. And legume soups are especially good on mushroom broth.
2. In order for the foam that has fallen when cooking the broth to rise, you need to add a little cold water. And to make the broth fragrant and tasty, it must be boiled over low heat.
3. Puree soup can be seasoned with grated crumb soaked in broth to give it the necessary density. Such soups should not be boiled after dressing.
4. Fish broth will be tastier if you cook different types of fish together. If fish heads are boiled, then the gills must be removed, otherwise the broth will be bitter and cloudy.
5. However, cloudy broth is easily clarified with egg white whipped with salt.
6. Those who like clear rice soup should definitely wash the rice and put it in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, then put it on a sieve. After that, it can be cooked until cooked, the broth will remain transparent.
7. If you put too many vegetables in beef broth, it will lose its specific taste and aroma. As for chicken broth, do not abuse seasonings, otherwise it will lose its taste. Here's what else is useful to remember - vegetables for fish and mushroom broths can be fried in margarine and vegetable oil, and for milk soups - only in butter.
8. When cooking pickle, you should remember that the potatoes will become tough if pickles or sorrel are first put in the soup. Sorrel (and nettle) should be put in an almost ready soup and boiled in an open dish, then they retain their natural color.
9. If the pickle is with pearl barley, then it is better to sauté the grits in oil. This noticeably improves the taste. For spiciness, boiled strained cucumber pickle can be added to the pickle.
10. Fried onions often go into the first courses, and so, it will brown well if you add a little sugar to the oil in the pan. And it is better to roll the finely chopped onion in flour before sautéing, then it will not burn and will acquire a reddish tint.
11. To prepare milk soups, pasta and cereals are pre-boiled for 3-5 minutes in water.
12. When cooking cabbage soup, put sauerkraut in cold broth (water), and stewed cabbage in boiling.
13. Vegetable soups without cereals and potatoes should be seasoned with flour sauteing, they will be thicker.
14. Game soup will be tastier if it is fried beforehand.
15. Milk soups are recommended to be cooked in a saucepan with a thick bottom and over low heat so as not to burn.

Tricks in cooking delicious meatballs

1. When sculpting cutlets, it is very useful for juiciness to place a piece of ice and a piece of butter in the middle of each cutlet.
2. First, over high heat, the cutlets are fried once on each side until a crispy crust is obtained, and then the fire is reduced, the pan is covered with a lid and left on low heat for another 10-15 minutes. Ready cutlets are immediately served to the table.
3. Bread for minced meat should be soaked in cold boiled water (in some cases it can also be in wine or in a mixture of wine and water), but in no case in milk (soaking bread in milk deprives cutlets of juiciness due to interaction during frying of milk proteins and meat).
4. Cutlets (or meat) should only be placed in a preheated pan that is very well preheated (20-30 seconds after the cook has a strong alarm that the pan is already too hot) and with a sufficiently thick layer of oil (a small amount of oil makes it difficult to transfer heat from the pan cutlet or meat, as a result of which the product loses its juiciness, because due to poor thermal contact, the crust forms slowly, especially on the side surface).
5. Eggs cannot be added to minced meat cutlets, otherwise the cutlets will lose their juiciness (eggs are added to minced meat cutlets as a binder only in public catering so that more water and bread can be introduced into the cutlets - without eggs, minced meat with an underinvestment of meat will fall apart); eggs must be introduced for a bunch of minced fish, also when preparing minced meat from vegetables or cereals.
6. The fashioned cutlet must be rolled in a loose egg - lezon (or, even better to preserve the juices, first a little in flour, and then in the egg) - when frying, the egg will create an impenetrable shell and retain all the juices inside the cutlet (optional, after deboning in egg can be breaded cutlets in ground breadcrumbs);
   - partial breading: only in the egg or only in flour, or in flour and then in the egg;
   - full breading (Viennese breading): flour - egg - crackers;
   - sometimes they use double breading: flour - egg - crackers - egg - crackers);
   - chicken, fish, cereal and vegetable cutlets can be breaded in flour and very abundantly in the egg in fresh, not too small bread crumbs or in fresh bread, cut into thin (3-4x6-8 mm) and rather long strips (such breading requires enough oil in the pan).

Our age is the age of speed and high technology. We are constantly in a hurry, there is a catastrophic lack of time, and glory to the Technique that makes our life easier! So it's no surprise that microwave ovens are so popular. Food in the microwave is firstly fast, secondly convenient, and thirdly - easy! A microwave oven is used not only for heating and defrosting food, you can also cook in it: bake, fry and boil. In addition, with the help of a microwave, you can do a lot of useful things.

1. To refresh the aroma of ground spices and seasonings, heat them at full power for thirty seconds.
2. If you wrap stale bread in a paper towel and heat it at full power for one minute, the bread will become as fresh again.
3. Walnuts are easy to peel by heating them in water for four to five minutes at full power.
4. Almonds are easy to peel if you put them in boiling water and heat them for thirty seconds at full power.
5. An orange or grapefruit can be easily peeled of white pulp if it is heated for thirty seconds at full power.
6. Cheese can not be overexposed in the microwave, otherwise it will become dry and like "rubber".
7. The fish will become more fragrant and tastier if it is poured with butter and paprika.
8. A microwave will help squeeze the juice out of a lemon or orange to almost a drop, even with very thick citrus peels. Warm the fruit for a few minutes in the microwave, let it cool and you can easily squeeze the juice out of them.
9. In the microwave, you can easily and quickly dry the zest of oranges and grapefruits. Put it on paper towels and heat at full power for two minutes. During heating, the zest must be stirred. After cooling, it becomes dry and brittle. Store dried zest in a tightly sealed container.
10. In the microwave, you can dry greens, vegetables, as well as crackers and nuts for the winter.
11. But this is not all that a microwave baby is capable of. Food in the microwave is already familiar, but microwaves can be used not only for food.
12. Candied honey can be melted in 1-2 minutes.
13. You can make one normal candle out of many small cinders - collect the cinders in a bowl, melt them, and then pour them into a mold with a thread wick.
14. Sterilize sponges for washing dishes. It is not at all necessary to throw them away, they can be perfectly "reanimated" in the microwave. Also in the microwave, you can knock out the stubborn smell from the cutting boards - they need to be washed, grated with lemon and "fried" in the microwave.
15. You can quickly make an excellent homemade heating pad by pouring cereal or salt into a clean sock and heating it for a couple of minutes.
16. So it is with soap - one whole piece can easily be obtained from remnants.

Secrets of cooking meat and meat products

1. Do not start cooking the meat until it is completely defrosted.
2. If the meat has an unpleasant smell, you need to put one or two pieces of charcoal when cooking it, which will absorb the smell. Or cut the meat into pieces, wash thoroughly in cold water, put in a saucepan with coal and pour cold water over it to cover the meat. After two or three hours, remove the coal and boil the meat in the same water. Or wash the meat with tepid water, rub with salt and pepper and lower for a quarter of an hour.
3. Large pieces should be turned over for more even defrosting.
4. Do not salt the meat before the end of cooking, especially dense pieces. If raw meat is salted, the surface will dehydrate and become tough.
5. When frying meat in the oven, it is poured only with hot water or broth, cold water gives it hardness.
6. Rigid meat will become soft if: - beat off the pieces; - moisten with lemon juice, let it soak, fry in a heated pan; - for several hours, grease on all sides with mustard, and before cooking, rinse and lightly salt.
7. Lean meat is stuffed to increase fat content. Bacon sticks 5 - 6 cm long and 0.5 cm thick are inserted into the meat with a forcing or stuck into punctures in the meat made with a sharp knife. Fatty meat is stuffed to improve the taste with slices of onion, parsley, celery.
8. The meat should always be cut across the fibers, then the finished pieces will be beautiful.
9. The meat of young animals is best used for fried dishes, and the old - for cooking and stewing.
10. To make the fried meat juicy, do not serve it on the table immediately from the pan, but hold it over a pot of hot water for a quarter of an hour.
11. Roast beef acquires a pleasant taste if the meat is smeared with mustard a few hours before cooking and stewed like that.
12. Chops and schnitzels will turn out softer if they are smeared with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil 1 - 2 hours before frying.
13. Boiled meat will be juicy if it is put in a large piece in boiling water, and then boiled over low heat with a barely noticeable simmer of the broth.
14. It is easy to remove the film from the liver if you lower it for a minute in hot water.
15. The liver becomes very tasty if you hold it in milk for 2-3 hours before frying. The liver is fried unsalted, otherwise it will become hard.
16. If the fried liver has become dry and tough, pour it with sour cream or sour cream with onion sauce, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat until the liver becomes soft. When serving, the liver should be poured with the sauce in which it was stewed.
17. So that the breadcrumbs do not remain in the pan when frying the cutlets, but cover the product with a ruddy crispy crust, the cutlets must be properly breaded. To do this, first roll the meat in flour, then grease it with a beaten egg and only then bread it in breadcrumbs.
18. If you oversalted the azu or stew, you can add pre-cut and sautéed fresh tomatoes to the dish, the salt will not be felt that way.
19. Boiled chicken will be tastier if, after removing it from the broth, you salt it, and then put it in another pan, covered with a lid or towel.
20. If the meat is salted, you need to add fresh flour or oil sauce to the dish, which will “take away” the salt. Sour cream can be added to fried meat: for this, hot salted meat is placed in a bowl with cold sour cream, the meat is cooled and only then heated (preferably in a water bath).
21. If the beef kidneys in the sauce have a sharp unpleasant odor, the kidneys must be separated from the sauce, washed with hot water, pour cold water again and bring to a boil. Then fry and combine with the newly prepared sauce.
22. Some varieties of smoked sausage are quite difficult to peel. But if you put the sausage in cold water for half a minute, then it will not be difficult to clean it.
23. In the absence of a refrigerator, fresh meat can be preserved for a day if it is wrapped in a thin cloth moistened with vinegar.
24. Sausages will not burst when cooked if they are pierced with a fork before being lowered into the water.
25. Dumplings and dumplings are boiled for 4-6 minutes in salted water. They are ready when they float to the surface of the water. The readiness of the noodles is also determined.
26. The meat will remain fresh for 4 - 5 days if, after drying, put it in a saucepan (enamelled), pour yogurt, cover with a plate on top, press down with a load and put in a cool place.

Fish Secrets

1. Let the thawed fish stand to completely thaw. Large pieces can be held under cold water for final thawing.
2. Frozen fish retains its nutrients better when thawed in cold salted water.
3. Fish should be cooked in a sealed container so that moisture does not evaporate, it takes less time to cook.
4. To make it easy to clean the fish from scales, it is immersed for several minutes in boiling water, then in cold water.
5. To find out if a fish is benign, it is lowered into a basin of water. When immersed in water, fresh fish drowns. Or pay attention to the gills. If the gills are red, then the fish is fresh. If they are very dark or pale, they are not fresh.
6. River fish will not smell like mud if it is washed in a strong cold salt solution or put in water with vinegar an hour before cooking (2 tablespoons of vinegar per liter of water).
7. Tastes better than small fish. The larger the fish, the tougher its meat.
8. For even cooking, large, thick pieces should be placed around the edges.
9. Always cook fish last. It should not be reheated like other foods, as it will quickly overcook.
10. It is important to defrost the fish completely so that further cooking takes place evenly. When defrosting, you need to put the fish in a glass or some other dish, cover with a film.
11. The fish will not be boiled soft if it is salted 10-11 minutes before cooking.
12. Pieces of fish will not lose their shape during cooking if 2-3 shallow transverse cuts are made on them.
13. Ocean fish is especially tasty when boiled in cucumber brine.
14. Sea fish will become even tastier if you sprinkle it with lemon juice 15-20 minutes before frying.
15. When boiling the fish, it is recommended to lower it into boiling water, then it will retain its juiciness and delicate taste.
16. For fatty fish, it is better to use sauces that have a sour taste - with vinegar, lemon juice, wine. They soften the taste of fat.
17. All large fish intended for cooking, first put in cold water.
18. Crayfish should only be cooked alive. If, after cooking, the neck of the crayfish is not tucked up, but loosened, it cannot be eaten; the neck of a boiled live crayfish is always tucked inward.
19. Oysters, fish and crayfish, at the slightest doubt in freshness, should be thrown away without any regret.
20. Fish products are well garnished with slices of lemon, tomato, spices.
21. In order for the fish to brown well, it is necessary to wipe it with a towel before frying.
22. If the fish is salted, the error is corrected in this way: unsalted flour sauce, unsalted mashed potatoes, sour cream mixed with a large amount of herbs (dill, parsley), lightly stewed with onion along with salted fish. However, this method is ineffective if the fish is very salty.
23. The fishy and onion smell from the boiler and pan can be removed by pouring moistened leaves of sleeping tea on a hot surface.

Milk Secrets

1. To make the milk boil faster, you can put a little sugar in it.
2. Milk will not escape if the edges of the pan are greased.
3. You can keep milk longer in winter as follows: before boiling, add a little sugar to it (1/2 tablespoon per 1 liter of milk), and in summer - soda (on the tip of a knife).
4. To boil milk without foam, you need to put it on boil, stir it more often, not allowing foam to form, and as soon as it boils, cool it quickly. Do not let it boil for more than three minutes - the vitamins will be better preserved.
5. You can also save milk longer in this way: cover the dish with milk with a lid, put it in a saucepan filled with water, throwing a napkin or towel over it, immersing its ends in water.
6. Milk will not burn if it is boiled in a heavy-bottomed saucepan after rinsing it with water.
7. If the milk is still burnt, you can get rid of the unpleasant odor like this: immediately pour it into another bowl, put it in a basin of water, add a pinch of salt to the milk and shake lightly.
8. Milk will not turn sour if you put a leaf of horseradish in it.
9. Milk absorbs odors very quickly, so it should be stored in a container with a closed lid.
10. Sour cream will whip better if you put a little raw protein in it.
11. To remove the acid from the cottage cheese, you need to wrap it in gauze folded in two layers, squeeze it into a ball, twist the ends tightly. Put the cottage cheese on a cutting board, cover with another board on top, put a small weight and leave for 2-3 hours.
12. A very sour curd will lose its acidity and become tender if mixed with an equal amount of fresh milk and left for an hour, then drained on cheesecloth placed in a colander, and the curd put under pressure.

Source: http://racion.net/kulinarnyi_blog/

Every housewife (and sometimes the owner) also wants to be a good cook, whose dishes will be enjoyed by all family members. But we do not always have enough experience and skills for this. Yes, relatives eat our food and often praise it. But there is no limit to perfection! You can always become a chef an order of magnitude higher. To do this, it is enough to find out a few interesting secrets that chefs share daily. Let's learn together and surprise our loved ones.

1. If you want the rice to turn white, add a little vinegar while cooking.

2. To add a spicy garlic note to the whole dish, rub a garlic clove on a plate, and then put a salad or side dish on it.

3. A new taste for meat marinade will give dark beer or a mixture of light beer with soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Beer can also be added to stewed vegetables, including it will give a special taste and smell to boiled potatoes.

4. There are many ways to save salty soup. In particular, you can dip gauze with a small amount of cereal into it and boil it: the porridge will absorb excess salt. You can also dip a tablespoon with a cube of refined sugar into the soup: when the sugar starts to melt, take out the spoon and repeat the procedure with another cube of sugar.

5. The liver should be salted only at the end, otherwise it will become hard.

6. To prevent the top of the cake from burning, cover it with dampened paper.

7. If you throw a piece of ice into the broth and bring to a boil, it will become more transparent.

8. To carefully cut a hard-boiled egg, wet the blade of a knife with cold water: the yolk will not crumble.

9. When cooking, the beans will not darken if you cook them without closing the pan with a lid.

10. Minced meat will be more fragrant and tastier if you add a part of raw onion, a part of fried onion and finely grated raw potatoes to it.

11. Beef will be softer if you marinate it in mayonnaise before cooking.

12. Use lemon juice in your meals to partially replace the salt. This is useful for regulating pressure. As a result, you do not oversalt the dish, and the citrus flavor gives it an exquisite aroma.

13. The remaining head of boiled corn can be used for salad. To do this, cut off the corn kernels with a sharp knife.

14. Eggplant will not be bitter if, before cooking, you cut it into pieces, salt and let the juice flow a little. After that, rinse the eggplants in cold water.

15. Almonds will be easily peeled if you first boil them for 5 minutes, and then judge in cold water.

16. Sour cream will whip into a cream much better if you add a little egg white to it.

17. If you add a pinch of salt to ground coffee, the drink will be much tastier!

18. In order for the meat baked in the oven to become golden brown, brush it on top with pomegranate juice and honey, diluted with dry wine, cognac or water.

19. Hard meat will become softer if you add banana peel to the broth during cooking.

20. If you have cooked the meat for too long, cut it into thin slices, put it on a plate, sprinkle with onions and tomatoes and add a little vegetable oil, lemon juice and vinegar. Soon the meat will become juicy again.

21. Apples in charlotte will not sink to the bottom of the mold if you roll them in flour before cooking.

22. Instead of breadcrumbs, use ground nuts. It's both delicious and healthy!

23. Warm plates before serving hot food and cool before serving cold food. This little trick will help you keep the rich taste and freshness of the dish.

24. Do not rush to serve freshly cooked meat immediately. Let it cool down a bit and reveal its flavor.

25. Vinaigrette will taste better if you add a tablespoon of milk and a teaspoon of sugar to it.

26. Always cook with dry hands.

27. Taste food while cooking. This makes it possible to control the amount of salt and seasonings, as well as to determine the readiness of dishes in time.

28. Before removing the soup from the heat, add a little fresh juice of cabbage, carrots or tomatoes to it. This will enhance the taste and enrich your dish with vitamins.

29. Dull knives often cause sloppy cutting and even injury. Always sharpen your kitchen knives!

30. Vanilla is an excellent spice for spice up vegetable salads. Try this original idea!

A young girl asks: “I do everything like a mother, but the soup turns out to be tasteless. Why?" For a long time I myself could not cook my father's famous borscht, until I learned some secrets.

When cooking porridge, remember that:

- we always fall asleep cereals in a boiling salted liquid, and not vice versa. Then cook on low heat. Loose porridge, after the cereal has swollen and the porridge has thickened, put it in the oven;

- never cook porridge in enamelware. And the porridge burns, and the dishes deteriorate. For cooking porridge, we use aluminum pans. But the best dishes, in which tasty and fragrant porridge is obtained, are still a cast iron or a portioned earthenware pot;

- if the pan with porridge is burnt, it is easy to wash it by pouring a small amount of water with planed soap. Close the pan tightly with a lid and put on a stand on a very small fire for one and a half to two hours;

- to improve the taste and greater friability of porridge, it is recommended to put butter or ghee in boiling water before laying;

- after laying the cereal, mix the porridge if we want it to turn out viscous. Do not interfere with porridge to get crumbly;

- when mixing porridge, one should not rush, it should be done slowly. Rapid stirring slows down cooking;

- rice will turn out white and tasty if you add a little vinegar to the water;

- rice porridge will be tastier if you put egg white beaten with a fork in it before eating;

- semolina porridge will be tender and without lumps if the cereal is washed in several waters;

- buckwheat porridge after cooking will be more crumbly if you loosen it with a large fork or spatula and put oil in it;

- so that the friable barley porridge does not have an unpleasant blue color, the water, immediately after boiling, must be drained, then again pour the cereal with hot salted water and add oil;

- pearl barley will cook faster if it is soaked in cold water for two to three hours.

Problems with dairy products

1. Milk will not escape if the edges of the pan are greased.

2. To make the milk boil faster, you can put a little sugar in it.

3. If it turns out sour, mix it with an equal amount of milk and leave for an hour. Then drain into a colander covered with gauze and let the milk drain.

4. To make sour cream whip better, put some raw egg white in it.

If you are making yeast dough, be aware, it will turn out soft and airy if you add boiled cooled potatoes, grated on a fine grater (2-3 medium potatoes per 1 kg of flour). In addition, products made from such a test do not get stale for a long time.

To minimize losses and preserve the dietary value of vegetables during heat treatment, you also need to know some little secrets:

- almost all vegetables are best cooked in boiling salted water and boiled at a low boil. There should not be much water, it just covers the vegetables by 2-3 cm. And put the chopped vegetables in a high pan with a layer of 15-20 cm, salt, add water to 1/3 of the height, close the lid and cook over low heat;

- any vegetables (except unripe legumes) are not boiled at a rapid boil, otherwise they will boil outside and remain raw inside;

- beans and beans are soaked for several hours in cold water, taking into account the fact that the water temperature should be 10-15 degrees, that is, slightly lower than room temperature. Soaking shortens the cooking time. Legumes do not salt during cooking. Salt is added either at the very end of cooking, or an already prepared dish is salted;

- They say that to make the beans cook faster, you can add a teaspoon of soda to the water. But personally, it seems to me that soda can spoil the taste of beans;

- if you cook potatoes in a “uniform”, pierce the skin in several places - it will not crumble (it is not recommended to boil potatoes in a “uniform” in the spring. On the contrary, the peel must be removed thicker;

- they also say that it will not burst if you add a few drops of vinegar to the water;

- so that not a single potato falls apart, the water must be drained 15 minutes after boiling and the potatoes should be steamed;

- potatoes lose less vitamins if steamed;

- boiled potatoes will turn out much tastier if you add a little dill when cooking;

- to improve the taste of potatoes in water, you can put an onion, 2-3 cloves of garlic, bay leaf, cumin;

- potatoes will cook faster if you put a spoonful of margarine into the water during cooking;

- do not add soda to the pot where peas or beans are boiled, as some housewives do, ostensibly to shorten the cooking time. Soda will spoil the taste of the dish, and it will badly affect its nutritional properties;

- Do you want boiled beets to keep their bright color? Try putting a teaspoon of sugar or a little vinegar into the water in which the beets are boiled, and no salt is needed. Although vinegar will slightly increase the cooking time;

- sliced, before combining with other vegetables in a vinaigrette or salad, brush with vegetable oil. The dish will be more beautiful;

- cauliflower is best stewed not in water, but in milk. Any vegetables stewed in milk are much tastier, but they must be served immediately. Cooled down, they lose their taste;

- when boiling cabbage, its unpleasant smell disappears if you put a piece of white bread in a saucepan or cover it with a piece of white cloth moistened with vinegar, and only then with a lid;

- if the cabbage is stewed or boiled with the addition of vinegar, it will not be too soft;

- if you are stewing cabbage rolls, do not add a lot of liquid to the dishes, otherwise the cabbage rolls will become watery and their taste will deteriorate;

- it is known that acid slows down the process of cooking and stewing vegetables. Therefore, add tomatoes, tomato juice or tomato paste only at the end of the heat treatment;

- if you douse with cold water, and then salt the onions, then it will be saved more quickly and will not cause much tearing;

- chopped onion will keep fresh if put on a saucer sprinkled with salt;

- to remove excess bitterness from the onion, you need to cut it with noodles and pour cold water for a while or pour boiling water over it;

- zucchini and pumpkin are stewed without liquid, they are quite juicy on their own.

To preserve vitamin C in foods, there are also certain rules:

Potatoes and other vegetables should be peeled with a stainless steel knife. It breaks down on contact with iron.

It is necessary to reduce the contact of products with air.

Do not store sauerkraut without brine.

Do not store cut vegetables outdoors.

Each time you cook vegetables, choose a saucepan that has almost no free space, and be sure to cover it with a lid.

Zucchini and squash should be processed immediately. Even with short storage, they lose their taste.

Zucchini should be used unripe, as ripe fruits are tough and not as tasty.

From mature zucchini, it is best to cook pancakes, after rubbing the fruits on a grater.

From young zucchini intended for stuffing, you can not cut the skin.

For caviar, it is first breaded in flour and fried.

Eggplant for caviar is better to bake in the oven, and then remove the skin from them.

Potato Frying Secrets

1. To fry the potatoes faster, dip them in hot water for a few minutes.

2. Before deep-frying potatoes, dry them with a towel, then you get a dry, crispy crust.

3. When frying, raw potato slices will not stick together and stick to the pan if they are first rinsed with cold water and dried slightly.

4. When breading potato cutlets, make sure that the breading does not roll into the cutlets themselves. Otherwise, when frying, they will fall apart.

When preparing meat and fish dishes, we also use the advice of experienced chefs.

- never start cooking meat until it is completely defrosted;

- for more even defrosting, turn large pieces of meat over from time to time;

- do not salt until the end of cooking, especially dense pieces. If raw meat is salted, its surface becomes dehydrated and hard;

- boiled meat will be juicy if it is put in a large piece in boiling water, and then boiled over the lowest heat with a barely noticeable boil of the broth;

- tough meat will become softer if:
- break off the pieces
- moisten with lemon juice, let it soak, fry in a heated pan,
- for several hours, grease on all sides with mustard, and rinse and lightly salt before cooking;

- if you grease the meat with soy sauce before baking in the microwave, it will turn out with a crust;

- boiled chicken will be tastier if, after removing it from the broth, you salt it, and then put it in another pan, covered with a lid or towel;

- if you are cooking an old chicken, then before frying it must be stewed in milk or sour cream;

- pork baked in the oven will be much juicier if it is scalded with boiling water before cooking;

- if instead of bread, add boiled and mashed potatoes to the minced meat, as well as a little thick sour cream, and when cutting, put a piece of butter in the middle of each cutlet, the cutlets will turn out to be airy. They will be soft, fluffy and juicy;

- minced meat will be juicy if kneaded with very cold water and oil;

- cutlets are best fried on low heat. The crust that forms during intense fire is a poor conductor of heat. As a result, the middle of the cutlets is poorly fried, remains half-baked, which is extremely unhealthy;

- chops, schnitzels, steaks will be soft and tender if 2 hours before frying they are greased with a whipped mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil;

- the liver and kidneys are more tender and tasty if you put them in carrot juice for half an hour before frying;

- the fish must also be completely thawed so that further cooking is uniform. Put the fish in a bowl and cover it with a film;

- thawed, let stand for a while so that it is completely defrosted. Large pieces can be held under cold water for final thawing;

- it is best to cook fish in a sealed container so that moisture does not evaporate and less time is spent on cooking;

- for even cooking, place large thick pieces of fish around the edges;

- always cook the fish last. It should not be reheated, as it quickly overcooks and loses its taste;

- you can always replace one type of fish indicated in the recipes with another, and use, for example, fish sticks instead of fillets;

- do not serve pasta with fish as a side dish. Potatoes or rice are best with fish. It is good to garnish fish dishes with lemon slices, tomatoes, spices.

Now many of us use prepared dry spices, which are not a problem to buy. But you can also make your own powder from dill seeds, which will replace fresh herbs in winter. Store it in a glass jar and add to borscht, soups, salads, dumplings and so on.

And every good cook will always be happy with a bouquet. But not simple, but "bouquet garni". French chefs came up with this bouquet. There is a large and small "bouquet garni". These are bouquets that have become popular all over the world.

The small "bouquet garni" includes parsley, bay leaf, thyme and celery. And in addition to the above, a large bouquet includes chervil, tarragon (tarragon), basil, savory, marjoram and rosemary. "Bouquet garni" is lowered into the pan shortly before the end of cooking, then removed from it.

Some other time we will talk about spicy-flavoring plants, how to prepare various bouquets of spices from them, how to store and use them.

But what if fresh greens have lost their original appearance and withered?

It's OK. Withered greens can be put in cold water with vinegar, after a while it will “come to life”.

And green salad, radishes, green onions can be kept fresh if the vegetables are peeled, washed, dried a little with a towel, then placed in a newspaper and in a plastic bag. Store, of course, in the refrigerator.

Parsley and celery will not change color if you put them in the soup before removing it from the heat.

Now that you have armed yourself with new knowledge of the great culinary arts or have restored the familiar, but a little forgotten, to your memory, it’s just right to start cooking various dishes and please yourself and your loved ones with them.

To find out whether the meat is of good quality, you need to press on it with your finger. If the resulting hole quickly levels off, then the meat is benign. Benign meat on the cut is almost dry. To determine the smell of meat, you need to heat a knife or fork and pierce the meat, if it is not benign, the knife or fork will have an unpleasant odor.

Secrets of cooking meat and meat products

1. If the meat has an unpleasant smell, you need to put one or two pieces of charcoal when cooking it, which will absorb the smell. Or cut the meat into pieces, wash thoroughly in cold water, put in a saucepan with coal and pour cold water over it to cover the meat. After two or three hours, remove the coal and boil the meat in the same water. Or wash the meat with tepid water, rub with salt and pepper and lower for a quarter of an hour.

2. Do not start cooking the meat until it is completely defrosted.

3. Large pieces should be turned over for more even defrosting.

4. Do not salt the meat until the end of cooking, especially dense pieces. If raw meat is salted, the surface will dehydrate and become tough.

5. Boiled meat will be juicy if it is put in a large piece in boiling water, and then cooked over low heat with a barely noticeable simmer of the broth.

6. Hard meat will become soft if: - beat off the pieces; - moisten with lemon juice, let it soak, fry in a heated pan; - for several hours, grease on all sides with mustard, and before cooking, rinse and lightly salt.

7. The meat of young animals is best used for fried dishes, and the old meat is better for boiling and stewing.

8. The meat should always be cut across the fibers, then the finished pieces will be beautiful.

9. When frying meat in the oven, it is poured only with hot water or broth, cold water gives it hardness.

10. To make the fried meat juicy, do not serve it on the table immediately from the pan, but hold it over a pot of hot water for a quarter of an hour.

11. Roast beef acquires a pleasant taste if the meat is smeared with mustard a few hours before cooking and stewed like that.

12. Lean meat is stuffed to increase fat content. Bacon sticks 5 - 6 cm long and 0.5 cm thick are inserted into the meat with a forcing or stuck into punctures in the meat made with a sharp knife. Fatty meat is stuffed to improve the taste with slices of onion, parsley, celery.

13. Chops and schnitzels will turn out softer if they are smeared with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil 1 - 2 hours before frying.

14. So that the breadcrumbs do not remain in the pan when frying the cutlets, but cover the product with a golden crispy crust, the cutlets must be properly breaded. To do this, first roll the meat in flour, then grease it with a beaten egg and only then bread it in breadcrumbs.

15. The liver becomes very tasty if you hold it in milk for 2-3 hours before frying. The liver is fried unsalted, otherwise it will become hard.

16. It is easy to remove the film from the liver if you lower it for a minute in hot water.

17. If the fried liver has become dry and tough, pour it with sour cream or sour cream with onion sauce, bring to a boil and simmer over low heat until the liver becomes soft. When serving, the liver should be poured with the sauce in which it was stewed.

18. If the beef kidneys in the sauce have a sharp unpleasant odor, the kidneys must be separated from the sauce, washed with hot water, pour cold water again and bring to a boil. Then fry and combine with the newly prepared sauce.

19. If you oversalted the azu or stew, you can add pre-cut and sautéed fresh tomatoes to the dish, the salt will not be felt so much.

20. If the meat is salted, you need to add fresh flour or oil sauce to the dish, which will “take away” the salt. Sour cream can be added to fried meat: for this, hot salted meat is placed in a bowl with cold sour cream, the meat is cooled and only then heated (preferably in a water bath).

21. Boiled chicken will taste better if you remove it from the broth, salt it, and then put it in another pan, covered with a lid or towel

22. Sausages will not burst during cooking if they are pierced with a fork before being lowered into water.

23. Some varieties of smoked sausage are quite difficult to peel. But if you put the sausage in cold water for half a minute, then it will not be difficult to clean it.

24. In the absence of a refrigerator, fresh meat can be preserved for a day if it is wrapped in a thin cloth moistened with vinegar.

25. The meat will remain fresh for 4-5 days if, after drying, put it in a pan (enamelled), pour yogurt, cover with a plate on top, press down with a load and put in a cool place.

26. Dumplings and dumplings are boiled for 4-6 minutes in salted water. They are ready when they float to the surface of the water. The readiness of the noodles is also determined.

Fish Secrets

To find out if a fish is benign, it is lowered into a basin of water. When immersed in water, fresh fish drowns. Or pay attention to the gills. If the gills are red, then the fish is fresh. If they are very dark or pale, they are not fresh.

To make it easy to clean the fish from scales, it is immersed for several minutes in boiling water, then in cold water.

It is important to defrost the fish completely so that further cooking takes place evenly. When defrosting, you need to put the fish in a glass or some other dish, cover with a film.

Let the thawed fish stand to completely thaw. Large pieces can be held under cold water for final thawing.

Frozen fish retains its nutrients better when thawed in cold salted water.

River fish will not smell like mud if it is washed in a strong cold salt solution or put in water with vinegar an hour before cooking (2 tablespoons of vinegar per liter of water).

Fish should be cooked in a sealed container so that moisture does not evaporate, it takes less time to cook.

For even cooking, large, thick pieces should be placed around the edges.

Always cook fish last. It should not be reheated like other foods, as it will quickly overcook.

Tastes better than small fish. The larger the fish, the tougher its meat.

Sea fish will become even tastier if you sprinkle it with lemon juice 15-20 minutes before frying.

Ocean fish is especially tasty when boiled in cucumber brine.

Pieces of fish will not lose their shape during cooking if 2-3 shallow transverse cuts are made on them.

The fish will not be boiled soft if it is salted 10-11 minutes before cooking.

All large fish intended for cooking, first put in cold water.

In order for the fish to brown well, it is necessary to wipe it with a towel before frying.

For fatty fish, it is better to use sauces that have a sour taste - with vinegar, lemon juice, wine. They soften the taste of fat.

Fish products are well garnished with slices of lemon, tomato, spices.

If the fish is salted, the error is corrected in this way: unsalted flour sauce, unsalted mashed potatoes, sour cream mixed with a large amount of herbs (dill, parsley), lightly stewed with onion along with salted fish. However, this method is ineffective if the fish is very salty.

Oysters, fish and crayfish, at the slightest doubt in freshness, should be thrown away without any regret.

Crayfish should only be cooked alive. If, after cooking, the neck of the crayfish is not tucked up, but loosened, it cannot be eaten; the neck of a boiled live crayfish is always tucked inward.

The fishy and onion smell from the boiler and pan can be removed by pouring moistened leaves of sleeping tea on a hot surface.

Milk Secrets

1. Milk absorbs odors very quickly, so it must be stored in a container with a closed lid.

4. Milk will not turn sour if you put a sheet of horseradish in it.

5. Milk will not run away if the edges of the pan are greased.

6. To make the milk boil faster, you can put a little sugar in it.

7. To boil milk without foam, you need to put it on boil, stir it more often, not allowing foam to form, and as soon as it boils, cool it quickly. Do not let it boil for more than three minutes - the vitamins will be better preserved.

8. Milk will not burn if it is boiled in a saucepan with a thick bottom, after rinsing it with water.

9. If the milk is still burnt, you can get rid of the unpleasant odor like this: immediately pour it into another bowl, put it in a bowl of water, add a pinch of salt to the milk and shake it slightly.

10. Sour cream will whip better if you put a little raw protein in it.

11. To remove acid from cottage cheese, you need to wrap it in gauze folded in two layers, squeeze it into a ball, twist the ends tightly. Put the cottage cheese on a cutting board, cover with another board on top, put a small weight and leave for 2-3 hours.

12. A very sour curd will lose its acidity and become tender if mixed with an equal amount of fresh milk and left for an hour, then, resting it on a cheesecloth placed in a colander, let the milk drain, and put the curd under a press.

Have fun in the kitchen!