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I oil my chicken (I slip bay leaves under the skin first). My old oven was convection and I used to get amazng browning. Now that I have a non convection oven, I learned to splash sherry over the chicken about half way through its roasting time. This will give a lovely brown and crackling skin.
This is interesting too, especially the sherry idea. What kind of bay leaves do you use: fresh or dried? Because I only see the dried variety sold in stores.
If you want to simmer a long-cooking sauce (or stew) that's partially covered, make a slit a little less than halfway through the center of a wine cork, width-wise, then insert the cork to the pan's rim.
If you only want the lid open a slightly, start the slit from the narrow end of the cork, wider, start at the larger end.
Starting from one end of the cork to it’s center will make the gap gradually larger, opposite end to center, gradually smaller.
This allows the steam to escape, yet keeps the cover stationary.
so many really fun and interesting hints; some are old and many of us have used them forever, others are new. I had never heard of splashing sherry on the chicken for instance and I use sherry or brandy in a lot of what I cook.
This is interesting too, especially the sherry idea. What kind of bay leaves do you use: fresh or dried? Because I only see the dried variety sold in stores.
I buy bay leaves from Penzeys because they are Turkish bay leaves which are supposed to have better flavor. Yes they are dried. You can also put a sprig of rosemary inside the chicken cavity.
I love roast chicken.
I have a small herb garden. If I was roasting a chicken today, I'd probably snip some sage leaves and use those instead of bay. (Its too hot now to roast a chcken!)
I never could make scrambled eggs right and couldn't figure out why. they would always end up runny or mushy etc. I had always heard that cooking eggs slow was the way to go bc you had to be able to control the heat. So I kept on cooking them slow and they never turned out right.
I was talking with a lady at the grocery store and we had just started talking and she was giving me meatloaf advice. I asked her about eggs and she told me, "Just turn the heat up and get your butter and the pan really hot. Then add in your eggs" She said then to take my spatula and start pushing them toward the middle.
I started doing that and now my eggs are PERFECT lol. Once I get the pan hot and add my eggs, they cook in two minutes. I would have never known had I not met that wonderful lady!
Definitely. It also flavors a sauce, assuming you salted your pasta water. So to that end, be conservative on the salt of your sauce, so that the added pasta water doesn't make it too salty.
Definitely. It also flavors a sauce, assuming you salted your pasta water. So to that end, be conservative on the salt of your sauce, so that the added pasta water doesn't make it too salty.
It took me a long time to remember that one.
Sometimes I cook my pasta with butter and that really wows. Depends on the sauce.
Another thing I learned is with spaghetti sauce or marinara (not meat sauce), put a pat of butter on the sauce as you are serving it. It makes the sauce taste so velvety.
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