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Food tips

Cooking From saving an over-salted dish to preventing milk boil-overs, follow our handy tips to make everyday cooking a cinch. Want to submit a tip? Click here More tips Select a category Baking Beverages Cleaning Cooking Culinary term Dairy Desserts Eggs Freezing Freshness Fruit Garnishing General Herbs & spices Low-fat cooking Meat Microwave Odours Outdoor cooking Pasta Poultry Preserving Quick recipe Seafood Storing Substitute Trouble-shooting Vegetables

1 Adding garlic When a recipe calls for adding oil, garlic and onions to a pan, add the garlic last. This prevents burning and a bitter taste.

2 Better gravy Use soy sauce to improve colour and add flavour to gravy.

3 Caramelised colour When caramelising sugar make sure that you get it to a chestnut colour. If it's too light it means it's too sweet; if made too dark, it will be bitter.

4 Cooking beans Do not add additional ingredients until the end of cooking time when cooking beans. Especially if the ingredients are acidic like lemon juice, tomatoes, wine etc.

5 Cooking burgers When cooking burgers, handle gently. Don't press them down with a spatula to speed cooking. You'll force the juices out and make the burgers dry.

6 Cooking fish The trick is to cook fish until it almost flakes; if it flakes it's overdone.

7 Crispy french toast Get that crunch by adding some cornstarch to the egg mixture.

8 Curling steaks To prevent steaks and chops from curling as they grill or fry, slash the outer layer of fat at two-cm intervals.

9 Defatting stocks Any stock can be easily made into a defatted stock. Simply refrigerate the stock in a large bowl overnight. When the stock has gelled, remove all the solidified fat from the surface and finally pour the stock over ice cubes to remove any remaining fat.

10 Fluffy rice When your rice is done, leave it to stand, covered, to cool for five minutes to allow the kernels to contract slightly. To separate them without crushing, gently toss the rice with a fork.

11 Fluffy rice A few drops of lemon juice added to simmering rice will keep the grains separate.

12 Frying meat When frying meat, do it in batches so that your pot or pan isn't too full and enough air is circulating around the meat. If the cubes touch each other, the meat will stew.

13 Frying meat Fry blocks of meat in batches. If you overload the pan and the blocks touch each other, the meat will stew - meat needs air around it to seal in the juices.

14 Frying tomato If you dip cut tomato in flour before frying, the pieces will stay whole.

15 Good grilling The key to successful grilling in your oven is a red-hot grill. This means the food starts to grill immediately and not stew slowly as the element heats up.

16 Great rice Long grain rice must be used for stir fries; to get that crisp nuttiness, cook and drain the rice. Spread it out on a tray and leave in the refrigerator overnight to dry out.

17 Juicy burgers Rub both sides of a burger with water before grilling. This makes them juicier.

18 Making clarified butter Slowly melt unsalted butter over low heat. Don't let the butter boil and don't stir it, so that the milk solids can separate from the liquid butter. The butter will separated into three layers – foamy milk solids on top, clarified butter in the middle, and milk solids on the bottom. Remove the butter from the heat and skim the foamy white solids from the top. Then ladle off the clarified butter, taking care not to disturb the milk solids at the bottom of the pan. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 weeks.

19 Making stock Meat or chicken pieces used for stock should first be roasted in the oven until very brown. Then combine them with the vegetables and cold water in a stockpot.

20 No butter burn Adding some olive or vegetable oil to your butter will prevent the butter from burning.

21 No-curl fried bacon To prevent bacon from curling, dip the strips in cold water before cooking.

22 Non-stick trick Always heat the frying pan before adding oil or butter. This will keep food from sticking.

23 Non-sticky meatloaf Meatloaf will not stick to the pan if a slice of uncooked bacon is placed beneath the loaf before baking.

24 Olive oil When cooking with olive oil, take care not to overheat and burn the oil – it destroys the taste and turns the good cholesterol bad.

25 Pot boil-overs To prevent boil-overs, apply a thin coat of cooking oil around the top of the inside of pots.

26 Potatoes that don't boil over Before boiling potatoes, add a pat of butter to the pot to prevent water spilling over (normally this creates a mess you have to clean up later).

27 Prevent onion burn To prevent cut onions from burning in the pan, place them in a semi-sealed container in the microwave and nuke for about 2 minutes on high before frying.

28 Protection from grease spatter To protect yourself from spatter, place a metal colander upside down, to cover the pan or skillet.

29 Roasting meats Roasting your meats fat side up will allow for continuous basting. As the meat roasts the fat will run down the meat as it renders, adding moisture and flavour.

30 Roasting vegetables Roast diced carrots, onions, celery in the pan or pot along with your meat. It will double as a fabulous gravy.

31 Soup too thin? When soup is too thin, prick a potato several times and microwave for 5 minutes at 100% power until soft. Then peel, mash and add it to your soup to thicken.

32 Spice up canned soup A splash of Spanish sherry will do the trick.

33 Splatter protection Do you know how to keep your frying pan grease from splattering? Easy, just add a little salt to the cold oil or grease before you place the pan on the heat.

34 Stuffing poultry Remember this important tip when stuffing a chicken, duck or turkey: loosely spoon the stuffing into both the body and neck cavity, taking care not to pack the bird too tightly. Also, always stuff the bird just before roasting, never in advance!

35 Tap water cooking Cook with cold tap water rather than hot water. Cold water has less mineral deposits.

36 TIP NR 24 Olive oil When cooking with olive oil, take care not to overheat and burn the oil ? it destroys the taste and turns the good cholesterol bad. This info is incorrect, there is no cholesterol in any plant based foods or oils. Cholesterol is only found in animal products. The heating process causes trans-fats which are bad for the body.

37 Using lemon Rub lemon juice on chicken skin before roasting to make it crisp. Before grating lemon peel, run the grater under the cold tap to prevent the lemon gratings from sticking to the grater. A squeeze of lemon juice will enhance the flavour of fried mushrooms.

38 Vinegar non-stick trick Vinegar brought to a boil in a new frying pan will prevent foods from sticking.

39 When to add salt to water Do not add salt until the water boils as salt water has a higher boiling point.

40 Wok technique Don't stir ingredients as you add them to a wok. You'll cool the wok and make the food greasy.