Cooking Tips

[b-man]

Cooking Tips


* Pancakes are lighter and fluffier when you substitute club soda
for milk in the batter.

* Before opening a package of bacon, roll it. This helps separate
the slices for easy removal of individual slices.

* Drain deep fried foods on brown paper grocery bags as opposed to
paper towels to retain crispness.

* To make lighter and fluffier mashed potatoes, add a pinch or two
of baking powder to the potatoes before whipping.

* Don't just keep dental floss in your medicine cabinet. Keep some
in the kitchen. It's a great tool. Unflavored dental floss is
often better than a knife, to cleanly cut all kinds of soft foods,
soft cheese, rolled dough, layered cake and cheesecake.


B-man

[Silver]

when i was a child, my "auntie" came to take care of us kids while mom & dad went off on a cruise for a week.

she always used to cut the bacon slices in half. my older, cynical, 13 year old brother said it was because she was "so cheap".

well, as an adult and frustrated with pieces of bacon that never seemed to cook evenly, one day i, too, cut the slices in half and voile! evenly cooked slices! and, it seems to me that i get more per slice (less shrinkage) with the finished pieces.

of course, nowadays a lot of people cook bacon in the oven (me too sometimes) but when i'm just cooking a few slices for one or two people, this trick lets me use a smaller (cast iron) pan. and anytime i don't have to lift the bigger ones makes me happy!

also, since i primarily use lower sodium bacon, it doesn't seem to keep uncooked as well in the refrigerator once the package has been breached. so rather than freezing (and unfreezing and refreezing, etc.) i cook up a whole package at once and store in a plastic baggie in the fridge. it'll keep several days that way and plus it's already cooked! just pop whatever you need into the microwave for a few seconds and use as if you just made it. a real timesaver when you want one of those bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches and you're flying out the door to work.