Great Cooking Experience

Good food has a reputation for being many things. By following these tips, you can enhance your cooking skills.

You should think big when preparing chicken stock. Instead of making just what you need, make a huge pot so you have some to freeze and use later. Excellent chicken stock that is homemade is a great base for use in stews, soups, casseroles, and more. Allow the stock to cool, then split it up into heavy duty Ziploc freezer bags.

Impress your loved ones or guests with a great sandwich with mayo that is evenly spread from corner to corner on each slice of bread. People don't generally pay attention to perfection in sandwiches so just dollop the mayo into the middle. It is much more enjoyable to have mayo in every bite.

To make juicing citrus fruits more productive, look no further than your microwave oven. Heat the orange or lemon, or other citrus fruit in your microwave for about ten seconds. Immediately after removing the fruit from the microwave, gently roll it on a flat surface. Now you are ready to begin juicing.

Mushrooms will soak up a large amount of water. A better option is to use a clean, damp cloth to hand-wipe each mushroom.

Use sharp knives to prepare your favorite meals. You are more likely to injure yourself using a dull knife. It is more likely that you will cut yourself while trying to get a dull knife to cut something than when you use a well-sharpened knife.

Use a baking potato with thick skin to get a good, firm shell when making potato skins or twice baked potatoes. Red potatoes don't have the skin thickness for high-density fillings.

Head to the store and replace your unused spices every six months. The flavor of spices diminishes if they sit around for too long. If you purchase a new spice but doubt you can use it before the flavor dries up, share some of it with a fellow cook.

Grilling fruit is an excellent option. Try taking slices of melon, nectarines, and peaches and then putting them on some skewers. Cook them on a very clean grill until they show grill marks. Serve the grilled fruit on some ice cream or pound cake that has been cooked a few minutes on the grill.

Garlic is a delight to cook with, but its odor transfers very easily onto the hands. Rubbing your hands on something made of stainless steel, such as your sink, can help to get rid of these odors. It both cleans your hands and helps to avoid transfer the odor to other foods.

Try new ways to serve that conveniently frozen corn to your family. If you want a fiesta feel to your corn, put in some onions and black beans, and everyone will love it.

Do some of your prep work the day before to avoid being too busy to enjoy yourself or causing stress. This allows you to serve a fresh, healthy meal to your family even when you are pressed for time. Considered chopping up stir-fry veggies and having them ready to go for the next night. Casseroles are also something easy to prepare that you can have 100 percent ready to go, and simply store them in the fridge overnight.

As you are preparing mashed potatoes for a meal, be sure to use hot, but not boiling milk to stir in with the potatoes. The end result is lighter, fluffier mashed potatoes. Nobody wants to eat mashed potatoes full of lumps.

When you know how to cook, it be as entertaining as actually eating. Use these tips as part of your cooking routine, personalizing as you see fit. You will become such a good cook that everyone will be requesting your meals and desserts.