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Cooking Clues

Cooking Clues Autum Edition 2008 

1.    Rubbing a little oil into a wooden chopping board will help it last longer and avoid cracking.

2.    To make biscuits last longer, line the biscuit tin with paper towelling. This will help absorb moisture and keep your biscuits fresher for longer. One or two sugar cubes works just as well!

3.    Run out of self-raising flour? You can turn plain flour into self-raising flour by sifting one cup of plain flour and two teaspoons of baking powder together. Sift the mixture two to threes times to ensure it is well combined.

4.    Use separate measuring cups for dry and wet ingredients, because dry ingredients will stick to a wet measuring cup, wasting the dry ingredients.

5.    Need to convert a recipe from ounces to grams? Check out the online conversion tool on: www.onlineconversions.com

6.    Sticky ingredients are always hard to decant from a measuring cup. To solve the problem, first heat the cup by simply filling it with boiling water; leave for 30 seconds, then discard the water, and add the sticky ingredient. It will now glide out of the cup. Alternatively, lightly spray the inside of the cup with a thin coat of cooking oil.

7.    Get the right measurement and you will get the right result. One cup of flour, sifted is different from one cup of sifted flour. One cup of flour, sifted is more than one cup of sifted flour. Bear in mind it is a good idea to sift flour. Sifting breaks up clumps and adds air to the flour, which then produces lighter cakes and pastries.

8.    Before adding eggs in a recipe, crack each egg into a separate bowl and add to the mixture one by one. If, instead, you crack a bad egg directly into the mixture, chances are you will need to throw the entire mixture out. What a waste! This also saves getting broken eggshell into your mixture.

9.    You can also test the freshness of an egg by placing it in a glass of water. A fresh egg will sink to the bottom of the glass. A stale or rotten egg will float, because, as the egg ages, its air cells become larger, which causes the egg to be more buoyant.

10.    What to do with left over egg yolks?
•    Pasta Carbonara
•    Hollandaise sauce
•    Béarnaise sauce
•    Aioli
•    Crème Brule
•    Mayonnaise
•    Zabaglione -classic Italian custard
•    Baked cheesecake
•    Ice cream
•    Mousse

11.    What to do with left over egg whites?
•    Make a cake: flourless chocolate cake or angel food cake.
•    Pavlova
•    Macaroons
•    Add whipped egg white to cream to make your cream go further
•    Friands
•    A very healthy omelette

Don’t waste your egg whites. If you don’t have an immediate need for the left-over whites, don’t discard them. Egg whites can be easily frozen and thawed for future use. It is a good idea to freeze individual egg whites in an ice cube tray. You can easily see and measure how many egg whites you have at a future point in time. Before using thawed egg whites, make sure you have allowed them to reach room temperature. They will whip to a better volume.

There are a few tricks to whipping egg whites to a beautiful, light froth with greater volume. Always start with a clean, dry bowl. It is important the bowl is free from any residue, otherwise you risk wasting the egg whites. Make sure the eggs are at room temperature, and heat your beaters in hot water for a few minutes. Make certain they are completely dry and then whip your whites to an amazing froth.

12.    How do you tell a soft peak from a stiff peak? When a recipe asks you to beat the egg white into a soft peak, the egg white should be soft enough that it curls over. Test by holding your beater upside down. What does the egg white mixture do? Conversely, if you are asked to beat the whites to stiff peaks, the whites should remain upright when you turn your beater upside down.

13.    Curdled hollandaise sauce can be cured! Pour it into a cold bowl and give a quick whisk, then return to the pan to gently reheat.

14.    The trick to making mayonnaise is to slowly add the oil. If you go too fast, the mixture will “split”. If this happens, start again, but don’t throw the mixture out. Instead this time add the spilt mixture to the egg yolks rather than the oil.

15.    Eggs separate easier when they are cold. If your eggs need to be at room temperature, cover with plastic wrap after separation and leave to reach the desired temperature.