Fruits
- To peel an orange easily and to get the skin off in one piece, heat the orange slightly for three or four minutes before peeling
- Heat lemons well before using and there will be twice the quantity of juice
- Room-temperature lemons, limes and orange will yield more juice than those that are refrigerated
- Microwaving the fruit for a few seconds before squeezing will help extract more juice. Don't over do it. You don't want to boil the juice.
- Use your palm to roll lemon, lime, or orange around on the countertop a few times before squeezing
- If just a few drops of juice are needed, pierce the skin with a toothpick and squeeze out what you need. To store it, reinsert the toothpick, put the lemon or lime into a plastic bag, and refrigerate
- The grated rind of an orange or lemon added to a cake mixture not only gives the cake a nice flavor, but also prevents it from becoming stale
- Store fresh lemon juice in the refrigerator for a week or so. NOTE: If you have a large amount of juice to store, put the juice in ice cube trays and freeze for later use
- To prevent apples from cracking open when baking, prick them in several places with a silver fork before putting them in oven
- To clean currants, wash them well in two or three waters, drain, dry in a cloth and finish in a slightly warm oven. A little flour dredged over them will absorb any remaining moisture
- Add one quarter teaspoon soda to cranberries while cooking them and they will not require much sugar
- When making jam, rub the bottom of the pan with butter. This prevents burning and keeps the jam clear
- When making jelly or jam, hang a piece of string over the edge of the glass before pouring in paraffin to make it easy to open
- Jelly is improved if in place of water it is made with juice left over from either dried or fresh fruit
- Rich fruit cakes are often spoiled in appearance by the fruit settling at the bottom. It is quite easy to prevent this by shaking the fruit in some flour and adding it to the cake mixture at the last minute
- When making pumpkin pie add marshmallows on the bottom then add filling and the marshmallows will rise to form a topping
- Dust your pie pan with flour before lining them with dough. This will prevent the pie from sticking after it has been baked
- To prevent soggy pie crust in an unbaked pie shell brush with a thin coating of egg white, expecially good for fruit pies
- Add a tablespoon of cornstarch to the sugar when making meringue for pies and it will not weep
- To cut pie into five equal pieces, slice a 'y' in in the pie and then slice the two larger pieces in half
- To keep juice from running out of fruit pies, insert a small cornucopia of white paper into the center of the pie so that it is about twice the height of the pie
- To prevent fumes from juice that bubbles from pies while they are baking sprinkle a little salt on the fruit juice
- Cut drinking straws into short lengths and insert them in slits of pie crust for venting
- Try using an outer saucepan
containing water. Place a smaller saucepan containing the milk in the
larger saucepan of water, and boil both together. There is then no danger
of the milk boiling over
- Rinse a pan in cold water before heating milk and it won't scorch
- When cooking pancakes dip the spoon in milk or water and the batter will drop off the spoon easily
- To prevent milk or cream from curdling when used in combination with
tomato, add a bit of bicarbonate of soda to each before they are mixed
- To keep milk or cream from souring in hot weather, stir in a small
quantity of bicarbonate of soda
- When baking a milk pudding, place the dish in a pan of water in the oven. This prevents the pudding from burning or boiling over
- Grease the lip of the cream or milk pitcher with butter to prevent the
drip
- Add a teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup sweet milk to make it sour
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