Miscellaneous
- When making soup, remember the maxim: Soup boiled is soup spoiled.
The soup should be cooked gently and evenly
- If soup has been over-salted add a teaspoonful of sugar or a few
small pieces of raw turnip and simmer a little longer. This will
neutralize the salt flavor
- All seasonings should be added very gradually to soup, or
the flavor may be too strong
- A little finely grated cheese added to thin soup improves the taste
immensely
- When grease collects on top of broth, float a piece of tissue paper
lightly on top of the soup and it will absorb the grease or skim
the soup with a piece of ice. The grease will harden and can be scraped
off the ice
- To avoid lumps try this method for mixing your thickening. In place
of the old long drawn out way of adding a little liquid slowly to a
bowl of flour, and working free from lumps, do it in half the time.
Get a small can with a good fitting lid, an empty cocoa or one pound
baking powder can put in about half a capful of cold water or milk
(be sure to put the liquid in first) then add your flour or cornstarch.
Place the lid on the can firmly, and shake the can up and down briskly
several times. You’ll be surprised how smooth and free from lumps
your thickening is. Add to the other ingredients in the usual way
- Next time your gravy is colorless rather than a nice brown, add two teaspoons of instant coffee to it. The flavor isn’t harmed and you have a nice brown gravy
- If you run out of baking powder, use two level teaspoons cream of tartar
to one teaspoon soda. This is the equivalent of four teaspoons of tartrate
baking powder, the kind you usually have in the kitchen
- If beef dripping or mutton dripping is beaten to a cream add a few drops
of lemon juice and a little carbonate of soda added, it will serve as shortening
in making dark cakes
- A teaspoonful of glycerine added to a pound of flour in cake-making will
aid greatly in keeping a cake fresh
- To prevent cakes from burning sprinkle salt in the oven under the baking
pans
- As you take a cake from the oven, place it for a very few moments on
a cloth wrung out of cold water. Then it may be turned out easily without
sticking to the pan
- To measure a level spoonful, dip the spoon into the dry material, take
up a heaping spoonful, and level it off with a knife, even with the edge
of the spoon
- When making a large turkey, put cheesecloth around the cavity of the
bird and then stuff it. You won’t have trouble getting out all the
filling, which should not be left inside the turkey overnight. It gives
the filling the full flavor of being made inside the turkey, yet nothing
is left clinging to the bones
- When a recipe calls for a quantity of melted butter take care to measure
the butter after melting, not before
- Salt, flour, seasoning, spices, butter and all solids are measured level
- Always sift flour and powdered sugar before measuring. When a recipe
calls for flour, baking powder, soda, salt, sift all these dry ingredients
together before adding to the rest of the batter
- Measure a cupful of whipped cream after it is whipped
- When bread is baking, a small dish of water in the oven will help to
keep the crust from getting too hard
- To cream butter and sugar, warm a bowl, put the butter in, then sieve
the sugar on the top. Beat until the mixture is like whipped cream
- To soften butter, fill a small bowl, one just sufficiently large to cover
the butter, with boiling water; let stand a minute or two or until thoroughly
heated, then empty the water and immediately turn hot bowl upside down
over the butter. In a few minutes, the butter will be softened so it is
just right or try the microwave
- When butter is too hard to spread use a vegetable peeler to shave off thin curls from the stick or place in microwave for about 10 seconds
- To make garlic butter, peel and slice a clove of garlic and place in a bowl with ¼ cup butter cover tightly and let stand for about one hour and remove garlic
- Baking powder cans make good moulds for brown bread. Set the cans on
a rack in a pan, with water enough to come up two-thirds the depth of the
moulds, then cover the pan. Water should be boiling gently before the cans
are put in
- To avoid lumps in a batter, add a pinch of salt to the flour before it
is wet
- To blanch almonds, put them into a saucepan, cover with cold water, bring
to a boil, and having strained them, run cold water over them, dry them
in a cloth, and the skins will slip off easily
- To remove the kernels whole from pecan nuts, pour boiling water over
the nuts and let them stand until cold. Then hammer on the small end of
the nut
- Select a jar lid the proper size for hamburgers. Remove liner and wash
lid well. Fill with meat and smooth top with knife or spatula; turn over
and tap
- Bury the yeast cake in salt, and it will keep for sometime
- When soft custard separates on removal from the stove, beat it hard for
five minutes with an egg beater
- In damp weather when salt is difficult to use in a shaker, add a teaspoonful
of cornstarch to each cupful of salt and mix thoroughly. This will make
the salt run freely
- Don't dispose of circular cardboard backs from frozen pizzas. Cover with foil and use as plates when taking round cakes away from home
- To prevent the odor of boiling ham or cabbage permeating the house add a little vinegar to the water in which they are boiled
- Lemon juice or vinegar in the water cauliflower is cooked in makes it keep its snowy white color
- When cooking pasta add a little salad oil and it won't boil over or stick to pan
- To draw out the salt from salted fish, add a glass of vinegar to the water in which the salt fish is soaking
- When frying fish, use clarified dripping or salad oil. Shortening smells, and butter fries a bad color
- When frying, place a saucepan lid over the frying pan. It will keep in the steam and the contents of the pan will cook more quickly
- To keep a boiled fowl a good color, run the fowl over with a piece of cut lemon and wrap in grease-proof paper for boiling
- Salt beef is improved in flavor if a few small onions and dessert spoonful of brown sugar are added while cooking
- To make meat tender, put it in a strong vinegar water to kill bacteria. For a two or
three pound roast try this and you can add herbs
1/4 cup vinegar
marinate overnight
cook without draining or rinsing the meat
- A fork should never be stuck into a steak or chop that is being fried or grilled, because it lets the juice out
- Stale loaves may be made quite palatable by wrapping in a wet cloth for half a minute. Take the cloth off, then bake in a slow oven for half an hour
- Bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie. They are:
Monday = Blue, Tuesday = Green, Thursday = Red
Friday = White and Saturday = Yellow
- To cut fresh bread easily, cut with a hot knife
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