POTS AND PANS CITY BLOG

Believe it or not, trouble free cooking is a common desire around the world. Even those among us who love cooking and eating almost equally will be the first to confess that being able to cook without the worry of creating a mess, spilling, or burning would be a blessing. Truthfully speaking there really is no such thing as trouble free cooking though there are things you can do that will take a good deal of trouble out of your cooking.

Most of the tips here will be beneficial to novice or beginners in the culinary arts however, there are some great refresher tips for those who are more experienced when it comes to cooking as well. Hopefully you will learn some things through the next few paragraphs or at least remember some things you had forgotten.

First of all, cleaning as you go will take a lot of the trouble out of what comes after the cooking. When asked the least favorite thing about cooking most cooks proclaim without a second of hesitation that the clean up by far is the worst thing about cooking. To make things easier, clean as you go. Keep a sink of hot sudsy water ready to go the entire time you are cooking and wipe up any spills that occur immediately to avoid sticky messes that are much more difficult to clean afterwards. You should also note that if you transfer your food to serving dishes and immediately wash your pots and pans they will be much easier to clean than if the food is allowed to sit in them while your family dines.

My best friend is constantly burning her dinners. The reason? She believes in high or low when it comes to cooking and there is nothing in between. Very few meals should be cooked on high. You are much better off to begin the food preparation at a medium or medium high temperature and to adjust accordingly.

Make sure your oven is preheated. The temperature of the oven does indeed make a difference in the cooking process. While there are those that believe preheating is a simple waste of electricity it is what is required in order to achieve the optimal results when cooking. Most modern electric ovens will signal when the proper temperature has been achieved.

Select recipes that fall within your comfort zone in order to avoid making mistakes or becoming too stressed about the cooking process. Once you’ve decided on your recipe read it through a couple of times in order to be certain that you not only understand all the steps involved but also have all the necessary ingredients before beginning.

Wash your hands thoroughly and wash your hands often. Remember the sink of sudsy water I mentioned above? You’ll want to use it quite frequently in order to wash any surface, cutting board, plate, or utensil that has come into contact with raw meat in order to avoid cross contamination. The same holds true for your hands.

While to some degree these tips may seem a bit simplistic, when it comes to trouble free cooking there really is no such thing. The more you do to make the cooking process seem as effortless as possible the more trouble free your cooking will really be.

Food poisoning is one of the most prevalent illnesses today. Starting as a slight discomfort within a few hours of eating, it can turn into a life-threatening emergency requiring hospitalization. Salmonella e-coli and listeria bacteria are the two most common culprits. Fortunately there are a few common sense precautions we can take to reduce the likelihood of a personal, close up experience with food poisoning.

Common breeding grounds in the kitchen for bacteria are dishrags, towels and brushes, cutting boards and kitchen sinks. You can also add to the list cabinet door and drawer handles, refrigerator handles and any utensils or other objects in the kitchen that are handled after touching another contaminated object. The first thing you should be doing to keep your kitchen safe, of course, is frequent and thorough hand washing.

Other precautions you should take include:

• Plan your shopping trips so that any perishables will get home and into the refrigerator as soon as possible.
• Your refrigerator should be set to 40 degrees F, and the freezer to 0 degrees. Don’t overfill the refrigerator; the cold air needs to be able to circulate freely.
• Poultry should be washed in cold water when you bring it home from the supermarket and then refrigerated right away. Cook as soon as possible.
• Always wash your hands and everything else that comes into contact with raw poultry. This includes knives, cutting boards, and towels. Don’t reuse any of these items for something else without washing them first. One technique you can use to help prevent cross-contamination is to get a set of color-coded cutting boards:
  • Green for fruits and vegetables

  

  • Yellow for raw poultry
  • Red for raw meat
  • Tan for fish and seafood
  • White for dairy products
  • Blue for cooked food
• Wash all fruits and vegetables when you get them home from the market. This even includes things like bananas.
• Dishrags and towels are one of the biggest breeding grounds for bacteria, so consider using more paper towels.
• Clean your kitchen counters before and after food preparation.
• Always check the labels on condiments, sauces, jams and jellies. If they need refrigeration after opening, don’t leave them around on the counter. Don’t leave mayonnaise on the counter, especially in warm weather; this also applies to anything made with the mayonnaise.
• Wash eggs with ice cold water before putting them away in the fridge.
• Use a meat thermometer and make sure that all meat, poultry and fish are cooked to the proper temperature to kill dangerous bacteria. Red meat should be brown inside. Chicken should have clear juices when poked with a fork. Fish should flake when poked with a fork.
• Bacteria tend to grow best in a temperature range of 40 and 140 degrees F. If you prepare dishes in advance and then let them cool down they should be reheated to at least 165 degrees F.
• If a can or jar whooshes when you open it throw it away. When you are at the store, inspect cans and jars for damage before you purchase them. Also avoid jars with loose or bulging lids. You should also make it a habit to check the “sell by” or “use by” dates. I’ve noticed that in the current bad economy you have to be even more careful about this – the supermarket shelves seem to have a lot more items that are almost expired.
• Always drain food over the sink, not in it. Kitchen sinks are teeming with bacteria. Sterilize your sink often, but even so keep edible food out of it.