Cooking Tips
I started my married life as the world’s worst cook. Okay, maybe not the WORST but I certainly had my fair share of disasters. Farmboy had this one friend who seemed to ALWAYS drop in when I was having one of those said disasters.
Cake seems to be my biggest downfall. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve attempted to tip one out, only to end up with a pile of cake crumbs. LOL. I’ve even shared my cooking disasters here on the blog. 
Farmboy can hardly complain. I did warn him early on in our relationship that I couldn’t cook. Not strictly true as I CAN actually cook most things. It was just a self defense mechanism so that he had no expectations on me.
I was particularly freaked out at the idea of cooking for shearers. That was only made worse by particular disasters in the kitchen occuring whenever we had visitors (must be the added pressure). I quickly learnt to cook things that could be made in advance so that I could correct any disasters BEFORE said visitors arrived.
Shearing is good like that. You can fairly easily cook in advance (or provide very simple foods) so that you’re not under pressure on the day (a very good idea given there are time pressures to deal with as well).
I do wish I had internet back then. It’s awesome for providing cooking tips and recipes. And with yahoo goups and blogs, there are so many ways to pass on wonderful tips and recipes to others.
While experience has helped me in my cooking efforts, I’m always on the look out for tried and true tips. The kinds of things that get passed down from generation to generation.
I’d love to put together a post combining as many pearls of wisdom as we can come up with. Can you help me out by posting your top cooking tip (can be anything you like on any aspect of cooking) in the comments section? You will get full recognition (and a link to your blog if you have one).
Can we come up with 50 tried and true tips amongst us?
You never know, we might just be able to help a new bride (student/just left home/anyone really) avoid some of the disasters we’ve experienced (please tell me I’m not the only one who has disasters in the kitchen! lol).
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Double check the ingredients BEFORE putting them in.
Thus avoiding mistakes like confusing baking soda and castor sugar.
Also - always break eggs into a separate container such as a cup before adding them to other ingredients, thus if you get a bad egg you don’t contaminate all the other ingredients. This was very aptly demostrated by our home economics teacher who broke a bad egg during one of our lessons - a class that is still vivid in my memories!
Oh I am so going to need this list…. I am no longer a terrible cook… but I am not a confident one either!
A tip… um… a tip…. Get an old version of the womens weekly original cook book - it has instructions for how to cook even basic veggies and how long to roast different cuts of meat for as well as lots of simple, but good recipes that even I don’t muck up!
I second Marita’s tip about eggs - it’s better to toss away one bad egg than to toss away everything else in the bowl as well.
If you put too much salt into a dish, you can add some chopped up potato to absorb some of the salt. Remember to fish out the potato before serving.
If you suddenly realise you need coconut milk (or cream) in a dish & don’t have any, you can make your own using dessicated coconut, water & a blender. Put 2 cups dessicated coconut & 2.5 cups hot water in the blender, blend for about 30 secs, then strain through muslin. After you’ve extracted all the liquid, put the coconut back in the blender with more hot water & repeat. If you want coconut cream, just use the first press & not the second press.
I find the worst part is coordinating it all so that everything is ready at the same time, so I’ll be interested to see if anyone has any tips for that.
I’m having trouble cutting down recipes to suit one person rather than 4-6-10 people. Hmpf!
A tip? When roasting meat test for doneness, before the recommended time, with a thin skewer. If the juices run red it’s still raw in the middle. Pink juices=medium; Clear juices=done. No juices at all means your roast is overcooked and dry. I usually take mine out of the oven at the pink juice stage because the heat of the meat will often continue the cooking to the done stage while I’m making the gravy.
P.S. If you take meat out at the clear juice stage the heat of the joint may still take it to dryish while you are doing gravy etc. If you prefer your meat dry, that’s okay………
@ Victoria; co-ordinating finish times is more often a matter of practise, but here’s a hint or two for roasts. Chicken cooks faster than beef or lamb, so roasting veg can be put in the pan at the same time as the chicken. Pumpkin cooks faster than potatoes and carrots, so put that in after the potatoes etc are turned over, when turning roasting veg, this is the time to start cooking your stove top veg, (greens), make the gravy while the meat is resting and the stove top veg are cooking. If a dessert needs heating (pre-cooked apple pie), put this in the oven on a very low heat while eating the main course.
Always have a clean and dry bowl and beaters when preparing to beat eggwhites.. NEVER use a freshly washed bowl or beaters as they will still be damp and the jolly whites will not beat!!!
When first hosting new friends or relatives, use tried and true recipes so you are not stressed! My favs are zucchini quiche, bbq, tacos, usually simple foods so i dont get in a flap and lose the plot.. and desserts are usually preprepared eg. tarts, fruit salad, pavs, fruit platters or make your own icecream cones.. the KISS method works best for me.. even if its not lavish… and it also keeps the $ price down and wastage..
Cant wait to read others comments.. Great idea. !!
Use baking paper …it solves and saves all the baking ’sticking’ kitchen diasters !
Organise your pantry contents into see through containers so you can see that you have enough ingredients before you start cooking! I have been caught many a time when I thought i had enough cocoa, icing sugar and even marg!