How to Glaze Root Vegetables

Root vegetables are often cooked using a special technique called glazing. Glazing means to cook vegetables in a small amount of liquid, usually with a tiny bit of butter and sugar, in a partially covered pan or with a round of parchment paper or aluminum foil placed directly over them. As the vegetables cook, they release their savory juices into the surrounding braising liquid (usually water or broth). The liquid reduces and thickens as the vegetables cook, so that when tender, they're coated with a shiny, savory glaze that tastes of the vegetable.

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Dried Chili Peppers

A popular way of preserving chilies. Drying changes not only the color, texture and flavor of chilies but sometimes even changes the name. Dried jalapenos are called chipotles and dried poblanos are known as ancho chilies. Dried chilies are most often used for making sauces. Little ones can be pureed whole while larger ones, such as ancho chilies, are usually toasted to bring out their flavor, then reconstituted in warm water. They are then pureed and strained before using.

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Cooling Food Safely

The larger the quantity of liquid, the more time it will take to cool completely. If you can, try to split large batches into two or more smaller batches.
To cool very small batches of items such as custard sauce, lemon curd, or leftover stew, place the container in a large bowl or tub filled with equal quantities of ice and cold water. Remember to stir the contents of the container as it cools. Stabilize the container, so that water does not splash inside and so the container will not tip over.

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cooking by simmering and boiling

Simmered foods are often referred to as being boiled; however, this is not an accurate description of the cooking speed. In fact, the liquid's temperature should be kept as close to a boil as possible without ever reaching a true boil. A vigorous boil causes most meats, fish and poultry to become tough and stringy. The temperature should be high enough to allow connective tissues to soften, however. Usually the required cooking time is deliberately extended to allow even well-exercised cuts of meat to become tender to the bite.

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How to calibrate thermometers

Whenever you purchased a new thermometer and about to use it for the first time, you need to calibrate it. Thermometers will also need to be calibrated whenever they are dropped or when going from one temperature extreme to another. Thermometers are a critical measuring equipments for temperature to ensure the safety and quality of many food products.

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Oven Thermometers

Oven thermometers are designed to remain in the oven to verify that the oven is actually heating to the desired temperatures. It is important that the temperature is set at 325 degrees F or higher when cooking meat and poultry. These oven thermometers can measure temperatures from 100 to 600 degrees F.

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Refrigerator and Freezer Thermometers

Refrigerator and freezer thermometers are specially designed to measure cold temperatures. It is crucial to verify the temperature of refrigerators and freezers to ensure food safety. Temperatures in refrigerator should not exceed 40 degrees F. As for freezer, frozen food will keep its top quality for the longest possible time when the temperature is at 0 degrees F.

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Appliance Thermometers

Controlling temperature is one of the critical factors in controlling bacteria in food. At temperatures below 40 degrees F, pathogenic microorganisms grow very slowly but multiply very rapidly at between 40 and 140 degrees F. At temperatures above 140 degrees F, they are destroyed. So to ensure that food are safe for consumption, it must be stored at proper cold temperatures in refrigerators or freezers and also must be cooked thoroughly. But how would you know if the refrigerator is cold enough or the oven is actually heating at the proper temperature?

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Asian Desserts

In Asian meals, desserts are not the big feature they are in Western meals. The sweets of South East Asia are usually between-meal snacks made from sticky rice; or cool refreshers of shaved ice sweetened with syrup and bits of fruit or beans cooked in sugar. The sweets of India may be dry or syrupy, and almost always the main ingredients are reduced milk, ground almonds, lentil flour, ghee and sugar. Indian sweet dishes are just as likely to be served at the start of the meal 'to sweeten the mouth' as at the end.

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About Digital Thermometers

These typically battery powered digital thermometers are basically temperature-sensing instruments that have a digital display, permanent probes and are portable. There are many characteristics of display scale for digital thermometers. These include measurement in Celsius, Centigrade or Fahrenheit. Digital thermometers can usually display temperatures in Fahrenheit or Celsius, or even both in a dual scale thermometer. The minimum and maximum values of temperature that can be displayed are the thermometer display range while the scale division is the smallest division of degrees that can be displayed. It may also be referred to as a resolution in digital instruments.

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Food Safety Temperature Guide

It is very important to store food at certain temperatures as food spoil rapidly above 40 degrees F. Previous, many people used to let their food cool off before putting it in the refrigerator. However, now with a better understanding on food safety, we should know that it is very important to put it in a covered container immediately and put it in the refrigerator. Below is the food safety temperature guide on how food reacts at certain temperatures.

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Broccoli Rabe

This slightly bitter, peppery green (also called broccoli raab or rapini) is a classic Italian vegetable in many pasta dishes. If you are a newcomer to broccoli rabe, try blanching it in salted, boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes to minimize its bitter flavor. Once blanched, it can be sauteed in olive oil with garlic, red pepper flakes, or other seasonings of your choice.

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Cut up Vegetables and Herbs

The best way to cut up vegetables depends on their size and shape and how you're going to use them. Usually, they are chopped, diced, minced, or sliced. Occasionally, they are shredded or julienne. How do you decide whether to chop, slice or julienne?

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Choosing a Saute Pan

A new cook often spend a lot of energy and money trying to find just the right sauté pan. In fact, it is possible to make perfect sautéed dishes in any old pan. It just easier if the pan is of better quality. Whenever possible, sauté in a pan just large enough to hold the food in a single layer, but not so large that it's difficult to handle. If the pan is too large, the juices released by the sautéing foods may run out to the edges of the pan and burn. If the pan is too small, the foods will be crowded and will steam in their juices instead of brown.

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Creaming - An important step in baking

The act of combining butter and sugar is one of the most important steps in baking. Poorly creamed butter can result in cakes and cookies that are disappointingly dense and coarse, especially in batters that are too thick to be leavened solely by eggs or chemical leaveners such as baking soda. Thick batters get their rising power from the air that's incorporated into butter as the butter is combined with sugar.

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Solving Broccoli Problems

To revive limp and uncooked broccoli, just trim 1/2" from the base of the stalk and set the head in a glass of cold water in the refrigerator overnight. And to cook it, steam-boil in a shallow pan of water, adding a pinch each for salt and sugar per cup of cooking water. The color of the broccoli could be brighten by a quick-cook over high heat.

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Cooking with Broccoli

Though broccoli is available year round, it is a cool-weather vegetable, and its flavor is best from late fall through early spring. Warm-weather broccoli is less tender and lacks the flavor and bright green color of broccoli grown in cooler months.

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Making Fast Flatbread

Flatbreads bake in minutes. The dough need not be special because the crucial factors of making flatbread are how the loaf is rolled and the speed at which it bakes. To create the blistered surface and inflated pocket of a classic flatbread, roll the dough to no thicker than 1/4". At this thickness, most of the air bubbles in the dough are dispersed horizontally. When the flat loaf is laid on a hot surface, such as the floor of a preheated oven, or an inverted baking sheet, the bottom surface sets up instantly.

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Troubleshooting Yeast Breads

Even for the experienced home baker, bread holds a certain mystique. Here is how to come ever closer to the perfect loaf. In order to bake a perfect bread, you will need to know the possible causes and the solutions.

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Disposable Thermometers

This disposable thermometers as its name suggested is meant to be used for a single use only. It is one of the most recent developments in the retail food market for thermometers used to indicate food temperatures. There are currently several brands available in the retail market and they are designed for different range of temperatures. You should use the correct thermometers for the food temperature which they are intended. Always check the package for directions to ensure that the temperature desired is consistent with the recommended internal cooking temperature types.

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Instant-Read Bimetallic Coil Thermometers

This is a quick measurement thermometers as they could produce the temperate of a food in about 15 to 20 seconds. They should be used towards the end of the estimated cooking time to check for the final cooking temperatures as they are not designed to remain in the food while cooking in the oven. Check the temperature before the food is expected to finish cooking to prevent overcooking.

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Oven-Safe Bimetallic Coil Thermometers

This type of thermometer is designed to remain in the food while cooking in an oven. Usually used for large food items like turkey or roast. And because it is designed to remain in the food while cooking, it will be able to shows the temperature very conveniently as the food is being cooked. The only disadvantage with this type of thermometer is that it will take a longer time to register the correct temperature if they are not left in the food while cooking.

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How to Accurately Monitor a Dough's Rise

Use a straight-sided container so that the dough is only rising up and not out. If the container is transparent, mark the height of the dough on the outside of the container when you first lay it in. Use this mark to gauge the rise of the dough. If your straight-sided container is not transparent, insert a large skewer straight down into the dough, mark the dough's height on the skewer, then mark the point on the skewer where the dough should be once doubled.

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How to Rise Yeast Dough

Dough rises best in a warm, moist, draft-free spot. The ideal temperature is 85 degrees F. This is warmer than most homes, but there are several ways to create the right environment. Fill a heat-proof bowl with boiling water and let it stand while you prepare the dough. Throw out the water, dry the bowl, and let the dough rise in the warm bowl. Alternatively, you could fill a large stockpot with a couple of inches of tepid (not hot) water. Place the covered bowl of dough inside and cover the pot.

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Making Breads

Perhaps the most essential of all foods, bread is extremely gratifying to make and to eat. The basic ingredients of flour, water, salt and yeast can yield an enormous variety of loaves with a huge range of flavors, textures, and shapes. Bread has a reputation for being time consuming and difficult to make, but almost anyone can make a satisfying loaf. In fact, the actual hands-on time spent making bread is less than the average prep time for a meal.

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Bimetallic-coil Thermometers

These thermometers contain a coil in the probe made of two different metals that are bonded together. The two metals have different rates of expansion. The coil, which is connected to the temperature indicator, expands when it is heated. This food thermometer senses temperature from its tip and up the stem for 2 to 2 1/2 inches.

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Thermometer Fork

As its name suggest, this utensil combines a cooking fork with a thermometer. In one of the tines of the fork, a device is embedded for temperature sensing function. There are several different styles and brands of the thermometer forks in the market. Some using thermocouples and some using thermistors.

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Thermocouple Thermometers

Of all the food thermometers available, thermocouples are able to read and display the final temperature the quickest between 2 to 5 seconds. The temperature results will be displayed on a digital panel. A thermocouple thermometers measures temperature at the junction of two fine wires found at the tip of the probe. Thermocouples used in scientific laboratories have very thin probes, similar to hypodermic needles, while others may have a thickness of 1/16 inch.

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Thermistor Thermometers

This type of thermistor-style thermometers uses a resistor to measure the temperature. The resistor is made of ceramic semiconductor bonded in the tip with temperature sensitive epoxy. The time taken to register the temperature on its digital display is about 10 seconds and the thickness of the probe is approximately 1/8 inch. Thermistor thermometers are suitable for both thin and thick foods as the semiconductor is at the tip of the thermometer.

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Oven Cord Thermometers

Oven cord thermometers allow us to check the food temperature in the oven without even opening the oven door as a base unit with a digital screen is attached to a thermistor-type thermometer probe by a long metal cord. The probe is then inserted into the food with the metal cord connecting the base unit to the probe.

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