Chefs Tips and Techniques
Keeping a Home Kitchen Clean!
Good kitchen sanitation practices, such as washing your hands frequently and keeping raw foods and cooked foods separate, will dramatically reduce the risk of food-borne illnesses. But it doesn’t stop there. Consider your cutting board and all the foods—both raw and cooked—that it comes into contact with. And how about that sponge in your sink—oh, and the sink!
The good news is that keeping a clean kitchen doesn’t have to be complicated. While special cleaning products make some jobs easier, nothing beats soap, hot water, and bleach to get the job done. In order to ensure your kitchen is clean and sanitized, here are a few tips that will keep your kitchen in order so you can focus on cooking.
Tip 1: Hands, Soap, and Water
No list of kitchen sanitation practices is complete without this tip. That’s because washing your hands is one of the best ways to stop the spread of food-borne pathogens. Wash before and during cooking, especially after touching raw meat and poultry. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends at least 20 seconds in hot, soapy water. How long is that? Try singing “Happy Birthday.”
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How To's
7 Tips & Tricks for Juicy Burgers
Get perfectly juicy burgers every time with these simple tips and tricks.
With Memorial Day comes the return of backyard grilling season, which means plenty of burgers are on the horizon. Ensuring that warm spring and summer nights bring tender, juicy burgers and not dry, dense hockey pucks has to do with both sourcing and technique. Superior have shared a few simple tricks and tips over the years, starting with buying the right ground beef.
Tip #1:
Avoid extra-lean grinds. The higher the fat content, the moister the patty. A burger with beef that’s 80 percent lean (i.e., 20 percent fat) is luxurious and juicy.
Tip #2:
Minimal handling is just as important. Form the patties gently, compressing as little as possible. Just as overworking pastry and dough will make it tough, so will over-handling your meat.
Tip #3:
Make an indentation in the middle of each patty. Just press your thumb (not too firmly) into the meat and the divot will prevent it from puffing up and will allow it to cook evenly.
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Art of Entertaining
How to Host a Last-Minute Dinner Party
Stay ready so you don't have to get ready—but don't sweat it, either.Do you want to be the kind of person who throws spur-of-the-moment dinner parties that are totally fabulous? We’ll let you in on a few little secrets to pulling it off.
Who are these fabulous people who entertain their friends over a casual dinner on a Wednesday night, all without weeks of stressing and prepping? Does it seem a little bit unnerving to have guests come over without a real plan in place? Do you literally want to know how I do it? And how you can do it, even if you’re not a chef with a hip culinary center? We dished up a handful of pro tips for hosting a I-feel-like-having-people-over-tonight-so-why-not dinner party.
Always Be Prepared:
The grocery store trip ahead of a dinner party can itself be intimidating, especially if you don’t have a lot of spare time. That’s why I am always stocking up on the building blocks of cooking a solid dinner. Having a good pantry in place is very strategic. You should always have these things on hand: olive oil; chicken stock; a tomato product, either paste or canned.
Non- and semi-perishables are also key: tinned fish (check out the sardine snack recipes for inspiration), nice cheeses, olives, and crackers, for example, are easy to put out. We’d also add jams, preserves, and fancy condiments to that list; with a little cheese, they can do a lot to dress up simple toast. And pasta; with tinned sardines, capers, tomatoes, olives, and a few other pantry items, it can be a great last-minute meal.
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How to Decorate a Sugar Cookie
Like a Pro
Decorating sugar cookies like a pro takes a lot of practice, but even novices can feel like they nailed it with a few insider tips gathered from some of our pastry chefs.
1. Master Icing Consistency:
The biggest decorating mistake is icing consistency. Beginners should start with two batches of royal icing. One should be thick like toothpaste to pipe around the cookie and another should be thinner like honey to fill in the surface (a process called flooding).
2. Keep the Equipment Simple:
Don’t buy a lot of equipment right away. Too many cookie cutters and pastry bags can be overwhelming. One set of holiday cutters supplemented by a heart, a star and a circle cutter or two will do. For piping icing, fill a zipper-top bag or a thin, disposable decorating bag with icing, and cut a very small piece off a corner to make the tip.
3. Find a Recipe That Works for You:
Use a good cookie recipe, and make sure the butter is dentable but not completely soft. Cream the butter with the sugar just long enough to incorporate the two. Always bake cookies on a silicone mat or parchment.
4. Roll the Dough to a Quarter Inch:
Take the time to roll cookie to the right thickness. Many cookiers prefer cookies a quarter inch thick, which you can achieve with special rings for the end of your rolling pin or by rolling the dough between two rulers or other special pastry rails that are a quarter-inch high.
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How to Stock your Home Pantry
Cooking is simpler and faster when you already have the ingredients. We’ve identified three levels of pantries among our readers — essential, expanded and expert — so whether you’re beginning to cook, stretching toward new flavors or an old hand with wide-ranging tastes, you’ll be prepared. Our definition of pantry encompasses refrigerator, freezer and cupboard, so you can make entire meals with “pantry” items. We know that no two people will agree on a list of staples — one cook’s go-to ingredient may be new ground for another — but this is the stuff we believe you should keep on hand. For the most part, they’re ingredients that last. When you run low on potatoes or lemons, don’t wait to restock. Instead, put them on the shopping list so they’re always at the ready.
Getting Started:
Clear the decks. Take everything out of your pantry, give it a hard look and decide what you can get rid of. Be ruthless. If you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it.
Keep what looks and smells good. “Expiration,” “sell by,” and “best by” dates are not good guidelines. Some are determined by regulators, others by manufacturers, and almost all are arbitrary. Properly stored, some (unopened) ingredients, like canned fish, can last for years; others, like dried herbs, start declining in quality the moment they are sealed in a container.
Assess what remains. Then organize it according to the logic that makes sense to you: There’s no single best system. Your nut butters might be with the condiments, or the breakfast items, or the baking supplies.
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Kids
Is your Child a Mega Fan of Cheesy Goodness?
This Grilled Cheese Hack Will Impress Even the Pickiest Little Eaters.
Mmm. Grilled cheese. Whether you’re a mega-fan of the cheesy goodness that comes sandwiched between two slices of bread or your kiddo can’t possibly eat anything else, as it turns out you may have been making these little gems the totally wrong way. Huh? Yep. This grilled cheese “hack” (okay, it’s more of an alternative way of whipping up a grilled cheese sandwich) will totally change the way you cook!
So basically, you’ve been making grilled cheese wrong. At least, that’s what it seems like when you take chef Sammy’s advice to heart. It’s all about how to get the crispiest crust ever. Given that she’s an actual chef, and sandwich genius, we’re going with that she knows more about this stuff than the rest of us.
What’s her brilliant insight into grilled cheese sandwich-making? Well… forget about the butter. What? Umm, aren’t you supposed to slather the bread with butter before putting it into a butter-coated pan? Isn’t that what makes it taste so good?
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4550 South Brust Avenue, St. Francis, WI 53235
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