Cooking Blog

Food that you prepare outside in the open seems to have more taste. And if you’re camping, appetites are bigger and everything feels so much fresher. Chances are that you’re cooking food that you’ve carried with you - but you’ve probably also added any herbs or berries that you found by the wayside on your travels.

Cooking food isn’t the easiest or most appealing part of camping. We’ve all experienced trying to light the stove in the rain, running out of water just when you need to thin the soup or discovering that you’re missing a vital ingredient - like salt.

As a teenager, I went hiking with a friend in the Lake District. We carried everything we needed on our backs, so we tried to carry only lightweight food, which meant lots of packets of dried soup. By day three, not only were we sick of soup, we were experiencing some weird side effects from all the e-numbers in the mixtures. It wasn't long before my ears felt as though they were burning - and my hiking partner told me they had started to glow red. But we didn’t have any other food to cook.

The key to cooking food on a camping holiday is planning.

Carry a good lighter, a good stove such as a Trankia and some lightweight cooking pots and pans, and cooking food in the great outdoors doesn’t look so daunting. Remembering to bring the right cooking equipment and utensils is one thing. You'll be cooking food though. And carrying all that food can be the problem.

While I still carry packets of dried food - because they are so light to carry and take up such little space - I steer clear of anything that contains a lot of e-numbers. This leaves me plenty of room to carry fresh food. Cooking food in the great outdoors is most fun if you use fresh food. And the best fresh food is the berries that you pick while you walk, or the fish that you catch in the river or lake that you pass.

I know, I know, it sounds a little idealistic. But I never forget to plan a route that will take me past at least one supermarket. There, the berries are easier to find and the fish easier to catch. The principle is still the same: it helps to make cooking food one of the best parts of your camping holiday.

Share This

A kitchen needs utensils, and there’s such a wide variety available it will boggle your mind. Just look in any kitchen store or in the aisles of kitchenware at other retail stores and you’ll see an amazing array of items used for Cooking. Task specific utensils may not be used very often since they only have one function. However, there are other utensils that are more versatile, and needed and used daily.

Knives Are The Workhorse Of The Kitchen

If you do much Cooking at all, you’ll use not one, but several kinds of knives. Each of these kitchen utensils has a specific function, like chopping, slicing, or filleting food.

All knives, however, are pretty much constructed of the same parts.

The Main Part Of The Knife - The Blade

The blade is pretty self-explanatory, being the metal part of the knife used for cutting, from the handle to the tip. It’s the most important part of the knife, and the quality of the blade determines how well the knife cuts. Good quality blades make it much easy to do food preparation for Cooking.

A Better Bolster

The bolster is the small part between the blade and the handle, connecting the two together. It’s essential the bolster holds the handle and blade securely together so the knife doesn’t fall apart.

It’s worth noting, however, there’s an advantage to having a bolster that doesn’t reach the full width of the blade. That might seem sturdier, but it gets in the way of sharpening the blade. It works a lot better if the bolster doesn’t quite reach the bottom edge of the blade for just that reason.

The Whole Tang

The tang is an extension of the blade. This extension runs into the handle, providing a way to attach it to the knife blade. It also helps give the knife a good balance. The tang running into the handle also strengthens the knife, making it more durable.

Sometimes a tang runs only partway into the handle, and other times it goes the entire length of the handle. A well constructed knife has a tang that runs the full length of the handle, making it strong and well-balanced.

Getting A Handle

You need a way to safely hold a knife, and that’s the handle. The handle wraps around the tang and holds it securely. A handle can be composed of a variety of plastics, or made of metal or wood.

Not only should the handle should be sturdy, but it should also be easy to hold. Since you use a knife a good bit in the kitchen, it’s much better if it’s a good fit to your hand.

Types of Kitchen Knives

Checking the different parts of the knife for quality gives you an idea what to look for when buying a good knife. When buying a knife, however, you’ll discover there’s a wide variety of types available. Some of these include:

· Boning Knife

· Butter Knife

· Cheese Knife

· Chef’s Knife

· Cleaver

· Deli Knife

· Filet Knife

· Frozen Food Knife

· Mincing Knife

· Paring Knife

· Sandwich Knife

· Serrated Knife

· Slicing-Carving Knife

· Steak

· Utility

There are also specialty knives for chestnuts, clams, grapefruits, deveining, lettuce and oysters, plus specialty knives for different types of cuisines such as Japanese and Asian.

It’s fortunate you don’t need to buy every type of knife out there. That would be a major expense for sure.

The Bare Essentials of Knives For The Kitchen

While every knife has a use, most people don’t need so many of the more specialized knives. Everyone needs a few essential knives, however, in their kitchen. These versatile knives are able to do all kinds of foods preparation.

The Paring Knife

If you don’t have any other knife, you need a paring knife. It’s got a straight blade with a sharp edge, and is a smaller knife. Paring knives run from about three to five inches long with a thin blade that tapers to a point at the tip.

Easily held and used, the paring knife is quite useful. As the name indicates, the main function of a paring knife is for paring foods. It’s also good for cutting up small items, coring apples and such, and mincing garlic and other foods. Each and every kitchen should have at least one good paring knife.

A Knife For A Chef

The Chef’s or Cook’s knife is another versatile knife. There are several different lengths of chef’s knives, running from about 6 inches to 12 inches long. Mini chef’s knives are the smaller sizes. A smaller handed person will find the mini chef knives work better for them that the larger size. The larger chef knives are handier for people with bigger hands that allow the bigger chef knives to balance better in their hands.

The chef knife picks up where the paring knife leaves off, and can cut bigger vegetables, fruits and meats. A chef’s knife works well for slicing foods, plus chopping and mincing foods. The bigger size makes it better suited for the heavy duty work, and making thicker slices than a paring knife.

The Serrated Knife

Instead of a straight edge like the paring and chef knives have, the serrated knife has notches in the blade. It can be anywhere from 5 to 10 inches long. A serrated knife is best used for foods that are hard on the outside, while being soft on the inside. A good example is a loaf of homemade bread since it’s crusty hard on the outside, and softer on the inside. The serrated knife is also good for slicing other fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes.

Put A Cleaver To Good Use

You could make do with a paring knife, chef’s knife and serrated knife, but there’s one other blade that is highly useful in the kitchen. This knife had a very wide blade which is usually about 6 inches in length.

Just like any other kitchen knife, a cleaver can chop and shred foods. However, it really excels at pounding and crushing foods. Another good use for the cleaver is cutting through hard materials such as chicken bones.

Not only can a cleaver pulverize meat, but the flat of the blade can be used to crush garlic and other herbs. A cleaver usually comes with a hole near the end of the blade so it can be hung up somewhere out of the way. This helps keep the blade sharp, and prevents the problem of the cleaver taking up so much space in a kitchen drawer.

Choose Good Quality Knives For The Kitchen

Whatever knives you chose, get the best quality you can. It makes food preparation easier to have good quality knives, and since you’ve got eat, it’s better to make fixing meals more enjoyable.

The more you cook, the more you will appreciate using good quality knives, and may wish to expand your selection to include more types. The chef’s knife, paring knife, serrated knife and cleaver make a good basic set of knives for starters however.

Every kitchen can use a few good knives.

Share This

The healthy eating advice we hear all the time is ‘eat a balanced diet’. Simple as that. Or is it?

I’ve been thinking about my diet a lot recently. I’m training for a marathon. And if you start looking for healthy eating advice, you'll find it - in an amazing variety of shapes and forms. And most of it is aimed at people who consider themselves to be overweight. Here’s the essence of what most nutritional experts say:

• Eat six pieces of fresh fruit every day - and eat most of it in the first half of the day
• Eat as much raw food as possible - salads, cereals, vegetables and fruit (not raw meat!)
• Avoid processed food
• Avoid eating sugar and foods with a high sugar content
• Don’t eat too much fat, especially fat that is solid at room temperature like butter or fatty red meat
• Eat oily, cold-water fish two or three times a week
• Only eat until you are about 80% full
• Drink plenty of water

All this sounds like sensible healthy eating advice. But it is quite hard to follow to the letter. Try eating an apple when you’ve already eaten a kiwi fruit, an orange, a banana, some berries and a peach. Try telling your dentist! Most fruit is quite acidic, and it contains a lot of natural sugars. Your teeth and stomach can take quite a battering.

It's hard to say no to eating processed food, too. It's ubiquitous. It’s convenient. And it tastes good - it’s been designed to. There’s so little nutritional value in a lot of processed food that tasting good is its only virtue. And of course some of it tastes so good that we can’t resist it - in huge quantities.

Back to the marathon. The main issue with a marathon runner’s diet is to make sure you have enough sugar in your blood so you don’t ‘hit the wall’. You can expect to hit the wall after 20 miles or so. Their muscles have burnt all their blood sugar. The body responds by breaking down stores of fat and glycogen in the liver. And that hurts.

But many experienced marathon runners say, ‘It’s all in the mind.The 'wall' is nothing more than a psychological barrier. If you want to finish the marathon, you have to go through it - you have to take the pain. And that’s how I have come to view the balanced diet and all the other articles of healthy eating advice. If you want to lose weight and be healthy, you have to have the right mindset. Turn a blind eye to all that processed food. Hitting the Wallmart is a mental barrier. Youcan overcome.

So here’s the ultimate healthy eating advice: you have to want to be healthy. You have to want to be slim. And not just a bit. Badly. Because healthy eating is a state of mind. 

Share This

Home made beef jerky

Throughout history people have made beef jerky for food and storage and necessities. There have ben lots of new methods developed such as freezing chemicals etc to the process of beef jerky.

People still love the tatse and ease of beef jerky original which is generally made from beef but has been recently enhanced by other flavours like camel.

When making jerky all the fat and moisture must be removed, jerky is in general a very good source of energy. Some times these benefits are offset by the many chemicals added by some jerky businesses.

To your own health jerky follow these steps

1. Select your meat, lean beef is best it will save you time, scotch, round, sirloin.

2. Cutting the beef into strips less than 3.2 mm thick (1/8 ich) will give you the best results

3. If you want to make slicing easy partly freeze your meat

4. Make sure you trim all the fat because this does not freeze and can turn bad.

5. While you can use the ingredients of your choice, the traditional is marinade in vinigar and sea salt in your fridge up to 24 hours.

6. You can season the meat with flavouring of your choice you need to experiment because some of these ingredients makes the jerky sticky.

7. The meat needs to dehydrate this is done by leaving gaps between the slices . When dehydrators are used you need non stick spray on racks. When using ovens set them at 70 c allow them to preheat. Always keep in mind that the goal is dehydration not Cooking.

8. The next step is watching most times this take 7 to 13 hours, check your jerky regularly until its consistency is what you are looking for.

9. To keep your jerky fresh keep it in a frige or freezer until needed.

For best results eat your home made beef jerky within one week. But don’t forget you can save some time because there are some companies that use traditional methods to produce their jerky.

Share This

It is not surprising to hear that Cooking is a favored hobby and pastime for people in all different cultures and in virtually every country around the globe.

Each region and culture brings their own unique approach to food preparation, seasonings and food combinations, making significant contributions to cuisine in general and also to the types of Cooking products that are available in order to make the Cooking of all kinds easier and simpler.

slow cookers
As a result, there are all types of products on the market for cooking to help people with all of their cooking tasks, from the daily chores of cooking for a family to creating savory delights from a new bestselling cookbook.

From rolling pins, to funnel cake fryers, to pasta makers, to electric deep fryers, no matter what it is that you plan to be cooking up in the kitchen there are plenty of different types of cooking equipment, utensils and accessories to be found.

Usually when one thinks of cooking products, the mind immediately latches onto the thought of some of the most common types of home kitchen appliances, such as slow cookers, rice cookers, euro pro deep fryer and other small cooking aids. Commercial kitchens also have many of the same types of slow cookers, but they are generally larger and they are built for heavy usage.

Some of the most popular products for cooking are those appliances that simply make cooking tasks simpler and more efficient. There are a number of different types of food cookers that are specially designed to excel in preparing certain types of foods. These come in particularly handy for busy working moms and can save a great deal of time in the kitchen, especially when a certain food is part of a family’s regular menu.

electric fryers
The most popular types of these specialty cookers include fish cookers, egg cookers, and rice cookers. These are all widely available in most kitchen supply stores and through catalogs and on the internet. For any family that eats a lot of any of these foods, one of these specialty food cookers can be a great time saver and can make meal preparation go more smoothly.

Another very popular type of cooker that can be used to prepare many different types of cuisines is the slow cooker. Slow cookers allow a person to put the essential ingredients for a meal into the main cooking dish and then leave it to cook at a low heat for a number of hours.

funnel cake fryers
In many cases, working mothers make use of these by starting a meal in the morning before leaving for school and work. Then, at the end of the day, the family can walk into the house and be greeted by the aromas of a delicious meal that is hot, fresh and ready to eat. The only thing that is left to do is serve up the meal.

Even though this does require some preparations in the morning, when cooking with slow cookers, there are a number of benefits that families enjoy, including having the meal ready as soon as everyone arrives back home after their busy days. It is no wonder that slow cookers have been some of the best selling cooking products for decades now.

Share This

To a purist, BBQ is all about slow Cooking. This generally means using either a smoker or a grill with a large surface and a snug lid. You need to position the food a short distance away from the heat. You can do this by rearranging the briquettes, or by having a flame on only one side of the grill. This produces a section of low heat that lets you implement the first of three steps to a perfect BBQ: infusing.

The objective of infusing is to allow all the flavor of the meat to penetrate below the surface before it seals up through the Cooking process. The rub, sauce, fat and juices mix with the smoke and heat to produce a complex interaction inside the meat. Both surface and interior fats melt away and the particles become part of the external layer. Now the stage is set for the movement of the flavor compounds. Some killer BBQ is right around the corner.

During the second step, the actuall Cooking happens, and this usually takes a while. As the interior temperature of the meat climbs, proteins break down and become amino acids. Sugars convert into particles that add a sweet taste. Enzymes get active, and salt becomes ionized. The outcome of all this chemical activity is the transformation of a hunk of meat into a savory main course.

Throughout this stage, smoke from any wood which has been added lends flavor to the finished product. The surface of the meat becomes sealed and the inside juices are trapped; as they heat up they alter their composition. During this phase, the meat will spend the most time Cooking. Maintain the temperature at a lower level than what you use for indoor Cooking.

Once the meat’s inside temperature reaches 200F, it’s time to take it off the BBQ grill or smoker.

During the third step, your meat finishes cooking. As it cools, the internal heat is still high enough to continue to affect the meat. Throughout this stage, meat can become even more tender, creating a most satisfying meal.

You can serve it once the temperature decreases to 165F or lower. Slice off a bit and notice the color. Beef should be a dark red, and chicken should have become white and any juices should now be clear. If it’s pork, it should be white with a gray tinge. The taste should be subtle and it should have an easy to chew consistency.

And there you have it: the perfect BBQ.

Share This

For some folks, one of the most lasting memories of their childhood is waking up to the wonderful aroma of homemade bread baking in the oven. There surely is no better way to start the day than with the taste of hot, newly baked bread with butter dissolving on top. These days however, the art of home bread baking appears to be on the decline with the majority of people choosing preservative loaded manufactured bread from the grocery store.

Why not relive your childhood and learn how to bake bread at home for yourself. If you already love baking, you will get just as much gratification out of preparing the baked goodness of bread for your family in a number of various ways. These days, there is no need to do the entire dough making and kneading process manually because there are a number of bread making machines available which, are not only easier to use, but also do most of the work for you. What used to be a time-consuming, messy process is now a snap. Simply measure the ingredients, press a few buttons and a few hours later, you will experience the memorable smell and taste of home-baked bread.

For example, the Breadman bread maker can be found at many discount department stores. You can make breakfast bread, with your own unique blend of dried fruit or nuts, or your own version of garlic bread, an Italian delicacy that will go well with any pasta dish you make. You can also program the machine to mix cake batter. The Breadman comes with upward of 300 different program combinations which means you will never be stuck for recipe ideas to choose from. This is especially good for those people who have to follow a gluten free or low carb diet. The Breadman convection bread machine can also make pasta, bagel or pizza doughs as well as health conscious dessert alternatives such as sweet bread.

Another good option  is the Panasonic automatic bread maker which is an ideal machine if you are just starting out on your home bread baking journey. You can choose from three loaf sizes when you are preparing your dough. The machine will then mix and knead the dough, allow it time to rise, and bake the bread up to 2.5 pounds at a time. You will also receive a booklet full of baking tips and suggestions, so you will never run out of fun things to try out when it comes to baking bread.

Zojirushi is another popular brand of bread making machine that comes highly recommended. The machines are more like a complete home bakery instead of simply a bread maker. Because of that, you can try your hand at all manner of imaginative and unique recipes right in your own kitchen. As well as an owners manual and recipe booklet, you will also get tips on how to package and store your bread so that you can bake in bulk.

Which ever bread maker you decide to purchase, you should acquaint yourself with the operation of the machine before buying the ingredients to bake your first loaf. Get familiar with the features of the machine, and try a couple of of the recommended recipes so that you can experience the machine at its best.

Share This

Saving money on your grocery bugdet has always been a concern but its more of one now that food costs are increasing.  But even with Low Cost Cooking dinner recipes you still want to be sure that you’re getting the most out of every single meal so that nothing is wasted.No matter the meal you are making we can now go over some quick tips and pointers for the best way to make this happen.  After all even Low Cost Cooking dinner recipes will mean wasted money if you’re not doing everything you can to make the most of what you have.

Using leftovers is a good idea as this means that you may get another meal out of what you have left behind, or can make another meal with just a few added ingredients.  For example you can use cheap dinner recipes to make a simple chicken and rice casserole or an inexpensive meatloaf.  Chances are you’re going to have something leftover after that.  You might not look forward to a cold meatloaf sandwich, but if you take a slice of leftover meatloaf and cover it with pasta sauce and a slice of mozzarella cheese and heat it for a few minutes, you get an entirely new hot meal that is rather tasty!  Using cheap dinner recipes like this means that you’re using up your leftovers but still getting a very tasty meal in the process.  A simple chicken and rice casserole can also be reheated with some grated cheese on top, bread crumbs, or melted cheese mixed in.  You can even add some broccoli or other vegetables to fill out the dish.  These types of Low Cost Cooking dinner recipes use up what you have and make sure that nothing goes to waste.

Using vegetables in place of meat or filling up on those to have less meat is another way of making up cheap dinner recipes on your own.  Make a pot pie with a frozen pie crust and some jars of prepared gravy; you simply need to add frozen or fresh vegetables and cook according to the pie crust directions.Meat is an important part of any meal but remember you can always make easy and cheap dinner recipes without meat and it will still be hearty if you add more veggies.  You can also just steam some vegetables or prepare more than normal so that you can eat less meat and be full.

It usually takes some thought and planning to get the most out of cheap dinner recipes but it can be done.  When planning your meals for the week be sure that you anticipate what leftovers you might have and how you might use those up.  Don’t be afraid of freezing even a few bites of this or that, as you can keep storing items until you have enough for a soup or stew or something else.  This way you know you are getting the most out of your cheap dinner recipes and are making your grocery budget stretch as far as it will go.

Low Price Cooking is a brand new community website for Cooking Nutritious Food at a lower price to help your family budget. Come by LowPriceCooking to get your free Ebook on LowPriceCooking Basics just for joining the Low Price Cooking community for free. You will find cooking Forums, cooking Videos, Low Price Cooking Community Members and more just for signing up for free to join and then you can get your free Low Price Cooking EBook on Low Price Cooking Basics. Come be A part of our Low Price Cooking Community.

Share This

At first it might sound like a crazy question, but what is Cooking? Or, to be more precise, when does warming up food become basic home cooking?

A trip to the supermarket. Rush home with your frozen, pre-prepared meal. Open the packet and toss the frozen meal into the microwave oven. Set to high and turn the dial to 3 minutes. Wait for the ping then open the microwave oven door. Let the bubbling, steaming meal stand for two minutes. Now you’re ready to sit down in front of your favourite TV show with your meal which is now too cool to burn off the outermost layers of your tongue.

Is that cooking? You had to use a cooking appliance. Control the time. Set the temperature. You had to know that the food should stand for two minutes after you took it out of the microwave oven. But you didn’t prepare any ingredients. You didn’t mix anything together. You didn't do anything to the food beyond changing its temperature. In short, you didn’t cook anything, so we can’t consider it to be even the most basic home cooking. Sorry.

Cooking requires knowlege of a host of techniques and skills. What’s the best way to peel a carrot? How do you blanche a vegetable? How do you know when a chicken is done? How do you braise a steak? Even making mashed potatoes needs a certain amount of cooking equipment and some knowledge of basic home cooking.

The point is, if your cooking skills extend only as far as using a microwave to warm-up pre-prepared food, then you don’t cook. And if you don’t cook, you’re missing out on one of the world’s most rewarding experiences - even if you can only manage the basics. And the most basic reward of basic home cooking? A healthy, varied diet.

Share This

There are two kinds of cast-iron cookware made — bare cast-iron and enamel cast iron cookware. People today prefer to use enamel cast iron cookware for Cooking and leave their bare cast-iron to age transform (eventually) into antique cast-iron cookware.

Enamel cast iron cookware doesn’t rust as easily as bare cast-iron cookware does, and is easier to clean. There are those who also believe that enamel cast iron cookware is healthier than bare-cast iron. Enamel cast iron cookware is basically bare-cast iron cookware with a protective glaze of vitreous enamel (also called porcelain enamel).

Many believe that enamel cast iron cookware can leech more iron into food than bare cast-iron cookware. Another main point about enamel cast iron cookware that you must always keep in mind is that it is about the most expensive cookware on the face of the planet. The process of making the enamel cookware is a lot more complicated than making many other kinds of cookware. Soap and water will ruin cast iron cookware, turning it incurably rusty.

Before you ever use your cast iron cookware, you need to be sure it’s correctly seasoned. If you receive cast iron cookware that is currently being used as cookware and has already been seasoned, then you can skip seasoning for now. It can’t hurt to at least be familiar with seasoning cast iron cookware.

At this stage, a little water is not going to harm the cast iron cookware. Another way to clean tough, stuck on food is to add a cup of water to the cast iron cookware, boil it for three minutes, dump the water (and, hopefully, the stuck on food), then let cool a bit and wipe with a thick cloth.

People love to collect stuff for the sake of collecting stuff we’ll never use, like antique cast-iron cookware. We might not know much about what a cast-iron cookware set in the past looked like if not for antique cast-iron cookware collectors. Antique cast-iron cookware is not just valuable – it’s also still useable, beautiful and tells more about our past than our grandparent’s stories often can.

A cast iron cookware set, properly taken care of, can not only be the last cookware set you would ever need, but your kids would ever need. But, if you’re going to plunk down that much money for Cooking utensils, whether it’s bare cast-iron or porcelain cast-iron cookware, you want to get your money’s worth.

Share This