You probably have several recipes in your home. You may have compiled old recipe cards from grandma, cut out free recipes from corn flake packages, bought a thick recipe book from the bookstore, or clipped recipes from a food magazine. All these recipes show promise of sumptuous meals.
As you go through the recipe, you may infer that it is quite simple, and you can prepare the dish with no problem at all. In reality, however, people experience frustration when they realise all too late that they messed up the recipe. Let’s enumerate just some of the problems: wrong measurements, too much salt or pepper, too little water, meat burned to a crisp, soggy vegetables, no alternative ingredient—well, you get the idea.
Make your dish perfect, save yourself from frustration, and don’t waste your hard-earned money by using these tricks:
Secrets to a Perfectly Made Recipe
* Ask any professional chef about the secret of a perfect recipe, and they would say that it all lies on the quality of the ingredients. Make sure that your ingredients should be of superior quality. For instance, fruits should be brought in season. Fish should smell of the sea without a hint of stink, and its scales should still firmly attached to the skin. Poultry and cattle meat should have a neutral smell. Vegetables must be crisp and show no blemishes.
* Do not attempt a recipe without reading it several times. Go through the recipe at least twice so that you’ll truly understand and visualise the process.
* Prepare your ingredients (with exact measurements) as stated in the recipe. If the recipe calls for half a cup of minced onions, for instance, have your onions minced and placed in a measuring cup. Doing so cuts your preparation time and ensures that you have the right ingredients at the right measurements at the right time.
* Have the right equipment and tools at hand. For instance, if the recipe calls for a wok, then use a wok. Do not substitute an iron pot for it. Remember that the two cooking vessels are made for different purposes, and they conduct and distribute heat very differently from each other.
* Many recipes, especially those that involve baking, involve exact temperatures and cooking times. Accurately monitor the temperature and cooking time by having a cooking thermometer nearby and hanging a clock on the wall, respectively.
* Keep your utensils clean. Dirty utensils not only taint the food but the bits of food left in them can taint your recipe’s taste.
* A world about salt: it is better to add too little than too much. It’s more difficult to rectify a recipe that has become salty and unpalatable due to the addition of too much salt. Also remember that salt is supposed to enhance the flavour of food, thus, add salt while the dish is cooking. If you add it after or at the last stage of cooking, your dish will be left with one impression: salty.
Cook away those well-loved recipes to perfection with these tips.