01. Many recipes indicate “a pinch of vanillin”, “soda on the tip of a knife”... Remember that it is better to add too little soda or vanillin than to add too much, otherwise you will hopelessly ruin the cake.
02. Do not knead the shortbread dough for too long, otherwise it will become dense and tough.
03. You shouldn’t be too zealous with biscuit dough either: bake right away, otherwise air bubbles may evaporate from the biscuit, it will lose its taste and tenderness.
04. To check if the dough is baked, insert a pointed wooden stick into it. If it remains dry, the pie is ready and can be removed from the oven.
05. If you have to make dough with raisins, rinse it in hot water and then sprinkle with flour. Then the raisins will be distributed evenly in the dough.
06. To make the cabbage pie successful, try not to open the oven for the first 15 minutes while baking.
07. Noodles, pasta, and rice do not cook well in milk soup. This problem can be solved if you boil them in salted water before adding them to the soup. To prevent the milk from burning, cook the soup in a thick-bottomed saucepan over low heat.
08. Watch how experienced chefs stir the soup! Using slow circular motions, they achieve the correct thickness of the soup without destroying the cooked vegetables.
09. Never leave a bay leaf in the finished soup! It's great when cooked, but then it just ruins the taste. Add crushed garlic at the very end of cooking.
10. Before removing the soup from the heat, pour a little fresh juice from carrots, tomatoes, and cabbage into it. This won’t spoil it like porridge with butter, but it turns out delicious!
11. Do not cook vegetables for several hours, and do not pour more water into the pan than the recipe calls for. This will preserve the natural taste of the vegetables.
12. Over-salted soup can be made edible by adding a handful of boiled rice tied in cheesecloth into it: the rice will absorb all the excess salt.
13. To make the beans and peas cook faster, add a tablespoon of cold water every 5-10 minutes during the cooking process.
14. Preservation of vitamin C is facilitated by soaking peeled potatoes in salt water.
15. If potatoes are boiled over high heat, they will boil on the outside but remain raw on the inside.
16. Boiled potatoes will be especially tasty if you add a little citric acid to boiling water.
17. The water in which potatoes are boiled can be used to prepare first courses.
18. To prevent stewed cabbage from smelling like steamed cabbage, open the lid slightly for 10 minutes at the beginning of stewing.
19. Before putting sauerkraut in cabbage soup, simmer it separately with fat in a small amount of liquid. When cabbage is stewed for a long time, it loses its excessive pungency, acquires a pleasant aroma, and the lactic acid in it is not destroyed, which in cabbage soup delays the softening of both the cabbage itself and other vegetables.
20. If you want to add raw onions to the salad, finely chop them, put them in a colander and pour boiling water over them, they will lose their bitterness and will be much tastier.
21. If you grate the radish and rinse it several times with cold water, it will lose its pungent taste.
22. You need to know that prolonged heat treatment of pepper reduces its aromatic properties and gives the dish excessive bitterness, so add pepper shortly before the end of cooking.
23. Do not take too small or large vegetables, as well as cabbage with bright green upper leaves - this is a sign of nitrates!
24. Peeling and washing vegetables reduces their nitrate content by 10-20%
25. Of the root vegetables, beets have the ability to accumulate the greatest amount of nitrates
26. An egg will not crack during cooking if you place an inverted saucer on the bottom of the saucepan.
27. If you need to boil an egg with a cracked shell, brush the crack with lemon juice and heavily salt the water.
28. How to check whether an egg is fresh or not? Dip it in salt water (100 g. Salt per 1 liter of water). A fresh egg will sink, but a spoiled one will certainly float.
29. Make sure that not a single drop of yolk gets into the white you are about to beat. Otherwise, nothing will work out for you. You cannot beat egg whites in an enamel or aluminum bowl: a splinter can jump off the enamel and get into the whites, and aluminum turns the whites gray. It's best to use porcelain or earthenware, and be sure to chill the eggs on ice or in the refrigerator before scrambling.
30. Egg yolks stay fresh for a long time if you put them in a jar of cold water.
31. Fry scrambled eggs only over low heat. It is more beautiful, healthier and tastier if sprinkled with finely chopped onions.
32. An egg omelet will be especially tasty and fluffy if you dilute a piece of yeast in it.
33. If you let the already prepared pie stand for 15-20 minutes, it will rise and become more fluffy.
34. When kneading the dough, pour milk or water into the flour little by little, in a thin stream, stirring with a wooden spatula. The dough will be without lumps.
35. Never immediately remove a finished cake from the pan. Let it cool. With the exception of those pies that are served hot. However, if you leave the cake on the baking sheet too long, it becomes soggy and has an iron taste.
36. If the finished cake sticks to the sheet, hold the sheet over steam. And if it does not come out of the mold, wrap it in a wet towel for a few minutes or place it on a pan filled with cold water.
37. The pie will not burn if you sprinkle a layer of salt on the sheet under the dough pan. When you bake the cake on a sheet, add another sheet.
38. If the cake in the oven begins to burn on one corner, place a bowl of water under it.
39. To prevent milk from “running away” when boiling, grease the edges of the dish with fat.
40. Sour cottage cheese will lose its acid if you wrap it in gauze, folded 2-3 times, squeeze it into a ball, twist the ends of the gauze tightly, put it on a board, cover it with another board, and leave it under a light load for 2-3 hours.
41. To prevent cheese and feta cheese from crumbling, wrap the knife blade with a thin layer of parchment paper.
42. Porridge with milk will be tastier and healthier if you boil the cereal separately and boil the milk, and then combine it. This way the milk will not lose amino acids.
43. Due to the smell, cheeses at home should be stored in the refrigerator separately from other products (mainly soft and moldy) and not for long, since they not only overripe, but also dry out and become hard.
44. It is advisable to store block cheeses wrapped in a napkin soaked in edible vegetable oil or vinegar and squeezed out, or keep them in salt water.
45. Soft cheeses and cottage cheese are best stored in a closed saucepan or bowl with a lid.
46. ​​To prevent boiled meat from drying out, it should be covered with foil or parchment paper.
paper, but do not wrap it tightly, because without an influx of fresh air, food quickly deteriorates.
47. It is convenient to store raw meat in the freezer wrapped in plastic wrap, but not so much that the product “suffocates.”
48. Boiled beef or corned beef retains more nutrients if it is cooked in cold water.
49. Are you making cutlets and there are no eggs in the house? Don't rush to run to your neighbor. Use potato starch (for 250 g of minced meat - 1/2 tablespoon). The cutlets will be perfectly browned and fried and will be delicious.
50. There is a way to protect cabbage rolls from burning: place a lid of a smaller diameter with the ear facing up on the bottom of the pan, and cabbage leaves on it.
51. The smell of fish. To eliminate the unpleasant odor from fish, you need to boil old tea leaves in the frying pan in which it was fried.
52. Fish. If you need to boil fish that has a strong specific smell (cod, horse mackerel, catfish, flounder, etc.), put a large amount of roots, flour and spices into the water and add 100 g of cucumber brine or 50 g of flavored vinegar to 1 liter of water. Boil the broth for 10-15 minutes, then put the fish in it.
53. Fish without smell. If you add fresh milk to the water in which the fish is boiled, the strong smell will disappear and the fish will become tastier.
54. To improve the taste of poached flounder, pike, cod, it is recommended to add mayonnaise to the liquid and use the resulting broth to make sauce.
55. Fish is digested faster Fish is digested faster and lighter than meat, which creates the misconception that it is less nutritious. Meanwhile, fish is no less nutritious than meat, its fat is absorbed better than any other, its proteins are complete, and the fact that it is easier and faster to digest is its positive property.
56. Fried fish turns out delicious. Fried fish turns out delicious if you soak it in milk before frying, then roll it in flour and fry it in boiling vegetable oil.
57. For the preparation of most second courses, fish is used with skin, which helps maintain the shape of the pieces. In cases where the dish is prepared from skinny fish, it is better to serve it with such high-calorie sauces as Polish sauce, sour cream, etc.
58. Aluminum cookware. You cannot keep sour milk, salted fish, potato and tomato dishes in aluminum dishes for a long time. Do not hold hot salt solution or vinegar, as aluminum is destroyed by alkalis and acids.
59. To make glassware shine... To make glassware shiny, you need to wash it with water. To which salt or vinegar has been added, then rinse with clean warm water and wipe with a dry towel.
60. Stains on porcelain dishes. Stains on porcelain dishes can be easily removed by wiping them with warm water and a small amount of ammonia.
61. White dishes. To restore the whiteness of porcelain dishes, you need to wipe them with baking soda or salt and vinegar.
62. Glassware. Glass containers containing dairy products are first rinsed with cold water and then washed with hot water, since hot water causes drops of milk on the walls of the container to brew and turn into a sticky mass.
63. Before baking pancakes, thoroughly wipe the pan with salt.
64. A cake with walnuts will turn out much more tender if you add pureed apple to it.
65. To make a layer cake with fruit filling bake better, pierce the bottom layer of dough in several places.
66. Are you going to bake bread, and the dough has already risen, but the oven is not ready yet? To prevent the dough from rising further, cover it with well-moistened paper.
67. The dough should not only be tasty, but also beautiful. To accomplish this task, you can add mashed yolk to it. And if you add a pinch of saffron or ginger powder, the dough will become both beautiful and fragrant. By the way, in Central Asia they don’t bake butter pies at all without saffron.
68. Chicken meat will be even more flavorful if you lightly separate the skin and add a basil leaf. Instead of tomatoes, you can use sweet bell pepper pods. Before serving the dish, remove the pepper from the top membrane.
69. Before consumption, frozen fish should be thawed in cold water (2 liters of water per 1 kg of fish) and immediately begin cooking. Fillet and minced meat are thawed in the air. 70. Fish will taste better if you fry it in a mixture of sunflower and butter (in equal quantities).
71. Fish is cooked in a small amount of water, using primarily its own juice. In this case, the nutrients contained in it are more fully absorbed. The fish is ready if the remaining fins are easily removed.
72. Fish spoils quickly, and, in addition, the fishy smell is easily transferred to other products, so it should be stored in a tightly closed enamel container on ice (up to 2 days) or frozen. Salted fish can be stored at a temperature of 10-12 degrees Celsius. Dried fish is stored in a suspended state, preferably in bags made of some loose fabric. When stored in the basement, it is recommended to place barrels or other containers with salted fish in brine on bricks or wooden grates and sprinkle the floor in these places with sawdust, periodically replacing them with fresh ones.
73. Preparing eggplants: cut off the stem and wash. Old eggplants are scalded with boiling water and peeled. Cut into circles and slices. If you cut the eggplants into slices, add salt, let sit for 5 minutes, and then rinse in cold water, the bitterness will decrease; For the same purpose, you can keep the slices in salted water.
74. Potatoes, beets, and carrots boiled in their skins are easier to peel if, after boiling, they are slowly poured with cold water.
75. Vegetables acquire a delicate taste if you add a little butter to them before serving.
76. You should not fry raw cabbage. When fried, it becomes dry and tasteless, so it should be boiled first and then fried.
77. New potatoes are easy to peel if you briefly put them in hot water and then in cold water.
78. Wash parsley not in cold water, but in warm water - it will be more fragrant.

Culinary secrets

If you add a little sparkling water to mashed potatoes instead of milk, it will become fluffier and airier. And if you pre-brush fried chicken legs with a mixture of olive oil and mustard, they will taste more tender and piquant.

A little sugar added to the water while cooking green peas will help maintain their beautiful color.

Peeled potatoes should not be kept in water for a long time, otherwise sugar and nitrogen substances will be washed out of them, and vitamin C will be destroyed.

When boiling new potatoes and fresh vegetables, always place them in already boiling water.

To prevent blue spots from appearing on old potatoes when boiling them, add a little vinegar to the water.

If vegetables are cooked in salted water, about 70% of vitamins are lost, so it is better to salt the vegetables at the end of cooking.

Purchased fresh, quick-frozen vegetables, such as peas, beans, and a set of vegetables for borscht, should be immersed in boiling water without defrosting them - this will preserve not only all the nutritional and taste qualities of the vegetables, but also the vitamins they contain.

The vitamins found in fresh vegetables are very sensitive to temperature, so it is better to cook vegetables at a higher temperature for several minutes than for a long time at a moderate one.

Over-salted broth should not be corrected by adding water. In the event that you accidentally oversalt the soup, the situation can be corrected with a glass of cleanly sifted rice or good flour, which should be wrapped in a clean cloth and boiled a little in the oversalted broth. Rice and flour absorb salt.

Did you know that vegetables for soups should be peeled and cut in such a way that there is consistency between the shapes of the pieces of different vegetables? So for potato soup with cereals, the roots are cut into small cubes, but for soup with noodles - into strips.

Soft-boiled eggs are boiled for 3 minutes, eggs in a bag - 4 minutes, for moderately hard-boiled eggs it takes 5 minutes, and for very hard-boiled ones - 6. Hot boiled eggs need to be immersed in cold water - then they will peel easily.

To make the egg whites whip faster and not fall off for a long time, you need to add a pinch of fine salt or a little lemon juice to them.

Culinary secrets will help you cook jelly correctly. In order to preserve the taste and aroma of fresh berries when cooking jelly, you should not boil the juice squeezed from them. You only need to boil the squeezed berries with water. The juice should be poured into the prepared jelly removed from the heat. To prevent a film from forming on the surface of the jelly, you need to sprinkle it with granulated sugar immediately after cooking.

To get good tasty jam, it is very important to determine the cooking time correctly. The jam is considered ready if the foam collects in the center of the basin and does not spread to the edges, the berries do not float to the surface, but are distributed evenly in the syrup, and a drop of syrup does not spread on the saucer.

Porridges and milk soups will be healthier and tastier if you boil the milk and boil the cereal separately, and then combine it. In this case, the milk will not lose its beneficial amino acids.

Tough meat will become soft if you add a small amount of vinegar to the pan during cooking and stewing.

Meat broth will be more rich if you put the meat in the pan when the water is still cold. If the meat is served as a second course, then it should be placed in the pan when the water has already boiled. The broth turns out less rich, but the meat remains juicy and tasty.

The fish will be more juicy and tender if it is first soaked in milk and only then salt and pepper.

If the herring is salted, it needs to be soaked for at least 4 hours, if it is strongly salted - 8 hours. Hard herring is soaked in milk - it becomes softer, and in tea it becomes loose.

The liver will be very tasty if you soak it in milk for 2-3 hours before frying.

If coffee beans have lost their aroma from lying in a closed container for a long time, you need to put them in cold water for 10 minutes, then immediately dry them in the oven.

Culinary secrets They will also come in handy when thawing meat. Frozen meat must be thawed so that it loses as little meat juice as possible and its nutritional value does not decrease. This can be achieved if the meat is cooked frozen, cutting it into small pieces weighing about 50 grams. every. Such pieces cook quickly and well.

But to prepare second courses, the meat should be thawed. To do this, a piece of meat, previously washed with water, is left in a bowl or on a plate in a cool place if possible. Remember that the slower the meat thaws, the less valuable meat juice it will lose. Also, you should never thaw meat in cold water, much less in warm water, since such defrosting not only promotes the growth of microbes, but also spoils the product.

Did you know that the taste of fish depends on the season? For example, eel and salmon taste best from July to August, carp tastes best from September to April, trout from May to August, pike from February to April, and burbot in January. When cooking, frozen fish should definitely be placed in cold water, and so that fresh fish (especially pike) does not have a swampy taste, it is good to put 2-3 hot birch coals in the water.

If you don't close the sunflower oil tightly and add a pinch of salt, it won't go rancid.

To easily cut a hot cake, the knife should be dipped in hot water or held over the fire for a few seconds.

The chance of milk burning will be greatly reduced if you rinse the pan with cold water before pouring the milk into the pan. You can also add a piece of sugar for this purpose.

To prevent sour cream added to the sauce from shrinking, mix it in advance with a small amount of milk.

• If you are in doubt about the edibility of collected mushrooms, the following will help you: culinary secrets. If a silver spoon dipped into mushroom broth darkens, such mushrooms are inedible. Also, an onion placed in a bowl with boiling inedible mushrooms will turn black. You can sprinkle salt on the cut mushroom - if the mushroom is inedible, it will turn yellow.

• "To it is more economical to use fish, carefully scrape the pulp from the ridge using a regular tablespoon: this minced meat is useful for cutlets, meatballs, and dumplings. At the same time, you should not wash the beauty before frying or baking - unless scales have stuck to it. If you still can’t resist, thoroughly blot the surface with a paper napkin: the fish will splatter less when frying and will acquire a golden brown crust.”
  Andrey Rydzevsky, chief consultant of the Norwegian Fish Committee in Russia
• Healthier alternative to breadcrumbs– finely chopped nuts, such as almonds.
• Most dangerous item in your kitchen there is not a hot oven or a powerful meat grinder, but a dull knife. It’s especially easy to cut yourself like this - you apply more force, which means the injury can be more serious.
• Don't know how to approach the unfamiliar exotic fruit? As practice shows, not a single vegetable becomes worse if you sprinkle it with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in the oven at 200 ° C until soft.

The right frying pan

It is extremely important to choose the right frying pan, says Alexey Kanevsky, chef at the Ju-Ju restaurant. “If you look from a professional’s point of view, the best option is cast iron, he convinces. – Such a frying pan ideally distributes the temperature, and cold foods placed on it do not reduce the heat, and therefore immediately begin to fry. But cast iron is a very heavy material and quite capricious during storage - after each wash, the vessel will have to be treated with oil so that it does not rust.

The second suitable option for home use is a frying pan. stainless steel with a double bottom, which partly imitates cast iron in terms of thermal conductivity. Stainless steel is much lighter, it is easier to store, it heats up and cools down faster, but is not as durable - even good quality cookware becomes deformed after six months to a year of intensive use.

Here's a frying pan with non-stick coating- a questionable choice. It requires meticulous care and accuracy when cooking, but even this is not a guarantee that over time the protective layer will not begin to peel off and get into the food.”

How to properly store food

1. Tomatoes, eggplants, broccoli, leeks, grapes They store well in the refrigerator at a temperature of + 4–5 degrees, but they do not like to be in bags. And the common belief that they ripen at room temperature is nothing more than a myth: if you initially bought tasteless or green blueberries, their quality cannot be changed.
2. Avocado must be stored in a dark place at room temperature, wrapped in newspaper. Under such conditions, even a hard fruit will become soft and tasty in 4-5 days.
3. Fresh berries(raspberries, strawberries, blueberries) require space in the refrigerator. But the container in which they lie must be slightly open to prevent fogging and rapid rotting.
4. Vegetable oil, garlic, onion, whole pumpkin is best stored in a dry, dark room.
5. Cut up pumpkin Before putting it in the refrigerator, it must be tightly packed in film.
6. Bananas Under no circumstances should they be kept in the refrigerator - there they turn black. But at room temperature they hold up decently.
7. Cheese Both hard and soft varieties like to live in the refrigerator.
8. Apples prefer room temperature.
9. Meat must be kept in the refrigerator on a special drainage, which prevents the moisture released from the product from coming into contact with the piece itself. If the meat is vacuum packed, before cooking it must be removed and placed on drainage for two hours to “rest” before heat treatment. This way the dish will be tastier and juicier.

• Always carefully dry it salad greenery– then the oil filling will make friends with it faster.
• "We are used to meeting vanilla in desserts, but it can play a worthy role and in vegetable dishes. For example, if you add it to salad dressing. Take a vanilla pod, cut it lengthwise and use a knife to carefully remove the seeds. Grind it, mix with 2 tbsp. l. delicious olive oil, 1 tbsp. l. lemon juice and vanilla seeds. The sauce for a large bowl of any vegetable or leaf salad is ready.”
  Denis Nikiforov, chef of Romanov Bar
• "To reduce the amount of salt in your diet, try replacing it with lemon juice - sometimes it can work wonders.”
  Erin Scott, food blogger
• “Make a cut along the length of a whole fish or steak before baking or frying. It is necessary to touch not only the scales, but also partially the pulp. This technique will help maintain a beautiful appearance dishes - the fish will not crack, there will be no bent edges or tears. The seam, by the way, will then help determine the degree of readiness of the dish - if the meat easily separates from the bones, it’s time to serve.”
  Andrey Serdin, brand chef of fish houses “Filimonova and Yankel”

• « Before slicing soft cheese a knife with a thin blade must be moistened in hot water - this way the product will stick and crumble less.”
  Petr Tsyplakov, chef of the Botanika cafe

• "Japanese add salt to raw fish, believing that when interacting with glutamic acid, which is found in the flesh of marine inhabitants, a natural flavor enhancer is formed. It is better to use sea salt for this - it is saltier than table salt, which means less of it is required. Plus it contains many useful microelements.”
  Yuri Sorokin, chef of Yoko restaurant
• “Don’t you dare throw it away cheese rinds! You can throw them into a pan of boiling soup (no matter what kind), and at the end you can fish them out with a spoon - and an additional piquant aroma is provided to the brew.”
  Jenny Magrater, food blogger
• Just like food, drinks (from tea to cocktails) taste much more interesting when you add fresh herbs, fruit, smoked paprika or chili.
• "Prepare risotto- the whole thing is dreary, not like what it is. But you can make it easier on yourself and make a universal blank. You will need finely chopped onion, Carnarolli or Arborio rice and white wine.

  Fry the rice in olive oil for 2 minutes, then add the onion and stir; a little later, pour in the wine and let it evaporate. You can take almost any alcohol - from port to Madeira - just don’t choose too strong, it will ruin the taste of the rice. Then start adding any broth you have on hand, adding 100 g each time to the rice as soon as the previous portion is absorbed. Do this for about ten minutes until the rice is half cooked.

  Then transfer the cereal to a cold baking sheet (you can first keep it in the freezer for about 15 minutes) and put it in the refrigerator to stop the cooking process. When the rice has cooled, transfer it to a plastic container. This preparation will be stored in the refrigerator for two to three days.

  And once you want to treat yourself to risotto, all you have to do is fry additional ingredients (like chicken and mushrooms), add a little broth, cook the rice until cooked, and finally add a cube of butter, any fresh herbs, grated Parmesan and a spoonful of olive oil.”
  Anton Kovalkov, chef of the restaurant “Favorite Place 22.13”

What to buy?

Maria Kolosova, nutrition specialist at the Healthy Food cafe, knows exactly what equipment you need to cook for the benefit of your body.

How to cook delicious meat

To do this, you first need to choose the right one. Follow our visual chart.

Veal	Mutton	Pork
1. Fleshy edge of the diaphragm Fat content: about 8%. Advantages: rich in iron and protein. Need to know: This lean meat is also called the “butcher’s cut”, since he usually took the unsightly looking piece for himself - it was more difficult to sell such a part. Ideal portion: 200 g.	1. Neck fillet Fat content: 17%. Advantages: is not inferior to beef in protein content. Need to know: The neck is not suitable for grilling, but is ideal for minced meat and stewing. Ideal portion: 180 g	1. Filet Fat content: 4%. Advantages: is famous for its high level of vitamins B1 and B6, necessary for the absorption of proteins and carbohydrates. Need to know: Despite the low fat content, it is one of the most delicious parts of the pig. Ideal portion: 160–200 g.
2. Rump steak Fat content: 5%. Advantages: good for healthy skin, eyes and hair. Need to know: the meat of a grass-fed cow is not as fatty as that of a grain-fed cow. The history of the piece is usually indicated on the packaging. Ideal portion: 200 g.	2. Thigh Fat content: 9%. Advantages: high content of selenium and vitamin B12. Need to know: If you remove the bone from a piece of meat and spread it out in the shape of a butterfly, it will be better saturated with the marinade and fried evenly. Ideal portion: 180 g	2. Thigh steak Fat content: 4%. Advantages: source of vitamin B12, important for strong immunity. Need to know: By cleaning the meat well before processing, you can get rid of a quarter of the fat. Ideal portion: 175 g.
3. Chateaubriand Fat content: 7%. Advantages: Almost pure protein, fortified with iron and vitamin B. Need to know: This is a steak from the center portion of the thick end of a beef tenderloin, cut into small pieces. Ideal portion: 200 g.	3. Liver Fat content: 2,9%. Advantages: contains a lot of vitamins A, B and C. One serving will provide you with your daily requirement of iron. Need to know: If you have high cholesterol, stay away from the liver. Ideal portion: 150 g.	3. Sirloin chop Fat content: about 11%. Advantages: rich in vitamin B3, which normalizes the absorption of carbohydrates and also promotes proper digestion. Need to know: The fat content of this part of the carcass depends on the age of the pig. Ideal portion: 350 g.
4. Heart Fat content: 3,5%. Advantages: rich in elastin and collagen that your skin will love. Need to know: heart is a lean product. Ideal portion: 150 g.	4. Minced lamb Fat content: 20%. Advantages: a storehouse of vitamin B12, which is necessary for the formation of red blood cells. Need to know: during heat treatment it loses the lion's share of fat. Ideal portion: 200 g.	4. Spatula Fat content: 12%. Advantages: presence of vitamin B and zinc. Need to know: The spatula is universal - it will not let you down either in soup, or as a barbecue, or when stewing. Ideal portion: 180 g

» article about platinum cooking secrets. Where we will try to quickly, briefly and clearly go through some of the secret techniques of chefs around the world. And which you can use too :)

Platinum cooking secrets are the same as gold ones, only better :) By the way, articles with culinary tips have already been found on our website (for example, “Recipe tips” or “Salt - how to salt correctly”), so we will try not to repeat ourselves.

Culinary secrets about frying:

The chops will be softer if you brush them with a mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil 1-2 hours before frying. Do the same with grilled meat. Well, if you add ground seasonings to this oil... And not just “lubricate” it, but rub it in thoroughly, then the meat will be simply divine :)

To prepare delicious juicy cutlets, add equal parts of finely chopped raw and lightly fried onions and some raw potatoes to the minced meat.

During the first minute of frying the cutlets, the fire should be high so that the crust sets and does not allow the juice to leak out. But then you need to bring the heat to medium and, turning the cutlets, increase it again for half a minute.

The fish will not fall into pieces and will acquire a golden crust if you wipe it with a towel 10-15 minutes before frying and immediately add salt.

To eliminate the strong odor when frying fish, add 1 raw potato, peeled and cut into slices, into vegetable oil.

Butter does not darken during frying if the hot frying pan is first greased with vegetable oil.

To avoid oil splattering, lightly sprinkle the bottom of the pan with salt before you start frying.

Potato secrets:

Immediately stir the grated raw potatoes with a small amount of milk, otherwise they will turn blue.

Old potatoes will become tastier if you add a spoonful of vinegar, 2-3 cloves of garlic and a bay leaf when cooking, or boil them in broth. The older the potatoes, the more water they require.

It is better to beat mashed potatoes by hand. Whipped in a mixer becomes fluffy, but quickly loses its taste.

Instead of apples, you can put orange or tangerine slices in a sauerkraut salad.

Vegetable oil should be added to the salad only after the salad has been salted, vinegar and pepper have been added (salt does not dissolve in oil). -Salad with mayonnaise and vinaigrette will acquire a particularly pleasant taste if you briefly add a lemon peel to them before serving.

If you want the vinaigrette to acquire a subtle and pleasant taste, pour a tablespoon of milk into it and add a teaspoon of granulated sugar.

If you want to prevent the beans from darkening during cooking, cook them in an open pan.

Old chicken will cook faster if, after it has been boiled for 20-30 minutes, you immerse it in cold water for 5-6 minutes.

To prevent the meat from burning and becoming dry, place a vessel with water in the oven.

Secrets about baking and sweets:

The yeast dough will be soft and airy if you add cooled boiled potatoes, grated on a fine grater.

The dough will rise faster if you stick a few sticks of tubular pasta (or any other tubes) into it. Carbon dioxide is a waste product of yeast, and it can suppress them (just as our waste products suppress us 🙂) Therefore, removing carbon dioxide increases the vitality of the yeast, and, therefore, speeds up the rise of the dough.

To get a light and fluffy cream, when whipping with a whisk, you need to make figure eights and from time to time circles along the walls of the dish.

Products made from unleavened dough will be crumbly and airy if you add a spoonful of cognac to the dough.

To quickly cool a hot compote, you need to place the pan with it in another, large bowl, fill it with cold water and dissolve a little coarse salt in the water.

When preparing jelly, diluted starch should not be poured into the middle of the pan, but closer to its walls. Convective currents rise in the center, and then mixing will be faster and more efficient.

These are the useful and platinum secrets of cooking :)

Happy application!

A young girl asks: “I do everything like my mother, but the soup turns out tasteless. Why?" For a long time I myself could not cook my father’s famous borscht until I learned some secrets.

When cooking porridge, remember that:

- We always pour the cereal into boiling salted liquid, and not vice versa. Then cook over low heat. After the crumbly porridge has swollen and the porridge has thickened, we put it in the oven;

- We never cook porridge in enamel dishes. And the porridge burns, and the dishes spoil. We use aluminum pans to cook porridge. But the best utensils, in which you get tasty and aromatic porridge, are still a cast iron pot or a portioned clay pot;

- If the pan with porridge is burnt, it can be easily washed by pouring a small amount of water with shaved soap. Close the pan tightly with a lid and place on a stand over very low heat for one and a half to two hours;

- to improve the taste and make the porridge more crumbly, it is recommended to add butter or ghee to boiling water before adding it;

- After adding the cereal, stir the porridge if you want it to be viscous. Do not stir the porridge until it becomes crumbly;

- When stirring the porridge, you should not rush, you should do it slowly. Rapid stirring slows down cooking;

- the rice will turn out white and tasty if you add a little vinegar to the water;

- Rice porridge will taste better if you add egg whites beaten with a fork before eating;

- semolina porridge will be tender and without lumps if the cereal is washed in several waters;

- buckwheat porridge after cooking will be more crumbly if you loosen it with a large fork or spatula and put butter in it;

- To prevent crumbly pearl barley porridge from having an unpleasant blue color, the water must be drained immediately after boiling, then pour hot salted water over the cereal again and add oil;

- Pearl barley will cook faster if you soak it in cold water for two to three hours.

Problems with dairy products

1. The milk will not escape if the edges of the pan are greased.

2. To make the milk boil faster, you can add a little sugar to it.

3. If it turns out to be sour, mix it with an equal amount of milk and leave for an hour. Then place in a colander covered with gauze and let the milk drain.

4. To make the sour cream whip better, add a little raw egg white to it.

If you are preparing yeast dough, be aware, it will turn out soft and airy if you add boiled cooled potatoes, grated on a fine grater (2-3 medium potatoes per 1 kg of flour). In addition, products made from such dough do not go stale for a long time.

To minimize losses and preserve the dietary value of vegetables during heat treatment, you also need to know some little secrets:

- When cooking, almost all vegetables are best placed in boiling salted water and cooked at low simmer. There should not be a lot of water, it only covers the vegetables by 2-3 cm. Place the chopped vegetables in a high pan in a layer of 15-20 cm, add salt, add water to 1/3 of the height, cover with a lid and cook over low heat;

- Do not cook any vegetables (except unripe legumes) at a vigorous boil, otherwise they will boil on the outside and remain raw on the inside;

- beans and beans are soaked in cold water for several hours, taking into account that the water temperature should be 10-15 degrees, that is, slightly below room temperature. Soaking shortens the cooking time. Beans are not salted during cooking. Salt is added either at the very end of cooking, or the finished dish is salted;

- They say that to make the beans cook faster, you can add a teaspoon of soda to the water. But personally, I think that soda can ruin the taste of the beans;

- if you cook potatoes in their “jacket”, pierce the skin in several places - it will not crumble (in the spring, boiling potatoes in their “jacket” is not recommended. On the contrary, the skin should be removed thicker;

- they also say that it will not burst if you add a few drops of vinegar to the water;

- so that not a single potato falls apart, the water must be drained 15 minutes after boiling and the potatoes should be steamed;

- potatoes lose less vitamins if they are steamed;

- boiled potatoes will turn out much tastier if you add a little dill during cooking;

- to improve the taste of potatoes, you can put an onion, 2-3 cloves of garlic, bay leaf, cumin in the water;

- potatoes will cook faster if you add a spoonful of margarine to the water during cooking;

- You should not add soda to the pan where peas or beans are cooked, as some housewives do, supposedly to shorten the cooking time. Soda will spoil the taste of the dish, and will also have a bad effect on its nutritional properties;

- Do you want boiled beets to not lose their bright color? Try adding a teaspoon of sugar or a little vinegar to the water in which the beets are boiled, but skip the salt. Although vinegar will slightly increase the cooking time;

- before combining with other vegetables in a vinaigrette or salad, brush with vegetable oil. The dish will be more beautiful;

- It is best to stew cauliflower not in water, but in milk. Any vegetables stewed in milk are much tastier, but they must be served immediately. Once cooled, they lose their taste;

- when cooking cabbage, its unpleasant smell disappears if you put a piece of white bread in the pan or cover it with a piece of white cloth soaked in vinegar, and only then with a lid;

- if cabbage is stewed or boiled with vinegar, it will not be too soft;

- if you stew cabbage rolls, do not add a lot of liquid to the dish, otherwise the cabbage rolls will become watery and their taste will deteriorate;

- It is known that acid slows down the process of cooking and stewing vegetables. Therefore, add tomatoes, tomato juice or tomato paste only at the end of cooking;

- if you pour cold water over it and then salt the onions, they will sauté faster and will not cause much tearing;

- chopped onions will remain fresh if you put them on a saucer sprinkled with salt;

- to remove excess bitterness from the onion, you need to cut it into noodles and pour cold water or boiling water over it for a while;

- Zucchini and pumpkin are simmered without liquid; they are quite juicy on their own.

There are also certain rules for preserving vitamin C in foods:

Potatoes and other vegetables should be peeled with a stainless steel knife. It breaks down on contact with iron.

It is necessary to reduce the contact of products with air.

Do not store sauerkraut without brine.

Do not store cut vegetables in the open air.

Each time to cook vegetables, choose a pan in which there will be almost no free space, and be sure to cover it with a lid.

Zucchini and squash should be processed immediately. Even with short-term storage they lose their taste.

Zucchini should be used unripe, as ripe fruits are tough and not as tasty.

It is best to prepare pancakes from ripe zucchini by first grating the fruit.

Young zucchini intended for stuffing do not need to cut off the skin.

For caviar, it is first breaded in flour and fried.

It is better to bake eggplants for caviar in the oven and then remove the skin from them.

Secrets of frying potatoes

1. To make the potatoes fry faster, immerse them in hot water for a few minutes.

2. Before deep-frying potatoes, dry them with a towel, then you will get a dry, crispy crust.

3. When frying, pieces of raw potatoes will not stick together and stick to the pan if they are first rinsed with cold water and lightly dried.

4. When breading potato cutlets, make sure that the breading does not roll into the cutlets themselves. Otherwise, they will fall apart when frying.

When preparing meat and fish dishes, we also use the advice of experienced chefs.

- never start cooking meat until it is completely defrosted;

- For more even defrosting, turn large pieces of meat over from time to time;

- Do not add salt until the end of cooking, especially dense pieces. If you salt raw meat, its surface will become dehydrated and tough;

- boiled meat will be juicy if you put it in a large piece in boiling water, and then cook it over low heat with the broth barely boiling;

- tough meat will become softer if:
- break off the pieces,
- moisten with lemon juice, let it absorb, fry in a heated frying pan,
- coat all sides with mustard for several hours, and before cooking, rinse and lightly salt;

- if you coat the meat with soy sauce before baking in the microwave, it will turn out crusty;

- boiled chicken will taste better if, after removing it from the broth, you salt it and then put it in another pan, covering it with a lid or towel;

- if you are cooking old chicken, then before frying it needs to be simmered in milk or sour cream;

- Pork baked in the oven will be much juicier if you scald it with boiling water before cooking;

- If you add boiled and mashed potatoes to the minced meat instead of bread, as well as a little thick sour cream, and when cutting, put a piece of butter in the middle of each cutlet, the cutlets will turn out fluffy. They will be soft, fluffy and juicy;

- minced meat will be juicy if you knead it with very cold water and oil;

- It is better to fry the cutlets over low heat. The crust that forms during intense fire is a poor conductor of heat. As a result, the middle of the cutlets is poorly cooked and remains half-baked, which is extremely harmful to health;

- chops, schnitzels, and steaks will be soft and tender if you brush them with a whipped mixture of vinegar and vegetable oil 2 hours before frying;

- liver and kidneys turn out more tender and tasty if you put them in carrot juice for half an hour before frying;

- The fish also needs to be completely defrosted so that further cooking is even. Place the fish in a bowl and cover it with film;

- Let the thawed one stand for a while until it defrosts completely. Large pieces can be kept under cold water for final thawing;

- It is best to cook fish in a sealed container so that the moisture does not evaporate and less time is spent on cooking;

- To ensure even cooking, place large, thick pieces of fish around the edges;

- Always cook the fish last. It should not be reheated, as it quickly overcooks and loses its taste;

- You can always replace one type of fish indicated in recipes with another, and instead of fillets use, for example, fish sticks;

- We do not serve pasta as a side dish with fish. Potatoes or rice go best with fish. It is good to garnish fish dishes with lemon slices, tomatoes, and spices.

Now many of us use prepared dry spices, which is not a problem to buy. But you can make your own powder from dill seeds, which will replace fresh herbs in winter. Store it in a glass jar and add it to borscht, soups, salads, dumplings and so on.

And every good cook will always be happy with a bouquet. But not simple, but "bouquet garni". This bouquet was invented by French chefs. There are large and small “bouquet garni”. These are bouquets that have become popular all over the world.

The small bouquet garni includes parsley, bay leaf, thyme and celery. And in addition to the above, the large bouquet includes chervil, tarragon (tarragon), basil, savory, marjoram and rosemary. The “bouquet garni” is lowered into the pan shortly before the end of cooking, then removed from it.

Some other time we will talk about aromatic plants, how to prepare various bouquets of seasonings from them, how to store and use them.

What to do if fresh greens have lost their original appearance and have withered?

It's OK. Withered greens can be placed in cold water with vinegar, after a while they will “come to life”.

And green salad, radishes, green onions can be kept fresh if the vegetables are peeled, washed, dried a little with a towel, then put in newspaper and a plastic bag. Store, of course, in the refrigerator.

Parsley and celery will not change color if you add them to the soup before removing it from the heat.

Now that you have armed yourself with new knowledge of the great culinary art or restored in your memory a familiar but slightly forgotten one, it’s time to start preparing various dishes and delight yourself and your loved ones with them.

Even if you have a personal chef, or you yourself are a cooking guru, this does not relieve you of the responsibility to learn and learn the following secrets.

1. To prevent vegetable oil from splashing in all directions, add a little salt to the bottom of the pan.

2. The scrambled eggs will be fluffy if you add 2 tablespoons of cold water to 1 cup of eggs and beat them thoroughly.

3. Add diluted potato starch to the dough and it will be fluffy and soft. Even the next day.

4. Usually beets are cooked for 3-3.5 hours. But experienced cooks deal with this differently: after 30 minutes of cooking, they remove the pan with the beets, drain the boiling water, and place the vegetable under running water as cool as possible. The temperature difference makes the beets ready for consumption within 15 minutes.

5. Instead of yeast, you can add cognac to the dough. This way it will be more aromatic and the baked goods will taste better.

6. The egg white will form a fluffy foam faster if you cool it first and add a couple of drops of lemon juice or citric acid. The yolk, on the contrary, loves heat and sugar.

7. To fry or bake meat with a golden crust, you need to spread it with honey before doing so.

8. The liver will be soft if you sprinkle it with sugar before cooking.

9. To prevent eggs from bursting during boiling, rinse them in cold water before doing so.

10. To make carrots tastier, cook them for only 5-10 minutes over medium heat. Closer to the finish line, don’t forget to add salt.

11. To ensure that the rice is rice and not rice porridge, soak it in cold water for 30 minutes before cooking.

12. To prevent the rice from overcooking, you can fry it a little. But keep in mind: in the latter case it can increase significantly in volume.

13. To prevent milk or milk porridge from trying to escape, place a wooden spoon on top of the pan.

14. Dry greens will come to life if you put them in water slightly diluted with vinegar.

15. To make vegetables tasty, you should immerse them in already boiling water. If the taste of the broth is a priority, then put the product in the pan from the very start.

16. To prevent the potatoes from sticking and to have less starch, rinse them in cold water and dry them before frying.

17. You can easily turn sour cream into mayonnaise if you add the mashed yolk of a hard-boiled egg and a teaspoon of mustard.

18. To prevent the fish from burning, grease it with vegetable oil, not the frying pan.

19. To make a regular vegetable salad more piquant, add a little vanilla to it.

20. To prevent hard-boiled eggs from falling apart when slicing, wet the knife in cold water.

Look what else besides a knife should be in your kitchen: