Chef Adam Trachtenberg's Tips of the Day
- Baking Powder — Out of baking powder for your recipe? Make it yourself!
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate)
- 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
- Mix together "use immediately", yields 1 tablespoon of Baking Powder.
- Store Baking Powder — Add a level teaspoon of corn starch to every 1 oz of Baking Powder to absorb moisture from the air. This will prevent the baking powder from reacting before you need to use it. "Must store baking powder in an air tight container."
- Baking Powder Testing for Quality — Put 1 teaspoon Baking Powder in a bowl of hot water, if it bubbles, it’s good and potent. If there are no bubbles, it’s bad and through it away.
- Egg Quality Test — Submerge raw eggs in cold water if they stay on the bottom, they are still good. If the eggs float to the top they have air pockets inside the shell and are old.
- Egg Quality Test 2 — Crack an egg on a flat plate, if it spreads out and the yolk is flat or low, they are old and do not use. If the yolk is high and rounded and the white does not spread out, they are good and fresh.
- Stop Crying While Slicing or Peeling Onions — Place whole onions with the skins on in the freezer for about 15 minutes. (Do not freeze!) Or peel onions under cold running water. Which could be tricky, but works.
- Buttermilk — Need Buttermilk? But don’t have it? Make it yourself!
- ¼ cup whole milk
- ¾ cup plain yogurt
- Yields 1 cup
- Souring Milk — To extend the shelf life of milk that is on it's way out. Mix 2 teaspoons of baking soda to every quart of milk, mix well. This will extend the life for about 2 days. It can be used for cooking or baking, not drinking.
- Meat Cutting — Always cut meat against the grain. On Corned Beef, Pastrami and many large roasts the grain changes as you cut them. You must turn the meat as you cut, so that you do not cut with the grain. If you cut with the grain of the meat it will be stringy and hard to chew the meat. Remember you can take a great quality cut of meat and destroy it just by the way you slice it.
- Most Important Lesson in Cooking — Always use the best and freshest ingredients you can get. Water is the main ingredient in all cooking weather it is in a baking products, sauces, soups or boiling pasta, etc. Use filtered or bottled water, always! The minerals and other deposits are concentrated and made stronger in taste as they reduce. Calcium, Lime, Magnesium and Iron are all commonly found minerals in city tap water.
