Cooking Techniques

Many quick-fix dishes, such as ramen noodles and freeze-dried pasta, come in Styrofoam containers that require you to cook them in the microwave. Because Styrofoam melts easily when exposed to...

Grilling and baking meats and vegetables in foil pouches is a way to make preparation and cleanup easier. Cooking in foil pouches locks in savory flavors during the cooking process. You can use...

Infrared cooking refers to cooking food with invisible light energy. When light waves hit the food, the molecules shake violently and begin to heat up.

While your local supermarket only sells basic food coloring sets, you can easily make any color you need by mixing the colors together. Gray food coloring is impossible to find at the grocery...

Purple food coloring is a great color to have on hand in the spring. The color looks bright and cheery on Easter eggs, in frosting or as a decorative touch in mashed potatoes or cream sauces....

The convenience of a gas grill over charcoal is readily apparent. With gas, there is no need to struggle with lighting coals---simply turn the grill on and you're ready to cook almost instantly....

Storing food in large buckets is a simple and economical method of food preservation. When done properly, bucket storage allows dry goods to maintain a shelf life of 5 to 10 years. Buckets provide...

Let's face it, 95% of us are no Sara Moulton or Emeril Lagasse, but it would be nice to learn a thing or two. There are plenty of routes you can take to becoming a master chef, or at least a...

Convection ovens circulate hot air through the cooking chamber, decreasing the baking time required. Most recipes specify cooking times for conventional ovens; using a convection oven means you...

With a little shaking and the help of a marble, it is easy to make fresh butter at home in empty baby food jars. This simple homemade butter recipe is so much fun you'll want to get the rest of...

It is very important to keep food fresh. Food in the refrigerator can spoil and food in the freezer can get freezer burn, which ruins the food. Vacuum sealing the food is the best way to keep it...

Food coloring can add a fun, festive visual element to many dishes, but it's best suited for liquids and pastes where the coloring can be mixed in, rather than solid food items. Pasta, however,...

Food carvings are a great food presentation method to make ordinary food items seem extraordinary. Food carvings are usually made from fruits or vegetables; perhaps a potato or radish carved into...

Planning menus is very confusing at times for you. You might not even be in a position to plan the menu for the night’s dinner if you are not prepared. However there is no need to look for divine...

Hot boxes, also known as hay boxes, may be the ultimate low-tech slow-cooker. An insulated cardboard box traps heat and uses it to finish cooking your food. You start the food cooking, stick it...

An electric rotisserie is a counter-top cooking appliance that allows you to roast poultry, chicken, fish or vegetables quickly and evenly. The rotisserie turns food so that all areas are evenly...

Food preservatives counteract the natural processes that cause food to age and spoil. Salt is a natural preservative used since at least the days of ancient Egypt. Acidic substances such as...

Freeze drying is a popular way to preserve fruits and vegetables. It is also easy to do at home with just a few simple tools.

Barbecuing food properly on a gas barbecue is a matter of attention to detail and patience. Slow and low is the way to go for that fall-apart smoky flavor of delicious barbecued meats.

A food slicer is an integral part of food preparation. Not only will it slice meats and cheeses to a variety of thicknesses, it can also be used to quickly slice onions, cucumbers, potatoes and...

Chopping is a general term for cutting food into pieces. The term chopping, when used alone, does not imply any particular size or shape for the pieces. When you know how to use a knife to chop...

Learning how to cook low-cholesterol meals is an important skill when you need to prepare food for yourself or someone who struggles with high cholesterol. Even if you do not have high...

Indoor electric grills come in several styles and sizes. Built-in grills heat up quickly and get hotter than countertop models. Higher-power models are desirable because they are capable of higher...

Julienne is a classic, but time consuming, knife technique in which food is cut into short, 1/8-inch square pieces that resemble matchsticks. Vegetables are most commonly julienned, but some...

Cooking baby food in jars is a possible solution to preserving homemade baby food; however, cooking many types of foods in jars carries the risk of botulinum contamination (botulism). Only fruits...

Broiling is a form of cooking in which high heat above the food cooks the food. In many ways, it is like upside down grilling and is a good way to cook fragile foods such as fish or many dishes...

Microwave dinners take 8 to 10 minutes to prepare. Grilling a fresh steak takes about the same amount of time as preparing a frozen meal. This is a recipe that will walk you through the process...

Steaming food with a Chinese-style bamboo steamer is a great way to make delicious, low fat recipes in your wok. Commonly steamed foods include dumplings like wontons, vegetables, or fish parcels....

There are times in the middle of winter or during a summer rainstorm that a person gets a craving for something cooked on the grill. Indoor grills can solve this problem, but food does have a...

Barbecuing with charcoal is a great outdoor cooking method for slow-cooked, flavorful food. The process is different from charcoal grilling, where food is cooked on a rack that sits directly over...

It was once possible to only smoke food during grilling if you used a smoking tank. With attachable smoking boxes, you can smoke food on almost any size grill. Wood smoker chips are popular among...

Many people love the taste and textures of dried fruits, vegetables and meats. Dehydration is a great way to extend the shelf life to enjoy a seasonal food year-round.

Gas grills are one of the most convenient ways to cook outdoors. With knobs to turn grills on or off and a quick source of heat, gas grills are both faster and more environmentally friendly than...

Stove-top grills are usually ridged griddles designed to cover one or two burners on the stove. They allow the chef to prepared grilled entrees indoors, as the ridges in the pan lift the food from...

A Traeger grill uses wood pellets to heat food and gives you another option for your outdoor cooking besides charcoal or gas grills. In the winter, cold air affects the cooking time of your food,...

Using a cooking or meat thermometer measures the internal temperature of meats and egg dishes. It's not only necessary to check the temperature in order to destroy harmful bacteria in your food,...

Foods begin to mold within 24 hours of preparation, causing spoilage that leads to wasted groceries and leftovers. Vitamin C is an antioxidant and antimicrobial, prolonging the freshness of...

While nonstick, or Teflon, pans seem to make cooking easier, these types of pans are not as durable in the long run as their cast-iron or stainless-steel cousins. The nonstick coating that is used...

Cedar-plank cooking has its roots in the Pacific Northwest, where natives cooked the fish they caught on damp cedar planks as a matter of need and convenience--and found that they enhanced the...

Grilling food on cedar planks is a tradition that dates to the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest, who placed fish and vegetables on wood to cook over an open fire. This technique imbues...

Freeze dried food offers minimal preparation and cleanup, making it an attractive choice for camping trip meals. Lightweight and precooked, freeze dried food is reconstituted with hot water and...

Food costs for a large family may be the number-one expense your family faces every month. Keeping these costs under control and your family fed well may be your number-one priority. In order to...

Humans have used wood fire cooking for thousands of years. In fact, up until about a hundred years ago, wood was the main fuel used for cooking. Now, charcoal and propane grills are much more...

Many people are shying away from commercial food dyes in favor of more natural alternatives. It's simple to make homemade food coloring in your own kitchen from vibrantly colored foods and spices....

French cooking is all about taste and presentation. Through many unique preparation techniques, the French start from scratch and build a meal that not only tastes good but has style and...

Catering any type of meal at a private home takes a little experience and forethought. As a Professional Chef for many years I have had the opportunity to Cater at many Private Homes.

The nutritional value of food cooked in a microwave oven is highly debated in some quarters. The manufacture of microwave ovens has been regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since...

Grilling and smoking are two very different cooking techniques. Although there are a number of products that can both grill and smoke, traditional smokers differ in a number of ways from...

Solar cooking is a method of cooking that simply requires a solar oven and a sunny day. This ecologically-friendly cooking style provides a hassle-free way to cook almost any food without heating...

When camping or backpacking, you can't afford to carry too much food or too many cooking utensils. But you still need to eat while you're out enjoying nature. You can do a lot better for camping...