Our cooking school has some great tips and techniques in the art of cooking and aim to help you achieve a high level of good housekeeping so browse at your leisure…
Boiling an egg in order to achieve the desired constitution, whether it be soft or hard boiled can be a difficult task, especially if you want it to have a runny yoke without running the risk of contracting salmonella. The following cooking tips aim to help you boil the perfect egg.
The following cooking school instructions are based on eggs placed in cold water, which is then brought to the boil. The times listed are for how long the eggs will have to cook for after the water has been brought to the boil. So start those stopwatches once boiling point has been reached
Extra large eggs – 17 min
Peeling hard boiled eggs
When you need to peel a boiled egg, cover them in cold water, this will cool down the shell. It is best to crack and peel them under cold running water as this will loosen the egg white from the shell. It is always best to start peeling from the thicker end first, as gaps usually form between the egg white and the shell, here.
Stopping meat from curling
This is a handy cooking schools tip. Have you ever cooked gammon or pork and found the edges can start curl up? Well if you have, read on. To reduce the chances of this happening then make light score marks along the length of the meat with a sharp knife. Not only will this stop your meat from curling it will also help to tenderize, as well as make it easier to absorb any rubs.
Stopping pasta from sticking
There are three main cooking school techniques to stop this from happening. Firstly, make sure you use plenty of water; this will give your pasta more room to float about. Secondly, don’t over cook it, this can make your pasta more rubbery making it stick together easier, it will also cause more of the water to evaporate than is necessary. Finally, if you are going to leave the pasta in the water after boiling, it’ll still be cooking so add cold water to it to stop it from happening.
Stopping spaghetti and pasta from spilling over
A good cooking school tip here is to add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil to the water before it starts to boil. This will add a pretty flexible film to the surface of the water, making it less likely to spill over
Stopping spaghetti from sticking
Making fluffy roast potatoes
To make perfect fluffy roast potatoes then you’ll need to par boil them and pop them into a colander and give them a good shake, this will fluff them up. The best oil to cook them in is goose fat, this makes for a deliciously crisp roasters.
Pour the oil into a baking pan and heat it, then place the potatoes into the heated oil and pop it in a preheated oven of 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).and allow to cook for roughly 60 minutes, turning them once. Hey presto!! You should have perfect roast potatoes.
Cutting onion
We’ve all been there, cutting up onion and are eyes start to sting and run, then we rub our eyes to make it better, only to make them worse. Well, a good cooking tip to stop this from happening is to store them in the fridge beforehand, as this will make the vapour which is released less affective.
A good cooking school tip is when you go to cut them up give them a quick wash under cold water, then chop both ends off the onion and begin to cut. You should find that all the tears will have disappeared.
Pealing and cutting garlic
To make it easier to peel a clove of garlic, cut the stumpy end of it and give it a slice with a knife. It should then peel as easy as a banana.
If you want stop the garlic from getting stuck to the knife, rub it with salt, you should that it shall no longer stick.
Microwaving cooked bacon or sausages
Have you ever made bacon and found you have made too much, and then worry about the problems of microwaving it i.e. the bacon going hard and rubbery? Well, this is your lucky day. A good cooking tip, to stop this from happening is to add a little bit of water to the plate in which the bacon or sausages are lying on. This trick will stop the food from drying out, which is the prime cause to the rubbery affect.
Stop dough from sticking to hands and surfaces
To stop the dough from sticking to your hands when you are kneading it, which we all know is a nightmare. Pour flour over them. This will also work if you want to stop it from sticking to rolling boards and work surfaces. If after a while, it starts to stick again just add some more flour to your hands and work surfaces.
Thanks for checking out our OPH Good Housekeeping cooking school, we are adding tips and techniques all the time so why not click on to check them out?
In the meantime why don’t you check out our cookware cooking utensils glossary or our recipes?
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Home
| Food | Dish | Wine Suggestions |
| Beef | Rare or Thickly Sliced | Full Bodied Red |
| Medium - Well Done or Thinly Sliced | Italian Reds - Chianti |
| Braised | Cote du Rhone or Argentinian Malbec |
| Cheese | Hard or Mild | Reds |
| Goats Milk | Sauvignon Blanc |
| Cheese Board | Dry or Sweet White |
| | Stilton | Port |
| Chicken | Plain or Simple | Medium Bodied Red or White - Burgundy, Chardonnay or Pinot Noir |
| Duck | Plain | Pinot Noir |
| CasserolesFull Bodied Reds |
| Eggs | Benedict or Omelette | Sparkling White or Champagne |
|
| With Bacon | Claret | |
| Fish | Grilled | Dry White - Chablis or Sauvignon Blanc |
| Mixed Butter & Potatoes (Fishcakes) | Chardonnay |
| Tuna | Light Red - Pinot Noir |
| Salmon Served Lightly | Chardonnay |
| Shellfish | General | Crisp Dry White - Muscadet or Chablis |
| Crab or Scallops | Reisling |
| Grilled Prawns or Lobster | Chardonnay or Champagne |
| Smoked | Salmon Seared | Pinot Noir |
| Served Cold | Reisling |
| Served Hot | Dry White - Pinoc Blanc or Soave |
| Lamb | Plain | Rioja |
| Moussaka | Full Bodied - Southern French or Spanish Red |
| Marinated | Dry White - Sauvignon Blanc |
| Pasta | Light Recipes | Italian Pinot Grigio |
| Lasagne | Fruity Red |
| Pork | Served Hot | Italian Reds - Chianti |
| Served Cold | Dry White - Reislings |
| Risotto | | Italian Dry White |
| Stews | General | Medium - Full Bodied Red - Southern French or Spanish |
| French or Fish Based | Crisp Dry White or Dry Rose |
| Wine Based | Same wine As In The Stew |
| Vegetarian | General | Vegetarian Wine |
| Veg Bakes or Lasagne | Medium - Full Bodied Red |
