Cooking Clues

If A Dish Is Too Salty
• For soup and stew, add raw, cut potatoes. Discard once they have cooked and absorbed the salt.
• Add a teaspoon each of cider vinegar and sugar.
• Add sugar.

If A Dish Is Too Sweet
• Add salt.
• For a main dish of vegetables, add a teaspoon of cider vinegar.

Wilted Vegetables

• Douse quickly in hot water and then in ice water to which you’ve added a little apple cider vinegar.
• If fresh vegetables are wilted or blemished, pick off brown edges. Sprinkle with cool water, wrap in towel and refrigerate for an hour or so.
• Perk up soggy lettuce by placing in a bowl of lemon juice and cold water. Let soak for an hour in the refrigerator.
• Lettuce and celery will crisp up fast if you place it in a pan of cold water and add a few slices of raw potatoes.

Baked Potatoes In A Hurry
• Boil them in salted water for about 10 minutes, before popping into a very hot oven.
• Cut a thin slice from each end before popping into the oven.
• Insert a clean nail, to shorten the baking time by 15 minutes.

Chopping Onions Without Tears
• You’ll shed fewer tears if you cut off the root end of the onion last.
• Freeze or refrigerate onion before chopping.
• Peel under cold running water.
• Periodically rinse hands under cold water while chopping.

Ripening Ideas
• Instead of using a fruit-ripening bowl, place green fruit in a perforated plastic bag. The holes allow air movement, while the bag retains the odorless ethylene gas which fruits produce to promote ripening.
• Exposure to direct sunlight softens tomatoes instead of ripening them. Leave the tomatoes, stem-up, in any spot where they are out of direct sunlight.
• Ripen green bananas or green tomatoes by wrapping them in a wet dishtowel and placing them in a paper sack.
• Bury avocados in a bowl of flour.

Removing Excess Fat
• If time allows, the best method is refrigeration until the fat floats to the top, hardens, and can be removed.
• Eliminate fat from soup and stew by dropping ice cubes into the pot. As you stir, the fat will cling to the cubes. Discard the cubes before they melt. Or, wrap ice cubes in a piece of cheesecloth or paper towel and skim over the top.
• Lettuce leaves absorb fat also. Place a few into the pot and watch the fat cling to them; then discard.
• Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the fat in which you are going to deep fry. It will keep the food from absorbing too much fat and eliminate the greasy taste.

Eliminating Splattering And Sticking
When pan-frying or sautéing, always heat your pan before adding butter or oil. Even eggs will not stick with this method.

Non-Smoke Broiling
Add a cup of water to the bottom portion of the broiling pan before sliding into the oven. The water absorbs smoke and grease.

Preventing Boil-Overs
Add a lump of butter or a few teaspoons of cooking oil to the boiling water. Rice, noodles, or spaghetti will not boil over or stick together.

Cleaning A Grater
• For a fast and simple clean-up, rub salad oil on the grater before using.
• Use a clean toothbrush to brush the food out of the grater before washing it.

These helpful cooking hints were taken from Mary Ellen’s Best of Helpful Hints, published by Warner Books, Inc., by arrangement with B. Lansky Books.