Cooking Hints and Tips
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Meat |  |
To roast beef roasts: Place beef roast, straight from the refrigerator, fat side up (if present) on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Rub with herbs or season, if desired. Insert meat thermometer so the tip is centered in the roast but does not touch bone or fat. Always roast without a cover or the addition of liquid; otherwise the meat will be braised. Remove the roast from the oven when the thermometer registers 10 degrees F. lower than desired, the roast will continue to cook as it stands. Allowing the roast to "stand" for 15 to 20 minutes after roasting makes carving easier.
TO ROAST LAMB: Place lamb, fat-side up, on rack in open roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer so bulb is centered in roast and not touching bone or fat. Do not add water. Do not cover. Roast in slow oven (300°F to 325°F) to desired degree of doneness. Season with salt and pepper if desired.
TO ROAST VEAL: Place roast (straight from refrigerator), fat-side up, on rack in open shallow roasting pan. Season before or after cooking. Insert meat thermometer into thickest part of roast, not touching bone or fat. Do not add water. Do not cover. Roast in a slow oven (300 to 325°F) until meat thermometer registers 5 degrees below desired doneness. (Oven does not have to be preheated.) Allow roast to stand for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Temperature will rise about 5° and roast will be easier to serve.
When buying meat for flavor select the one with fat on. The fat melts during cooking and adds that great taste. This will make it possible to cook without any additional oil. At the grocery store, look for meat cuts that have the most lean meat for the money. Be sure when you buy less expensive cuts you are not paying for large amounts of gristle, fat and bone. Sprinkle a bit of salt in the frying pan before adding meat. It will cut down on the amount of grease splattering. To help lower a recipe's fat content, place cooked, ground meat in a colander and rinse with hot water after draining off the excess fat. Rub both sides of a burger with water before grilling. It will make the burger juicier. Grilling burgers can be simple-if we remember the key: consistency. By making patties all about the same size and thickness, they should all be cooked through at the same time. They should be ready for turning at the same time, so we can flip right across the grill like a pro. When preparing uniform burgers, we have options. We can always use pre-made burgers from the supermarket. Or we can make perfect patties ourselves with a handy and reasonably priced hamburger press. You can find these in most supermarkets and housewares stores. Don't do it!!!! Do not press on thick burgers with a spatula while they cook. It really doesn't make the burgers cook any faster and it actually squeezes out flavorful juices. Get adventurous with your burgers. Beat boring burgers by mixing your ground meats with taco seasoning, shredded cheeses, chopped veggies, salad dressings, salsa or practically any seasoning. For making meatloaf instead of using bread crumbs use crushed saltine crackers instead. Make individual meatloaf servings by baking your meatloaf in foil lined muffin tins. Meatloaf won't stick to the pan if you put a slice of uncooked bacon beneath the loaf before baking. To keep hands clean, try using a potato masher next time you are mixing a meatloaf. Always use a 1 gallon Ziplock bag to mix all meatloaf ingredients. This accomplishes several things, hands stay clean and bacteria free, You can see that everything is well mixed, no meat falls out to contaminate the counter area, and you can easily shape the loaf in the bag then dump it in the pan and pat it with the inside out bag over your hands. Meatloaf is truly mess free, no bowl to clean either! To save time when making meatloaf, use bottled marinara sauce instead of tomato sauce or ketchup — the herbs and spices are built right in so everything goes together faster. Blend mint jelly with cream cheese and use as a bread spread for cold sliced roast lamb. Raw or cooked meatballs can be frozen on a cookie sheet then transferred to a container, sealed, and put back in the freezer. This way they stay separate, and you can use as many as you want at any one time. Love meatballs but hate standing over a hot stove to fry them? Put them on a cooling rack on a baking sheet and place them in the oven. They'll stay round, and you don't have babysit them. Thaw meat or fish in the refrigerator, not at room temperature. Never leave raw or cooked fish or meat at room temperature for more than two hours. Ever find a whole, dressed, frozen fish that's too good a price to pass up, but is too big for either your freezer or the number of people you're serving, and the store can't cut it for you? Just clean up your hacksaw and install a new CLEANED (very important -- you *have* to get the machine oil off!!!) blade and use it to saw through the carass at the appropriate spot(s). Add a tablespoon to water when boiling ribs or meat for stews, and even the toughest meat will be so tender you can cut with fork or will fall off the bone. Pour cooled broth from meat or poultry into a glass jar with a secure lid and refrigerate upside down. The fat will harden and remain in the bottom of the jar when you pour out the liquid for use in your recipes. Place a few pieces of dry bread in the broiler pan when broiling meats to soak up dripping fat. This can eliminate smoking fat as well as reduce the chance that the fat will catch fire. Flouring sausage patties on both sides before cooking gives them a crunchy crust and helps keep them from splattering. Browning meat in oil or melted fat develops flavor, seals in juices and improves the appearance of the finished dish. Whatever glaze you choose, add a little honey to give baked hams a lustrous golden color. When cooking steak, add pepper BEFORE cooking and salt AFTER. Makes steak juicier and more tender. Insert a meat thermometer into the center of the thickest portion of the meat. The thermometer should not touch any fat or bone or the bottom of the pan. Roast meat or poultry at 325F degrees or above. Lower temperatures used when cooking meats can encourage bacterial growth before cooking is complete. Having trouble with grease spattering all over the oven while roasting meats? Sprinkle one or two tablespoons of flour in the bottom of the pan, and the spattering will lessen. Also a few celery leaves scattered in the bottom of a roasting pan will do wonders! Cooked to a doneness of 150 to 160F degrees, pork is still light pink in the center. Not only is it safe to eat at that doneness, it's tender and juicy. The most tender pork chops are those with pink rather than red meat. Chops with red meat are from older, tougher animals. Filet mignon comes from the small end of the tenderloin. It is very tender and thus more expensive than other cuts of beef. Flank steak is a boneless, lean, fibrous cut from the lower hindquarters of a steer. To make the meat seem more tender, cut it very thin across the grain. For juicy spareribs, it is best to precook them to get rid of some of the fat. You can simmer them in water or bake on a rack in the oven. If you poke a hole in the middle of hamburger patties when shaping them the burgers will cook faster and the holes will disappear during the cooking process. Here's a less messy, easier way to cook bacon for a crowd. Lay the bacon on rimmed baking sheets and bake at 350° F for 10 to 12 minutes, turning slices over halfway through cooking. Thick-sliced bacon will take about 18 minutes. When frying bacon in the pan sprinkle a little granulated sugar on it so it doesn't curl up. When preparing sauces and marinades for red meats, don't use a lot of oil. Fat from the meat will render out while you cook it and provide plenty of flavor. Certain meats, like ribs, pot roast, sausage etc., can be parboiled before grilling to reduce the fat content. Marinating is a cinch when you use a plastic re-sealable bag. The meat stays in the marinade making it easy to turn and rearrange. Cleanup? Toss the bag -- and remember, do NOT save the marinade unless you put it in a saucepan and bring to a hard boil. Tomatoes added to roasts help tenderize the meat naturally. Tomatoes contain an acid that works to break down meats. Use tongs or a flat utensil to turn meat during cooking. A fork will puncture the seared crust, releasing the meat's juices and leaving it dry. Wine corks contain tannin. Drop one into a pot of stew to tenderize the meat. Meat may slice more thinly when it is partially frozen. When frying meat, try sprinkling paprika over it, and it will turn golden brown. Thaw all meats in the refrigerator for maximum safety. Add chopped apple to ground meat for an unusual flavor. Ground walnuts also may be added. To extend the quantity of ground meat, add ground raw potatoes to it. For pot roasts or crockpot cooking, go for chuck, arm, or round roasts. They lend themselves well to "wet" cooking methods where liquid or steam is involved. Long, slow, lower temperature cooking is the key here. Check out this web site for tips on buying beef. Roast diced onions, carrots, and celery in the pan right along with meat or poultry. With the vegetables cooked down and flavored with the meat juices, you've the base for a wonderful gravy. Rumps, sirloins, eye of round roasts (leaner cuts) tend to be nice for oven roasting. A good way to cook them "just right" is to heat your oven as hot as you can get it (425-450F), put the roast in an uncovered pan, and cook it for about 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 300°F for the remainder of the cooking time. The high heat sears the outside of the meat and seals in the juices. Take the roast out of the oven when the inside temperature is 10 to 15 degrees below the target temp, cover it, and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. Then slice the meat thinly across the grain for a tender, medium-rare roast. Standing Rib Roast 1 standing rib roast, 4 ribs Place beef, rib side down, on rack in shallow roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer so tip is in center of roast. Bake at 325F. to desired degree of doneness. The roast will continue to cook internally after removing from oven. Remove from oven when thermometer reads: Rare - remove at 120F. (15-17 minutes per pound) Med. Rare - remove at 140F (17-20 minutes per pound) Medium - remove at 150F. (20-25 minutes per pound) Cover with foil and let roast stand 20 minutes before carving. How to Bake a Ham: Read package label instructions. Check whether ham is partially or fully cooked. This information determines cooking time. A partially cooked ham must be baked to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. A fully cooked ham can be baked to an internal temperature of 140 to 150 degrees. Score before baking, if ham has a covering of fat. If the ham does not have a fat covering, do not score it. Baste it as it cooks and glaze it during the final 30 minutes of baking. Bake ham uncovered on a rack in a foil-lined pan in the oven at 325 degrees unless recipe indicates otherwise. Turn the ham at least once as it bakes, so that the brine in the meat doesn't sink to the bottom and makes the bottom quarter of the ham too salty tasting. Let ham stand for at least 15 minutes after it has been removed from oven. Cover with aluminum foil while the ham sits to keep it warm. Then slice the meat. Refrigerate leftover ham. Wrapped leftover cooked ham will keep in the refrigerator for three days. If you don't plan to use it within three days, it can be kept in the freezer for up to two months. Braising is a cooking method where meat or vegetables are first browned in a little fat, then slowly cooked in a tightly covered pot with a little liquid over low heat for a long period of time. This method of cooking is great for tough cuts of meat since the long slow cooking tenderizes the meat by breaking down the sinewy connective tissues without breaking down the muscle fibers while adding flavor at the same time. Here's how it works. Muscle fibers consist mainly of water. When muscle fibers are heated, they contract and squeeze out the water causing shrinking and drying out. Connective tissues consist mainly of collagen and when heated also contract and squeeze out water. However, when the collagen in the connective tissues reach a certain temperature it melts into a rich flavorful gelatin. The dry muscle fibers then absorb this flavorful gelatinous liquid and braising is complete. Braising can be done on top of your stove or in the oven. Make sure to use a tight fitting lid on your pot to prevent the liquids from evaporating. Roasting: In the beginning, roasting was done on a turning spit over an open fire and the juices ran over the surface of the meat basting it continuously. Nowadays most roasting takes place in the oven and offers a fast method of cooking tender portions of meat, poultry, and fish. You want to start with an oven that's preheated at a high temperature to seal the meat thus preventing a loss of juices while at the same time caramelizing the surface. After 10- 20 minutes, lower the temperature and continue roasting until done. Some meats will require basting to keep from drying out while some cuts of meat like pork are fatty enough and will require no basting. Sometimes it is necessary to bard (tie pieces of fat to the surface of) what you are cooking to help with basting. Birds should be cooked breast down to start and then finished on the other side to allow the juices and fat to flow into the breast meat. Make sure you have a roasting pan that is the correct size for what you are cooking. Too big and the food may burn, too small and your roast may stick to the sides of the pan. Too shallow and your oven will be a mess, too deep your food will steam, not roast. And be sure to retain the wonderful, incredible pan juices by deglazing the roasting pan for gravies and sauces, an extra dividend to the roasting method. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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