10 cooking secrets

10 Fish Recipes
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Thank you for visiting 10 cooking secrets. We hope you like our suggestions. We think they will make your cooking a lot easier. Please scroll down to learn more.

This all started with my making suggestions to a young bride. I was trying to make her cooking struggles a little easier. These are all simple suggestions you will not find in any book. I am going to keep this short because I believe in KISS.*

Chef's tip #1: There is a membrane called "fascia" that holds the muscles together in all animals, including human ones. It can be very tough and unpleasant if it happens to get between your teeth. Therefore, it is particularly important to remove the fascia before cooking wild game roasts.

Chef's tip #2: Always marinate wild game in buttermilk of yogurt. They have an enzyme that tenderizes and cleans the taste of Wild Game. Then, wash the meat thoroughly and cook or remarinate the meat in your favorite seasonings.

Chef's tip #3: If you are dealing with an old buck or a tough piece of meat, add some meat tenderizer to the Buttermilk

Chef's tip #4: Do not "cook" wild game as you would farm raised animals such as beef or lamb. Wild animals are athletes and many, like deer do not eat grass or corn. They eat tree buds, particularly evergreens so the meat is tough. It is best just warm the meat or else you must cook it to death.

Salt
Basically, you want to add enough salt to raise the salt content of your food to the salt level of your body. Also, if you put in too much sugar, you can counteract the slip by adding salt.

Sugar is an enormous taste enhancer. You want to add enough sugar to enhance the taste but not so much as to make the food taste sweet.

Accent (MSG)

Accent makes your mouth water so you always want to add it to soups, chowders and stews.

Alcohol

Alcohol is very volatile so it wafts the flavors in an intensified form to you nose.

Explanation

This is why you see salt, sugar (in some form) and MSG (Accent) in almost everyprepared food on a Supermarket shelf.

An Example #1: Enhancing a Squash
Cook an acorn squash, take out the seeds and add a tbsp. of cordial (or rum with a 1/4 tsp. sugar) to the center. You will be amazed. The salt and sugar enhance the taste, the alcohol wafts delicious smells to you nose.

Example #2: Make a quick Easy Wine Sauce
Keep a bottle of inexpensive port or sherry wine by you stove. When you pan fry hamburger, lamb chops, steak, etc., deglaze (scrape up) the pan with port wine and pour it over the meat. This gives you a great meat/wine sauce. You can buy cooking port by the gallon at your local liquor store

Problems - Dos and Don'ts

Problem Dos and Don'ts

Question: How can I tell when the taste is right?

Answer:The only way you can tell when the Taste Enhancers are in the right combination is by tasting them yourself. That is why you see so many pictures of chefs bending over pots, tasting, tasting, tasting.

Question How can I tell how tough the meat is?

Answer: This is easy, bite it.

Question: How Can I Best Tenderize Tough Meat?

Answer: Marinate it overnight in buttermilk or yogurt and meat tenderizer. Buttermilk and yogurt both have enzymes that tenderize meat. They also clean the taste. Stab a fork into the meat to encourage absorption. Be sure to thoroughly wash off the residue and do not ad salt. The commercial meat tenderizers are already full of salt.

Question: Too much Salt or Sugar?

Answer: Salt and sugar will balance each other to some extent. So, if you put in too much salt, add sugar. If you put in too much sugar, add salt. And you can always add water, milk or stock to dilute the sauce.

But first WAIT, because salt and sugar are most intense when you first add them (They are only in the sauce). Wait a bit and they will probably be absorbed into the meat, beans or vegetables and the salty/sweet taste you are concerned about will disappear. The same holds true for Accent.

Question: Too much Accent?

Again wait. Then try adding more sugar. If that does not work, dilute the sauce. DON'T add more salt.

Question: How important are: Sea Salt, Kosher Salt, Raw Sugar, Fresh Ground Pepper, etc.

Forget them. Salt is salt. Sugar is sugar. Pepper is pepper, etc.

A Few Tips about Flavors

Herbs

Seasonings loose their flavor as they age so use good quality seasonings. Herbs also release their flavors slowly when cooking so do not expect an immediate effect.

Minced Garlic

Don't bother mincing garlic. Use garlic powder instead.

Fresh Parsley Flakes (or any kind of parsley flakes)

Use parsley flakes as a decoration. Forget it for flavor. All the flavor in parsley is in the stems, not the leaves.

Gravy

If you make a pot roast, a beef knuckle, a lambshank, etc. where you put in vegetables for flavor, take out the meat and then blend the stock with the vegetables on high. This makes a delicious gravy that uses the vegetables as a natural thickener instead of flour. P.S. It is also easier.

Make it Easy on Yourself

There are great commercial pkg.d sauces available. For example, use red clam sauce to cook fish. Use spaghetti sauce instead of plain tomato sauce to flavor meat loaf. Use pkgs. white sauce instead of making your own. Use shrimp soup with a couple of cooked shrimp thrown in to create a fish dish.

Final Word
Keep tasting and adjusting. When it is so good that you can't stop tasting it is ready to serve.

First, here are my Tips for Cooking Wild game

Chef's tip #3: If you are dealing with an old buck or a tough piece of meat, add some meat tenderizer to the Buttermilk

Directions fo Making White Sauce

Make a white sauce according to pkg. Directions or follow the recipe below.

Put chicken in a serving dish, add sauce and decorate with paprika or pieces of canned apricots, plums or peaches as you desire.

*Recipe for white sauce (Bechamel)

Melt 5 tbsp. butter in a double boiler. Add 5 tbsp. Flour. Stir together into a roux.

Slowly add 2 cups of milk stirring continually. Add salt and pepper to taste and
1/2 tsp. Garlic powder and 1 tsp. Onion powder

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