Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
Kitchen.

Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the ability
to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to call
for Pizza delivery.

As example:

Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)

You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve it
like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to do. -
Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.

Your potatoes are starting to sprout - poke them with a fork and cook them
on the nuker then refrigerate and you can use them for home fries.

What do you have in your bag of tricks ?


--
Old Scoundrel

(AKA Dimitri)

"Dimitri" schrieb :
> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the Kitchen.
>
> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the ability to
> correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to call for
> Pizza delivery.
>
> As example:
>
> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)
>
Depends on the dish.
Scrambled eggs - throw away.
No amount of anything would help.

> You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve it
> like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to do. -
> Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.
>
Pour it through a sieve.
Reduce the liquid. Mix again.

> Your potatoes are starting to sprout - poke them with a fork and cook them on
> the nuker then refrigerate and you can use them for home fries.
>
Cook them, peel them (cutting out the "eyes") and make potato salad.

> What do you have in your bag of tricks ?
>
If your tomato-based pasta sauce lacks the certain "kick",
heat a sauce pan. Pour in red wine vinegar and add a generous pinch
of sugar. Reduce until it's nearly just a crust. Deglace with a little red wine
and mix with the sauce.

Cheers,

Michael Kuettner

Dimitri wrote:
>
> Your potatoes are starting to sprout - poke them with a fork and cook
> them on the nuker then refrigerate and you can use them for home fries.

Bad idea. Sprouted potatoes go into the garbage
around here. Potatoes are cheap. Not worth the
risk of solanine poisoning.

By the way, solanine is not green. Cutting the
green parts out of a potato does not protect
against solanine poisoning. If there's any
green, I assume the whole potato is unwholesome
and throw it out. If you routinely encounter
green potatoes, you need to review your food
handling procedures.

And to those idiots on America's Test Kitchen
who recommended putting green potatoes in the dark
to reverse the greening, I've never heard of that
before. Even if it did reverse the greening,
I would not trust that the solanine would be gone.
I'm willing to bet their lives on it, but not mine.

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
...
> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
> Kitchen.
>
> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the ability
> to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to
> call for Pizza delivery.
>
> As example:
>
> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)
>

It doesn't. Or if it does it is so little you cannot tell.

> You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve
> it like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to
> do. - Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.

Or simply cook it down.

> Your potatoes are starting to sprout - poke them with a fork and cook them
> on the nuker then refrigerate and you can use them for home fries.

Yeah, they are still edible.

> What do you have in your bag of tricks ?

Sour milk makes for great pancakes, no need to throw it away.

Paul

Paul M. Cook wrote:

>
> "Dimitri" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
>> Kitchen.
>>
>> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the ability
>> to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to
>> call for Pizza delivery.
>>
>> As example:
>>
>> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)
>>
>
> It doesn't. Or if it does it is so little you cannot tell.

You have x amount of stuff, and it't too salty. Or spicy. Or whatever.
You add a potato to it. Now you have x plus one potato of stuff. Seems
like having more stuff with only the original amount of salt or spice or
whatever would give you a less salty or spicy taste. Or else the concept
of dilution is not reality based.


--
Blinky
Is your ISP dropping Usenet?
Need a new feed?
http://blinkynet.net/comp/newfeed.html

"Blinky the Shark" > wrote in message
news
> Paul M. Cook wrote:
>
>>
>> "Dimitri" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
>>> Kitchen.
>>>
>>> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the
>>> ability
>>> to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to
>>> call for Pizza delivery.
>>>
>>> As example:
>>>
>>> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)
>>>
>>
>> It doesn't. Or if it does it is so little you cannot tell.
>
> You have x amount of stuff, and it't too salty. Or spicy. Or whatever.
> You add a potato to it. Now you have x plus one potato of stuff. Seems
> like having more stuff with only the original amount of salt or spice or
> whatever would give you a less salty or spicy taste. Or else the concept
> of dilution is not reality based.


The idea is the potato absorbs the salt and then you discard the potato. I
tried it, it didn't work.

Paul

Paul M. Cook wrote:

>
> "Blinky the Shark" > wrote in message
> news
>> Paul M. Cook wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> "Dimitri" > wrote in message
>>> ...
>>>> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
>>>> Kitchen.
>>>>
>>>> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the
>>>> ability
>>>> to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to
>>>> call for Pizza delivery.
>>>>
>>>> As example:
>>>>
>>>> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)
>>>>
>>>
>>> It doesn't. Or if it does it is so little you cannot tell.
>>
>> You have x amount of stuff, and it't too salty. Or spicy. Or whatever.
>> You add a potato to it. Now you have x plus one potato of stuff. Seems
>> like having more stuff with only the original amount of salt or spice or
>> whatever would give you a less salty or spicy taste. Or else the concept
>> of dilution is not reality based.
>
>
> The idea is the potato absorbs the salt and then you discard the potato. I
> tried it, it didn't work.

Ah! Not stated; that's quite different than "add a potato". I thought it
was a matter of increasing the volume. Thanks.


--
Blinky
Is your ISP dropping Usenet?
Need a new feed?
http://blinkynet.net/comp/newfeed.html

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
...
> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
> Kitchen.
>
> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the ability
> to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to
> call for Pizza delivery.
>
> As example:
>
> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)

I had a pot of pinto beans cooking and salted to taste. Thanks to new
medication my taste was apparently rather flawed as my husband explained
when he tried it. I peeled two potatoes cut them into one inch or so chunks
and tossed them in. It did decrease the salt and the kidlets now think that
I have to put potatoes in pinto beans every time I cook them.

Anyway, this one worked for me

>
> You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve
> it like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to
> do. - Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.

I was always taught to use tomato paste to thicken tomato based pasta sauce.
I may be wrong.

>
> Your potatoes are starting to sprout - poke them with a fork and cook them
> on the nuker then refrigerate and you can use them for home fries.

We just cut around the eyes and use as normal. Since my grandfather had an
apple house where lots of vegetable and fruits were stored, we made it
almost all of the winter on the fall crop of potatoes. They were stored in a
cool, insulated environment. Apples lasted a long time too.

>
> What do you have in your bag of tricks ?
>
>

A pinch of sugar in pasta sauce is supposed to cut the acid. It works for
us.

The latest substitution we made was when DD made cookies they came out
really crumbly but the flavor was good. Our brainstorm was to crumb up the
cookies and use like graham cracker crumbs in a pie crust. We got them to a
pretty small crumb. We did have to use a little extra butter than my
standard recipe and we didn't add any extra sugar. A refrigerator cheesecake
went in next and popped into the fridge. The pie crust came out quite well.
The cookies were chocolate chip and she had the idea to drizzle chocolate
and caramel syrup over the top and then sprinkle on finely chopped nuts so
it was like a turtle pie. I had a bite. The kids inhaled it.

Toast that comes out too dry becomes bread crumbs as one member of our
family leans toward overdoing the toast.

C



> --
> Old Scoundrel
>
> (AKA Dimitri)
>
>
>
>

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
...

> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
> Kitchen.

<snip>
>
> What do you have in your bag of tricks ?
>
When baking a cake that's to be decorated, bake ahead and freeze the layers
while still a little warm. Fully wrap them in plastic wrap when frozen but
don't wait so long that they can dry out. When ready to frost, use a bread
knife to even the layers, then frost while still a little frozen. This
always (for me at least) results in a cake that is moist and level.

On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 14:38:16 -0700, "Dimitri" >
wrote:

>You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve it
>like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to do. -
>Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.

No bread crumbs for me. I remove the solids and boil down the liquid
to the density I want.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
...
> Cheating - I prefer to call it "tricks of the trade' or Tricks in the
> Kitchen.
>
> Ok you've goofed and made a little error - flexible cooking is the ability
> to correct your mistakes before they become a big error and you have to
> call for Pizza delivery.
>
> As example:
>
> Too much salt - they say to add a potato. (I don't think it works)

It does, somewhat...but it takes more than one potato.
Really, I think the only way to correct oversalting is adding more volume.

>
> You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve
> it like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to
> do. - Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.

Or, if you have the time, just simmer until it reduces. Works with any
sauce, too. Also, for pasta sauce, adding some parmesan cheese helps as
well.

> Your potatoes are starting to sprout - poke them with a fork and cook them
> on the nuker then refrigerate and you can use them for home fries.

Around here, potatoes that sprout would go into the ground! But since I
became diabetic, we don't have potatoes around our house much.

>
> What do you have in your bag of tricks ?

> Old Scoundrel
>
> (AKA Dimitri)

If you add too much spice, a bit of dairy can go a long way...cream or sour
cream, depending on the recipe. Of course, that doesn't work for every dish!
Another one that works good for salsa when your chiles are hotter than you
expected is adding lime and extra cilantro to cut the heat.

A tiny bit of a slurry or roux will prevent cream sauces from
breaking/curdling. If it's already broken, reduce a bit of cream and whisk
into the sauce.

And this is just a tip, not necessarily a fix:
Freeze tea in an ice cube tray in the summer...keeps your iced tea nice and
cold without diluting the flavor. You can do the same with lemonade and
coffee. Another good one is to puree strawberries or raspberries with a
sprinkle of sugar and freeze in the tray to add to lemonade. Delicious!

kimberly

"Nexis" > wrote in
news
>> You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you
>> serve it like that you'll have red water separating from the meat.
>> What to do. - Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.
>
> Or, if you have the time, just simmer until it reduces. Works with any
> sauce, too. Also, for pasta sauce, adding some parmesan cheese helps
> as well.
>

When my pasta sauce is thinnish I add instant mashed potatoes.

--

The house of the burning beet-Alan

In article >,
"Nexis" > wrote:

> "Dimitri" > wrote in message

> > You've misjudged the amount of liquid in your pasta sauce. If you serve
> > it like that you'll have red water separating from the meat. What to
> > do. - Simple thicken the sauce with some bread crumbs.
>
> Or, if you have the time, just simmer until it reduces. Works with any
> sauce, too.

I used to reduce my pasta sauce on purpose. It didn't take long to
figure out that it was unpleasantly salty, to my taste. Now I usually
use tomato paste to thicken. All the brands I've bought have no added
salt. I also sometimes use crushed tomatoes, which also have no added
salt for the ones I've bought. Thickening canned tomatoes and/or canned
tomato sauce by reducing just gives me too much salt, unless you can
find low salt versions.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA

On Wed, 2 Jul 2008 02:06:20 -0700, "Nexis" > fired up
random neurons and synapses to opine:

>It does, somewhat...but it takes more than one potato.
>Really, I think the only way to correct oversalting is adding more volume.

<snip>

I tend to under-season, as to salt and pepper, on the theory that you
can always add seasoning, but you can't take it out. Reducing volume
seems to work well with tomato based sauces, where you just dump in
more tomato sauce after the reduction, and some chicken and beef broth
based sauces, where you can add more broth. Trying to reduce a cream
sauce, for instance, doesn't bear experimenting with, AFAICS.

There are times when it's best to just bite the bullet, dump the sauce
and start over. Damn, I've done that more times than I care to recall.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
--
"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "meatloaf" with "cox"