Once again the June/July Cook’s Illustrated provides a great tip - this time about storing foods in your refrigerator. While you may expect your refrigerator to be a consistent temperature throughout, there are actually three “microclimates.”

Cold - The back of the refrigerator on the middle and top levels is the coldest area. If [...]

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Just two weeks after I wrote this post on egg proteins, Cook’s Illustrated answered a letter about salting scrambled eggs. The reader wrote in asking if salting the eggs before cooking will make them watery. Cook’s Illustrated tested this and found that eggs salted before cooking created a more tender product, while eggs [...]

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Here is an interesting tip on making your vegetables last as long as possible: keep produce in its original packaging. Often, vegetables are sold in bags that preserve their freshness the longest, such as greens being packaged in bags that allow ethylene, a gas that causes ripening, to escape. Other vegetables as you [...]

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I got this tip from the July and August 2008 Cook’s Illustrated and found it interesting. When garlic is chopped, the compound allicin forms. Alliin reacts with allinase to produce allicin as a defense mechanism against insects and fungi. Unfortunately, allicin quickly breaks down after it forms, usually in 1-6 days. [...]

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This kitchen tip comes from the July and August Cook’s Illustrated. The test kitchen examined whether removing the seeds and jelly from a tomato, as many recipes call for, has any effect on the final flavor of the food.
The conclusion? The recipe with the seeds and jelly was significantly more flavorful. Apparently [...]

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Here is a quick kitchen tip as a follow up to my post on cookware materials: know your pots and pans. Since I’ve started cooking, I’ve realized that heat recommendations in recipes (medium-high, low, simmer, etc.) don’t mean much. With a variety of cookware materials available and everyone owning a different stove, it [...]

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