Butter

• Clarified Butter - butter which has been slowly heated up in order to separate the white milk solids (which burn at high heat) from the butter fat. The milk solids (which sink to the bottom of the pan) are discarded and the pure butter fat (clarified butter) which remains is saved for frying and sauteeing. CLARIFYING BUTTER IS NOT A METHOD USED TO LOWER THE FAT CONTENT OF BUTTER. Chefs clarify butter because it has a higher smoking point and they can fry or saute in it without its burning. If lower fat content is what you are after, use non-stick skillets which require less fat, use vegetable oil, which is unsaturated, and use the vegetable oil in minimum quantities.
• Do not leave butter or margarine at room temperature for lengths of time. All butter, whether salted or sweet can go rancid. You can tell when this happens because it tastes rancid and often smells rancid as well.

Cake Decorating

• The trick to decoration icing is to have it as smooth and consistent as possible.
• Filling a Pastry Bag - Push the lining bag into a drinking glass and fold the side over the edge of the glass, this will hold it open. Using an icing spatula, fill the bag a little more than halfway. Remove from the glass and insert it into the pastry bag with a shake.
• The trick to filling a pastry bag is to ensure there are no air bubbles left in the icing.
• Practice piping decorations on a sheet of wax paper first. You can always reuse the icing.
• To Pipe the Perfect Daisy - One of the simplest flowers to pipe is the daisy. Hold the bag and cone vertically, so its tip lightly touches the surface. Steadily squeeze the pastry bag to form each petal. Slowly release the applied pressure and delicately lift the tip. Squeeze gently again to form the center of the daisy.

Cheese

• Any hint of ammonia in Brie cheese means the cheese is overaged. Try buying the cheeses from a store where you know there is a high turnover. Supermarkets are fine for fresh cheeses such as ricotta or cottage cheese because the stock sells rapidly. However, for ripened cheeses like Brie try shopping at a cheese or specialty gourmet store whose staff is knowledgeable about selecting and caring for cheese. When buying good cheeses, don't buy them precut. Make sure the store cuts the portion you want from a whole wheel of cheese.
• When baking, don't substitute jumbo eggs for large eggs. The proportion of liquid to solids, fat and other ingredients is key to the outcome of the recipe. Twelve jumbo eggs weighs 30 ounces whereas 12 large eggs weighs only 21 ounces. You can understand that if you were to add 6 jumbo eggs for example instead of 6 large ones, you would throw off the ratio and proportion of ingredients and more likely than not, your recipe would not come out. If you are making scrambled, fried or poached eggs, you can use different sized eggs interchangeably.

Chicken / Turkey

• Stewing chickens need a moist cooking method to make them more tender. Braising, simmering, and pressure cooking are 3 good methods to use.
• After thawing, rinse your bird (turkey, chicken, etc) inside and out with cold water. Drain and pat dry.
• People interested in more information on safe food handling can call the USDA Meat and poultry Hotline at 1-800-535-4555, weekdays from 10-4 p.m., E.T.

Chocolate

• When your chocolate turns white - Unfortunately your chocolate "bloomed". What happens to chocolate after it is melted is that unless it is brought back down to exactly 92 degrees when the cocoa butter and chocolate liquor form a perfect homogeneous emulsion. When it rehardens, the cocoa butter separates out from the chocolate liquor and that whitening and bloom occur. After you melt your chocolate use a spatula to keep on working it back and form until it begins to cool. If you don't have a chocolate thermometer, then take a dab of the and if it feels at room temperature, not hot nor cool, it is mostly likely at the right temperature. Sometimes too refrigerating the chocolate causes it to bloom. The only bright side is that this discoloration does not have any effect on the flavor of the chocolate.

COOKIE TECHNIQUES & TIPS

The Following Tips Will Help You Bake Perfect Cookies:

• Before beating the butter and sugar, make sure you start with softened (room temperature) butter.
• Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl; it isn’t necessary to sift them unless the recipe directs you to do so.
• When you’re ready to bake, always start out with cool baking sheets. Don’t grease sheets unless the recipe tells you to do so.
• Always preheat your oven before baking coolies. For best results, bake one sheet of cookies at a time, placing the baking sheet in the center of the oven.
• After baking, transfer cookies to a rack to cool. Arrange them in a single layer, never stacked or overlapped; this lets air circulate around the hot cookies, allowing steam to evaporate and preventing cookies from becoming soggy.
• Let cookies cool completely before moving them.
• When beating the butter and sugar together, ensure it is thoroughly combined and to incorporate in air. Beat until the batter is light and fluffy.
• When chopping ingredients, such as nuts, use a large knife. Steady the blade tip with one hand, grasp the knife’s handle with the other and lift the knife heel in an up-and-down movement.
• When selecting margarine, select one that is not a spread, diet or soft-style margarine product. If you choose margarine that’s 100 percent corn oil, your dough will be softer than dough made from other margarine’s. For sliced or shaped cookie dough, you’ll need to chill the dough in the freezer instead of the refrigerator. For cutout cookie dough, refrigerate the dough at least 5 hours before rolling it out.
• Storing Cookies: to preserve the just-baked freshness of cookies, choose tightly covered containers or plastic bags. Either choice will prevent humidity from softening crisp cookies and air from drying out soft cookies. Be sure to store crisp and soft cookies separately. Most cookies can be stored successfully for up to three days at room temperature.
• To freeze cookies, tightly package cookies in freezer bags or airtight containers and store for up to 12 months. Before serving, thaw for at least 15 minutes.

Eggs & Egg Beaters

• Egg Beaters is a zero cholesterol, zero fat, 99% real egg product that contains no preservatives. Made from 99% real egg whites, plus added vitamins and minerals, Egg Beaters is homogenized, pasteurized, packaged and quickly frozen to preserve freshness.
• Egg Beaters is convenient to use because it can be stored in the freezer for up to one year. All you do is defrost it and pour it out whenever you want the great taste and nutrition of eggs without any of the cholesterol or fat.
• Easy To Use - Egg Beaters can be used for almost all cooking and baking recipes requiring whole eggs. For easy measuring, use slightly less than 1/4 cup of Egg Beaters to replace each whole egg. In recipes calling for up to 2 egg yolks, use 3 tablespoons of Egg Beaters per yolk.
• Cut the Fat - Adapt most bread, cake, and cookie recipes to a low saturated fat/low cholesterol diet by substituting Margarine for butter or shortening, skim milk for whole milk and Egg Beaters for whole eggs.
• Egg Beaters cannot be whipped like regular egg whites - Consequently, Egg Beaters is not suitable for recipes in which eggs are separated and the egg white is whipped for uses such as meringues and souffles.
• Scrambled Egg Beaters or Omelettes - To prevent sticking to the pan when making scrambled Egg Beaters or omelettes, use nonstick cookware and heat margarine until bubbly before adding Egg Beaters.
• Hard-Cooked Egg Beaters - Pour Egg Beaters into an 8-inch nonstick skillet; cover tightly and cook over very low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 10 minutes. Cool completely. Cut into cubes and use to make egg salad, or to garnish green salads, soups, and vegetables.
• Beating eggs to the "ribbon" stage - Usually the eggs are beaten with sugar until they form that stage. Basically this means that when you are beating the eggs and sugar together, for a while, they turn a lighter color and when you stop beating and lift the eggs up, they fall back onto themselves in thin strands which look a little bit like ribbons. This usually means that the sugar has been sufficiently dissolved into the eggs and enough air has been beaten in.

For The Holidays

How Long Will Your Food Last After the Holidays?
Don't take the chance of getting sick by eating something that's been sitting in the refrigerator for awhile. Here are the lifetimes associated with popular holiday dishes. (However, When in doubt, throw it out).

• Turkey: 2 days
• Ham: 3-4 days
• Stuffing: 1-2 days
• Egg Nog: 4-5 days
• Pumpkin Pie: 2-3 days
• Cranberry Sauce: 7 days
• Mashed Potatoes: 1-2 days
• Cold Cuts Trays: 3 days
• Sweet Potatoes: 7 days
• Fruit Cake: Who Knows!!!

Need Some Baking Advice During the Holidays? Call These Hot Lines:

• Ball Consumer Hotline, M-F 8:30am-4:30pm; (home canning)....1-800-240-3340 (USA)
• Butterball Turkey Talk-Line - 1-800-323-4848 (USA)
• Food & Drug Administration Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition Hotline - 1-800-332-4010 (USA)
• Foster Farms Turkey Helpline - 1-800-255-7227 (USA)
• Honeybaked Ham Consumer Hotline - 1-800-641-8290 (USA)
• Land O'Lakes Holiday Bakeline - 1-800-782-9606 (USA)
• Reynolds Turkey Tips Line - 1-800-745-4000 (USA)

Miscellaneous

• Wheat germ contains fat and should be refrigerated or it may become rancid.
• According to federal standards, low fat milk must contain less than 2% fat.
• Freeze juice, Kool-Aid or punch in ice cube trays to use in your punch bowl instead of regular ice. This prevents dilluting the punch.
• To preserve your recipe cards, cover them with clear contact paper. This makes them easy to keep clean and wipe off in case of spills.

Pastry

• When adding water to pastry dough, sprinkle over the mixture one tablespoon at a time while tossing and stirring. This will help to prevent wet spots in the pastry that can cause problems (ie:sticking when rolling).

Sauce

• To make a "creamy" pasta sauce you can add evaporated milk, whole or skim. Yogurt can be added but it will bring a tangy "sour" flavor to your sauce you might not want and can curdle over heat. Regular milk, whole or low fat, does not add much flavor nor creaminess to a sauce.