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Miscellaneous
Tips |
Hiccup Cure:
Cut a wedge of lime, put a couple of drops of Angostura Bitters
on the lime and bite into the fleshy part and hold it in your mouth
for a few seconds. This usually works. I don't know why.
Clarified Butter:
Also called drawn butter. Great for sautéing at higher heat
than ordinary butter would tolerate. Melt a stick of butter over
lowest possible heat. Do not stir and keep a lid on the pan as sometimes
the butter splatters (when water that is in some butter boils).
When melted, gently pour the clear butter that is on the surface
into the sauté pan you are planning to use, avoiding the
milk solids at the bottom.
Use actual
Saran Wrap in the microwave. I read somewhere that it is the only
one that doesn’t melt in the microwave.
Try not to buy stainless steel knives. They are hard to sharpen
and don’t hold an edge for very long. Serrated knives, however,
should be stainless steel.
Clean up everything after working with raw poultry and use chlorine.
Put dish towels in the laundry.
If you really can’t remember when you put something in the
fridge, toss it. Exception: ketchup, which from what I can tell,
has a 30,000 year shelf-life.
Since honey was used for embalming, I surmise it also lasts forever.
Keep corked bottles, like wine or vinegar on their sides if possible
as keeping the cork wet ensures a good seal.
Don’t soak wood handled utensils or salad bowls. In fact don’t
wash salad bowls. Just wipe them clean or rinse quickly and dry
with a towel.
Put kitchen sponges,
scrubbers and can openers in the dishwasher regularly. Microwave
smelly sponges.
Don’t wash teflon pans in the dishwasher. It shortens their
life.
If you leave the mayonnaise out of the fridge for more than 2 hours
throw it away.
Put a cut-up, peeled potato or 2 in over salty stews or soups, simmer
for a while and discard. It will absorb some of the salt.
Don’t add salt to (dry) beans while cooking– only after.
It makes them tough.
Dry herbs and spices lose their essence after three months. You
should throw them away if they are not used up. I have some that
I believe date back to the Korean War era. Possibly before. Carbon
dating required.
Learn how it looks when you hold a teaspoonful of salt or sugar
in your palm and you will never have to measure with a teaspoon
again.
Roast Garlic: Cut off the very top part of a whole bulb of garlic,
paint with olive oil and loosely wrap with foil. Bake about 375º
for an hour or so. Great on french bread.
Simple Iced Tea: Put 6 to 8 tea bags in the coffee basket of a regular
size drip coffee maker, pour the full amount of water through. Let
cool to room temperature, serve over ice.
Recipe for crystals: 4 parts water, 1 part salt, 1 part ammonia,
1 part Mrs. Smiths Bluing. Pour in an open glass dish with a lump
of coal or a half brick. Wait for a couple of weeks, add more fluid
as it evaporates, and it will grow weird crystals.
Recipe for bubbles: 10 parts water to 1 part Joy or Dawn dishwashing
soap. Add more water rather than soap if it doesn’t seem to
work just right. Also, you can add a little glycerin if you have
it.
Use white (Colgate) toothpaste to cover nail holes in walls if you
don’t have any spackle.
Cigar ashes and mayonnaise rubbed with a soft cloth removes white
rings on lacquered table tops. I have heard that baking soda works
too.
Meat tenderizer or ammonia blotted on mosquito bites will stop the
itch.
Hand washable clothes can be washed in shampoo. You don’t
have to buy Woolite.
Red wine stains- Pour a huge pile of salt on the stain and leave
it alone until it wicks up into the salt, forming a crust. Lift
off with a pancake turner. Wash a table cloth in cold water. Use
Woolite carpet foam if it is in a rug.
Ammonia loosens heavy rust.
Peel tomatoes by sticking a fork in the stem end and immersing in
boiling water for a few seconds.
Too much info on how to boil an egg is found here: How
to Boil an Egg.
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