Restaurant secrets every chef at home learns their tips and tricks to crafting more delicious food through trial and error!
But, in this blog, we are going to review some restaurant secrets that will elevate your at-home chef skills without having to ruin dinner.
Never throw away your clumpy brown sugar!
As we all know, brown sugar can solidify, get clumpy, and become difficult to work with overtime. But, just because it has become tough does not mean that you should throw it away.
If your brown sugar is clumpy and lumpy, throw it into a food processor or blender and process the sugar for a few seconds. Processing the sugar will help break apart everything to use it for your favorite baked good or dessert! Be a chef at home and follow this simple word of advice; it will make a difference and save money.
Restaurant secrets please, preheat your pans, people.
Have you ever before made food and located that fifty percent of it wound up stayed with the frying pan? Or that you were ready to begin searing, but nothing happened when you put the meat in the pan?
You have not succeeded because you did not take the simple step of preheating your pan before you begin cooking! It is a must for a consistent sear and even cook. Please do not skip this step; it is vital, especially if you are learning more to be a better chef at home.
Are you sick of your cutting board moving around while you are trying to cut something with a sharp knife?
It can be extremely dangerous if you choose to use a cutting board that is not secured to the surface you are using. And, especially if you are using a plastic cutting board, this can be very common.
So, to protect your hands while you are cutting and to keep your cutting board from moving around, you should always place a towel or paper towel under the cutting board. And, it would help if you got the towel wet first before placing the cutting board on top.
Restaurant secrets broths and stocks are always better if you make them yourself. And, it is so easy to do!
Whether you want to make a covered dish or a calming soup, making your stock and broth for every recipe is delicious and easy.
When you can control the amount of sodium and fat in your broths and stocks, you can make something special.
A great trick to streamline making homemade broth is the freezer stock bag. Every time you peel carrots, skin garlic, take broccoli off the stock, or finish off a roasted chicken, add the skin, bones, and everything else into the bag in the freezer. Once your bag is complete, you are ready to make your very own stock.
Empty to contents of the bag into a large stockpot, cover with water, add salt, and let everything cook for a few hours until an excellent stock has developed.
Do not hesitate to salt.
Usually, the biggest differentiator between a home-cooked meal and a restaurant dish is the salt!
While over-salting can be a real issue that makes some food inedible, an added pinch of salt can occasionally transform a bland dish right into a fantastic one.
You can choose to avoid salt and fat, but your food will never taste like your grandmother’s! While moderation is vital, exclusion can lead to bland food.
Restaurant secrets cast iron is flavor.
Numerous chefs depend significantly on their non-stick frying pans for the bulk of their food preparation. But, with a bit of extra attention, you can make everything you want or need on cast iron, and the pan will impart a flavor that you cannot match!
Need to know just how to prepare a steak entirely in the oven? It’s a cast-iron frying pan. The thick steel is almost unsusceptible to harm and produces a great flavor.
As long as you are not using soap on your pan when you clean it, it should last generations!
Keep your bones in the freezer!
So, you just finished a big plate of chicken wings? Licked the plate clean and only left the bone from your grilled T-Bone steak?
Whatever you do, do not throw away those precious protein bones. Instead, make sure to add your bones to your freezer stock bag. Making stocks and broths with bones will add a layer of flavor and complexity while also imparting nutrients from the bone marrow and cartilage.
Complete cooking all of your pasta in the sauce.
To get the very best, restaurant-worthy pasta, make sure to finish cooking your pasta in the sauce you have masterfully prepared. Once you have reached a perfect al dente in the pot of water, transfer to your sauce to finish cooking with a little pasta water.
This method provides the noodles an opportunity to soak up a lot more taste, so the meal collaborates as one, rather than just setting up various components.
Leftover fresh veggies hanging around the house? Pickle your veggies!
We would consider ourselves a little bit enthusiastic when it concerns selecting veggies at the shop. So naturally, you obtain a bit of this and a little of that up with more than you need. And then, that leads to many old and wrinkly veggies in your refrigerator.
Then, as opposed to tossing them out, marinade them in a vinegar-based pickling liquid. It is so easy to pickle your veg! To make a pickling liquid, all you need is sugar (any variety will do, but we recommend white sugar), salt, and vinegar. Of course, you can also use any vinegar you would like, but it is always easy to start with distilled white vinegar.
Heat your vinegar, dissolve your spices, and pour the mixture on top of your sliced vegetables. Make sure to add a layer of parchment paper to the top if you only have a metal lid; it is crucial to keep the vinegar and metal separate, or else it could corrode and ruin your pickles!
Just like bones, make sure to keep all of the stems from your fresh herbs. Once you have picked the leaves off of thyme, oregano, cilantro, basil, and mint, there is still substantial flavor left in the stems!
If you keep your stems in the freezer, the next time you are roasting chicken, you can impart the flavor of thyme and rosemary without having to purchase fresh herbs or gather them from your garden.
Conserve the remaining wine in the fridge.
Cooking with red and white wine can add a fantastic complexity. There is a reason why French and Italian cuisine includes wine!
While cooking wine should never be rancid wine, it is okay to keep some unfinished bottles in your fridge for your next white wine sauce or stewed short ribs! So step up your skills to be a better chef at home.
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