The Lounge at Chandler Crossings

Culinary Tips for MSU Apartment Cooks

Personally when I am making dinner in my MSU apartment I don’t put much thought into the little things.  Typically it is just cook the food and eat it.  But there are some helpful tips that will make your dining experience more enjoyable and also provide you with some knowledge to take with you into future cooking endeavors.

1.  Don’t slice into your meat right after it comes off the grill.  You will lose the delicious juices.  Wait 5 minutes before biting into burgers or grilled chicken, 7 minutes for steaks and at least 15 minutes before cutting into a turkey or large roast.

2.  Never store tomatoes, peaches, potatoes, onions, bread, garlic or coffee in the refrigerator.  Cold temps compromise the flavor and texture of theses foods.

3.  Teflon coatings can deteriorate on high heat.  Save the nonstick pans you have for cooler cooking jobs such as sauteing fish or cooking an omelet.

4.  If you put lemons, limes or oranges in the microwave for 15 seconds before squeezing them they will yield twice as much juice!  Buying half the amount of fruit can save you some money as well.

5.  Go shopping on a Wednesday!  Research shows that only 11 percent of people get their groceries on a Wednesday.  That number drops to 4 percent after 9pm!  Fewer crowds, shorter lines, less stress.

6.  Pat dry your meat and fish before cooking it.  The moisture on the surface of these meats creates steam when it hits the hot cooking surface.  This impedes the caramelization process.

7.  For all you pasta lovers, if you want perfect al dente noodles, drain the pasta about 1 minute before the box tells you to.  Then dump the noodles back into the pot and stir in the heated sauce.  The pasta will finish cooking inside the pot.

8.  Don’t serve warm food on a cold plate!  Heat your dishes in a 150 degree oven for 10 minutes before serving a meal.  On the other hand, if you’re making a cold dish such as a salad throw a couple plates in the freezer for a few minutes.  The coolness of the plate really brings out the freshness of the salad.

9.  Instead of using the pan or skillet when cooking bacon, throw some bacon on a baking sheet and roast it in a 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes.  Bacon’s tendency to scrunch up makes for an uneven cooking surface in a pan, but the oven will produce that perfect crispy, but not too crispy texture. 

10.  Lastly, a healthy tip to make those vegetable taste a bit better.  Before you cook your aging produce, drop them into a bowl of ice water.  Plants naturally wilt due to water loss; ice water penetrates their cells to restore their crispness.

 

I hope these tips can be helpful to you all as the ongoing struggle of developing a cooking game grows in your lives.  Practice makes perfect and the more knowledge you have, the better the dinner party will be in your East Lansing apartment.

-Alex Shikany

 

(Information from the article “Banish Takeout!” by Paul Kita.  Men’s Health Magazine, June 2009.)

Tags: Apartment Cooking, MSU Apartment Cooking, MSU Cooking, MSU Culinary Tips

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 7:40 am and is filed under Apartment Tips, Life Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.