Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Make your own cookbook?

This is one of the coolest things i have seen in a while. Its a place you can make your very own cookbook! sign up is free and you can pick already done recipes or you can take your very own and have them done for the book. It looks like it cost $35 to have the book printed and this gives you 100 recipes spots to use. I don't think you have to use it on the same book either? hmm i will look more into this, but wow i just think this is great! I have a nice assortment of my own recipes and have been forever trying to find a really nice way to store and keep them.. I'm a messy cook lol I am going to play around with it a bit i think but i wanted to share it because it looks like its a beta stage so it must be new ;)

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Cooking Times for Beef, Pork, Chicken and Fish

First thing first ~ source~
FDA Center for Food

Do not roast food at temperatures below 325° F - bacteria may grow while cooking at this low temperature. Never cook a Thanksgiving turkey overnight in the oven below 325° F.

Now that is out of the way :) lets move on. I wanted to make a very easy fast chart for cooking time lines. I remember when I first really started cooking and never knew what temperature to cook meat at or for how long.. I would run around trying to find my betty Crocker cook book that was like 10 yrs old that was handed down to me in the first place JUST to see how long and how hot to put the pork in the oven! Ok so I still some times have to do this LOL. So this was my motivation to make this list.
I never found it helpful to be told " cook it to 160 degrees" hmm ok I don’t have a meat thermometer and if I did were would I stick it?? So I have always tried to find the "cook at 350 for 40 min" and ok if I cut into it and its red… BACK in the oven it goes!

Just to be totally correct though if you have a meat thermometer its not a bad idea to use it:)

I have added links below also so that if you want some more in-depth info you would have it for all the other stuff. I'm lazy and just want to post the "main" stuff you might need to look up ;) nice of me hu!

beef roast
oven 325* 30min per pound ~internal 160 degrees~
….more on beef….

Pork roast
oven 350* 20-30 min per pound ~internal 160 degrees~
….more on pork…..

Whole Chicken
oven 350* 30 min per pound works perfect for me ~internal 160 degrees ( see a trend with this?)
….more on chicken….

fish... tricky tricky one! basic guide line i found
oven 230* 5-7 min per cm for fresh ~ 10-12 min per cm for frozen
( my favorite ? sear the fish in a hot pan first then pop into the oven at 350* for 5-7 min to finish. you have a great crunch on the outside and flaky on the inside.. but careful i do tend to like my stuff VERY well cooked )
.... all the ways to cook fish here ...

I'm sorry i can not be helpful on sea food. I never cook it and have no earthly idea what to do with it! fish is the only thing that i some times try to cook. I hope this was vaguely helpful and that the links provide the "real" info for you!

Baking Substitutions

Well I know there are always times when you REALLY want to make a recipe but find your self on item short! Some things can be substituted for other things and I have tried to find a few of those for you. What started this for me was the Buttermilk.I have NEVER ever bought buttermilk, until recently I would not have been able to tell you what it was use for or in.. but now of course I have found quite a few that need it.. grrr so I went hunting. I found some of the most common stuff that you might in a pinch need to substitute. There are some great sites out there with SO MUCH substitution info! Its crazy. you can almost bake a cake with all substitutions LMAO.... I wonder how that would turn out....

any way on to the few main substitutions I thought might be helpful to you.

Allspice 1 tsp.
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Baking powder 1 tsp.
• 1/3 tsp. baking soda and 5/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Baking Soda 1/2 tsp
. 2 tsp double-action baking powder

Brown sugar 1 cup
• 1 cup sugar plus 1 tsp. molasses

Buttermilk 1 cup
.1 cup milk + 1tbs vinegar or lemon juice

Condensed milk
.in a saucepan combine a cup of evaporated milk with 1 1/4 cup sugar. Heat untill dissolved. Can save for a few days in the fridge.

Cream of Tarter 1/2 tsp
.1/2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice

Brown sugar 1cup
.1cup white sugar plus 2 tbsp of molasses

White sugar 1 cup
.1 1/3 cup brown sugar
.1 1/2 cup powder sugar

Yogurt, plain 1 cup
.1 cup sour cream
.1 cup buttermilk

 

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