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Culinary Techniques – All Those Finesses of the Cooking Masters
As you advance in your cooking ability, you will more than likely encounter numerous culinary techniques. Some of those culinary techniques may be very basic, while other culinary techniques may be more advanced and in depth.
Depending on what you are preparing and what your skill level is you may find yourself using some culinary techniques more than others. Some basic culinary techniques that you will use are:
- Dicing an onion effectively (the trick is to not cut the roots off)
- Softening butter (don’t use the microwave)
- Cooking pastas the right way (most of us use too much water)
Learning and mastering some of the basic culinary techniques will help you build a solid foundation in which to grow your cooking career on.
Culinary techniques vary greatly depending on what you are cooking. Often times, the culinary techniques can mean very different things in different types of culinary art.
There are some culinary techniques that are extremely versatile and are worth mastering in an effort to become more efficient as a cook such as:
- Sautéing vegetables
- Making radish “roses”
- Cooking steaks to the proper doneness
- Properly hard boiling eggs
When you are sautéing vegetables, there are a variety of different culinary techniques that are in use. However, there is really only one basic way to do it. Coat the bottom of a skillet with 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil. Olive oil is a healthy alternative to other fatty oils. With the stove set on medium heat, cook your vegetables for about 5 minutes or so until they are soft. Onions will become transparent.
Using foods as decorations is another one of the more popular culinary techniques. One of those options is to use radishes to make “roses” to garnish your salads. Simply insert a knife into the center of the radish and twist. Then place the radish in water for 30 to 40 minutes to make it bloom.
There are many culinary techniques in use today to help cooks make sure that a steak is done to the customers liking. Even if you are cooking a steak at your home, you may find that getting it to the proper doneness can be a task. When you are cooking a steak to be “medium-well”, which is the most common of choices, you will want to cook it until the center is slightly pink. Once you are able to cook a steak to Medium Well, you can use that as a starting point for cooking it to other doneness.
You can develop your culinary techniques in your own kitchen or you can attend cooking classes. The important thing is to have fun while preparing your food.
