Roux 101: Your Basic Guide to Roux Mastery

A roux is flour and fat cooked together to be used as a thickener for sauces, stews, or other dishes. To make a roux, usually, equal parts flour and fat are used. Butter, clarified butter, margarine, or animal fats make good choices for a roux. Among animal fats, chicken, beef, or lard can all be … Read more

Vacuum Sealing Food Without a Vacuum Sealer Machine

You may want to own a vacuum sealer to extend the storage life of your fresh foods, but the machines are just too expensive. Is it possible to vacuum seal your food at home without a vacuum sealer? Yes! You can’t achieve a full vacuum, but you can remove most of the air from a … Read more

Is Bleach Safe to Use On Cutting Boards?

You may want to sterilize a plastic cutting board with bleach (you can do wooden boards as well). Or maybe you want to sterilize some other kitchen surface with bleach. Is it dangerous to use bleach on surfaces that come into contact with food? Do you need to worry about bleach residue or thoroughly remove … Read more

Help, My Salad Spinner is Too Slow!

If you’re like me, you absolutely hate a wet salad. You want your lettuce and other greens to be as dry as possible. But, that’s hard to achieve. So, you use a salad spinner. That’s supposed to be the most efficient and practical way to dry lettuce. Only, it still takes forever! Why is your … Read more

How to Keep Cut Potatoes From Turning Brown Before Cooking

Has this ever happened to you? You dice or shred some potatoes for cooking and then move on to other preparation. The chopped potatoes sit out for a while before you are ready to cook them. And, alas, they’re all gross and brown! How do you prevent this from happening? Why Do Potatoes Turn Brown … Read more

The Best Way to Clean a Cheese Grater

cheese grater with grated cheese

My dishwasher recently broke and I haven’t bothered repairing it or replacing it. I don’t mind washing dishes. In fact, I like it. It’s therapeutic. But that darn cheese grater! Whether you have a box grater of a flat grater, it’s such a pain to clean! Since most of us use the large or medium … Read more