Tips and Tricks from the Professionals
Vinegar
Cooks use vinegar to make pickles, deglaze pans, marinate meats, and add tang to vinaigrettes, sauces, and even desserts. Vinegars are made by adding a bacteria called Acetobacter aceti to diluted wine, ale, or fermented fruits or grains. This creates acetic acid, which gives the liquid a sour flavor. Unopened, most vinegars will last for …
There’s no need to spend money on packaged salad dressing when making your own, preservative-free version is easy. Jess Dang at CookSmarts offers this handy infographic that will help you make a variety of dressings. To make a vinaigrette, the simple formula is: 60 per cent oils, 30 per cent acids and 10 per cent …
Disinfect cutting boards with vinegar.
Kitchen disinfectant: 2 spray bottles, 1 with distilled white vinegar, 1 with hydrogen peroxide. Spray both on surface, leave for a minute, wipe and let dry. No nasty polluting chemicals.
Using sherry vinegar instead of balsamic vinegar, which he recommends to all of his noncook friends for general use: “Most vinegar sold as ‘balsamic’ isn’t even ‘balsamic.’ It’s sweet, fake BS
After making eggs sunny-side up, deglaze the pan with sherry vinegar, then drizzle the sauce on the eggs to add another dimension to the dish.Didier Elena – New York City
Keep flavoured vinegars near the stove so you won’t always reach for the salt. Acid enhances flavor.Art Smith – Table Fifty-Two, Chicago; Art and Soul, Washington, D.C.