Ask Mary...It's All About Taste

Do you actually taste your food before you serve it? I suggest that you do. A simple test for you to try at home the next time you are cooking. This test works well with soups. While you are cooking, don't add a lot of salt.

To begin put soup into a few different bowls. Then add a pinch of salt to the first bowl, a little more to the next and a little more to the next, etc. The last bowl you should add too much. This will help you to taste the difference between too little and too much salt and everything in-between. Have Fun!

Happy Cooking,
mary

Ask Mary...How to tell if chicken is done?

Do you know how to tell if chicken is cooked? You open the oven and smell the deliciousness of the Chicken. You take it out of the oven, and then....
You don't know if it is done, so you sit and look at it for a few moments. Then with out any tact you cut right through the top of the chicken breast only to find out that it is not done and have to put it back in the oven. It cooks for a little longer and when you pull the chicken out again it is dry and over cooked with a huge slash through the middle. You present it to your guest, and immediately feel remorse for cutting through the chicken.

Solution...

When cooking chicken, look for signs for the chicken to be cooked, clear juices (seriously they are clear), meat is pulling away from the bone (if it is on the bone), and firm to touch. If all else fails. If you have to cut it, go to the side of the chicken, and cut through length wise so no one can tell that you cut it, also you can cut it from the back!!! If you are cooking a whole chicken cut underneath the leg. DO anything but DON'T cut through the middle!
I check too, every once in a while, it is not that you cheat it is how you cheat. You don't need anyone else to know!

Happy Cooking!
Mary