There are some things you need to know in order to become a terrific cook. The following article presents some ideas to improve your cooking and make you handy in the kitchen. Follow the tips provided in the article and you will know exactly what things you need to do to be the best cook that you can possibly be.

To improve your level of convenience in the kitchen, one of the things that you can do is to freeze the excess sauces that you create, in ice cube trays. This will allow you to reheat them when you need sauce again and also to save money on the excess sauce that you kept.

Cooking vegetables quickly improves their overall quality. The longer you cook vegetables, the less flavor and nutrition they have. If you do this, it will provide you a vegetable that is higher in nutritious value. Only cook vegetables as much as you have to, in order to preserve their taste and nutritional value.

Don’t substitute romaine lettuce when making caesar salad. Romaine has the perfect texture and flavor to stand up to the strong ingredients in a classic caesar dressing, such as garlic, anchovies and parmesan cheese. Select romaine that has dark green outer leaves that curl away from the center. To store, leave the head whole and unwashed in the refrigerator, and tear off leaves as needed.

By doing any prep work the day before a big meal, you can make the actual cooking process faster and less stressful. Examine recipes and identify which preparations can take place well in advance without risking spoilage. It is often possible to prepare your ingredients as much as 24 hours ahead of time. In this manner, even complicated recipes become simple and easy meals.

Cooking hamburgers seems to be easy, but there are some tricks to learn. Make a hole in the center of the patty before you put it on the grill. The hole prevents the meat from rising in the middle so you won’t have an uncooked middle with burnt edges any more. The whole will completely disappear during cooking so no one will notice your trick.

When freezing meat it is important to use freezer bags. Meat will get freezer burn if it is not properly stored. Meat that has freezer burn will not taste good when it is cooked, and it often has to be thrown away instead of being eaten. This can be very costly, but can also be easily avoided.

While making sunny side up eggs, try this tip for a new culinary experience. Simply deglaze the pan you prepared the eggs in with a sherry vinegar. Then drizzle the sauce made from the sherry vinegar over the sunny side up eggs. Doing this will make the eggs more rich and flavorful and they will taste better than ever before.

Many veggies and herbs have a scent that remains on cutting boards even after they are washed. This can save you from eating garlic strawberries.

When you have taken enough celery off the stalk for your recipe, place the rest of it in aluminum foil and then place it in the refrigerator. The celery will stay fresh for at least a week by following this method and it will still have the same taste as when it was first bought.

Store your spices and herbs in a area that is cool and dark, and keep them away from the stove. Doing this ensures your spices are always rich with flavor every time you reach for them. Heat, humidity and light will cause your herbs to lose their flavor much faster.

Use your hands to cook the perfect steak. Pressing the fleshy pad at the base of the thumb, when your hand is making an OK sign, will give the same resistance as steak will during cooking. Start with the index finger OK sign and the thumb base will resist at ‘rare’ temperature. Moving towards the pinky you will register medium-rare with middle, medium with the ring finger and well-done with the pinky. Look for the resistance in your steak to match the resistance when pressing your hand.

As previously stated, there are some tips and tricks you should learn to cook well. Some people can cook naturally, but the rest of us need a little assistance to do our best. Whichever camp you fall into, this article has hopefully nudged you a little closer to being a real cooking wizard.