The Best Cooking Tips From Moms

Whether our moms (and even grandmas) were culinary geniuses or hated to cook, many of them still found themselves putting dinner on the table to feed their families. And because of that cooking experience, these wise women in our lives have developed tricks of the trade when it comes to cooking.

If you're lucky, they shared some of their wisdom with you. Click through the slideshow below to see what culinary tricks the women in our lives have shared -- and share with us what you've learned from yours!

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Comments

[usedtobgop]

02:43 AM on 11/29/2012

When making homemade pasta sauce, there weren't measurements for seasonings. The rule was to cover the top with the sauce, stir and if it tasted good then, it would taste amazing after hours and hours of cooking.

[janeinmia]

10:29 AM on 05/30/2012

This mom's two top cooking tips:

1. It's all about quality ingredients.

2. Use fresh vanilla bean in all baked goods.

[Larry Mulvihill]

06:37 AM on 05/30/2012

wait till your father cooks if you want to taste good

[HuffGeist]

01:02 AM on 05/29/2012

Not so much about food, but how to safely use and keep a knife sharp and how to keep cast iron seasoned. I have slightly defected from regular seasoning techniques and use flax seed oil in thin coats in multiple heatings at 500 degrees. Then I clean as I learned with paper towels and salt. Soap is the ENEMY of seasoned cast iron! Flax seed oil is the non-toxic cousin of linseed oil and is like liquid teflon, but without all the tasty toxins.

[janeinmia]

10:31 AM on 05/30/2012

I'm a fanatic about seasoning my cast iron pans, and I'm going to try your flax seed oil tip.

Here's another tip I read recently -- for difficult baked on food in the cast iron pan, you can use a ball of aluminum foil to gently scrub it out.

[HuffGeist]

11:46 AM on 05/30/2012

Yeah, I use aluminum to also clean BBQ grills. Good stuff. I learned the flax seed oil trick from a website called Instructables :

http://www.instructables.com/id/Best-Way-to-Season-Cast-Iron-Pans-Flax-Seed-Oil/

If you've never been there, it is an INCREDIBLE site! Go check it out and the flax oil works incredibly well!

[missirish9]

03:36 AM on 05/26/2012

My mother was/is a wonderful cook. Best lesson : when all else fails, bake at 350 until done!

She was never one to follow a recipe unless she was baking bread or cakes.

[Mira59]

12:51 AM on 05/26/2012

After I got married, I cooked up a storm every day. When I got divorced, I hung a sign: Keep the kitchen clean, eat out. Much better!

[nonibright]

10:38 AM on 05/25/2012

The best tip from my Mom and Aunts: Play with your food!! Be creative with your seasoning, textures, colors and use fresh ingredients, especially anything in season and on sale.

[Francois G]

07:07 AM on 05/24/2012

Best cooking tip from Mom : Weight Watchers recipes are the best...

I mean it's her best tip... I rather recall she insisted on never following the recipe to the letter...

[luvs2eat]

08:49 AM on 05/21/2012

My mom told me her secret to get us kids to eat things we didn't like. She'd cut them really small and tell us we could take them out if we wanted. Trying to pick out tiny pieces of cooked carrots just wasn't worth the effort so we ate them! Brilliant!!

[Dr Korey]

04:53 PM on 05/20/2012

My moms best cooking tip - "Get out of the kitchen! It's not ready yet!"

But actually there weren't many measuring cups or spoons when my family cooked. It's always - add about this much (fingers in pinching shape).
How much milk? "Just add enough."
etc.

[cichlid mom]

05:20 PM on 05/17/2012

Hmm my mother was a stove top stuffing kind of cook. She did lay it out for Christmas and Thanksgiving tho. She did however always cook a home made noodle recipe from my great-grandmother. She taught me that family traditions matter and they create a connect to the past that makes a better present. My traditions may have changed (I have tried to lighten the very rich recipe) and I have my own go to recipes for holidays. But i make sure my daughter knows that we still make great- grandmas cranberry salad and noodles. unfortunately my mother and grandmothers have past away, but hopefully she will retain the memories of cooking that generations have shared.

[xRAOULDUKEx]

01:45 PM on 05/17/2012

The best tip my mother gave was to not follow recipes too closely, unless they are the recipes of my grandmother.

[geddy lee is a god]

12:15 PM on 05/17/2012

My tip was to marinate. She said it allowed the flavours to be infused in the food, and makes meat and poultry very tender. I make marinades with ginger, garlic, herbs, a little olive or peanut oil, whatever taste I'm going for. It's good to experiment with different ingredients.

If I have a little left, I'll pour it in another bowl or plastic bag, and toss/coat some raw veggies before grilling or roasting.

My mom was/is a great cook and homemaker, and passed along good advice to her children.

[GrandmaG]

12:25 PM on 05/16/2012

A drop or two (ONLY) of almond extract into fresh cherry pie filling adds a background "something". DELISH.

[CarolynTLyons]

12:16 PM on 05/16/2012

Adding pork into any red-based sauce makes it awesome. Whenever she cooked a pork roast or pork chops, she would freeze the gravy/juices and add it into a spaghetti sauce and it does make a huge difference in flavor.