You get Foodpickle, brought to you by Food52. On Foodpickle, ask any food or cooking question, and you'll get rapid, excellent answers from a vast community of knowledgeable cooks and food experts. Here's a sampling of questions -- asked and answered by real
people -- that just may help prevent your next cooking 911!
1. What's the proper way to store garlic?
asked by manders789
"In a cool, dark place. (If you have a basement or pantry, that's best.) And keep it in a basket or well-ventilated container. Or, you can store the garlic in a zip top bag in the freezer. It only takes a moment to thaw, and the skin pops right off. I picked up the idea from the website of a garlic grower."
2. What's the best way to zest a lemon?
asked by Fern
"If you want tiny, curly little strands, like as a garnish for a salad or a plate of pasta, then you want the zester with the little holes all in a row.If you want a more assertive, more noticeable presence of the zest, (or, if you want a "twist" for a cocktail), then using a swivel peeler to take off the outside layer and mincing or slicing by hand is the way to go.For zest that will "disappear" into the background and leave just the flavor, like for a dressing or a sauce, then a fine microplane greater will give you mounds of fluffy, beautiful zest."
3. What is the best way to get dough onto a pizza stone without a peel?
asked by robinbeth
"I use an un-rimmed baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal, or flip a rimmed baking sheet upside down so it's easier to slide off. An alternate method would be to place it on a sheet of parchment paper. Trim the paper so that it's not much larger than the area of the dough, and place paper and pizza directly on the stone."
4. How do you preserve fresh herbs?
asked by MTMitchell
"You could make a few compound butters, roll them up in waxed paper (use a sushi mat for a perfect roll), and freeze them. Or, freeze fresh herbs in ice cube trays with water to cover. Once they're frozen, you can keep them in freezer bags and thaw and use them as you need them. You can also grind up the herbs and add olive oil. They'll keep in a jar in the refrigerator for a while."
5. What is the best and easiest way to peel a hard boiled egg?
asked by KLL5
"Eggs tend to peel more easily after sitting in an ice bath for five minutes after coming out of the pot. What I like to do is gently tap the egg around its "equator." Then I peel back the shell under running water. The water helps push off the thin membrane between the egg and shell and keeps it clean."
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