Culinary disasters are a tell-tale of every kitchen. Be it a five star restaurant kitchen or your own 10″x6″ sized kitchen, every cook faces a culinary flop, even if he is very experienced. Avoiding these disasters is next to impossible, but you should be prepared with quick and easy remedies that will change your culinary flop into a cookery blockbuster. A list of some of the most common disasters and their remedies have been collected exclusively for you, so that you can cook without any burden.
1. Too much of salt spoils the food
It often happens that the food gets over-salted, and is a disaster. In such a case, cut a raw potato and immerse it into the gravy of the food to absorb extra salt or add sugar to balance the seasonings.
2. Difficult to Peel Hard Cooked Eggs
If your egg peel doesn’t come off easily, don’t try tapping it. Instead pour the eggs in a bowl of cold water and then tap them against the sides of the bowl. Water will seep in and loosen the shell, making it easy for you to peel off the shell.
3. Cakes or cookies in bad shape
If your cakes or cookies crumble while you take them out, then try this trick out. Layer the pieces of crumbled cake or cookie in a bowl and top it up with some sweetened whipped cream and some fresh fruit pieces.
4. Overcooked Veggies
If your veggies are overcooked and have become moist, then place them in a blender and blend with generous dollops of cream to form a smooth blended mixture, that you can strain and use it as a clear vegetable soup.
5. Cheesecake Crack
If you find a crack on your cheesecake, then top it with fruits, sour cream, chocolate sauce or whipped cream. The next time when you plan to bake a cheesecake, put a pan full of water beneath the baking rack.
6. Fiery Sauce
If you find your gravy sticking at the bottom of the pan and burning, then immediately stop cooking and place the pan in a sink of cold water. Don’t stir the bottom of the pan. Transfer the top portion of the gravy to another bowl and in case it is ok, then continue cooking or else discard it.
7. Lumps in gravy
In such a case, all you need to do is to sieve the gravy into another pan and discard the lumps.
8. Candy not setting
If while cooking candy, it is not setting, then remove the pan from heat and add cream to it, and again return to heat and bring it to a boil and cook as per directions. Your candy will set definitely.
9. Bread machine problems
If your bread machine is giving you problems, then go through the manual carefully and make sure, you are baking bread in the correct direction as specified as setting the correct temperature, preparing the correct dough. If the problem persists, consult your machine dealer.
10. Runny Frosting
In case, you are facing a runny frosting problem, then add confectioner’s sugar. But, ensure that it doesn’t become too sweet, so divide the mixture into two halves and add confectioner’s sugar to one half. In this way, your mixture will be saved from becoming runny and too sweet.
11. Pie Problems
In some cases, your pie doesn’t turn out correctly as expected. This may be due to not tossing the pie dough properly with fork or not sprinkling cold water over it before placing it in the oven to bake. So, the next time, you bake a pie, take care of the following tips.
12. Hardened Chocolate
If while melting chocolate, your chocolate becomes hard and grainy, then no worries. Add a few drops of oil or you can also add one teaspoon of shortening per ounce of chocolate and gently stir it.
13. Separating Eggs
While separating eggs, if a portion of egg yolk stays in the egg white, then remove egg yolk from the egg white with the help of the cracked egg shell.
14. Cake Sticking to Pan
In case your sticks to the pan, then you must have made the mistake of not greasing your pan. Grease a pan with butter, (unsalted butter preferably) and flour. The next time you bake a cake, make sure to grease the pan.
15. Cookie problem
Often you dream of baking perfect golden cookies, but your dream is shattered when you open the door of your oven to find crumbling cookies. So a few handy tips of baking perfect cookies are measure the flour correctly, then use a silicone rolling pin to roll cookies, use fresh ingredients, use molten butter, check oven temperature.
