Red beans are favored by many Southwestern, Caribbean and Cajun cooks for their firmness and smooth texture. Red beans are a good source of soluble dietary fiber and are high in protein. Like most hard dried beans, red beans need to be soaked for several hours before cooking.

Rice cookers are a convenient appliance both for those who cook rice regularly and those who seldom cook it. Those who cook rice every day appreciate the set-it-and-forget-it convenience.

The main differences between rice flour and all-purpose flour are most noticeable when baking with the two. For most other purposes, the two flours can be interchanged with little difference in quality of the finished product.

Carrot cake is a sweet treat with a dense and moist consistency. For some, biting into a crunchy carrot in their slice of cake can ruin the indulgent experience and make the cake less appealing. To avoid crunchy carrots in carrot cake, you must soften them before adding them to the batter.

Heart palpitations are sensations of increased or pounding heartbeat that can be felt in your chest, neck or throat. Palpitations usually lead to unpleasant awareness of the heartbeat, but are not considered serious.

Baking pans are composed of a variety of different metals and coatings that are designed to aid in the baking of the specific baked good of your choice.

A fortified wine, vermouth starts with a white-wine base that is then blended with grape spirits to increase the alcohol content. Although there are sweet and dry varieties available, sweet vermouth is not usually used in cooking and should never be used in place of dry vermouth.

When you want to bring the kids running, there are few things more effective than a pan of cookies fresh out of the oven. Ideally, there will always be a wire rack nearby to cool them on. However, that's not always the case. Sometimes you might be baking in an unfamiliar location, where such niceties aren't available.

Chapati roti, a flat bread made of whole wheat, is a staple of Indian cooking and other South Asian cuisines. While chapati roti is relatively easy to cook, the preparation can be time consuming. Many South Asian chefs choose to make large batches of chapati roti and freeze them for future use.

Nearly every baker has been there. You've spent hours looking through recipes, grocery shopping and baking a cake, only to find that the finished result is as dry as the desert. Some recipes are bound to turn out drier than others, but there a few universal tips to making, and keeping, your cake moist.

French fries have been the downfall of countless dieters. Intellectually it's easy to identify them as a concentrated source of dietary fat and calories, and they're an obvious food to avoid whether you're looking for weight loss or maximum health. Unfortunately, they're also a formidably pleasurable food.

You only need to keep and eye on the clock to cook durum wheat semolina pasta to al dente and take advantage of its toothy texture. Almost all dried pasta comes from durum semolina, a coarsely ground hard wheat flour with a high gluten content.