Nutritional health is achieved through the therapeutic use of whole foods, safe culinary preparation, and understanding the metabolic impacts of specific dietary frameworks and ingredients.
A countertop electric roaster can be a great convenience for busy cooks. You can use it for extra cooking capacity during holiday meals or family get-togethers, or use it as an alternative to your regular oven for roasting chickens or other meals.
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For fat-conscious diners, lean white fish such as tilapia are a boon at mealtime. Tilapia's delicate flesh is naturally high in protein and low in fat, and culinarily, it's a blank canvas suitable for almost any combination of flavors.
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Bulgur comes from an ancient style of processed grain, called "groats." The wheat is cooked and then dried again, leaving its starches in their cooked form and ready to rehydrate quickly. The bulgur kernels are then milled into fine, medium and coarse pieces.
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Rabbit is one of the easiest game animals for novices to work with, because of its compact size. Rabbit is easy to cut up and doesn't require a lot of complicated preparation, and ordinary methods are usually all that's required to cook it.
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Like any shellfish, crabs are highly perishable and their quality deteriorates quickly once they're taken from the sea. In populous coastal areas it's possible to buy good quality fresh crab, but in much of the country, the best option is frozen snow crab or king crab legs.
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For busy cooks who want to put healthful meals on the table in a hurry, a freezer filled with salmon portions can be a great comfort. Its mild but rich flavor makes it a versatile ingredient. Its high levels of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids make it a virtuous option.
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The tiny seeds of the sesame plant are an important source of cooking oil in Asia and elsewhere. For enthusiasts looking to cook Chinese food at home, buying a bottle of sesame oil is mandatory. However, there are two different kinds of sesame oil: the clear, or pure, kind; and the dark kind.
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For the harried home cook, appliances such as slow cookers and electric countertop roasters are a boon. Not only are they easy and convenient to use, they won't heat your kitchen the way a full-sized oven does when making dishes that require long, slow cooking.
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Venison, even from farm-raised deer, is much leaner than conventional beef. This affects how you cook it, because fat is an insulator. The leaner, denser flesh of a deer will cook more quickly than a comparable piece of beef, and requires both a lower temperature and a shorter cooking time.
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Turning out a perfect roast involves a number of tradeoffs for the cook. High-temperature roasting produces lots of browning, which means lots of flavor, but it tends to toughen and dry out your roast. That's especially true of small and lean cuts, such as a pork loin.
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Turkey wings are just about the only part of the bird that's tough, which means they're not ideally suited to quick meal preparation. However, they are ideal for long cooking in a crock pot or other slow cooker.
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For health-conscious diners who avoid processed foods but don't have the time to work entirely from scratch, many retailers offer quality entrees that are already prepared and just need to be cooked. For example, stuffed salmon is readily available from supermarkets and seafood retailers.
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To a trained chef, recognizing the differences between cooking methods is second nature. They're categorized as "wet" or "dry," depending on whether water or other liquids are involved, and each of those broad categories includes several specific cooking methods.
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Frugal homemakers and professional chefs are equally attached to the tough, chewy unloved cuts of beef. These are the muscles that are worked the hardest during an animal's life, and they're filled with tough, dense muscle tissues and a high percentage of stringy connective tissues.
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Many cooks have difficulty finding just the right degree of doneness with chicken legs. If you're going to bake or roast them in the oven, grill them or broil them, it's all too easy to end up with chicken that's blackened on the outside, but still raw or undercooked near the bone.
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Beef brisket is one of many tough cuts of meat that have been turned into savory specialties by ingenious cooks. In its native state brisket is so ridiculously tough it could easily be mistaken for a dog's chew toy or a piece of an old boot.
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Moose is one of the most richly flavored game meats, and if you're fortunate enough to bag one -- or have a hunter in the family who has -- their sheer size guarantees you'll have lots of opportunity to learn how to cook it.
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Patience and low temperatures are the keys to making delectable, oven-cooked brisket. In its original condition, it's as tough and chewy as a slab of old leather, yet when properly cooked, it's tender and delicious. Getting your piece of brisket from one stage to the other requires slow, careful cooking.
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Gelatin is not one of the more common American food allergies, but neither is it especially rare. Any food containing proteins can be an allergy trigger, or allergen, and gelatin is very high in protein. You might think gelatin would be an easy food to avoid, but that's not necessarily the case.
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Many retail cuts can be found on a beef steer, some tough and some tender. The tough cuts are usually ground or slow-cooked, while the premium cuts of tender beef are grilled or broiled. The top sirloin is the lowest priced of the tender cuts for grilling.
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