Herb Rules to Follow in the Kitchen

September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments

?Herb Rules to Follow in the Kitchen

Cooking with herbs can be a challenge, but is a challenge that can be overcome. The simplest way to make sure that you have great dishes to turn out the way you would like is to experiment with small portions before you impose your cooking on large masses of hungry people. The other option of course is to use a cookbook.

You can also remember a few simple tips for cooking with herbs, such as the following:

o Use them sparingly. This is the number one rule. If you want to make sure that you do not use too many herbs in your meals you can try them on a small portion first. Usually a pinch, a dash, or a small teaspoon is just right in most cases. Too much will over-flavor the dish, and with also overpower your guests’ taste buds. A little is great but a lot is offensive. Do not overdue the herbs.

o Fresh herbs are recommended. If you want to use ones that have just been cut, you will need to find them with leaves that are not droopy, and that do not have any dark spots on them. In addition, do not use the stems of herbs, but rather just the leaves.

o Get to know the uses of herbs. It is idea to know this before using them in cooking. If you do, you will then know what types of herbs to use when. You will also then know the difference between cooking herbs and other kinds of herbs, such as medicinal ones.

If you need to learn more about which kinds of herbs are used for what kinds of dishes, you can find resources to help you. For example, you can find lists of herbs on the Internet and what they are used for. You can either look them up by individual name using your search bar to find them or you can look them up by groups, or you can simply look them up by using the phrase “cooking with herbs”.

An example of uses of some herbs includes the following:

o Oregano: This herb is used in many Italian dishes. It is also usually included in a spice blend known as Italian Seasoning. In order to enhance the flavor of this herb you can rub small portions of it between your palms.

o Basil: This is another spice that goes well with oregano that is also used in many Italian dishes. These also go well with almost any other type of entrée that a person would make, such as different types of chili and chicken dishes.

o Rosemary: This one is most often used to make poultry dishes. Chicken and turkey dishes are usually made with this spice during many holiday celebrations.

o Thyme: You can use this herb for many meat dishes and poultry as well.

o Bay Leaf: You can use this in many Greek dishes. In addition, it is usually added to Chili Con Carne as it is slow cooked on the stove or in a slow cooker.

o Parsley: it serves as both a flavor and garnish to most cuts of meat. It is often used in restaurants:

o Cilantro: This is used in many authentic Mexican foods, such as tacos or burritos.

These herbs as well as many others can be found on the Internet with references to free recipes in which these are used. Once you have tried a few recipes it may be then time for you to experiment a little on your own.

You can start by making variations of foods from familiar recipes you have already tried, and you can also mix some different combinations of herbs to try something new. Soon you will not even to use the rules in this article, but instead you will be able to trust your instincts. It always helps in the beginning, however, to have a guide such as this.

If you need to know where to find the above herbs you can search in a local grocery store. You can also order them online, or find them in gourmet cooking shops. You can also learn how to grow your own, and have herbs come up year after year.

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