How to Fix Kitchen Flops Everyone has had a disaster in the kitchen at one time or another. Even the most experienced cook can be distracted and add too much salt, forget to set the timer, or omit a crucial ingredient. This advice will help you fix disasters and prevent them from happening in the first place.
I thought it was time to write this article because of a kitchen disaster that happened to me! I had promised friends some Pecan Pie Bars for their open house and was trying a new recipe (note to self: follow your own advice and don't try a new recipe at a crucial time!!). The recipe seemed perfect, went together well, smelled terrific, and came out of the oven looking delicious. I let the bars cool, then pulled out a platter and cut the bars to arrange them. And discovered that the bottom crust had disappeared during baking, and instead of a two crust bar, they consisted of a crunchy topping over pecan pie filling. It was very difficult getting the bars out of the pan, and when I put them on the platter they stuck. And they pulled in half when I tried taking them off the platter. I was ready to chuck the whole thing when the solution came to me. I just turned the bars upside down so the crunchy top was the new bottom crust and sprinkled toasted pecans over the new top (former bottom). They were a smash! List of 16 items (contains 1 nested list) . SOUP OR STEW TOO SALTY Make sure you never measure seasonings right over the pot or bowl. It's just too easy for your hand to slip, the cat to run under your legs, or someone to startle you. If it's already happened, we used to think that adding a raw cut up potato added to the soup would absorb much of the additional salt, but recent research has disproven this. Really the only way to diminish the salt is to add more of the other ingredients to the soup; in other words, add more of every ingredient except the salt. This is also the only way to fix recipes when you've added too much hot sauce, Tabasco, cayenne pepper, or chilies. . HARD COOKED EGGS WON'T PEEL If the shell sticks to your hard cooked eggs, try putting the eggs in a bowl of very cold water. Then gently tap the eggs against the side of the bowl under the water. Water will seep in through the cracks and loosen the shell from the egg. The peel should come off more easily in a few minutes. . BROKEN CAKES OR COOKIES When the cake breaks when you remove it from the pan or cookies are crumbling, turn your disaster into a trifle or parfait. Just layer the pieces with sweetened whipped cream and some fresh fruit in a glass bowl or individual glasses and chill until serving time. . SOGGY VEGETABLES If your vegetables have been overcooked and are limp and olive green, just whizz them in the blender or food processor with a little bit of cream or butter. Pureed veggies are very trendy right now and no one will be the wiser. You can also add more cream and turn the veggies into a cream soup. . CRACKED CHEESECAKE If your cheesecake cracks on top, top it with a fruit topping, chocolate sauce, sour cream or whipped cream. So that doesn't happen next time, put a pan full of water on the rack below your cheesecake while it's baking in the oven. Also run a knife around the crust to loosen it from the pan when you remove it from the oven. Sometimes cheesecakes will just crack and there's nothing you can do about it! . SAUCE BURNED ON BOTTOM Remove the pan from the heat immediately! Don't stir. Place the bottom of the pan into a sink full of cold water to stop the cooking. Don't stir the sauce! Pour the top 3/4 of it into a new pan, leaving the burned part behind. Taste the sauce. It might still be okay, but if you detect any burned flavor, you'll have to throw it away and start over. . LUMPY GRAVY Pour the gravy through a sieve into another saucepan. Don't press the gravy through - just let it drip through the sieve. . CANDY WON'T SET When you're making cooked candy and it just won't set, add a few tablespoons of cream, return it to the heat, bring it to a boil and cook to the correct temperature as specified in the recipe. Cooked candies are simply concentrated sugar solutions. Removing more liquid by boiling is the only way to fix this problem. . BREAD BAKING PROBLEMS For lots of help troubleshooting bread making problems, visit: Bread Machine Troubleshooting. . RUNNY FROSTING When faced with runny frosting, your first thought is to add tons more confectioner's sugar. But if the frosting is really runny, you probably don't have enough sugar to fix it. Divide the frosting in half and add confectioner's sugar to half of it. You'll have a better chance of thickening it this way. . PIE PROBLEMS For an excellent list of pie help, see my lesson Pie Crust 101 and Step by Step Pastry, along with All Recipes Pie Troubleshooting Tips . HARDENED CHOCOLATE If you are melting chocolate and it suddenly becomes hard and grainy (seizes), chances are liquid got into the chocolate. You can smooth it out by adding a teaspoon of plain cooking oil or solid shortening per ounce of chocolate and heating gently while stirring. . COOKIE PROBLEMS To fix broken, burned, soft, hard, or uneven cookies, see Fix Cookie Problems . SEPARATING EGGS If you are separating eggs and a bit of yolk gets into the white, take a piece of egg shell to scoop out the yolk. This works much better than using a spoon or your fingers. When you are separating large numbers of eggs, crack each one over a small bowl, separate the yolk from the white, then pour the white into a larger bowl with the others. This will prevent contaminating the whole bowl with one broken yolk. . CAKE STICKS TO PAN Make sure to grease the cake pan using shortening or butter that is UNSALTED. Salted shortening will make the cake stick. Try returning the cake to the oven for 3-4 minutes until the pan is hot. Then place the hot pan on top of a wet kitchen towel for about a minute. Or you can spin the cake pan on a stove burner for a few seconds to heat the bottom. Also see Cake Science, my explanation of how the ingredients in cakes work together, along with Troubleshooting Butter Cakes. . GENERAL ADVICE List of 5 items nesting level 1 . Read the recipe before you begin cooking. . Make sure you have all the ingredients on hand. Or see Equivalents and Substitutions. . Get in the habit of setting a timer five minutes less than the recipe suggests. And carry the timer with you if you leave the kitchen! . Never measure any ingredient over the mixing bowl or saucepan. . Test your oven accuracy using an oven thermometer. list end nesting level 1 list end Do you have a food disaster tip or question? Send an email my way and I'll add it to this list. Linda Larson: Busy Cooks --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Access the Recipes And More list archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/recipesandmore%40googlegroups.com/ Visit the group home page at: http://groups.google.com/group/RecipesAndMore -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
