Foods

Lesson Questions

• Demonstrate that you can follow a recipe to cook a food of your choice.

Lesson

The kitchen work triangle

• connects your refrigerator, sink and stove in an effective way
• set up four main workspaces:
• preparation area
• cook area
• serve area
• clean-up area
• Organize your most important tools and ingredients around these key kitchen zones
• Keep useful items in each zone - for example, storing your dishes and silverware between your cook and serve areas

Getting Ready to Cook

• take some time to organize your recipes, cook times, ingredients and tools.
• setting out tools and ingredients before cooking starts will help cooking proceed more smoothly
• Keeping your knives sharp is safer and will cut your preparation time in half.
• If you need to cook several side dishes at once, choose casseroles that fit into your oven with spaces in between to ensure good airflow

Most recipes are pretty straight forward but they can be messed up pretty easily if you're not prepared.

Read the Recipe

• check to make sure you have all of the required ingredients
• make sure you have all the appliances & tools or a reasonable substitute
• pay attention to the timelines described in the recipe

Prepare Ingredients and Utencils (Mise en place!)

• have all of your kitchen tools set up, and ready to use
• pre-measure ingredients into bowls or dishes so they're ready to use
• many cold ingredients should come to room temperature before you use them
• if the recipe calls for yeast prepare it ahead of time in a small bowl so you can just add it when needed
• preheat your oven when baking
• preheat your pan if you are frying or using oil
• fruits and vegetables should be chopped, sliced, diced, before you begin
• before cooking meats, trim away excess fat and remove bones from fish and poultry
• set up appliances like electric mixer, food processor, deep fryer, or blender before you begin

Following the Recipe

• the first time you use a recipe, follow each instruction exactly as written
• it's best not to double or reduce the recipe unless you have tried it before and you are sure it works.

What to do

Use a recipe to cook a food of your choice.