Tips For Novice Cooks: Fresh Versus Processed Ingredients

Why fresh ingredients may not always be the best value or healthiest choice when it comes to home cooking and baking.

In this video:

• Fresh ingredients. 00:45
• Frozen ingredients. 2:40
• Canned ingredients. 3:26
• Is fresh, frozen, or canned best? 4:16

Tips For Novice Cooks: Sugar

Overview of granulated sugars available to consumers for home cooking and baking.

In this video:

• Natural versus added sugars. 00:35
• Types of sugar. 00:50
• Measuring sugars. 1:36
• Storing sugar. 2:14

Tips For Novice Cooks: Flour: Wheat & Gluten-Free

Overview of consumer flours with and without gluten used for cooking and baking including shelf-life and storage.

In this video:

• Wheat versus gluten-free flour. 00:34
• Types of wheat flour. 1:34
• Storing flour. 3:19

Tips For Novice Cooks: Herbs, Spices, & Extracts

Herbs, spices, and flavorings should be selected based on your tastes and budget, not on the advice of internet influencers or popular cooking show hosts.

In this video:

• Fresh versus dried herbs. 00:39
• Ground versus whole spices? 2:30
• Use or best by dates. 3:55
• Natural and artificial extracts. 4:41

Tips For Novice Cooks: Butter: Salted Or Unsalted

Most cooking shows recommend using unsalted butter. Many commercially prepared unsalted butters have natural flavors. Natural flavors are synthetic chemical additives. Many premium unsalted butters do not added chemical flavors.

This video shares the differences between salted and unsalted butter and why using unsalted butter is not the best way to control the amount of salt and sodium in your diet.

Cooking And Baking By Weight Versus Volume

American home cooks measure recipe ingredients by volume (cups, spoons) versus weight (ounces, pounds). This is partly due to the U.S. being the only country using imperial units of measure instead of metric. American restaurants and bakers use weight.

Some old home cooked recipes used weight like the pound cake. The recipe called for one pound each of eggs, flour and sugar. Of course, to cook using weights instead of cups requires owning an accurate kitchen scale. Most kitchen scales are now digital instead of analog and can display units in ounces or grams.

For many recipes measuring using cups works fine. But, in some cases, using weights is more accurate and contestant. Measuring a cup of chopped broccoli is not as accurate as weighing 160 grams (5.6 oz) of broccoli. The same with measuring pasta using cups.

This video shares some advantages of measuring ingredients by weight instead of volume (cups) for more consistent results especially making cakes, muffins, pancakes, and biscuits.

Wax Paper vs. Parchment Paper

Many many decades wax paper was used for home cooking and baking. Higher cost parchment paper was primarily used by professional chefs and balers.

Today, rolls and sheets of parchment paper are available in most stores or can be ordered online.

Both have advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is the higher cost of parchment paper. But unlike wax paper, parchment paper can be reused for some applications like baking cookies.

In fact, many brands of wax paper now come with a warning to not use for high heat applications like baking cookies and cakes.

This video shares:

• What is wax paper? 00:34
• What is parchment paper? 1:07
• Wax and parchment paper differences. 1:55
• Wax paper advantages and disadvantages. 5:34
• Parchment advantages and disadvantages. 6:19

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