Home Chef Cooking Tips

Photo from Healthy Kids & Teens

Milk

Milk is essential ingredient of any kitchen pantry, not only for its many uses in cooking but also as a beverage. As an excellent source of calcium, milk is used extensively in baking (cakes, cupcakes, pancakes) and sauces (bechamel, alfredo, cheese sauces). Besides, where else are you going to dunk your favorite cookies?. Milk is available in several varieties, which vary only in their fat content, as follows:

Whole Milk (contains at least 3% fat)
Low Fat Milk (contains 1/2% to 3% fat)
Skim or Fat Free Milk (less than 1/2% fat)

All varieties of milk can be used interchangeably although whole milk will provide the most flavor due to it’s higher fat content.

Eggs

Eggs are another of the most important staples for your pantry. Like milk, eggs have numerous uses include baking (desserts), sauces, soups, appetizers, meringues, and breakfasts, all of which are in addition to the many ways that eggs can be prepared by themselves (hard boiled, scrambled, poached, over easy, etc). The diversity of eggs comes from their 2-part construction, the white and yolk. Although many recipes will call for whole eggs, the whites and yolks can also be used separately, depending upon the recipe. Eggs come in many sizes and colors, and although most recipes will only list eggs as the ingrdient, they are referring to Grade A Large. Eggs are also an excellen tsource of protein, and numerous vitamins and minerals.

However, since eggs have the potential to generate foodborne illnesses, some handling rules must be observed for safety:

When purchasing eggs make sure that all egg shells are free of cracks, leaks, or obvious holes.
Eggs must be cooked to a minimum of 165F (74C) to kill the salmonella bacteria (fried or poached eggs should NOT have runny yolks).
Foods containing eggs must be handled, stored and cooked within safe temperatures at all times

Heavy Cream

Heavy cream, which is sometimes referred to as whipping cream, contains 30 – 40% fat. As the name suggests, it is used not only in baking (frostings), but also to make and thicken sauces and soups.

Light cream (18 – 30% fat) and Half-and-Half (10 – 18% fat) are also available, but due to their lower fat contents and do not provide the same richness of flavor. Depending upon the recipe, equal substitutions of creams may not be possible.

Cheese (optional)

There are hundreds of varieties of cheese available, all with different textures and flavors, which vary not only due to the milk they are generated from but also how they are processed. In general, cheeses are sorted into the following  textures;  fresh (cottage, ricotta), soft (Brie), semi-soft (Muenster, Taleggio), hard (Cheddar, Gruyere), grating (Parmesan, Romano), and blue veined (Gorgonzola, Maytag Blue). In addition to being eaten as is (or with wine and crackers) cheese  has a variety of uses in cooking, mostly for sauces (alfredo, bechemel), soup (beer chedder), and almost everywhere in Italian cooking (think Lasagna, Manicotti, Stuffed Shells, etc).

Although most cheeses should be bought as needed, being Italian, I recommend keeping a chunk of Reggiano Parmesan on hand. For the best flavor it should be stored as a chunk and only grated immediately prior to use. It adds an intense, nutty flavor to pasta sauces, salads, and soups.

Buttermilk (optional)

Buttermilk is somewhat of a misnomer since it contains only a very small amount of fat. It was originally the by-product of churned butter production. Once the fat is removed from the whole milk (to make butter) the remaining ‘skim’ milk was sold as buttermilk. Buttermilk is mostly used for baking.
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