Learn To Cook: A Down and Dirty Guide to Cooking (For People Who Never Learned How)

So in order to avoid undercooked carrots and overcooked zucchini, you need to cut the carrots into smaller pieces than the zucchini. There’s an inverse ratio of density : size. Got that? Now you’re a genius.

Fresh herbs are best stored, short term, in a glass of water as you would keep cut flowers. Put a plastic produce bag around the glass and herb to keep a humid environment. Parsley and cilantro will keep a week or so like this, refrigerated. Basil and sage should be left out on the counter in their glass of water and will keep only a couple of days

effect is to store the onions in the refrigerator and cut them while they are cold. Being cold makes the tear-inducing sulphuric compounds chillax and not jump straight into your eyeballs.

But if you can shop early mornings (before eleven!) or weekdays, do it. It will make your first, tender trip to the grocer more pleasant. After nine p.m. is a good time to avoid crowds, too, but you will also find a serious dearth of employees, so if you need help finding prune juice it could take a while.

What’s the difference between herbs and spices? Herbs are the leaves and stems of plants. Spices include all the other parts: bark, fruit, buds, seeds, roots. That’s the difference! That’s it!

For fruits, to really speed up ripening, put it in a bag with an apple or a tomato; those fruits release ethylene gas that naturally hastens ripening (this has the same effect on all fruits, excepting citrus).

Onions make you cry. The only thing I have found that really helps minimize the