If you are someone who enjoys cooking and wants to take their cooking to the next level, then a lot of guides will say to choose the best ingredients as one of their tips – this is very true! The ingredients you use can make a big difference to the recipe you are cooking and by using the best ingredients, you can enhance the dish a lot.
Better ingredients often last longer than more affordable options, they are better to work with and taste better. A good example of this is fresh lemons. The cheaper supermarket lemons can be more affordable, but more often than not, they are smaller and produce less juice inside them.
From choosing the best spices to better fruit and vegetable options, below we have put together our guide on choosing food ingredients like a pro. Follow our guide and hopefully, you can learn a few new tips to make your cooking experience that bit better.
Picking Vegetables and Fruit
Most meals include fresh fruit and vegetables as part of the recipe. When heading to your local supermarket, try to follow this advice:
Buy Loose – Always buy loose, as this will reduce packaging and you can choose the exact vegetable that you want to use in your recipes.
Sniff the veg – it sounds silly but smell the vegetables and fruit that you are going to buy. If it’s starting to turn or isn’t going to taste nice, you’ll be able to detect an “off” smell.
Touch the fruit and veg – Actually pick up the fruit or vegetable and feel it. Does it bend and does it feel squidgy? If so, it’s likely going off.
Picking Meat
When you are buying meat for your recipe, try to buy it from a reputable source and from your local butcher. Quality meat will have less fat, cook better and it’s easier to work with. The skin shouldn’t be torn when buying it and there shouldn’t be any potent smells to the meat. You can speak to the butcher about what you are planning on cooking and they should be able to advise you on what’s best to buy.
Picking Seafood
Cooking with seafood is very popular and there are many delicious recipes you can try. When picking seafood, consider these six areas – the skin, the fins, the gills, the smell, the feel and the eyes. By running through these six steps you can narrow your seafood options to get the best items and quality seafood.
We hope our guide has given you some inspiration when choosing the ingredients for your next meal. For more food tips to improve your cooking, YouTube is a great space for online lessons.
What tips can you share when trying to choose food ingredients like a pro? Which of the above tips did you find most useful? Is there anything missing in our guide that you think we should be including? Let us know in the comment box below, we look forward to hearing from you.