• If you've over salted a pot of stew, soup or vegetables, drop in a raw potato. It will absorb the salt and then toss it out.
• A tsp. each of cider vinegar and sugar added to salty soup or vegetables will also remedy the situation.
• When making soup, remember the maximum: Soup boiled is soup spoiled. The soup should be cooked gently and evenly.
• All seasonings should be added very gradually to soup, or the flavor may be too strong.
• To prevent curdling of the milk or cream in soup, add the soup to the milk rather than vice versa. Or add a bit of flour to the milk and beat well before.
• A little finely grated cheese added to thin soup improves the taste immensely.
• An excellent thickener for soup is a little oatmeal. It will add flavor and richness to almost any soup.
• Steak, roast or poultry bones can be frozen until needed for soup stock.
• Instant soup stock will always be on hand if you save the pan juice from cooking meats. Pour liquid into ice cube trays and freeze. Place solid cubes in freezer bags or foil.
• Always start cooking bones and meat for soups in cold, salted water.
• Drop a lettuce leaf into a pot of homemade soup to absorb excess grease from top.
• If time allows, the best method of removing fat is refrigeration until the fat hardens. If you put a piece of waxed paper over the top of the soup etc., it can be peeled right off, along with the hardened fat.
• Ice cubes will also eliminate the fat from soup and stew. Just drop a few into the pot and stir. the fat will cling to the cubes; discard the cubes before they melt. Or, wrap ice cubes in paper towel or cheesecloth and skim over the top.

NOODLES/RICE:

• When cooking noodles or macaroni, first bring your water to boiling point, then add noodles or macaroni and bring to a boil again having plenty of water, turn off and cover. Let set until tender. This keeps them from getting so mushy.
• A lump of butter or a few tsp. of cooking oil added to water when boiling rice, noodles, or spaghetti will prevent boiling over and sticking together.
• Use a fry basket in the pot when cooking pasta. The pasta can be lifted out all at once and rinsed in the same basket.
• Run cooked spaghetti under hot water to prevent stickiness.
• A few drops of lemon juice added to simmering rice will keep the grains separated.
• To prevent your salt shaker from clogging up, keep a few grains of rice inside the shaker.
• Rub shortening around the top of the pot to prevent boil overs.

MEAT/FISH/POULTRY:

• A little baking powder added to meat loaf will make it more fluffy and if you add about 1/2 c. milk to a lb. of hamburger - let it set for 1 to 1 1/2 hrs. before using it, it will be more juicy.
• Meat loaf won't crack when baking if it's rubbed with cold water before going in the oven.
• Meat loaf will not stick if you place a slice of bacon on the bottom of the pan.
• No "curly" bacon for breakfast when you dip it into cold water before frying.
• Keep bacon slices from sticking together in its package; roll the package into a tube shape and secure with rubber bands.
• A quick way to separate frozen bacon; heat a spatula over a burner, slide it under each slice to separate it from the others.
• Select a jar lid the proper size for hamburger patties. Remove liner and wash lid well. Fill with meat and smooth top with knife or spatula; turn over and tap for perfectly round burger patties.
• To speed up hamburger cooking, poke a hole in the their centers when shaping. This causes the center to cook quickly and the holes are gone when the hamburgers are finished cooking.
• Any breaded meat such as a tenderloin, or cutlets, will retain the bread crumbs much more successfully if they are prepared and put in the refrigerator about 5 hours before frying.
• Salt beef is improved in flavor if the a few small onions and dessert spoonful of brown sugar and added while cooking.
• To make meat tender, put it in a strong vinegar water for a few minutes.
• A fork should never be stuck into a steak or chop that is being fried or grilled, because it lets the juice out.
• A large roast can be carved more easily after it stands for about 30 minutes.
• FISH:
• Thaw fish in milk. The milk draws out the frozen taste and provides a fresh-caught flavor.
• To draw out the salt from salty fish, add a glass of vinegar to the water in which the salt fish is soaking.
• When frying fish, use clarified dripping or salad oil. shortening smells, and butter fries a bad color.
• Baking fish on a bed of celery and onions will add to the taste as well as keep the fish from sticking.
• Add a little lemon juice to water while boiling to make fish firm and white.
• To avoid odors while cooking fish, cover with browned butter and lemon juice.
• POULTRY:
• After flouring chicken, chill for one hour. The coating adheres better during frying.
• Always roast poultry breast side down so that white meat will not dry out. Turn the bird for the last portion of cooking that it will brown well.
• Unwaxed dental floss is good for trussing poultry because it will not burn.
• To keep a boiled fowl a good color, run a piece of cut lemon over the meat and wrap in grease-proof paper for boiling.
• When making a large turkey, put cheesecloth around the cavity of the bird and then stuff it. You won't have trouble getting out all the filling and it gives the filling the full flavor of being made inside the turkey, yet nothing is left clinging to the bones. DO NOT leave stuffing inside the turkey overnight.
• MEAT MISC.:
• When browning any piece of meat, the job will be done more quickly and effectively if the meat is very dry and the fat is very hot. Add salt to prevent spatter.
• Flour any piece easily by placing in a bag with flour and shaking well.
• To prevent the odor of boiling ham or cabbage permeating the house add a little vinegar to the water in which they are boiled.

GRAVY:

• Pale gravy may be browned by adding a bit of instant coffee straight from the jar...no bitter taste, either.
• Thin gravy can be thickened by adding a mixture of flour or cornstarch and water, which has been mixed to a smooth paste, added gradually, stirring constantly, while bringing to a boil.
• If you will brown the flour well before adding to the liquid when making gravy, you will avoid pale or lumpy gravy.
• A different way to brown flour for gravy, is to put it in a custard cup placed beside meat in the oven. Once the meat is done, the flour will be nice and brown.
• Lumpless gravy can be your triumph if you add a pinch of salt to the flour before mixing it with water.
• A small amount of baking soda added to gravy will eliminate excess grease.