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Tips & advice
Testing the food
You can test whether food is cooked in the same way
as conventional cookery.
• Using a food thermometer. After cooking or re-
heating all foods have a certain internal
temperature. You can use a food thermometer to
test whether the food is hot enough, or ‘done’.
•Using a fork. Test fish with a fork. If the flesh is not
transparent and comes off the bone easily, it is
done. If it is overcooked, it will be brittle and dry.
•Wooden skewer. Test cakes and bread by sticking in
a wooden skewer. If the skewer comes out clean and
dry, the food is ready.
Working out cooking times using the
food thermometer
After it has cooked, every drink or item of food has a
certain internal temperature. When it is reached the
cooking can be stopped, and the result will be good.
You can test the internal temperature with a food
thermometer. The temperature chart below gives most
of the important temperatures.
Heating drinks (coffee,
water, tea, etc)
Heating milk
Heating soup
Heating stews
Poultry
Lamb
Rare
Well roasted
Roast beef
Rare
Medium done
Well done
Pork, veal
Drink/food items Internal Internal
temperature at temperature after
the end of 10-15 mins
cooking time standing time
65-75
o
C
75-80
o
C
75-80
o
C
75-80
o
C
80-85
o
C
70
o
C
75-80
o
C
50-55
o
C
60-65
o
C
75-80
o
C
80-85
o
C
85-90
o
C
70-75
o
C
80-85
o
C
55-60
o
C
65-70
o
C
80-85
o
C
80-85
o
C
CHART: USING A FOOD THERMOMETER
TO DEFINE COOKING TIMES
Adding water
Vegetables and other foods containing a lot of water
can be cooked in their own juices or by adding just a
small amount of water. This will retain many vitamins
and minerals in the food.
Food with skin or peel
Pierce foods such as sausages, chickens, chicken legs,
potatoes in their skins, tomatoes, egg yolk, etc with a
wooden skewer. This allows the steam to escape and
the food won’t explode.
Fatty foods
Food ‘marbled’ with fat or with layers of fat cook
faster than lean meat. You should therefore cover
these parts with some aluminium foil, and place the
food fatty side downward.
Blanching vegetables
Before they are frozen vegetables should be blanched.
This is the best way of retaining the quality and
flavour.
How to blanch vegetables:
Wash and chop the vegetable, place 250g of the
vegetable in a bowl with 275ml of water, cover and
heat for 3-5 minutes.
Plunge into cold water immediately after the
blanching process to prevent further cooking, and then
allow it to drain. Pack and freeze the vegetable in
airtight containers.
Preserving fruit & vegetables
Preserving fruit and vegetables
using the microwave is a quick and
easy process. You can buy
preserving jars, seals and preserving
jar clamps specially designed for
microwave use. Precise instructions are provided by the
manufacturers of these items.
Samll & large quantities
Microwave cooking times depend directly upon the
amount of food you want to defrost, re-heat or cook,
i.e. small portions cook faster than big ones.
The rule of thumb is:
TWICE AS MUCH = ALMOST TWICE AS LONG
HALF AS MUCH = HALF AS LONG
2. AG-32D-UK ENGLISH 20/05/2004 12:01 Page 9