Cooking with Fruit Tips

Baking Apples

When baking apples, remove a horizontal slice of peel from around the middle. The apples won't shrink while baking. Also remember to use top quality bakeware for best results.

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Chopping Dried Fruit

Dried fruit will chop much easier if you place it in the freezer one hour before you plan to start chopping.

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Lemon or Orange Zest

Helpful cooking tips: When a recipe calls for a fruit zest - usually lemon or orange, just grate the out peel off of the fruit. Not the white pith underneath though. You can also use a potato peeler.

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Coring Strawberries

Cooking Tips from grannie mae...

To remove the hard white core in strawberries, just take a plastic straw and push though center of berry all the way from top to bottom and the core will stick in the straw.

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Opening a Coconut

To open a coconut, pierce the eyes of the coconut with an ice pick or large nail, and drain the liquid from the coconut into a bowl. To remove the shell easily, bake the drained coconut at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes, or put it in the freezer for an hour. Next, place the coconut on a firm surface, and tap the shell lightly with a hammer in several places until it cracks. Separate the meat from the shell.

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Choosing a ripe melon

Use this smart cooking tip! To choose a ripe watermelon, hold it up to your ear and knock on it. Select the melon with the most hollow sounding knock. For cantaloupe, choose one with small, tight, netting on the skin. It should smell sweet, and the seeds should not make a rattling sound.

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Jucier Lemons

To get more juice out of your lemons, submerge the lemon in hot water for about 15 minutes, or warm it in the microwave for 45 seconds before squeezing.

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Refreshing your raisins

If you've stored raisins for too long and they've become hard, you can refresh them by putting them in a pan; cover them with cold water, and then bring the water to a boil. Remove pan from heat as soon as the water boils, and let stand for 5 minutes. Drain well before using.

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Sauteing apples

When sauteing apples, add brown sugar to them for added flavor. Good cookware is essential to successful sauteeing.

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Fresh Fruit

Dissolve lemon jello in a little water and pour it over fresh fruit to prevent it from turning brown, it gives your fruit salad a great taste too!

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Toasted Coconut

To toast coconut, bake it at 375 degree for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown. Good bakeware makes this much easier!

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Coring a Strawberry

Easy basic cooking tips: Core your strawberries the easy way...with a straw! Place the end of the straw at the center of the bottom of the strawberry. Push upward firmly, and you will remove the core and the leaves as well.

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Coring Apples

Core apples easily by cutting them in half, then scooping out the core with a melon baller.

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Fresh Citrus

When buying fresh citrus fruits, the heavier the better. Brown marks on the skin won't affect the flavor, but don't buy if the skin has any wrinkled or soft areas.

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Over Ripe Fruit

If you fruit gets too ripe, make it into a fruit sauce. Clean the berries well. Mash them with sugar to taste, and serve with ice cream or shortcakes.

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Fruit from Cans

Sometimes fruit picks up a "tinny" flavor when they are in cans. To help remove this flavor, soak the fruit in water for about 30 minutes.

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Sour berries?

Stir them with sugar and allow to stand at room temperature for at least an hour. Use about 1 tablespoon per cup of berries.

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Easy Way to Can Fresh Berries

So, it's summertime and the berry bushes were full of beautiful berries, and now you're in your kitchen facing gallons of fruit that won't keep in its fresh state for more than a couple days.

If this happens to you and you need to get a lot of berries canned up quickly, you don't have to worry about pectin or straining. Just put all the berries into a big pot, crush them slightly, heat to boiling, and add only as much sugar as tastes good to you. There's no minimum for the sugar, since you're not trying to activate any pectin. Pour the hot berries into sterile jars, seal the jars, and water-process them. You now have berry topping to use on yogurt, waffles, pancakes, ice cream and pound cakes throughout the winter.

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Is My Apple Ripe

A ripe apple will be bright in color and free from any bruising. It will also be pretty firm when you go to squeeze it. You may want to pick your own apples at an apple orchard. That way you can ask the farmer to show you what a nice ripe apple looks like. Of course, you can always cut the apple open and take a bite.

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Is My Apple Rotten

First, check the give of your apple. An apple that is rotten will have a lot of give when you press on it.

Second, look at the skin of the apple. If there are a bunch of dark spots, or you see mold growing on the apple, it is rotten.

Finally, cut the apple open. If you see a large amount of bruising, or the inside is mushy and brown, the apple is rotten.

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