How To Cook For Beginners

How do I make a ham? This another one of those questions that gets asked alot. And the real answer to how to bake a ham, or how to make a ham really depends on a few things. The thing you really need to understand is what kind of ham you have. If you are getting one of those cheap hams from the grocery store, you know the kind I mean, the one in the can, then there isn’t really alot you can do, since it is probably one of those that has tons fo brine in it and is pressed meat togetther.

Yes, they are cheap, but you get what you pay for , and that is crap.  So, what kind of ham should you get if you really want to have a good experience?

The kind of ham I recommend, if you don’t want to pay for the expensive honey glazed types of hams, or those ones that are dry curd or smoked, is at least gett a whole muscle ham and preferrably one with the bone in.

You can actually get a similar ham to a Farmer Johns Ham, the kind in the gold foil. Continue Reading »

One of the questions that gets asked most often these days, especially as we move into the holiday season is how to cook a prime rib roast, or how long to cook a prime rib roast. When cooking prime rib, it is really a pretty simple thing to do, and the reality is that there are many many ways to roast prime rib.

There really are tons of right answers. So you can slow roast prime rib, or quick roast prime rib. You can also rotisserie prime rib. But for those of you who are getting started and want to really get something simple going, and look like a hero, there are some simple things you can do when learning to cook prime rib.

First of all, you should plan to have about 8 ounces of raw weight per person you are having over. The second thing you want to make sure you do is have the butcher or supermarket do most of the work.

Now, you can get a bone in rib, or a boneless rib. If you are new to this, get a boneless rib. Make sure you pick a rib that has a small eye of fat in the middle of the rib. Take a look at the side cut and look for the white areas in the cut. You want a rib that has nice white “marbeling” but not a big spot of white. When roasted, that will just be fat.

I recommend choosing USDA choice grade for your prime rib. Most supermarkets will offer this grade now. It is usually a bit more expensive, but much more worth it.

Ask the butcher to make the fat cap 1/4 in thick.

When you get home, all you need to do is prep and roast.

Pre heat your oven to 450 degrees.

Take your rib, and rub it liberally with salt and fresh cracked pepper. If you are feeling adventureous, you can rub it with cajun seasoning, or chopped rosemary and garlic. But salt and pepper will work just as well.

Place it with the fat side facing up onto a roasting pan. When the oven is at 450, place the rib in the oven.

Let it roast for 40 minutes, and then drop the temperature to 300 degrees. (Farenheight).

Let the roast cook in the oven until you reach an internal temperature of 120 degrees. Yes!!!!Buy a good meat thermometer. If you want good results. Make the purchase.

Once you reach 120, remove and let it rest for 20 minutes. Enjoy!

My estimation is that a 10 lbs rib will be done in somewhere around 1 hour. Once you check the temp at 40 minutes, you will be able to guage time. Keep in mind, that once the rib hits 100 degrees, it will take only 5-10 minutes to get close to being done. The cooking speeds up from there.

One thing I do often is rub the rib with dijon mustard. Yummy!

So that’s it. Easy simple roast prime rib of beef. What else you want to see on the Christmas menu?

Leave me a comment. Prime Rib Roast coming up!

Lastly make sure that what ever kitchen knife sets you use, they are sharp and ready to slice.

Trying to figure out how to cook turkey? How bout how to roast a turkey. We are definitely in the month where people from all over are planning their turkey cooking for Thanksgiving, so I thought it would be fun to kick off this site with a bit of turkey cooking tips on the thanksgiving turkey. This is a good guide for turkey cooking for beginners. Here is a easy turkey recipe guideline to follow.

There is alot of information out there about how to cook a turkey, and tons of people looking for turkey cooking tips and it can be confusing and hard to figure out what to do and who to trust.

The following is meant to be simple, easy and full proof. Im going to write it in bullet points so that it can be easy to follow.

1. Defrost the turkey in the refrigerator. Makes sure you start out 3-5 days in advance as it will take that long.

2. Do not stuff the turkey with stuffing. Bake the stuffing separately. It is safer and the turkey will cook faster.

3. 24 hours before baking, remove the turkey from the package, discard the innards, (save the neck and gizzards for gravy) towel off the turkey and dry it. Then leave it in the refreigerator so that the skin can get even dryer. Removing the moisture will allow the turkey to get a very even crust and golden color.

4. BUY A MEAT THERMOMETER! The little thing in the turkey that pops out is a piece of crap. It is so inaccurate, that you, if anything are ensured to have a nice dry turkey. When using the thermometer that you buy, make sure it is calibrated, and insert it in to the fleshy part of the turkey leg or breast, away from bone. You want a reading of 165 degrees.

5. When Roasting, Start with a very high temp, I like 450. I will roast it for 30 minutes at that temperature, then drop it to 350 for the duration of roasting. The high temp helps get the turkey nice and golden.

6. Throw a few carrot pieces, celery, onions, bayleaf, and parsley stems into the cavity when roasting, it will help add flavor.

7. When you are about to roast the turkey, slide pieces of butter underneath the breast skin, and rub butter or your favorite oil all over the skin, This will make things nice and brown when roasted.

8. Seasoning is so important. liberally season the cavity and skin with salt and fresh cracked pepper.

Basically, thats all there is to how to cook a turkey. These Turkey cooking tips will make your Thanksgiving Turkey the best this year. When you want to get adventurous, you can start to experiment with different spice rubs, aromatics in the thanksgiving turkey, then progress to frying the turkey or even smoking it. But if you are a new turkey beginner, this is a good place to start.

Afterall, when you are looking for how to cook a turkey, what you want is something that is nice and moist, with crisp skin. All you thanksgiving turkey beginners, give it a whirl.

Someone the other day asked if they needed or could do it in a crock pot trio and I told them all you need is an oven…And better yet, you don’t need rival crock pot replacement parts either!

Any questions on how to cook a turkey, leave a comment and I will get back to you asap!