Avoiding Sogginess, Clumps, and Breakage – Sa Giang (2024)

FAQs

How to prevent onion powder from clumping? ›

Dear Heloise: To keep garlic or onion powder from clumping, store in the refrigerator. Years of working in commercial kitchens taught me this useful hint.

The Vinegar Trick

In his recipe, López-Alt shares his secret for perfectly cooked potatoes every time: Adding vinegar to the water (specifically, 1 tablespoon of vinegar per 1 quart of water) prevents overcooking.

Cut Uniformly

To promote even cooking, it's important to cut your potatoes into uniform pieces. This ensures that all the potatoes in the pot cook at the same rate. Aim for bite-sized chunks, around 1 to 2 inches in size. Keep in mind that smaller pieces tend to cook faster but may be more prone to falling apart.

In general small or cubed potatoes will take about 10 to 15 minutes to boil, while larger, whole potatoes will take between 20 to 25 minutes. To check potatoes for doneness, insert a knife into one. If it slides in without much effort, you're good to go!

Store your spice jars in a cool, dark cabinet away from direct sunlight and heat sources. Avoid using damp utensils: Moisture is the enemy of spices. Use dry, clean utensils when scooping out spices to prevent introducing moisture into the container.

Vinegar helps boiled potatoes hold their shape

The presence of acid in boiling water can retain structure-providing carbs in potatoes, so they don't break down and soften as easily as they would in a pot of boiling water sans vinegar.

For most potato dishes it's important to add the potatoes to cold water and allow the water to come to a boil with the potatoes in the water. The potato starch can react as soon as it comes in contact with hot water, which will promote uneven cooking and mealy potatoes.

Place the pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a bare simmer. Do not cover. (Covering changes the environment in the pot and can make the potatoes turn mushy.)

Dense potatoes don't absorb seasonings easily, so you'll need to salt the water liberally so that the water the potatoes do drink up also carries in seasoning. And because potatoes are so timid in flavor, they need that salt to bring them out of their shells. Pour some salt in, then keep going.

Most often, then, the solution to evenly cooked potatoes is cooking them twice: First, boil, steam, or steam-roast (a fancy term for cooking them with water in the oven) until they're mostly tender but not fall-apart finished. Second, brown the outsides and finish cooking the interiors on the stovetop or in the oven.

Should I rinse potatoes before boiling? ›

Rinsing potatoes helps remove excess starch, so it is recommended to rinse the potatoes before cooking. To ensure even more starch is out of the way, it's recommended that they even be quickly rinsed after boiling. We recommend using hot water for rinsing after boiling and cold water prior to boiling.

Use silica gel packs

Silica gel packs are another way to absorb excess moisture in spice containers. Like uncooked rice kernels, silica gel packets consume moisture, preventing the spices from clumping or becoming damp. Food-grade silica gel packets are safe to use for this purpose and highly effective.

I learnt that you can fix harden onion or garlic powder by putting it in the microwave next to a cup of water. Run the microwave on defrost or thaw. Check the garlic powder after about 40 seconds. The garlic powder will loosen.

The clumping is a result of air and moisture entering the container with the substance. This especially happens if you pour the mix directly from the container over a hot dish - the steam enters and immediately clumps the spices. What you can do is to transfer your mix into a new dry and airtight container.

Onion are sweet. Sweet thing clump together when they absorb moisture. To avoid the issue, put a dry pea or bean in the onion powder container. If its a large container, put a few in there.