General Instructions for Working in Kitchen

All women cook at home. So it is not necessary to tell them the basics. The most important question is whether the food prepared has a thought behind it,or is it done casually? Are the nutritional values kept intact scientifically, or emphasis is only on taste? Are factors like saving of time, labour and money taken into account while cooking or half of one's life is spent fretting and fumming while working in the kitchen. It is important to give a thought to all these.
For efficient cooking following tips may be kept in mind. 
                                        
* Keep all necessary things handy and keep them at their proper places after use, so that
you do not waste time looking for them again. 
* Use double burner gas, stove, cooking range. This will save time by working simultaneously on both.
* To save labour invest moey in mechanical gadget once. Such an investment pays in the
long run. Save money out of your entertainment budget, or spend a little less on clothes and equip yourself with some gadgets like gas, heater, cooker, toaster, immersion rod for hot water,mixie, oven etc. Besides these having a fridgein te kitchen is convenient. Things like geyser can wait. If nothing of these can be obtained, get atleast a stove, cooker and icebox for yourself.Similarly if the kitchen isnot conveniently made or renovation is not possible, get a big table made.Below the table closed cabinet on one side and mesh cabinet on the other side may be made for storage.A stone slab or metal sheet can be placed on top, where gas or stove is kept. You will gain by saving time and by the convenience.
* Keep a special eye on cleanliness and tidiness while cooking. Everything should be 
covered. Your hands and dusters should beclean. Do not spill water and scatter garbage all round.Their places should be properly specified.
* Arrange all necessry things before lighting the burner for cooking. There will be no 
wastage of fuel, oil, gas and electricity.
* Wash vegetables before chopping. They loose their mineral salts if washed afterwards. 
Green leafy vegetables should be definitely washed before chopping. While cooking, care should be taken that the nutritive value and natural taste is not lost in the process. Cook vegetables in steam. If it is necessary to drain water after boiling. Use enough water to cook rice, which gets absorbed during cooking. This way vegetables and rice will not loose their nutritive values. if cottage cheese is made at home, use its water in dal and vegetables. Clean wheat well before grinding.Do not sift wheat flour. You will loose vitamins E and B with the remnants. Whole dals should be used as far as possible.
* Coking on high flame harms food values, resulting in loss of vitamins. Most of the
food can be cooked on low or medium fire. Food values remain intact if food is cooked 
in cookers.  
* Cook soft vegetables with skin. Cook them in steam or boil them. Some vegetables can
be eaten raw. If you prefer vegetables fried in ghee, do not use too much spices. Fry them enough, so that the juices do not burn out.
* One should be energetic and attentive while cooking. Cleanliness, saving time and labour, efficiency, all have their importance. You may utilise extra time for some other purpose. Wash hands well anduse a little moisturiser or hand cream after cooking is over. Take care of your hands and get the nails manicured once a week or fortnightly, so that the stains of vegetables and dirt after dish washing do not show in the crevices of your hands. It is absolutely essential to keep the nails clean. So, keeping thenutritive values of food intact while cooking, saving of time, labour and fuel,cleanliness and neatness, your convenience and efficiency-all these combine to make the scientific and technical mode of cooking.
Few extra things, helpful in cleanliness and safety:
1) Burnol
2) Hand lotion
3) Hand cream
4) Soap, Vim
5) Brush for cleaning bottles
6) A piece ofsponge to clean the sink and buckets
7) Perforated mop to sweep the floor.
8) Two hand towels-one near the sink and the other in the kitchen for wiping hands.
9) Napkin
10) A low wooden plank, for standing on it while using an electric heater.
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Few more tips to know:
* If an ovenisnot available bake on coal fire as follows: Place big burning pieces of
coal in the lower section of the burner (angeethee) Put a tin sheet or a lid on top of the burner.Place a cake tin on it. Put a vessel up-side down on the cake tin and put a few burning pieces of coal on it. Cake will bebakedjust as in an oven.
* While roasting in n oven place the food stuff in a vessel with one inch high sides.
Gravy will not spill from this vessel. While frying meat fill three fourths of a bowl with water and place it in the oven. This will prevent meat from burning and ensure proper cooking.
* While shoping for good quality meat, fish and chicken keep the following in mind:
fresh meat of goat or lamb will have firm and white fat. Colour of tender meat wil be a mixture of blue and pink and the brokenbone in it will be of white colour. Old animal's meat will be a mixture of dark blue and pink and edge of a bone will be red. Do not buy light mauve coloured meat with yellow fat. It is generally stale. If a bird is healthy its chest should be firm with soft edges of bone. Infirm chest and hard edges ofbone belong to an old bird. Fresh fish has life like bright eyes and it smells good. Fish with socketed dead eyes is stale. Its smell is also different.
* To test the freshness of an egg put it in a vessel with water. If it is fresh it will
remain there is a slanting position. Rotten eggs stand erect in water. If the egg has gone absolutely bad it will stand erect on its pointed end on the surface of the vessel.
* Fruits and vegetables reveal themselves by tough and smell. Do not buy half ripe, over
ripe and soiled fruits. Do not buy out of season vegetables and also with whithered or broken leaves. If the vegetables are tobestored for a long time without refrigeration, wet them and wrap in a sheet of paper. Fold the paper from all sides, preventing passage of air through the vegetables.Fruit need fresh air to stay fresh. Tie up spring onions in a bunch and hang them. Tomato remains fresh for a longer time, if its stem is coated with wax.
* While buying canned food stuff, see to it that the can is not dented or swollen from any
side.
* If a broken egg is to be poached in boiling water add a spoon of vinegar in the water.
This will keep the egg in shape.
* Before making an omelet brush the frying pan with a pinch of salt, then put ghee.
* Before beating an egg in a bowl, wet it a a bit. The egg won't stick to the bowl.
* Before extracting juice from a lime soak it in hot water for a while. The quantity of
juice will be more.
* While cooking rice add a few drops of lime juice to it. Rice will be whiter with separated
grains.
* Add a few drops of lime juice while cooking apples also. This will prevent the apples
from turning black. 
* Boil water before boiling vegetables. Then gradually add vegetables to it in small quantities.
* A pinch of salt added to the water preserves the natural coloring of these vegetables.
Root vegetables should be cooked in a clossed vessel, on low fire, while green vegetables should be cooked in an open vessel.
* Add a piece of cottage cheese to onion soup for better taste. 
* If the eggs get overboiled leave them in cold water before peeling.
* If a vegetable preparation becomes too salty make a small ball out of wheat dough, soak
it in the gravy and remove. If the dish becomes too hot with chilly add a few drops of lime juice to it. Care should be taken to check on all these before serving food to the guests.
* If juice of a lime or any other citrus fruit is to be added to any milk preparation for 
taste, add it drop by drop. This will prevent milk from curding.
* If deeper red colour ispreferred for gravy, do not add too much chilly, but takeout the seeds from two whole red chillies, soak them in water for half an hour, add a little vinegar to it, squeeze the chillies and add this water to the gravy. Thr colour will be deep red.
* If hard raw meat is to be made tender, rub lime on it, or wrap it up in banana leaves.
* If bread gets dry, steam it for some time.
* Add more oil and less vinegar to a salad dressing and mix well.
* Add sour flavouring to vegetables only when they are three-fourth cooked not ealier.
* If ghee is to be added to pastries in place of butter, let it cool before adding ghee.
* Fried things should be placed on absorbent paper, before transferring them on a plate.
* Menu should not be planned for guests only, but cultivate the habit of planning them for   your family also.                                                                                Top

Personal Grooming
1) Wear a cotton dress for practicals.
2) Wear a neat and clean overall.
3) Long hair should be put up. Net or band should be worn over short hair.
4) Wash hands and clean nails before starting work (nails to be kept short).  Top

Preparations
1) Wash fruits and vegetabales before using.
2) Throw vegetables paring etc. into dust bins.
3) Keep dust bin closed while not in use.
4) Use dusters for handling hot utensils and cleaning up.
5) Organise work so that there is no wastage of time or fuel.
6) Clean cooking area after use.
7) Use tasting spoon for sampling food (spoon not to be put back in food after it has been 
in mouth).
8) Take hold of utensils by the handles and dishes and glasses in such a way that the 
serving surface is not touched.
9) Keep foods protected from dust and insects at all times.
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Clean up
1) Soak hard to wash utensils, scrape solids and fat into garbage, stock dishes near sink.
2) Wash non-greasy utensils and dishes first in the following order:
glass, cutlery, cooking utensils. Greasy utensils and dishes should be washed at the end.
3) Dry dishes, check and store in the proper place.
4) No solids should be allowed to go down the sink drain.
5) Wash the dusters. Leave sink and working area clean.
6) Complete your lockers and get them checked by the laboratory staff
before leaving the laboratory.
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Weights and Measures

Importance of Weights and Measures in Cooking
Correct weighing or measuring of food stuff is essential to get good results in cookery,
especially so in large scale cooking where approximation can not work. Weighing is a
more accurate method and gives good results but it involves an expensive equipment i.e.
balance, which may not be available each home. Therefore, measurement of food stuffs
becomes more handy though not as accurate as weighing. Some times food stuffs have
to be taken in very small quantities, which may not be practical to weigh,in such cases also measurements are handy. Similarly, weighing of liquids is also difficult and they can easily
be measured with cups. Standard equipment should be used for measuring liquids
and solids.
Equipment for Measuring Liquids and Solids
The standard liquid measuring cup is of 8 oz. capacity with subdivisions marked on the
cup for measuring 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1/3 and 2/3. For measuring dry ingredients, single cup
measure with subdivision as well as separate fractional cup measures are available. 
It is better to use fractional cups for accurate measuring rathe than one cup measure.
A set of measuring spoons can measure 1 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, 1/4 teaspoon
and 1 tablespoon.
How to Measure Liquids
Use a glass measuring cup that extends above 8 oz. mark. Place cup flat on the surface.
 Fill to the measure mark level.
Dry Ingredients
Sift the dry ingredient before measuring. Fill measuring cup lightly with dry ingredient using tablespoon, until it is heaped full. Do not shake or tap the cup while being filled. 
Level the dry ingredient in the cup with the straight edge of the knife. 
Use smaller fractional cups for measuring less than one cup.
Similarly, fill the tablespoon to heaped full by dipping in the dry ingredient and level with 
the straight edge of the knife. Measure half spoon by cutting in half lengthwise and 
scraping out the half. Measure quarter spoon by cutting half spoon crosswise into 
portions as nearly equal as possible and scraping out the quarter.
For Solid fat
Press the fat into the measuring cup so that air spaces are forced out.
Level the fat with straight edge of the knife when cup is full i.e. one full cup. Top

Abbreviations Used
t .... teaspoon
T .... tablespoon
C .... cup
oz .... ounce
L .... litre
fl. oz .... fluid ounce
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Equivalents to Common Household Measures
3t .... 1T
16T .... 1C
8 oz .... 1C
2C .... 1 pint* (American)
1 gill .... 5 oz
Equivalent liquid Measuures
1 litre .... 1000 ml.
1 quart .... 0.946 L
1 C .... 226.5 ml.
1 fl.oz .... 28.35 ml. (approx. 30 ml)
1 T .... 14.8 ml. (about 15 ml)
1t .... 5 ml.
Weight Equivalents
1 kg .... 2.2 pounds= 1000 g.
453.6 g (approx. 450 g) .... 1 lb.
28.35 g (approx. 30 g) .... 1 oz
Oven Temperatures
(To convert degree F to degree C: Subtract 32, multiply by 5 and divide by 9.
 To convert degree C to degree F: multiply by 9, divide by 5 and add 32).
1) Very slow 225-250 degree F (110 degree C)
2) Slow 275 degree F (135 degree C)
3) Warm 300-325 degree F (160 degree C)
4) Moderately hot 375-400 degree F (200 degree C)
5) Moderate hot 350 degree F (175 degree C)
6) Hot 425 degree F (220 degree C)
7) Very hot 450-475 degree F (240 degree C)
Broiling 500 degree F (260 degree C)
Frying temperature 325-375 degree F (175 degree C)
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