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Home › Christmas Desserts › Making Chocolate Truffles

Gourmet chocolate truffles seem like they should be super hard to make, but making chocolate truffles is actually surprisingly easy — and a whole lot of fun, too! It’s just one of those foods that’s so delicious and fancy looking that you expect it to be really hard, but it’s not at all.

You just need a few basic ingredients to make gourmet chocolate truffles, and the method to make them couldn’t be easier. The only complicated thing about making chocolate truffles is the time it takes to make them — but even that doesn’t have to be so bad.

So why make your own chocolate truffles? Well, for one thing, it’s a lot cheaper than buying a box of gourmet chocolate truffles. But it’s also very fun and satisfying to make such an elegant dessert, and they make amazing chocolate gifts!

What could be better than something so good, lovingly homemade?

In this article, we’ll go over what you need to know about making chocolate truffles: the basic ingredients, the flavorings, the coatings, and the method for making your own gourmet chocolate truffles.

Basic Ingredients

Gourmet chocolate truffles are actually very simple things. They don’t need a lot of complicated, expensive, hard-to-find ingredients. You just need chocolate, cream and a bit of butter if you want. You can also use some flavorings and coatings, but we’ll go over those in the next two sections.

Chocolate

If you’re making chocolate truffles, it’s no surprise that you’ll need chocolate. But what kind of chocolate should you choose? Here are a few guidelines to help you pick.

• The quality of the chocolate you pick makes a huge difference: chocolate is the main ingredient. If you choose low-quality chocolate, you’ll end up with low-quality truffles.

  • Higher end chocolate generally has a better taste, and also melts a lot smoother than lower end chocolate.

  • A good rule of thumb is to let a piece of the chocolate you want to use melt in your mouth. If it tastes good on its own, melts smoothly, and isn’t grainy, you’ve got a good candidate.

• You can pick dark, milk or even white chocolate when making chocolate truffles. As long as it’s a good quality chocolate, you can pick any sweetness of chocolate you like. If you don’t like bittersweet chocolate, don’t use it!

  • I like to vary what kind of chocolate I use depending on the flavorings I pick. For vanilla truffles, I like a sweeter chocolate, but I prefer semi-sweet to bittersweet chocolate for orange truffles.

• The chocolate needs to be chopped up into little bits to make the truffles. So if you can find something that comes in chip form (like Ghirardelli chocolate chips), it’ll make your job even easier.

• How much chocolate will you need? That depends on how many truffles you want to make. But 12 oz of chocolate (or 2 cups of chocolate chips), makes about 24 to 30 truffles.

Cream

It takes more than just chocolate to make an outstanding gourmet chocolate truffle. To get that velvety smoothness and wonderful creamy texture, you need a bit of cream, too.

The amount you need depends on the kind of truffle you want. The more cream you use, the creamier a truffle you’ll get, but it’ll also be softer at room temperature. If you’re coating it in a chocolate shell, that’s fine, bit otherwise too much cream will mean too soft a truffle.

For 12oz of chocolate, you can use anywhere from 1/4 cup to 1 cup of cream.

Butter

Chocolate and cream are all you need when making chocolate truffles, but you can also add some butter for a bit of extra flavor. Just add a few tablespoons per 12 oz of chocolate, and you’re all set. You can add a bit at a time and taste it, adding more until it’s just right for you.

With some chocolate, cream, and a bit of butter, you have everything you need to make the most important part of a truffle: the ganache, which is the center, the filling.

Chocolate Truffle Flavorings

You can make a wonderful gourmet chocolate truffle with just chocolate and cream, and maybe some butter, but when you’re making chocolate truffles, it’s fun to add a little variety, especially if you’re giving out chocolate gifts. And that’s where flavorings come in.

You can make orange truffles, hazelnut truffles, truffles with vanilla, liqueur or fruit flavoring. Just think about gourmet chocolate truffles you like to buy: you just might be able to make them at home. Here are a few flavorings you can add.

Extracts

One of the easiest ways to add some flavor to your truffles is to add a bit of extract. You can find vanilla extract at any grocery store, but orange, almond, peppermint, or lots of other extracts make awesome gourmet chocolate truffles.

The amount you’ll need depends on the extract and how strong a flavor you want. The best way to get the right flavor is to add a teaspoon at a time in your melted chocolate/cream mixture, stir well, and taste. Then add a bit more if you feel it needs it.

Liqueurs

If you like gourmet chocolate truffles with a bit of a bite, you can add some liqueur to your chocolate ganache after you take it off the heat. Just whisk in a teaspoon or two at a time, taste, and add more if you want.

Grand Marnier, Kahlua, or Amaretto all make awesome chocolate truffles, but you can try out lots of different liqueurs.

Fruits and Herbs

When you’re making chocolate truffles, you have a lot of delicious choices for fruit flavorings. Raspberry, orange, and banana are just a few fruits that are awesome in chocolate truffles. And herbs like mint are great, too.

Sometimes you can just add a bit of extract and get a really authentic taste, but other times you just need the real thing. So how do you add real fruit and herb flavors to your own gourmet chocolate truffles?

For fruit, you can use fruit jam, or just mash your own fruit. For herbs, you can use whole leaves or sprigs. Just add the flavoring to the cream. Heat the cream and let it simmer until it absorbs the flavor. You can strain the milk afterwards to remove any lumps, or leave it as it is for a bit of texture – keeping in mind that not everyone like truffles that aren’t perfectly smooth.

Nuts

Nuts and chocolate are always delicious together. I’m not a huge fan of nut extracts though, so here’s what I like to do.

• Chop up some nuts like almonds or hazelnuts, and toast them. Then grind the roasted nuts to a powder, and add it to the chocolate ganache until it tastes nice and nutty.
• You can also cook equal parts sugar and butter to make a light caramel, add the nuts, and then let it harden. After, grind it to a powder and add it to the truffle mixture. It’ll give you a sweet praline flavor.
• You can also roast whole nuts and roll your truffles around them. That way you get a nice gourmet chocolate truffle with a nut in the center.

Others

When you’re making chocolate truffles, there’s really no end to what you can add for flavoring. A hint of a spice like cinnamon, or a bit of strong coffee, or anything else you can think of.

The key is to make sure that it blends well into the mix. You want to keep that nice smooth texture without making it too liquidy. So add it straight to the chocolate if you can, or saute it in the butter before adding it in, or boil it in the milk. And you’ll have delicious gourmet chocolate truffles to give out as tasty chocolate gifts.

Different Coatings

The last thing you need when making chocolate truffles is a coating. Once your truffle filling is shaped into a ball (we’ll go over that in the next section), you can roll them in a bunch of different toppings. Here are some ideas.

• The traditional truffle coating is cocoa powder. The idea is that the hand rolled truffles covered in cocoa powder look like real truffle mushrooms straight out of the ground. After all, that’s what this delicious dessert gets its name from.

• Instead of cocoa powder, you can also roll the truffles in confectioners’ sugar,shredded coconut, candy sprinkles or anything else that will taste nice and stick to the truffle filling.
• My favorite way to coat chocolate truffles is to dip them in chocolate. To do it right, though, you need to know how to temper chocolate so that it hardens to a nice, shiny, non-melty finish. For more information, check out this article on tempering chocolate.

Making Chocolate Truffles

Alright… now that you know what you need to make your own gourmet chocolate truffles, let’s go over the method for making chocolate truffles.

1. Chop up your chocolate so that it’s in very fine pieces. If you’re using chocolate chips, there’s no need to chop them up.

2. In a double boiler of medium low heat, melt the chocolate and cream together. Stir often, and keep heating until the mixture is smooth.

   • Alternatively, you can just heat the cream, bringing it just to a bowl, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it stand for a minute or two, and then stir it until the chocolate is all melted and the mixture is smooth.

   • If you do it this way, you can simmer in some flavorings into the cream at this point.

3. Swirl in the butter and whisk until it’s melted and incorporated into the ganache.

4. Whisk in your flavorings.

5. Pour the ganache into a bowl, and refrigerate it until it’s firm but not hard. It’ll take about an hour or two.

6. Shape the chocolate ganache into small balls, each using about a teaspoon or two of the chocolate.

7. Place your coating in a shallow bowl or plate, and roll your truffles in the coating so that they’re completely covered.

8. Store the truffles in an airtight container. They’ll stay good for a few weeks.

Notes

• Chocolate scorches really easily when it’s melting. That’s why the mild, indirect heat of a double-boiler is so handy. But if you don’t have one, you can always use an aluminum bowl over a pot of boiling water, or a pot directly over very, very low heat.

• When you use the double boiler, be sure that there isn’t any steam escaping. Any moisture in the chocolate might make it seize up and clump instead of being velvety smooth.

• When you’re rolling the truffles, if your ganache warms up too much, you can always re-refrigerate it for a bit until it’s the right consistency again.

• If you want to dip your truffles in chocolate, I recommend having a few sheets of wax paper to hold the truffles while the chocolate coating sets.

• You can dress up your chocolate-dipped truffles by drizzling them with a different colored chocolate. A zig-zag of white chocolate on a milk chocolate truffle looks very elegant and pretty.

Well, there you have it. You’ll be making chocolate truffles in no time. And then, you’ll be able to give all your friends wonderful chocolate gifts… if you can manage to save a few from your hungry family!

Enjoy!

Home › Making Soup › Making Chicken Stock – Part I

Go To Making Chicken Stock – Part II: How To Make Chicken Stock

Learning how to make chicken stock is one of the best favors you can do for yourself. Making chicken stock is really easy, and it’s better than anything you’ll buy in a store. To top it all off, it’s essentially free, since you make it out of things you’d probably throw out otherwise.

There are a lot of ways to use chicken stock. You can use it as a base for soups, sauces and gravies. You can use it to cook vegetables or rice. You can use it instead of milk in mashed potatoes. You can use it to replace water in a lot of dishes to add more depth of flavor. And the list goes on…!

There are just so many ways that a good chicken stock can improve your cooking. It’s definitely worth having a good supply on hand. And the better the stock, the better the meals you make with it. And the best stock is a homemade stock!

In this two-part article, I’ll show you how to make chicken stock, from start to finish. In Part I, I’ll talk about the difference between chicken stock and chicken broth, and the difference between a brown stock and a white stock. In Part II, I’ll go over the actual processes of making the chicken stock, clarifying it, and storing it.

Stock And Broth – What’s The Difference?

If you cook a lot, I’m sure that you’ve seen plenty of recipes calling for chicken broth and chicken stock. A lot of times, the words “stock” and “broth” are just thrown around as though they’re interchangeable. But actually, they’re not.

So what’s the difference?

The Way They’re Made

Chicken stock and chicken broth are similar, it’s true… Both are made from heating chicken parts in water. But they’re not actually the same thing.

Stock has a much richer flavor and more depth to it. It actually feels different in your mouth. So where does the difference come from? The simple answer is:

• Chicken stock is made from chicken bones, simmered in water for 4 to 6 hours.
• Chicken broth is made from chicken meat, simmered in water for 1 to 3 hours.

It’s actually a pretty important difference, because bones contain a protein called collagen. When you heat collagen, it breaks down and turns into gelatin. The gelatin goes into your stock, and gives it that special texture and taste that’ll make your soups and sauces out of this world.

Collagen takes a lot of time and heat to break down into gelatin. That’s why making chicken stock takes so much more time than making chicken broth. Luckily, you don’t have to sit there watching your stock simmer for 6 hours, so it’s not a whole lot more effort!

One more little note about making chicken stock. You don’t have to use only chicken bones to make the stock. You can also add a little bit of chicken meat to the stockpot.

In fact, most chicken stock recipes use herbs, spices, and aromatic vegetables like celery, onion and carrots to add some extra flavor. You can add some meat to do just the same thing, just as long as you have enough bones to get all that gelatin into the stock.

The Way They’re Used

Now that we’ve gone over the difference in how to make chicken stock and chicken broth, we can talk about the differences in how to use them.

Actually, you can use stock anywhere you’d use broth. You’ll just get a richer flavor and texture. You can even dilute the stock a little bit to get it to be more broth-like. This is a good idea if you don’t want it to be as flavorful (if you’re going for a very subtle chicken flavor, for example).

What about using broth instead of stock? Well, for certain recipes it’s okay to make the switch. You can do this for most soups and sauces, for example. You just won’t get that depth of flavor that a good stock brings to the mix.

But there are certain cases where you just have to use stock – no substitutions allowed!

• If you’re trying to deglaze a pan (that is, adding some liquid to the pan to dissolve all the flavorful brown bits in there), broth just won’t work. The gelatin in the stock helps bind to the bits left in the pan and lets you deglaze it properly.
• In some dishes, the jelly-like texture of stock is actually really important. For example, jellied soups and aspics need a good, rich stock to make. A broth will never set the same way a stock will.

For the most part, use your judgment here. If it looks like the jelly will be important, use stock. If not, use stock if you can, but don’t worry… the world won’t end just because you had to substitute a little chicken broth for your stock.

White Stocks and Brown Stocks

Okay, we’ve determined that making chicken stock takes chicken bones. But you may be wondering whether you need to use raw bones, or whether you can use leftover bones from a roast chicken.

The answer is: both. When making chicken stock, you can use either raw or roasted bones. Here’s the difference:

• Making chicken stock using raw bones will give you a lighter, paler, and clearer stock, called a white stock.

  • You can use a white stock if a pale color is important for whatever dish you’re making, or if you’re looking for more of a subtle flavor.

  • You can usually extract more gelatin from raw bones, so if you’re making something where the jellied consistency is really important, a white stock might be better.

• Making chicken stock using roasted bones will give you a darker stock with a fuller flavor, called a brown stock. A brown stock is generally quite a bit tastier that a white stock.

  • If you need lots of gelatin in your stock, you may want to add more bones to the stockpot than you would for a white stock, to get a higher gelatin content.

  • If you don’t have a leftover roast, you can roast some raw chicken bones in the oven at 450F, for about 45 minutes. While you’re at it, roast the aromatic vegetables that you’ll use. It’ll be extra delicious.

In the end, you can use either a white stock or a brown stock whenever you need to use chicken stock. It all comes down to whichever you prefer.

Alright, now that we know what stock really is, we’re ready to move on to Part II: How To Make Chicken Stock.

Home › Disclaimer

When you learn to cook, it can really be a fun and rewarding experience. If you think about it, food and eating play an important role in our lives. First, it’s just a biological necessity to keep us going… but it’s more than that, too.

Eating can be a kind of ritual, when the whole family sits down together for dinner. It’s a great moment of togetherness. And that’s why learning to cook can be such a benefit.

It’s something you have to do anyway, so you may as well have fun doing it. And if you do, well, it’ll make the dinner itself a better experience – it’ll taste better, be more fulfilling, and even be healthier.

So give it a shot, and learn to cook. This website will give you lots of useful information that’ll set you on the right track.

Enjoy How To Cook’s Disclaimer

Our goal at Enjoy How To Cook is to provide you with easy-to-follow, high quality information to help you learn to cook. We are not liable or responsible for any advice you obtain from this site, or how you use any of this information.

The website and its content are meant for educational purposes only. On our website, we do our best to point out possible safety issues when giving cooking instructions. However, you should be aware of basic cooking and kitchen safety whenever you cook, and always be careful. Always use your cooking equipment as directed by the manufacturer. Enjoy How To Cook is not responsible for any damage, accidents or injuries that may occur.

Enjoy How To Cook will not be held responsible for any links that go out, nor for any sites that link to us.

All material in this site is Copyright material. If you would like to use any material on this site, please visit our “Contact Me” page and fill in the form.

Experimenting Is Part Of Learning

In many places on this site, we encourage you to learn to cook not only by following the instructions, but by being creative and trying new things – new spice combinations, varying quantities, etc…

Experimentation is a great teacher when you’re learning to cook. It teaches you that a recipe isn’t set in stone, and gives you the ability to modify recipes and techniques to better suit your tastes.

But don’t forget, not all experiments have a good outcome. Sometimes, you try a wild combination and it turns out wonderful, and other times… it just doesn’t. So experiment wisely. If you have an important dinner to make, or an expensive cut of meat, it may not be the right time to try something new and extreme.

Enjoy How To Cook is not responsible for the results of following any instructions of these pages or any experimenting you do.

You Can’t Argue With Taste

One of the great things about learning to cook is learning how to make meals for yourself and your family that everyone loves.

But keep in mind that everyone has different tastes. What works for someone might not work for someone else. And that goes for the recipes and techniques on this site, too!

The goal is to help you learn to cook, but some things may just not be right for you. Don’t get discouraged! Just try something else, and keep learning. The more you know, the easier it’ll be for you to understand how to tweak recipes so that you will love them.

And understanding what’s going on is they key to loving cooking. It gives you confidence, and the resources you need to turn an ordinary meal into a great one!

So don’t be afraid to learn to cook! There may be some setbacks once in a while, but for the most part you’ll taste your meals getting better and better every day! 

Home › Christmas Dinner › How to Thaw a TurkeyIf you’re planning a great turkey dinner, the first step is to know how to thaw your turkey. And when Christmas or Thanksgiving rolls around, odds are that turkey is on the menu!

There’s nothing tricky about thawing turkey. The only really important thing to remember is that it can take a pretty long time to thaw turkey. So the real key to knowing how to thaw a turkey is planning on having that time!

But what if you’re running low on time? Not to worry, there are different ways of thawing turkey, and some are quicker than others. So let’s find out how to thaw a turkey.

In this article, I’ll go over what happens when you thaw turkey — why all the fuss? Then, I’ll talk about the three different ways to thaw turkey: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave.

Here we go!

 

What Happens When You Thaw Turkey?

It may seem like there’s a lot of fuss when it comes to learning how to thaw a turkey. But there’s a really good reason to follow one of the three methods in this article.

And what happens when you thaw turkey is that reason.

So here’s the story. There’s bacteria in turkey, like in any poultry. That’s perfectly normal, and nothing to worry about. When you cook your turkey,you kill all that bacteria — that’s why you need to heat the meat to just the right temperature.

When a turkey is frozen, so is the bacteria. That means it won’t grow at all. But when you thaw turkey, you’re giving that bacteria a chance to grow! And if it grows too much, even cooking it won’t kill enough bacteria to make the meat safe.

The good news? The bacteria will only really grow if the temperature gets above 40F (4C). So if you control the temperature just right, you can have a perfectly safe thawed turkey.

Special Tips

• Never thaw turkey at room temperature. The outside of the turkey will thaw before the inside, and it’ll get warmer than 40F, giving the bacteria an opportunity to grow. That could mean food poisoning!
• Never thaw a pre-stuffed turkey. The stuffing will be in contact with the raw turkey and get contaminated. But when you cook a turkey, the stuffing doesn’t get hot enough to kill the bacteria as efficiently.
• Thawing turkey can take a while. You can speed the whole process up a little bit by removing the giblet bag as soon as the turkey is thawed enough. Think of it as removing an ice pack from the inside of your turkey!
• To be safe, you should always carefully wash any surface that come into contact with raw turkey, and wash your hands thoroughly when you handle the turkey.
• What if you forgot to thaw your turkey and you just don’t have time? Don’t panic. You can actually cook the turkey while it’s still frozen. It just takes a little while longer.

How To Thaw A Turkey:
In The Refrigerator

The absolute best and safest way to thaw turkey is to thaw it in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, it’s the method that takes the longest time!

Here’s how you do it:

1. Keep the turkey in its original wrapping. Ideally, it’s perfectly sealed so that you won’t get any turkey drippings contaminating your fridge.
2. Place the turkey on a tray, so that if the packaging does leak, it stays in the tray.
3. Place the turkey on the lowest shelf in the fridge. This way, if an accident happens, it won’t contaminate all your shelves.
4. Thawing turkey in the fridge takes about 5 hours per pound. This adds up really quickly:

Turkey Weight	Thaw Time In Refrigerator
10 to 14 lbs	2 to 3 days
14 to 18 lbs	3 to 4 days
18 to 22 lbs	4 to 5 days
22 to 26 lbs	5 to 6 days

Thawing turkey in the fridge really does take a long time, and takes up quite a bit of room, too. So why is it the best method?

• As I mentioned, it’s the safest. The perfectly controlled environment means you’re not giving the bacteria a chance to grow.
• Once the turkey is in the fridge, you can forget about it. You don’t have to put in any more effort or time until it’s time to cook the turkey.
• Because it’s such a safe way to thaw the turkey, you can leave the turkey in the fridge for a day or two before cooking it once it’s fully defrosted. So you can even thaw the turkey a bit ahead of time, if it’ll ease your worries.

And that’s how to thaw a turkey in the refrigerator!

How To Thaw A Turkey:
In Cold Water

If you don’t have the time or the fridge space to thaw turkey in the refrigerator, don’t worry. We’re about to talk about how to thaw a turkey in cold water.

Thawing turkey in cold water is much, much faster than thawing it in the fridge, but it’s a lot more effort if you want to keep it safe.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Keep your turkey in its original wrapping, or in a leak-proof plastic bag.
   • It’s really important that there be no leaks, so that you avoid cross-contamination.
   • You also don’t want water to seep in to your turkey and make it watery.
2. Completely submerge the turkey in ice-cold water. The water should be as close as possible to 40F.
   • You can use the sink or a basin to thaw the turkey. A sink is handy because it makes changing the water a breeze.
   • A cooler is an even better choice. It’ll keep the water from warming up as fast, so that you don’t need to change it as often. And if you only have one sink, you probably don’t want a turkey taking it up for 10 hours!
3. Keep an eye on the water temperature. You can keep it cool with ice packs, but if the water gets to be about 50F or much warmer than your coldest tap water, you need to change it.
4. Thawing turkey in cold water takes about 30 to 45 minutes per pound.
   • Even if your water is at 40F, just like your fridge, water transfers heat much more easily than air. That’s why it’s so much faster.
   • On the same note, if your turkey packaging is very tight, it’ll take less time to defrost than a turkey in packaging with an insulating layer of air.

   Turkey Weight	Thaw Time In Cold Water
   10 to 14 lbs	5 to 10 hours
   14 to 18 lbs	7 to 14 hours
   18 to 22 lbs	9 to 17 hours
   22 to 26 lbs	11 to 20 hours

    

5. Once the turkey is thawed, you should cook it as soon as possible.
   • It’s not as controlled an environment as the refrigerator, so there may have been some bacteria growth.
   • Because of that, it’s not always safe to leave a turkey in the fridge after you’ve thawed it in cold water.

Thawing turkey in cold water is much, much faster than thawing it in the refrigerator, but there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

• It’s a lot more work than thawing it in the fridge, because you have to change the water.
• Larger birds take long enough to thaw that they’ll need to thaw overnight. And because you should cook the turkey soon after it’s thawed, you may even need to thaw smaller birds overnight.

How To Thaw A Turkey:
In The Microwave

The first thing I want to say is that thawing turkey in the microwave isn’t the best way to go. It’s okay if you’re stuck, but if you have time, avoid it!

• The microwave heats unevenly. It heats the meat differently depending on whether it’s touching the bone or not. That means that some parts of the turkey will actually start to cook before others are thawed. That can mean tougher meat.
• Depending on how big your microwave is, you might not be able to fit the turkey in there. It really only works for smaller birds, or turkey parts.

But, if you’re really in a jam and need to know how, here’s how to thaw a turkey in the microwave.

But, if you’re really in a jam and need to know how, here’s how to thaw a turkey in the microwave.

1. Remove all the packaging, wrappings, and anything that might not be microwave safe.
2. Place the turkey on a microwave safe tray or platter, to catch any drippings.
3. Unfortunately, since all microwaves are different, you’ll have to read your microwave’s manufacturer’s instructions to know how long to defrost the turkey.
   • Depending on how big it is, thawing a turkey in the microwave can take an hour or even two.
   • When you can, remove the giblet bag. It’s fine when it’s frozen, but some giblet bags aren’t microwave safe and need to be taken out as soon as possible.
4. Once the turkey is thawed, you have to cook it right away. Some parts of the turkey will have started to be warm and cook, and they’ll be at the perfect temperature for bacteria to grow. Cooking the turkey is the only way to stop them from growing too much.

And that’s how to thaw a turkey! It’s the first step towards a delicious turkey dinner.

Home › Cooking Vegetables › How to Steam Vegetables

Learning how to steam vegetables is a fantastic idea. Steaming is a great way to prepare vegetables. It’s especially healthy, because you don’t need any kind of fat to do it. And unlike other cooking methods, the gentle heat of steam helps vegetables keep more of their nutrients and flavor.

So what is steaming? It’s easy. When you boil water, it creates steam, which is really hot. And you can use that steam to cook the vegetables. It’s different from boiling – when you boil vegetables, the veggies are immersed in the water. But when you steam, they don’t touch the water at all. The steam does all the work!

It’s incredibly easy to do. And you don’t need a whole lot of specialty equipment to do it. If you have a pot and a colander or steaming basket, you can steam vegetables. In fact, you can even get away with just using a pot!

In this article, I’ll go over what you need to steam vegetables. And then I’ll go over how to do it.

What You’ll Need

There are a few different ways to steam vegetables. Which one you pick will depend on what kind of equipment you have available in your kitchen. They’re all pretty convenient though… and they all make for really easy cleanup! Here are four ways to help you learn how to steam vegetables, and what you need to do it.

Steaming Basket Method

My favorite way to steam vegetables is using a steaming basket. A steaming basket is basically just any heat-resistant container with holes on the bottom. It can hold the veggies, but the holes let the steam in to cook the vegetables.

So here’s how to steam vegetables with a steaming basket. It’s easy: you just fit the steaming basket over a pot with an inch or so of boiling water, and loosely cover it with a lid. It doesn’t need to fit perfectly – it should keep most of the steam in, but still let a bit escape.

What kind of containers can you use as a steaming basket?

• You can get an actual specialized steaming basket. They’re nice because they’re usually adjustable and can fit inside pretty much any size pot. They also have little feet that keep the basket raised out of the water – so that it’s the steam that cooks the vegetables, not the boiling water.



• If you don’t have a steaming basket, you can always use a colander or strainer. Just be sure that it’s heat-resistant.

• You should be able to put an inch or two of water at the bottom of the pot without it touching the steaming basket. Remember, you don’t want the vegetables immersed in the water – that’s boiling, not steaming.

  • If your steaming basket has feet to lift it off the bottom of the pot, that’s perfect. If not, you may be able to place it so that it rests on the sides of the pot.

• You should be able to place the lid on top of the pot. It’ll help keep the steam in so that it cooks the vegetables faster.

Steamer Method

Another way to steam vegetables is to use a steamer. It’s a special kitchen appliance specifically designed to steam food, and it makes learning how to steam vegetables a breeze. Generally, it consists of a few parts.

• A base, that you fill with water. The base has an element for heating the water quickly, so that it’ll boil and produce steam.
• Steaming baskets. They’ll fit over the base, and some models allow you to stack several baskets.
• Some steamers have extra accessories like a dish for steaming rice.

A steamer is nice because it takes care of everything for you. The water’s always at the right temperature, the vegetables are always above the water, and just enough steam escapes. A lot of steamers even have timers so that you once you start it, you don’t need to worry anymore.

But the best thing about a steamer is that the steaming baskets are usually really big. If you plan on steaming lots of vegetables, a steaming basket in a pot might be a little on the small side. And when you can stack baskets on top of each other, you have even more flexibility!

But a steamer works the exact same way as the pot and steaming basket – boiling water producing steam to cook vegetables. If you’re short on cupboard space and don’t want an extra appliance, you don’t really need a steamer to learn how to steam vegetables.

Pan Method

What if you really want to know how to steam vegetables, but you don’t have a steamer, or even anything that can serve as a steaming basket? Don’t worry. It’s possible to steam vegetables using only a pan or a pot of water.

Here’s how to steam vegetables in a pan.

1. First, pick a pot or pan that’s big enough to hold all your vegetables, preferably in a single layer.
2. Then you add just a bit of water at the bottom. You only need about half an inch.
3. Once the water is boiling, you’ll add the vegetables. Because there’s so little water, the steam will be doing the cooking. Just be sure to keep an eye on the water level – if it gets too low, you’ll need to add a bit more, so that you keep generating steam.

Like the other steaming methods, you want a lid to keep most of the steam in. But you do want a little steam to escape, especially if you’re steaming green vegetables. Letting the steam escape will help them keep their green color.

Notes

• Since the vegetables will be in the water a little, some of the nutrients and flavor will end up in that water. But since you’re using so little, and because it’ll boil down a bit, you’ll end up with a nice, concentrated vegetable broth that you can use for soups or sauces! You can save the water from steaming in the freezer, adding more until you have enough to use.

Microwave Method

The last way to steam vegetables is using the microwave. And like the other methods, it’s super easy. All you need is a microwave safe bowl, and some plastic wrap.

Here’s how to steam vegetables in the microwave:

1. Wash your vegetables, and then cut them up to the size you want to serve them.

2. Place the vegetables in the microwave-safe bowl, and add a bit of water to the bottom of the bowl.

   • Most vegetables don’t need much water at all. Just a thin layer will do.

   • Leafy vegetables like spinach don’t need any extra water other than what’s still on the leaves after washing them.

   • Denser vegetables like carrots will need a bit of extra water.

3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, but leave a little gap for the steam to escape.

4. To steam the vegetables, microwave them on high until they’re as cooked as you like them.

   • Most vegetables will take at least 5 minutes, but it really depends on how powerful your microwave is.

   • Try starting with five minutes, then adding a minute at a time.

5. When you remove the plastic wrap, be very careful. Steam is going to escape, and it’s hot!

Steaming vegetables in the microwave is really easy and convenient, but it’s also not quite steaming. Why? Because steaming means cooking vegetables only with steam. But the microwave doesn’t just heat the water – it also cooks the vegetables. So they’re partially cooked by steam, partially by the microwave.

What that means is entirely up to you. I’ve heard that vegetables cooked in the microwave are much less nutritious, and I’ve heard that they’re more nutritious. It’s not clear what the reality is at all! But if you’re concerned that microwaving food is bad for you, it’s not hard at all to use one of the other methods!

How To Steam Vegetables

In this section, I’ll go over how to steam vegetables using the steaming basket, steamer and pan methods. They’re basically all the same. For steaming vegetables in the microwave, you can find instructions in the microwave method section.

Here’s how to steam vegetables.

1. Bring the water to a boil.

2. Add the vegetables.

   • Either place the steaming basket over the boiling water, making sure that the vegetables aren’t immersed, or place the veggies in the thin layer of water for the pan method.

   • If you’re cooking several different kinds of vegetables, add the ones that’ll take longer to cook first. For example, carrots take longer to steam than aspargus.

3. Let the vegetables steam until they’re cooked. The time it’ll take depends on a few things.

   

   • Most vegetables take at least 3 to 5 minutes to be done.

   • Dense vegetables like carrots will take longer.

   • The bigger the vegetable chunks, the longer they’ll take to cook.

   • How long you cook them depends on your preference. If you like them a bit crisp, it won’t take as long. But if you prefer them soft, it’ll take a bit longer.

   • Bigger whole vegetables can take a lot longer. New potatoes can be steamed 15 minutes, and artichokes can take up to 45 minutes!

4. Be sure to check the water level. If it gets too low, add some more water, hot if possible so that you don’t cool down your water.

5. Once the vegetables are as cooked as you like them, you can serve them as is, or add a little seasoning.

   • A bit of butter or olive oil can add some flavor.

   • You can add a sauce, or citrus juices, or anything you think will give a nice flavor.

   • Herbs and spices can make a nice addition. A bit of salt or pepper goes a long way!

And that’s how to steam vegetables! It’s easy, and steamed vegetables are really yummy, especially with just a hint of butter and salt.

Enjoy!

Home › Making SoupLearning how to make soup – or just brushing up your soup-making skills – is a fantastic idea. Whether you’re looking for a light dish to start off your meal, or looking for a main course, cooking soup is a great choice… and you can’t get better than a delicious, homemade soup.

Soup for lunch, soup for dinner, or soup as a starter… it’s just so versatile!

But even better, soup is great for you. Any good soup starts with a stock. Whether you use a chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, it’s packed full of nutrients. And when you’re cooking soup, you don’t lose a thing – all the nutrients from your ingredients stay right in the pot.

But first, you need to know how to make soup! Well, cooking soup isn’t hard at all, but if you want great results, there are a few guidelines to follow.

I’ll do quick overview in this article, but you can browse deeper for more details about each step of the process. First, I’ll talk about one of the most important parts, and the base of any great soup: stock. Then I’ll go over the different types of soups. You’ll know how to make soup in no time!

 

A Great Soup Starts With Stock

First things first: what is stock? Well, it’s nothing complicated. It’s just the liquid you get when you simmer meat and bones (or vegetables for a vegetable stock) together with aromatic vegetables and seasonings.

Knowing how to make stock is one of the most important parts about knowing how to make soup.

Stock is the base of a soup. It’s the liquid part that you cook your meat and vegetables in. When you’re cooking soup, start with a great stock. It’ll add a lot of depth of flavor to your soup.

You can buy stock in cans or boxes in stores, but believe me, if you have the time at all, it’s worth making homemade stock. It takes a bit of time, but almost no effort, and you have full control over what ends up in your stock. You end up with less fat, less salt, and more flavor.

On top of it all, it’s a whole lot cheaper. Really, you can’t go wrong making your own stock!

If you’re not sure how to do it, check out our articles on making your own stock:

• Find out all about making chicken stock in this two-part article:
• If you’re making a beef-based soup, you need a beef stock… and homemade is always best. Check out our article on how to make beef stock for more information.

The Different Types of Soup

It might seem like there are too many kinds of soup to count, but actually you can fit almost any soup into one of these categories:

An important part about knowing how to make soup is knowing what type of soup you’re trying to make. Once you know that, there are usually just a few guidelines to follow. There’s a lot of room for you to improvise when you’re cooking soup!

Clear Soup

Meat And Vegetable Soups

Puréed Soups

A puréed soup is just what the name implies. You start with vegetable or meat stock, add some vegetables, and purée the whole thing.

Of course, there’s a bit more to making it than that… check out our article on making puréed soups for some tips and tricks to help you get awesome results every time.

Cream Soups

Fish Soups

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Well, that’s all about how to make soup. Now you’re ready to get started in the kitchen!

These articles should be enough for you to make soup or stock on your own, but if you’d rather start with a recipe, check out our homemade soup recipes.

Enjoy!

Home › Making Soup › Making Chicken Stock – Part IIGo To Making Chicken Stock – Part I: What Is Stock?

Let’s keep learning how to make chicken stock.

In Part I of this article, I went over a few details about what chicken stock is. I talked about the difference between chicken stock and chicken broth, and the difference between a brown stock and a white stock.

This part of the article is a bit more practical. I’ll go over how to make chicken stock. First, I’ll talk about the actual process of making chicken stock. Then I’ll go over how to clarify chicken stock once it’s made. Finally, I’ll talk about how to store it.

Here we go!

 

How To Make Chicken Stock

Making chicken stock is one of the easiest things to do in a kitchen. You just have to know what to do! In this section, I’ll show you how to make chicken stock.

Making chicken stock does take a long time, but you’re only actually working for about 15 minutes of that time.

For most of the time the stock is cooking, you can leave it to simmer and go do whatever else you feel like… while enjoying the fantastic smell of cooking stock.

Ingredients And Equipment

The first step of knowing how to make chicken stock is knowing the ingredients and equipment you need. In this section, I’ll go over everything you need to make chicken stock.

You might notice that I don’t really use any precise measurements here. That’s because they really don’t matter for making chicken stock! General guidelines are enough for you to know how to make chicken stock.

Here’s what you need:

• One pot, large enough to contain all your ingredients: water, bones, meat, vegetables and seasonings.
• Chicken bones. Anything goes here. If you roasted a chicken and have leftover bones, you can throw them in. Chicken backs, wings, necks, it’s all great. Just leave out the liver… it gives the stock a strange color.
  • If there’s some meat left on the bones, don’t worry about it. It’ll add flavor. The only important thing when making chicken stock is that bones be the main ingredient in your stock.
  • Making a big batch of stock takes just as much time as making a small one. If you want to make more at once, you can freeze chicken bones until you have as many as you want.
• You’ll need enough cold water to cover the bones in your stockpot.
  • When making chicken stock, the water really must be cold when you start, or the collagen won’t melt properly and you won’t get any gelatin in your stock.
  • The water level should be an inch or so above the level of the bones. That way, the bones are completely covered, but you don’t get a watered down stock.
• A few aromatic vegetables can add a lot more flavor and depth to your stock than just chicken bones alone. Carrots, celery, onions, leeks and garlic are all aromatic vegetables that tend to enhance your food’s natural flavors rather than adding their own flavor to it.
  
  • Try starting with one carrot, one celery stalk, one large onion and three cloves of garlic for every 2lbs of bones you use. Once you’re more comfortable making chicken stock, you can experiment with that ratio.
  • Making chicken stock is a great time to use the less attractive vegetables you have lying around in your fridge or pantry – they’ll get thrown out when the stock is done anyway.
  • Chop the veggies coarsely or not at all. They’ll be simmering long enough to get all the flavor and nutrients out, no matter how big the chunks are. There’s no need to even peel the onion, since you’ll be straining the stock. The peel will even give it a nice golden color! Just make sure it’s clean, and toss it in whole.
• You can also add seasonings to your stock, like salt, peppercorns, cloves, ginger, bay leaves… anything you like. But use these sparingly.
  • Add seasonings towards the end of the cooking time. The stock will reduce and become more concentrated, so the seasonings might end up overpowering the stock.
  • Sometimes, it’s best to just keep stock as neutral as possible. Some herbs and spices just don’t go well with certain foods. Knowing how to make chicken stock means knowing how to make something delicious, but fairly neutral.

Making Chicken Stock

Now that you have all your equipment and ingredients, it’s time to put it all together and learn how to make chicken stock.

1. Place the chicken bones and vegetables in the pot. Add cold water. The water should be about an inch or two higher than the level of the bones and veggies.
   • The bones need to be in there the whole time, but the veggies only need about 3 hours of cooking time, so you could always add them in later. Just do whatever is more convenient for you.
2. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat so that you obtain the barest simmer. You just want a few little bubbles trickling up to the surface.
   • A simmer is the best way to extract collagen from the chicken bones.
   • A slow simmer will help any particles to rise to the surface of the water so that you can skim them off, if you want. If you keep a rolling boil going, those particles will stay in the stock and make it cloudy.
3. Simmer uncovered for 4 to 6 hours. During the first hour or two, some scum might rise to the surface. You can skim it off if you want, but it’s not necessary. Add your seasonings during the last hour of cooking.
   • The scum is mostly coagulated albumen that’s released from the chicken meat and bones. It’s actually not at all bad for you, but it’ll make your stock a bit cloudy if you leave it in.
   • Make sure the water level is always above the bones and vegetables. If it gets too low, add more boiling water to your stock pot.
4. When the stock is done, remove it from the heat. Pour the stock into a large bowl through a colander or strainer lined with cheesecloth.
5. Cool the stock uncovered as quickly as possible, then cover and refrigerate.
   • A great way to cool down the stock is to place the bowl in a tub of ice-cold water. It’ll cool it down much faster than placing the bowl in a bed of ice. It’s important that the stock cools quickly to avoid bacteria growth.
   • Don’t cover the stock while it’s cooling! It could turn it sour.
   • Don’t put the stock in the fridge while it’s warm. That amount of heat can make the fridge work too hard and break.

And that’s how to make chicken stock!

Notes

• After a day or so in the fridge, all the fat in the stock will rise up to the surface and harden. When you’re ready to use the stock or freeze it, just skim off the fat.
• After being in the fridge, you might notice that the stock is a bit jelly-like. That’s a good thing, and means you did it right!

• What you’re seeing is all the gelatin you extracted from the bones. It’ll turn liquid again once you heat the stock, but with a much better texture than a plain old broth.

Well, that’s all! Now you know how to make chicken stock!

Clarifying The Chicken Stock

Alright, now you know how to make chicken stock. If you followed the steps in the section above, you have one delicious stock just waiting to be used in all sorts of recipes.

But even if you skimmed it while it was simmering, your stock might be a little bit cloudy.

Clarifying stock means removing all the particles clouding up your stock. You only really need to do this if you’re making something that calls for a crystal clear stock, like a consommé or an aspic.

Clarifying stock isn’t hard, but it’ll add an extra half hour or so of work to your stock making. Still, you need to know how to clarify to know how to make chicken stock for certain special dishes.

Here’s how you do it:

1. For each 1 to 2 quarts (1 to 2 liters) of stock, beat 1 egg white and 1 crumbled egg shell with 1 cup of cold stock in a bowl large enough to hold all your chicken stock.
2. Bring the rest of the stock just to a boil. Slowly pour the boiling stock into the egg white mixture, whisking constantly.
3. Pour the stock and egg white mixture back into the pot, and bring it to a simmer, whisking constantly.
   • It’s important to keep stirring until it starts to simmer. If you don’t, the egg white could fall to the bottom of the pot and burn, and ruin your stock.
   • Once the simmer starts, the upward motion of the bubbles will keep the egg whites from falling, so you can stop stirring.
   
4. Let the stock simmer for 15 minutes. Don’t let the stock boil. While the stock is simmering, a thick, white, foamy crust will form. This is just the egg white and shells attracting all the particles that were clouding up your stock. You shouldn’t skim it off, but you can gently push it to the side to check that your stock isn’t boiling.
   • The stock only needs to be hot enough for there to be upward motion in the pot, maybe a few tiny bubbles rising to the surface. This helps all the particles go up and get caught by the egg white crust.
   • If the stock gets too hot and boils, all the particles will go crashing back down to the bottom and the stock will stay cloudy.
5. Remove the stock from the heat and let it stand for 10 minutes.
6. Gently ladle the stock into a large bowl, through a strainer lined with paper towels or a damp kitchen towel. Let it drain completely without disturbing it.
7. Let the stock cool completely, uncovered, then cover and refrigerate.

And now you have a beautiful, crystal clear stock! Of course, you don’t really need to do this unless you specifically need clear stock for something.

Still, it’s a very cool process, and worth trying out at least once, just for fun. The stock ends up being so pretty, it’s like magic!

Making chicken stock isn’t hard, but it does take a long time. Once you know how to make chicken stock, you might prefer to make it in large batches and then store it. Here are a few ways to store chicken stock.

• Chicken stock will keep in the fridge for about 3 to 4 days. After that, you can boil it for about 15 minutes every 3 days to keep it bacteria free.
  • If you’re storing stock in the fridge, it’s best not to degrease it. The layer of fat will keep the bacteria out, and protect the stock from other flavors in the fridge.
• Once the stock is cold, you can freeze it and use it later. The best way to freeze stock is to split it up into smaller portions that you can use later in sauces or soups.

Well, that’s all you need to know about how to make chicken stock! Don’t be intimidated by how long it takes, or how long this page is! It’s not hard, and well worth the little bit of effort.

Enjoy!