5 Cooking Tips I Wish I Had Knew Earlier

I got this tip off one of those cooking shows with Gordon Ramsey. You may not think it's important to season individual ingredients, but it makes a world of difference in some cases.   For instance, when I make tacos, I always dice up a bowl of tomatoes and put lime and pepper on them.  Think about it this way, there are times when you bite into a taco or even a burger and you don't get the whole thing (burger, sauce, veg, bread), sometimes you only get part of the ingredients. If they're seasoned individually that bite tastes awesome too.

You just can't make good ribs in a hurry. This is a tip I learned from listeners. I put rub on my ribs and put them in the oven at 300 for about five hours. Sometimes, I will then finish them off on the grill, but they are usually so moist and tender from cooking them this way that we just glaze them with barbecue sauce and get after it.

I had the wife pick me up one of those janky hamburger presses. I was just tired of my burgers looking like crap, falling apart or having thin burnt edges. One of the items on the instructions helped me out immensely. When your working with ground beef, wet everything it's going to touch. Give your bowl, hands, gloves or even spoon a quick rinse. The burger won't stick to it as bad.

Always use cooking spray. Always. Even on the barbecue grill (but careful it will flame up). It seems unnecessary when you're dealing with fatty meats (you'd think they'd make their own lube) but it helps even with them. Plus, how many times have you had an awesome steak on the grill and some of it stuck when you went to flip it over?

This is another one of those listener tips that seems so logical, but you never think of. When you're making your hamburger patties, make a little dent in the middle. It doesn't have to be much, but since it takes long for the heat to reach the middle, if the middle is thinner, it will even out the cooking time.