Instructions: 1. There are three essential knives for the home kitchen - but they should be of
good quality and honed before each use
to keep them smooth and sharp. They are
a chefs knife, a utility knife, and a
paring knife.

2. Ever wonder why your eyes tear while
youre chopping onions? Its because
your knife is dull. Only with a sharp
knife can you slice an onion cleanly -
without crushing it and releasing the
sulfuric acid.

3. Dont trim both ends of an onion before you start chopping. Leave the root end
intact. Slice crosswise first, stopping
your blade just short of the root end.

This will keep the onion together as you start cutting in the other direction.

4. If you plan to serve your chopped onions raw, make sure you rinse them in cold
water - that washes away any residue of
sulfuric acid - then use a cloth towel
to squeeze them dry.

5. There are three simple ways to peel a tomato. If its firm, use a vegetable
peeler or sharp knife to saw back and forth as you go round and round. Or
impale the tomato on a long-handled fork and - turning as you go - char the skin
off over the direct flame of a gas
burner. But if you have a lot of
tomatoes to peel, just drop them in
simmering water - from 10 seconds in
theyre very ripe, up to 50 seconds if
theyre not - and remove them with a
long-handled fork. The skin will pull
off easily with a knife. Some will say
to chill the tomatoes in ice water after pulling them from the hot water, but
that will wash out some of the flavor.

6. Want to know how to keep the skin of
chicken from sticking to the pan during
roasting? Put a piece of parchment paper underneath

7. To keep the cut end of your artichoke from discoloring, tie a slice of lemon
to the bottom of each artichoke before
cooking. Then cut the strings and remove the lemon before serving.

8. Need to chill wine or champagne in a
hurry? Put coarse sea salt or kosher
salt in the ice water to lower the
temperature in the wine bucket. Then
turn the bottle regularly for about 20
minutes, and voila - it will be ice
cold.

9. Heres how to keep the shells from
cracking when youre boiling eggs:
Gently pierce the wide end of each raw
egg with a push-pin or thumb tack to
release the air inside the shell and give the egg itself some "leg" room.

Its that air which, when heated in
water, expands to break the shell, often carrying the white of the egg - the
albumen - with it.

10. More egg tips:
* If you have a lot of eggs to separate, dont do them one by one. Break them all into one large bowl, and use your clean
hands to lift out the yolks. Let any
adhering egg white dribble back into the bowl.

* Crack your eggs on a flat surface - on a cutting board or on the counter - to
make sure broken bits of shell dont
fall into your bowl or into the egg
itself.

* Add a little white vinegar to the water youre using to poach eggs. It keeps the whites from "wandering." When theyre
done, lift them out with a slotted spoon directly into an ice bath to rinse off
the vinegar and stop the cooking. Before serving, trim the irregular portions off the cooked egg with scissors or a knife.

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