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Secrets For Making Incredible Hamburgers

Cheeseburgers are made out of hamburger and topped with cheese. How you prepare your meat and cook your hamburgers is one of the most important things you'll ever do. Never go low fat with a burger. If your going for flavor you want the fat. And you want to season your meat before you cook your burgers. Sure you can season it on the outside or let people add their seasonings at the table but your burgers will never be as good. Most people serve their cheeseburgers with mayonnaise, pickles, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, onion and crisply cooked bacon. No you don't have to add all those ingredients to the cheeseburger. Just add your favorite ingredients to the cheeseburger and enjoy it. I think the cheese added to burgers should be yellow American cheese but you may have your own favorite cheese. In case you're wondering adding cheese to burgers became common in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Though many restaurants claim they made the first cheeseburger no one really knows who made the very first one. It was in the late 1920s that prepared buns, hamburger and cheese became available in most areas of the United States so the first cheeseburger probably got made at about the same time. Cheeseburgers may have more than one hamburger pattie and they most certainly may have more than one piece of cheese. In most parts of the United States a stack of two hamburger patties with cheese is called a double cheeseburger. A new popular way of making a cheeseburger is called a Juicy Lucy. When making a Juicy Lucy the cheese is inside the hamburger. Yes the cheese is placed inside the burger and then the burger is cooked. You end up with one of the most delicious cheeseburgers in the world this way. Some people add various types of cheese, onion, and crumbled bacon inside their burgers. However you make it be sure to warn your family and friends that it has melted hot cheese inside it. Most people miss it but the bread is an important part of the cheeseburger. The most popular bread for cheeseburgers in the United States is the potato bread roll. Sure you may have never heard of it but I bet your local grocery store or supermarket has them in stock. The second most popular bread for cheeseburgers is the sesame seed bun. But what ever kind of bun you use on your cheeseburger it should be buttered and toasted. The easiest way to do this is on a flat grill but you can easily butter them and toast them under your ovens broiler. Be sure to stand there at the oven door and watch as your buns toast so they don't burn. You can go ahead and toast your buns and keep them warm in a home oven set on 200 degrees. Wrap your buns up in tin foil and then place on a pan in the oven. You can keep them that way for about an hour or so. You need ripe tomatoes for your cheeseburgers or hamburgers. Wash your tomatoes well under cold running water and then slice off the top where it once attached to the stem. Slice your tomatoes thin and keep them chilled in a plastic bowl in the refrigerator until you get ready to add them to your cheeseburger. I almost always use purple or red sweet onions for my burgers. I peel the onions and then I slice the onion very thin into slices. I cut them into cold water with a little ice to keep them crisp and then I cover them and set to the side while I prepare the rest of my ingredients. I almost always use Iceberg lettuce for my burgers. I break the lettuce apart into small pieces and then I lay the slices on a plate before I cover the lettuce leaves with plastic wrap and put the plate of lettuce into the refrigerator to stay chilled. The ingredients you put on your cheeseburger or burger needs to be of the highest possible quality and the vegetable ingredients like the onion, lettuce and tomato need to be kept chilled until they are put on your burger.

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Italian Food Recipes by Giammarco Schisani

Italian food is famous throughout the world for being healthy, delicious and easy to prepare. Catering for a variety of tastes, famous Italian food includes pizza, pasta dishes with a variety of sauces as well as a variety of red meat dishes. Whatever your preferences, you can be sure to find a great Italian dish that you will love. Mushroom Pesto Lasagna

This is a great dish to allow vegetarians to have a taste of Italy! For best results you should make with fresh egg pasta rather than using dried lasagna noodles. This can be served along with parmesan cheese for best results. Shrimp Scampi Getting this recipe right involves cooking the scampi to perfection. This recipe is great with garlic and butter, while serving crusty bread alongside it will ensure that diners have an opportunity to sop up any residual sauce. Fish Soup with Gremolata This can be found in different forms and with different regional takes throughout Italy. The seafood you decide to use can vary based on the preferences of the diner, and what is available for you to use at a given time. Usually cooked in white wine, this dish was originates from the Adriatic coast where it first became popular decades ago. Chicken Scarpariello This is a dish which is often referred to as being Italian American, translating as shoemakers chicken, the dish comprises of chicken in a lemon sauce. The chicken should be cooked until golden brown and the meal should be served alongside a dry white wine. Chicken Marsala This is a unique dish because it looks so elegant that it is suitable for the most sophisticated of occasions, however it is so easy to prepare. The dish is healthy because it is does not use much oil, and the chicken is usually served in a bed of flavored herb rice, alternatively it can also be served alongside potatoes. Spaghetti and Meatballs The trick to perfecting this recipe is to use the best possible ingredients you can find and take advantage of them. The quality of chopped tomatoes that you use can really make or break this dish. If you are making the meatballs then you could either opt for beef and veal or beef and turkey; they are probably the most suited to the sauce. Beef Carpaccio This dish consists of thin slices of raw beef and is generally served as an appetizer or a starter. The dish was originally conceived in Harry's Bar in Venice where it has since became popular throughout the world. The variations between Arugula Leaves, lemon wedges and raw beef make the taste so unique. Zuppa Toscana This dish consists of turkey sausage, onions, bacon and potatoes. Although not an overly healthy recipe, that does not stop thousands of people around the world naming it their favorite Italian dish of all time. A great aspect of this dish is that it can really be tailored to anyone's taste, such as changing the ratio of Chicken Broth and heavy cream - or alternatively including or leaving out certain meats.

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How to Manage the modern pizzeria

Introduction The notion that you can be lax at all in the way that you run a pizzeria today is totally untrue. Pizzas like the 14" pepperoni pizza are a commodity. When you have pizzerias like little Caesars selling large pepperoni pizzas for $5.00 every day, it creates real turbulence in the pizzeria market. During the Monday through Thursday sales period it creates a real problem in the local pizzeria market. During this period you don't want your pizza maker just sitting around so you are forced to compete by having a cheaper pizza during this period. On the weekends consumers buy more multi ingredient pizzas, and this takes some of the pressure off for that time frame. However you have to maintain good control over both food and other costs to remain profitable over the longer time frame in your local pizzeria. With this mind we will now look at managing food costs. Controlling your food costs When I owned my last pizzeria in the late 1990s I understood the idea of controlling food costs very well. I knew the price each week on cheese, pepperoni, sausage, flour and pizza boxes very well. If any of those prices went up a few pennies I was really searching for a better price. By the way pizza boxes are a very important component of your final price on carryout pizzas. In a single ingredient pizza the only items that cost more than the pizza box are the cheese and the single ingredient you put on the pizza. In New York city they recycle used cardboard into new pizza boxes, because it helps to cut back on the mountain of garbage they generate each day in that city. The cost of cheese is the one item over which you have the least control, it varies with the price of milk many times a year. The price of your pizza has to be figured according to what you believe the high price of cheese will be for the year. Then when the cheese is enough lower in price you can pursue more marketing with coupons.

The next item that has been increasing a lot over recent years is the cost of flour. This causes some pizzeria owners to switch types of flour to save money. As a new pizza business owner you need to understand that if you are serving a regular thin style of pizza you need to be using high gluten flour. If you don't your customers will notice the difference, and go somewhere else. If you are using all purpose flour because it is a couple dollars cheaper per bag, that is a false economy. The next area to consider is your cost of labor. Controlling your labor costs The cost of labor is a very important segment of your overall cost structure. As a percentage you are looking to keep your cost of labor below 20 percent. That means the use of a lot of part time labor during busy periods, and scheduling long workdays for some part timers that doesn't put them over 40 hours in any week. You need to understand that you only need to have workers on the job when they are really needed for producing pizzas. That is the only way to keep your labor cost below 20 percent. The next thing to understand about controlling your labor costs are your hiring and firing practices. You need to learn to hire slowly, and to fire fast. If any employee gives you a reason to fire them you do it quickly, and then mark their file so that you don't rehire them. That way you keep improving the overall quality of your employees, and eventually you will end up with a good crew of employees that work good when you need them. However you will have to go through a lot of employees to get to that point. To get one good long term employee you will probably have to go through 25 to 50 workers that won't be able to make the grade long term. You will hire lots of workers that only want to work when they want to, and this doesn't work in the pizza business. Your major need for labor is on the weekends, and this is the time when most workers want to go out and have fun, not have to work. The workers that don't want to work weekends you need to get rid of fast. The next area of labor cost to deal with is the delivery drivers, and this job calls for hiring what are called independent contractors. They are paid a delivery charge by the customer, and that is what makes up their wages. When they come to work they have to prove that they have a drivers license and that they have their vehicle insured. You then charge your customers within a three mile radius a standard delivery charge of $2.50 to $3.00 which goes to the delivery driver. When you collect from the driver for the delivery it is always minus the delivery charge which goes to the driver. That way you don't have to keep track of how much your delivery drivers make. The next area to consider is your fixed expenses, and the percentage of gross sales that fixed costs should be. Controlling pizzeria fixed costs The fixed costs of a pizzeria include the rent, the utilities, insurance, and bookkeeping. You should strive to keep the fixed costs of your pizzeria between 15 and 20 percent of gross sales. The hardest part of controlling these expenses is controlling what you need to spend on the utilities especially on the electric. That is why you need to install a walk in cooler to supply most of the refrigeration, it helps keep the overall refrigeration cost down. The rental cost is set in place when you sign the lease and take over the store. That is why it is so important to keep your rental cost at about $1.25 a sq ft, and the space at about a thousand square feet. That way your rental cost is about $1,250.00 a month, and you need to do about twenty thousand a month to support that rental cost. When you combine the rental cost, utility cost, and the other fixed costs you have a total of about $3,000 a month this means that you need sales of twenty thousand a month to make sure the fixed costs come out at 15 percent. Managing the marketing of your pizzeria Managing the marketing function is the most important job the modern pizzeria manager has to deal with You can have the best pizza available, and without proper marketing you will struggle over the years to maintain adequate sales growth with the proper amount of gross profit. How you market a modern pizzeria has changed a lot over the last 20 years. When I ran my pizzeria in 1995 you passed out fliers on a daily basis, and worked with local schools that were having pizza parties, and this was the major share of how you marketed your pizza place. Now you have to have POS systems and be involved with online ordering, email marketing, SMS text messaging, have a good website, and be involved with social media in order to properly market your pizzeria. If you are not involved with all these different marketing platforms you won't get the best sales results for your pizzeria. Having a good POS system that is closely associated with an online ordering site that supplies smartphone apps for your customers is absolutely essential from your opening date. This however is just the start, because you also need the ability to do email marketing with customers. Having the ability to send text messages that offer pizza specials to customers is also essential. Dealing with customers through social media sites to not only offer pizza specials, but to resolve complaints that customers have is also very important. These are all components of modern pizza marketing, and they are all needed to run a successful pizzeria. Summary There are four areas of management in a pizzeria that are very important to your success. We have looked at each one in this article and explained how you need to be proficient in each area. Becoming good in each one of these four areas is absolutely necessary if you want to run your own pizzeria. You cannot depend on anyone else to supply the needed knowledge, it is something you need to understand yourself. With the proper knowledge you have a much better chance of running a successful local pizzeria.

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Five Healthy Breakfast Ideas for Busy Families by Jamie Jefferson

You know the importance of serving your family a healthy breakfast, but there's often not a lot of time in the mornings. Here are a few simple and healthy breakfast recipes that you can have on the table in just 20 minutes and that will give your family the nutrition they need. Cereal and soy milk Soy milk is full of healthy protein. Choose a cereal that has high fiber content and is free of high fructose corn syrup. Sprinkling some organic sugar over some plain cereal is often preferable to eating pre-sweetened cereal. Read labels on the cereal carefully and then stock up on your family's favorites. Whole wheat toast and natural peanut butter Whole-wheat toast is full of fiber and good carbohydrates to get you through your morning. Children love the idea of eating peanut butter for breakfast, which makes this meal a winning treat in most households. Look for natural peanut butter that is made without hydrogenated vegetable oil. If you have to stir up the peanut butter before you can use it, it's a safe bet. Add a piece of fruit, such as a banana or apple, and you have a well-rounded and easy breakfast. Yogurt and fruit

A tub of vanilla yogurt and some fresh fruit are all you need for this healthy and fun breakfast. You can buy frozen berries, thaw them in the microwave and then drizzle them over the yogurt. You can also pair yogurt with peaches, melon or bananas for a sweet breakfast treat. Add a handful of sesame seeds or walnuts into the mix for a fun and delicious crunch. Breakfast smoothie If you want to make the previous idea even easier, throw the yogurt and fruit into a blender with some juice and a few ice cubes. You can make large batches of smoothies to feed your whole family. You can even sneak in some spinach or celery in the mix to add to the nutrition of the drink. Experiment with different flavor combinations so you can always have something new. Home baked goods Donuts and muffins are definitely easy breakfast foods to get on the run, but they aren't very healthy. Look online for healthy and hearty muffin recipes that feature whole wheat flour and applesauce to replace some of the fat and sugar in traditional recipes. Spend some time on Sunday afternoon baking up the next week's breakfast. Children will love to get in on the baking process and you can make creating your breakfast for the week a whole family event. These ideas don't take long to make, and your family will love starting their day with a healthy, hearty family breakfast.

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Some Interesting Facts About Mexican Food

Mexican food is gaining popularity all over the globe for many reasons. There is a wide range of Mexican food and you can taste combinations you might not have tried before. It smells wonderful, tastes great, and is also very healthy. Mexican food differs through the ages, depending on the ingredients available but the sheer volume of Mexican restaurants appearing all over the world prove what an exciting and enjoyable cuisine it is. Authentic Mexican recipes are easy to find but if you want to make your own Mexican food, you can be as creative as you like. A lot of the Mexican food available to day is based on traditional Mexican recipes, which the Aztecs and Mayas invented. There are also some exotic recipes featuring iguana, rattlesnake, and spider monkeys, which are not unheard of ingredients but are seldom used in modern Mexican cuisine. We have plenty more ingredients from all over the world to use in our recipes these days and Mexican food has evolved as a result of that. In addition, Mexican food evolved more when the spanish colonists arrived, bringing new cookery ideas, methods, and different ingredients to incorporate in existing Mexican food dishes. Chili pepper has been a staple ingredient in Mexican recipes for thousands of years and is still very popular. Some Mexican dishes, especially those originating from the Yucatan and Vera Cruz, have a Caribbean influence. Other Mexican dishes, such as bolillo, have a French influence. Bolillo is a popular Mexican bread. There are many health benefits when it comes to Mexican foods. They are rich in vitamins and minerals, with low fat and calories. You are not eating authentic Mexican food if you eat at Taco Bell. America has added many fats to the foods, which does not contain all the nutrients you would eat if you ate in Mexico. Mexican dishes contain many fresh ingredients that you may not be able to find in other types of cuisine. Tomatoes, peppers, onions, and others are very healthy for your body. Each Mexican region offers different Mexican food. A lot of this depends on the geography and climate of the region and its ethnic differences. In the north of Mexico, meat dishes are very popular. In the south, vegetables and chicken are widely used. The Mexican state of Vera Cruz produces a lot of seafood dishes because this state is long and tropical and there are lowlands running up and down the Gulf of Mexico. Fish such as grouper, red snapper, mojarra, and snook are easy to find. Mojarra is an especially delicious local fish. Lobsters, crab, and oysters are plentiful. As well as the ocean, over forty rivers run through this state. There are many types of shellfish and freshwater fish available. These seafood recipes are prepared in different ways. Seafood can add a different taste to popular authentic Mexican recipes and it is a very healthy part of the diet.

You can learn a lot of history and facts about Mexican food by the different regions. Trying new recipes will give you a taste as to why they differ. With Mexican culture rich in history, it is always nice to learn about how the foods came about and how they are nowadays. Once you are knowledgeable about the dishes, it makes it even more enjoyable when cooking and eating. By: KC Kudra.. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com Discover the truth about Mexican food history and find out more about the wonderful spices that make Mexican recipes a favorite with the whole family.

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Cooking Tips & Recipes :: Hamburger Secrets #2

You would think that needing to know when to start cooking at the bbq would be a no brainer, but time and time again I see the same cardinal sin committed. One hard and fast rule applies here: make sure the bbq is HOT before you start placing food portions on it to start cooking! Cranking up the bbq and throwing the meat on before the bbq has reached full temperature is a sure fire way to end up with a very average Hamburger. Why?

Well, I'll tell you. #1 - Letting the bbq (and/or hot plate) reach maximum temperature ensures that any "nasties" that are there are burned away. By "nasties" I'm referring of course to things like germs and unwanted microbes that gather there from the last cook. A sort of sterilisation, if you like. I usually fire up the bbq, smear a little oil over the hot plate, and leave it to heat up for a good 15 minutes or so. Once the oil begins to lightly smoke, it's ready for me to start cooking. #2 - Placing meat products on to a well heated bbq sears the meat quickly and locks in the flavour. If the bbq is not hot the food just sits there sweating. The juices run out on to the hot plate and whamo, dry cook. (Meats cooked like this usually have the texture of cheap leather: not very pleasant to eat). #3 - Consistencies with your cooking. By this I mean you having an in-built timer whereby you'll automatically know (with practice) how long different foods will have to stay on the bbq. If your bbq is at maximum temperature, then you should be able to time how long your Hamburgers or Steak need to cook for. This also helps with timing when to place eggs, bacon, and other things on the bbq so that the different components of your meal are ready at the same time and not going cold or dry sitting on a plate somewhere (by the way, I dislike leaving food "to heat up later" because it just doesn't taste as good, so don't do it, OK?) So there you go. A few simple tips on improving your culinary skills around the bbq. Use them and you'll reap the rewards of not only better meals, but of your friends and family raving about your new found skills as a chef! When cooking Hamburgers, there's a definite sequence to getting everything ready and succulent at just the right time. There's no point in cooking the meat "just right" and then your bacon or the egg is like cardboard. Not a good combination. That topic I'll discuss in another article. Until then... Have a great day around the BBQ!

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Italian Cuisine Recipes

Italian cuisine is one of the most popular food cultures of the world. It is an ever developing type of cuisine, which has been inspired and influenced by many of its culinary counterparts like the Arab, Jewish, Etruscan, ancient Roman, ancient Greek, and Byzantine cuisines. Italian dishes, and their ingredients and condiments, vary greatly according to the region from where they have originated. However, coffee or espresso, cheese, and wine are the three main components of this cuisine. Given below are a few Italian recipes that are popular, delectable, and traditional. Traditional Italian Meal Course Italian cuisine is a perfect combination of various cultures that collaborated in Italy during the period of its unification. However, it is believed that the authentic recipes evolved from traditional Mediterranean food culture. Italian food mainly consists of fresh fruits, vegetables and fish, various types of breads, roasted meats, baked pies, stuffed pastries, pastas, various types of cheese, pickled vegetables, and much more. A traditional meal is divided into 7 courses--Antipasto or appetizer, Primo (soup, pasta, risotto), Secondo (main dish, fish, and meat), Contorno (salad or side dish), Dolce (dessert), Caffee (espresso), and Liqueurs (which is also referred to as the coffee killer course). Given below are some details about the same. Antipasto The first course is called Antipasto. In English, it is known as the dishes that are served before the pasta. This course consists of hot as well as cold appetizers, which are made using local food products. Primo This is the prime course of the meal, and is hence known as primo. During this course, many types of pasta, risotto, soup, and such other light dishes are served. Secondo This is actually the main course, which is known as Secondo. It contains all the main Italian dishes made of rice, meat, and fish. Apart from the ones mentioned below, dishes like pancetta, prosciutto di parma, prosciutto cotto, salame, bistecca fiorentina (steak florentine), fritto misto di pesce, frittata di bianchetti, zuppa di pesce (fish soup), riso con piselli or risi e bisi (rice with peas), are also served. Contorno An interesting fact about the Italian cuisine is that salads and side dishes, which are a part of the Contorno course, are always served after the main course. Dolce After all the scrumptious main course dishes come the desserts. This is the fifth course, which is known as Dolce. As the name suggests, Dolce is the course of various mouth-watering desserts like Macedonia fresh fruit salad recipes and anisette cookies. Caffee After the desserts arrives the sixth course which consists of a hot espresso with a layer of froth on top. Italian coffee is very popular all over the world. Apart from those mentioned below, coffee varieties like espresso, ristretto, grolla dell'amicizia (made with coffee and grappa), marocchino, macchiato, corretto, and bicerin (hot chocolate, coffee, and whipped cream) are also popularly savored in Italy. Liqueurs This is the seventh and final course. It is also known as the coffee killer course and consists of some alcoholic beverages that belong to various regions of Italy. Most of the time, Italian wine and liquor types like Amaro, pale lager, Limoncello or lemon liqueur, Campari, various martinis, Vermouth, and Grappa or prosecco (which is a substitute for French champagne), are served during this course. Hence, Italian food is not only about pastas and pizzas. There are numerous other recipes apart from the Italian pizza, that have helped increase the richness of this food culture. Given below are some sauce recipes that are required for almost all dishes. Given below are the cuisines which are specific to the northern, central, and southern parts of Italy. Northern Italy Various regions of Italy that belong to the northern province are: Val d'Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, and Liguria. The northern cuisine is characterized by olive oil, tomato sauce, pastas, lard (butter), corn, cream sauces, rice, and cheese. Some of the most popular food recipes are: basil pesto sauce with trenette (trenette pasts with basil pesto sauce), zuppa di datteri (shellfish soup), ravioli, pandolce Genovese (fruit and nut, sweet Italian pizza), prosciutto, guguluf (ring cake), gnocchi (dumplings), risi e bisi (rice with peas), white truffles, and veal chops with fontina cheese. Central Italy Most of the world famous dishes hail from the central provinces of Italy. This region is the motherland of rich oils, popular types of cheese, cured meats, various types of Italian sauces, delicious beef recipes, and seafood delicacies. Regions that belong to central Italy are: Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria mountainous region, Lazio, Rome, Abruzzi, and Molise. All these regions share an interesting heritage of mouth-watering foods and different types of cheese like Pecorino, Caciocavallo, Scamorza and Latticing, Pecorino and Casciotta d'Urbino, pecorino cheese, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Lasagna, Cappelletti or egg pasta, Spongata tart, Pesto di Modena, Crema paradiso or creamed bacon, Panini sandwich, Filone bread, Capocollo sausage, coppa sausage, and different types of red wine and white wine, are some popular dishes belonging to this region. Southern Italy This province is said to be the heart of Italian food culture. Regions belonging to this province are: Campania, Sicily, Sardinia, Puglia, Calabria, and Basilicata. These regions are rich in a variety of vegetables, fruits (especially citrus fruits), durum wheats (pasta), vineyards, and olive groves. Some of the best olive oil of the world is exported from southern Italy. This area is also a rich source of seafood like clams, tuna, sea urchins, and anchovies. Similar to rest of the country, these regions are also popular for some of the delicious types of cheese like Caciocavallo, Canestrato, Ricotta, Mozzarella, Pecorino, Pecorino Sardo and Fiore Sardo, Scamorza, and many other types of cheese made from goat and sheep milk. It also produces some of the finest types of wine like Marsala, Malvasia, Etna and Lipari, Greco di Tufo, Lacryma Christi, Taurasi, Vesuvio, Castel del Monte, and a few other popular white and red wines.

The Italian cooking culture is a very vast and interesting topic. It is not practically possible to sum it up in one go.