Cooking temp notes

Roasted chicken needs to reach 165 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh

Pork shoulder roast needs to reach 170 degrees and hold for 1 hour during cooking to guarantee tender pork - the intramuscular fat and sinew will have broken down

Cooked vs Uncooked Pasta

Uncooked pasta of similar sizes and shapes may be
interchanged in recipes if it is measured by weight, not volume. Just follow this guide:

Linguine, Spaghetti, or Vermicelli:
4 ounces dry = 2 to 3 cups cooked
8 ounces dry = 4 to 5 cups cooked
16 ounces dry = 8 to 9 cups cooked

Macaroni, Penne, or Rotini:
4 ounces dry = 2 1/2 cups cooked
8 ounces dry = 4 1/2 cups cooked

Fine or Medium Egg Noodles:
4 ounces dry = 2 to 3 cups cooked
8 ounces dry = 4 to 5 cups cooked

Baked Sausage Tip

During the years I spent in the restaurant business, I often had to prep large amounts of bacon or sausage links at one time. We would lay them out on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for varying amounts of time, depending on whether we needed them fully cooked, or merely blanched so that they would finish cooking more quickly for short orders.

At home, I use the same technique to cook bacon or sausage for breakfast. It's quick, reliable, doesn't leave grease spatters on my cooktop, and doesn't tie up a burner that I want to use while cooking eggs. There's some debate among purists about whether bacon tastes the same baked, as grilled or fried, and the only difference I can think of is that the sugar cure in bacon is more likely to get caramelized at high heat when frying it in a pan, thus the difference. But I digress.

In the restaurants, we used unlined baking sheets, as we had dishwashers and potscrubbers to clean up the mess afterwards, but at home I have to clean the pans myself (or my lovely wife does), so I like to line the pan with a foil sheet or baking paper before baking - just throw the foil away when you're done, and there's no baked-on gunk on the pan to scrub.

This works great for bacon, but for link sausage, the links often get stuck to the foil sheet. Just this morning, though, I finally tried a little trick - spraying the foil with vegetable oil before I put the links down on it.

It worked like a dream, the links didn't stick, and they came right off the foil when it was all cooked. Hope this tip is good for you, too.

To Bleach Yellowed Cotton Material

1 gallon hot water
1/2 cup Cascade liquid or 1 cup powdered dishwashing detergent
1/4 cup bleach
Soak 30 minutes.