The simplest way to tell if an egg is fresh is to observe its shell. If it's rough and chalky, it's fresh. If it's smooth and shiny, it's old. You can also place an egg in cold, salted water. If it sinks, it's fresh. If it floats, it's old. To tell if an egg is hardboiled or raw, spin it. A hard-boiled egg will spin smoothly. A raw egg will wobble. It is also worth knowing that it's easier to separate eggs when they are cold.

First, rinse the chicken, and trim away excess fat at the neck and body cavity.
Place chicken on its back, legs toward you.
1. Cut through the skin that attaches the breast to the thigh, exposing the meat beneath.
2. Pop out the thigh joint by bending the leg backward, away from the body; then cut around the bone to release the thigh and leg quarter. Repeat on the other side.

3. Hold the drumstick at a 45-degree angle with the bone pointing toward you, and cut down through the joint to separate the leg from the thigh.
4. Turn the bird onto its breast, and cut along each side of the spine to free the backbone.
5. Leaving the chicken on its breast, cut straight through the breastplate to make two halves.
6. Turn the breast halves skin side up. Make a diagonal cut about 1 inch in from where the wing joint meets the breast to remove the wings.

Ever gotten shouted at for drinking the shower water? Well, your mom was right to stop you. Hot water geysers have high potential for bacteria growth, and hot water corrodes pipes more quickly than cold water, resulting in more dissolved metals in the hot tap water.

The hot water geyser also dissipates the residual chlorine in the water, which could lead to bacteria growth as well. Hwever, there's no way of knowing the harmful nature of this bacteria unless you have it tested.

Egg yolk contains iron and egg white contains hydrogen sulfide. When eggs are overcooked, these two chemicals react to form ferrous sulfide, which is the unappetising green hue you get when eggs are hard-boiled. To prevent this, try the following cooking instructions:

Arrange eggs in a single layer inside the pot. Cover eggs with cold or luke warm water and bring to the boil over high heat. When the water boils, cover the pot and turn off the heat, let the eggs stand in the hot water for 15 minutes for large eggs (or 12 minutes for medium, 18 minutes for extra large). Drain the hot water and run cold water over the eggs to prevent overcooking.

When meat is cooked using high heat, carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed. But the carcinogens are more about the meat than the method of cooking.

When the amino acids and the creatine in meat is heated to a high temperature, they react and form HCAs. As vegetables do not contain creatine, they do not produce HCAs. PAHs are formed when meat is cooked over an open flame and fat drips onto the flames. The carcinogens from the burning fat then rises and adheres to the surface of the meat. Higher temperatures and longer cooking times increase the levels of PAHs and HCAs. When vegetable-based fat is burned, it only produces an insignificant number of PAHs, making it much safer than burnt animal fat.

Do you know the difference between prawns and shrimps? Most people refer to the small ones as shrimps and the bigger ones as prawns, but in fact, both prawns and shrimp are crustaceans belonging to the Decapoda order, but they are members of different suborders, and can be both big and small.

To tell them apart, look at the animal before it is shelled or deveined Look at the underside of the tail, the second plate in particular. On a shrimp the second plate overlaps the first and third plates, while on a prawn only the third plate.

Both convection and conventional ovens are powered by gas or electricity, and they both cook food by heating the air inside an enclosed oven. The difference is in the air. Inside a conventional oven, the air is more stationary radiating from one heat source, either grills at the top or grills at the bottom of the oven. In a convection oven, hot air is pumped into the oven and is evenly circulated, leaving no pockets of hotter or colder air.

This even distribution is better for even, fast cooking because the temperature is consistant, the top rack doesn't get cooked faster than the bottom rack, and it will in turn save you time and energy.