Secret cooking ingredients, plus a bonus recipe

These time-tested cooking secrets are the final touches you need to nail your grandma's classic dishes.

Just about everyone has a memory of a dish they've tried that tastes better than all the rest. Perhaps it's your Grandma's pumpkin pie that has a unique flavour that makes it soar above every pumpkin pie you've ever had.

Or maybe Aunt Rosa's long-simmered tomato sauce has a savoury spark that no other tomato sauce can match. It could be your Uncle Bob's beef stew with a rich consistency that outclasses all other stews in a single spoonful.

• The answer, in most cases, is simple: it's a small amount of some secret ingredient, something easy to overlook, something only a seasoned cook would know to add. That special something in Grandma's pumpkin pie? It's probably not in the filling.
• Look in the crust. Finely ground nuts like pecans or walnuts mixed right into the pie dough ­create a crunchy, nutty-tasting crust that ­perfectly complements the sweet and creamy pumpkin filling.
• How about that special flavour in Aunt Rosa's fabulous tomato sauce? A single mashed anchovy fillet is likely what gives the sauce all the savoury spunk it needs.
• And what's the velvety texture in Uncle Bob's beef stew? Most likely, it comes from plain old unflavoured gelatin.
• Sprinkling a ­little gelatin into a soup, stew or sauce ­creates a rich, mouth-filling consistency that's hard to duplicate any other way.
• It's an old chef's secret for giving thin sauces a little extra oomph.Here's one example for your recipe book: lemon-lime soda in a marinade for pork.

Recipes don't come much easier than this one. If you use pre-chopped garlic, you won't have to cut anything but the pork.

Prep time 10 minutes plus 4 hours marinating
Cook time 15 minutes
Serves 6

• 85 ml (5 tbsp) soy sauce
• 50 ml (1/4 c) ketchup
• 15 ml (3 tbsp) vinegar
• 15 ml (3 tbsp) chili sauce
• 15 ml (3 tbsp) sugar
• 10 ml (2 tsp) salt
• 0.5 ml (1/8 tsp) freshly ground black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 cans (350 g/12 oz each) lemon-lime soda
• 2 pork tenderloins (about 1 kg/2 lb), cut lengthwise into 1 cm (1/2 in) strips

1. In a large zip-close bag or shallow glass container, combine the soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, chili sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic and soda.
2. Add the pork and turn to coat. Seal the bag or cover the container and refrigerate for four hours or overnight.
3. Preheat a grill to medium-high. Drain and discard the marinade. Thread the pork onto metal or soaked bamboo skewers. Grill until browned and the juices run clear, about 12 minutes.

The perfect companion: Serve these pork skewers with a spicy peanut dip made by whisking together 100 millilitres (3/4 cup) chicken broth, 50 millilitres (1/2 cup) peanut butter, 30 millilitres (two tablespoons) teriyaki sauce or soy sauce, five millilitres (one teaspoon) toasted sesame oil and seven millilitres (1 1/2 teaspoons) hot-pepper sauce.

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