People Are Sharing Their Most Life-Changing Cooking Hacks, And They Might Actually Surprise You

Every person who finds themselves in a kitchen every now and then has a cooking secret. Or two, or tons, if you ask experienced chefs.

Think of a splash of OJ in banana bread, lemon zest in garlic butter, a chicken stock cube to the pasta as it cooks, the tricks are endless. And although some may sound pretty bizarre at first, we gotta remind you that cooking is an adventure. There’s no strict instruction to follow and the more you experiment, the better the outcome will be (which translates into sighs, empty plates, asking for another one and endless compliments).

So if you’re in the mood for trying some out-of-the-box cooking hacks, this illuminating thread from the Cooking subreddit is a place to start. “What’s your 'weird but life-changing' cooking hack?” someone asked and the responses came rolling in, so take your notes out and let’s see what’s cooking!

#1

I don’t think it’s weird but I save all the scraps of my vegetables — onions, garlic, bell peppers, carrots, celery, herb stems, tomatoes, mushrooms — and collect them in a freezer bag and when it’s full I turn it into stock and then use that stock to replace the water while cooking rice, quinoa, lentils, etc.

Image credits: Grendels-mum

#2

Lemon zest in garlic butter, specifically for garlic bread. It's an absolute game changer, even just a little bit.

Image credits: PhatChance52

#3

Cutting hot peppers and don't want an unfortunate accident in the bathroom (peeing, changing contacts, etc) later? When done, rub a little neutral oil (canola, vegetable) on your hands, then wash with a little dish soap. The capsaicin (spicy chemical in the peppers) essentially binds with the oil, then the dish soap takes care of the oil on your hands.

Image credits: CorneliusJenkins

#4

Never using chicken breasts and always substituting chicken thighs. Seriously, they’re a little fattier sure but make chicken dishes taste amazing vs average.

Image credits: Gratchki

#5

Adding a splash of orange juice to pumpkin or banana bread. The acidity really adds some brightness against the spices

Image credits: JMSidhe

#6

Keep ginger in the freezer. Use a micro plane or grater to grate the frozen ginger into sauces, fried rice, etc.

Edit: Lots of people asking; No, you don't have to peel it first. You can if you want. I don't, just wash the skin.

Image credits: 365eats

#7

A splash of vinegar in the water to boil potatoes for either potato salad or for roasting after boiling

Image credits: level 1 ladyships-a-legend

#8

I use olive brine/pickle brine to add flavour a lot of dishes like casseroles, stews, etc. It adds a nice depth of flavour.

Image credits: skakkuru

#9

I keep parmesan rinds in my freezer for stock, sauces, and stews. I just throw it in after everything else to simmer. It makes a remarkable difference especially in tomato sauces. Almost every benefits from a little alchohol. Wine, whiskey, bourbon, ect depending on what makes sense with your flavor profile.

Image credits: Jerkrollatex

#10

Toss noodles in toasted sesame oil after they’ve drained. Takes them to another level.

Image credits: unknown

#11

I never tried mixing butter and soy sauce in the same dish until I was in my late twenties, but once I tried it, it quickly became one of my favorite flavor combinations. It's excellent in just about any savory dish. It works especially well with mushrooms.

Image credits: PotusChrist

#12

When I bake, I grease my pans, but instead of using flour to coat it, I use granulated sugar. It makes the edges sweet and crunchy, and saves me from needing to use icing or frosting.

Image credits: topazlacee

#13

When you're cutting broccoli or cauliflower, turn it upside down. Then rotate it as you cut the stem part. SO MUCH CLEANER than cutting through the flowery part from the top, and you get really nice florets

Image credits: January1171

#14

Mixing in some soy sauce to eggs adds good flavor. Mix in some toasted sesame seed oil and a dash of smoked paprika, and they take on a faintly bacon like taste.

Image credits: ArachisDiogoi

#15

When roasting meat, add your herbs and spices in order of coarse to fine.

I noticed that when I didn't pay attention to the order of things, I'd cut into a nice piece of chicken or pork and half the seasonings would fall off onto the plate.

Now I'll do something like thyme, then coarse black pepper, then cayenne, then garlic powder, and everything sticks to the meat far, far better.

Image credits: MercuryCrest

#16

Not sure if it counts as weird but cooking my vegetable in the last few minutes of boiling water for my pasta dish. They soak up that starchy deliciousness and it turns many of my recipes into one-pot cooking recipes.

Image credits: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cooking/comments/id8d5j/comment/g27evk4/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

#17

If your soup/stew is too salty, a splash of vinegar usually balances it out

I'm sure this has been said before, but using mayo in place of butter when frying grilled cheese makes it so much better

Image credits: misfireish

#18

Baking powder on your chicken skin for extra crispy

Image credits: dalore

#19

For easy minced garlic anytime, blend up a bunch of peeled garlic with a little olive oil. Pour into a freezer ziplock, squeeze out excess air, and freeze flat. Snap off a chunk anytime you need. I’m too lazy to actually peel and mince garlic in the middle of cooking a weeknight dinner.

Used to buy so many of those frozen garlic cubes from Trader Joe’s (seriously like 8 packs at a time) before doing this.

Image credits: magenta_mojo

#20

Okay, people call me crazy, they call me nuts, they laugh at me, and they downvote me every time I bring this up. But...

The microwave is extremely useful for potatoes in a pinch to speed up the whole process.

For baked potatoes, I microwave in plastic wrap for 5 minutes, then throw them in the oven for 15. Perfect baked potatoes in 20 minutes instead of 60, can’t complain.

Even better, for frying up crispy potatoes for breakfast or dinner, chop up and toss with a little olive oil and salt and pepper, then microwave with a lid for 5 minutes, then straight into a cast iron pan to get them crispy. You can oven roast from there too, 10m at 425 or so.

It just speeds everything up and they come out delicious.

#21

A lot of great endorsements or kitchen shears/scissors as a cutting utensil in this thread.

Just an advisory, make sure if you’re going to do this that you buy a pair that can be taken apart because otherwise harmful bacteria can get trapped in between the blades or in the rivet where they’re attached.

Image credits: DreadandButter

#22

Cutting basil with scissors will keep it fresh and green and delicious. I always keep a jar of mayonnaise, touch of olive oil and basil in the fridge. Goes with anything.

#23

When making biscuits or pie dough or anything that requires "Cutting in" you can instead just take a frozen stick of butter and grate it on the coarse side of a cheese grater. It makes perfect pea sized pieces in like 1/10 the amount of time.

#24

Tip for sauces, batters, soups, etc:

If your recipe requires a tablespoon of something oily (butter, olive oil) and something sticky (honey, agave, maple syrup, molasses), do the oily thing first and don’t wash the spoon. The sticky thing will slide right out.

Likewise, coat a measuring spoon lightly in something oily whenever you have to measure sticky stuff, regardless of if the recipe actually calls for oil.

#25

Clean all your dishes during / after cooking. Then clean-up just becomes part of the cooking process and you don't even have to think about it anymore.

#26

I don’t think anyone will see this but if you have bread that’s close to going stale, put it in the freezer and use it for garlic bread, bread crumbs, French toast, and other things.

#27

Life pro tip: pour the stock into an ice cube tray so then you can have frozen flavor cubes!

#28

Stop cutting the ends off of things before cutting them. Use the end as a handle

Image credits: MMCookingChannel

#29

Pre-toast flour for roux. Spread flour in a thin layer on a baking sheet and bake at 400F, stirring often, until it’s toasty. Cool and store, and use it as the flour in any roux to dramatically speed up the process. If you have toasted flour on hand you’re basically halfway to gumbo at any moment, and it’s a nice flavor boost for other kinds of flour-based sauces and gravies!

Image credits: whateverpieces

#30

If a cake recipe calls for milk and eggs; a can of 7-Up (soda) works equally well. The cake is extra moist and light

#31

If you have a gas stove, try heating them directly on the grate. The flames will create toasty spots and the tortillas seem to get much warmer and tastier

#32

Draining boiled instant noodles/pasta from the pot by holding the lid open just a crack over the sink. And the hack is to wear an oven glove/mitt. Saves me from using and later washing a colander.

#33

Using a potato masher for browning ground beef

#34

If you're really feeling boujee, try better than bullion. Holy shit. Life changing. I use it with rice as well.

#35

Brown butter basting a steak after searing it. Obviously it hikes up the calorie count but it's filthy and delicious.

#36

I know I'm late to the party but anchovies in pasta/pizza sauce. It really ups the flavor and doesn't taste fishy at all.

#37

Two things:

Keeping a squirt/spray bottle of water next to my stove.

There's soooo many dishes where a spray or squirt bottle to create steam elevates the dish.

Grilled cheese? Squirt a little water on the griddle and cover to make the cheese EXTRA gooey inside.

Noodle stir fry like Pad Thai or 3am drunken ramen and leftovers? A squirt of water to make some steam will help cook the noodles evenly and distribute whatever sauce/seasoning you added.

Really, the only thing the squirt bottle hasn't helped me with are sauces (who wants watered down gravy?) and most veggies (water is built in).

Salting my (almost all of) veggies after cooking, never before

There are some exceptions like eggplant that need salting beforehand to sweat it make it stir-fryable. But most veggies need salt for finishing, otherwise they will release water faster than a home cooking range/oven can sizzle off, turning all your veggies into boiled veggies.

Salting after things are cooked and rested allows the veggies to maintain their textures, and if you're roasting or frying, gives them a good sear.

#38

More a cleaning hack, but for heavy duty cookware, like cast iron or stainless steel cleaning the pan immediately after cooking is 100% easier than waiting for everything to cool to room temp

#39

chopsticks: the hitchhiker’s towel of the kitchen. went on a long camping trip and needed to travel light, opted for chopsticks instead of carrying multiple utensils both for cooking and eating, discovered how versatile they are. now i continue to use them all over the kitchen even though i have plenty of other utensils handy. i have a caddy full of wooden chopsticks that i reach for constantly while cooking. (they’re easier to clean than a whisk/tongs too!)

• use in place of tongs (flip stuff, move stuff around)
• use in place of a whisk when making a thin batter/sauce
• scrambled eggs: use to whisk, and to stir while cooking
• (specifically for wooden chopsticks) testing temperature of hot oil: put chopsticks in the oil, if tiny bubbles form around the chopsticks the oil is hot enough for frying!

#40

A few storage things

For fresh herbs like cilantro or parsley; if you don’t use the whole bunch at once don’t worry! Get a mason jar and place you fresh herbs into the jar. Fill the jar with water and then place a plastic bag over the tops of the herbs. Fresh herbs will last up to a month or more!

Celery will wilt if left out in the fridge. Cut celery stalks in half and place in a mason jar or other container and cover completely with water. Will stay firm and fresh for 2-3 weeks.

Nobody likes reheated pasta. If you have leftover spaghetti or pasta, lightly rinse or toss with warm water before storing. Upon reheating pasta will taste much fresher.

#41

I use a cutting board on top of another cutting board to mass crush and peel garlic.

#42

If you're making a messy sandwich (such as sloppy joes), forget hamburger buns: Hot dog buns make the mess easier to control. Instead of giving the sauce multiple escape vectors, the worst it can do is move down the length of the bun.

#43

Save and freeze bacon grease then use it to cook a variety of foods. Popcorn is one of those foods.

#44

I learned to use Sodium Citrate to make a cheese sauce. It lets the milk and cheese mix together smoothly, basically producing homemade velveeta. It’s revolutionized my mac n cheese game.

#45

I like to use a heavy glass ash tray as a spoon rest. Super easy to clean and multiple resting spots are great for the stirring spoon, tasting spoon, etc.

Got it from my mom who was never a smoker. But keeps things clean next to the stove and they're widely available in second hand shops.

#46

Tossing meat in the freezer for a quick ~20 minutes before cutting. Makes it vastly easier to slice thin.

#47

It’s a well known trick to soak fries in ice water to make them crispy, but standard practice is to soak them for a few hours. Whenever I’m cutting potatoes for frying or roasting in oil, I throw them in a bowl of ice water as I go. When I’m done, I swirl them to wash off excess starch, drain, and pat mostly dry. They don’t soak for more than a few minutes, but even this short period is long enough to make them really crispy and significantly reduce how much they stick.

A little lemon juice or vinegar can bring most dishes to a new level.

I always add a little acid to baked goods using baking soda/powder to make them fluffier.

Keep a bowl on your counter for scraps bound for the garbage/compost as you cook. Saves you some trips.

#48

Wipe a large spoon with vegetable oil and use it to put batter into cupcake pans. The mix wont stick to the spoon and makes the process much neater .

Image credits: unknown

#49

Cauliflower rice instead of regular rice. Tastes just as good and you feel full but a fraction of the calories and I don't think any carbs. I lost 40 lbs changing my diet and this helped a lot

#50

Putting aluminum/tin foil over a potato masher, then using that to smash my burgers

#51

Kind of run of the mill, I know, but sauteeing onions/garlic/herbs/whatever in oil or butter in the saucepan as a first step to rice or soup was definitely a game changer for me and put me on the bullet train to flavortown. My favorite is mushrooms.

#52

Buy a potato ricer! Most incredible mash, so easy and so satisfying

#53

Probably 80% of the dishes I make use bell pepper and onion. A while back, I started freezing little bags that each have 1 bell pepper and half an onion. I’ll spend a few hours on a Sunday every other month or so just chopping bell pepper and onion. It makes cooking during the week so much easier for me.

#54

People always look at me weird when I use scissors to cut things, but I’ll be dammed if they don’t cut pizza better than a pizza cutter could ever hope to

#55

If you're working with parchment paper and are sick of it curling up on you, just crumple and uncrumple the shit out of it before you put it on your baking tray or whatever.

#56

Rehydrate garlic powder/granulated garlic. About equal parts water to garlic (maybe more water) and let sit while prepping. Huge difference in handling and taste if it's all you have at the time.

This grosses out my wife and the few people I've told about it, but when making boxed Mac and cheese like Kraft, use mayo and little to no milk/butter. So damn creamy.

Image credits: MisterCurtis

#57

I add marmite to dishes to add umami and salt!

#58

If you're going to microwave any food with bread or breading (fried chicken, nuggets, pizza, etc.), put a small cup of water in with your food. Not ON the food, just with it on the side, and it doesn't matter the size...just any contained amount of water, that way the moisture doesn't get sucked out of the food which makes it dry.

#59

Don’t pour out the left over juice from your Pickle and Pepper jars that you get from the store. If you have any left over veggies in your crisper drawer than cut them up and put them in the jar with the extra juices for a quick pickled or spicy veggie topping for burgers, hot dogs, deli sandwiches and etc.

#60

Always everytime I brown some protein in a pan, I toss the side dishes in after taking out the protein.

So there's not the brown stuff in the pan to wash away and the side dish becomes more tastefull

#61

By far my biggest cooking hack is I buy almost all of our groceries at a restaurant supply place (that’s open to the public). It has better prices than Costco, and for $16 or so I can buy 50 lbs of flour, and I paid $18 for 40 pounds of chicken legs and thighs recently. A huge box of applewood smoked bacon was $42. I love their pork chops which are about $3 each and are the good thick ones. Their prime steaks are only $4 and $6 each, so I stock up when those are on sale because they’re quick to defrost, a good size, and obviously restaurant quality.

It takes me some time to repackage everything and get it sorted in the freezer or cupboards, but it’s totally worth it. The huge box of chicken took me about 30 minutes to process in to freezer bags of 2-3 chicken leg/thigh combos, perfect for pulling out for an average meal. They also have weekly specials, and huge roasts on sale/clearance where I can pick up really good cuts for less than half of what I might pay somewhere else.

Same with spices, condiments, tea and coffee, and anything else we might need. Onions and potatoes, garlic both raw and diced are also an amazing deal. This has saved us so much money, and I invested in the restaurant style storage containers (cambros)so everything stacks neatly and is bug proof. I printed out labels on my computer, and everything is easily accessible and makes my cooking experience easy and pleasant. Since the beginning of Covid, I’ve made just about every thing from scratch and still do for the most part.

You can also buy toilet paper and cleaning supplies, as long as you don’t mind the industrial sizes. They usually have lots of hand sanitizer and masks and gloves, too.

When everyone went crazy hoarding toilet paper and whatever else, these places still had everything in stock for the most part. Most people just drive right by and don’t even realize they can go in.

I live in Michigan, and the one I go to is GFS (Gordon Food Service). They also have an online ordering system that will gather your list and have it ready within about 2 hours, and they’ll bring it out to your car when you call and pull up. All of this can be contactless. It’s also 100x more reliable than waiting for an Instacart order to come through, with way less errors or replacements. If you have a business, you can get more discounts and points, too.

#62

Steaks make their own sauces.

That stuff on the bottom of your pan? Deglaze it with some stock.

Now stop eating t-bones with ketchup.

-Butcher.

#63

I use zesty italian dressing packets for seasoning when I make breaded chicken cutlets. Mix with flour during the drege stage and taste the magic. You can use ranch packets or really whatever flavor you like

#64

Use a wet knife to cut onions.

It turns out when you cut an onion, it releases a gas called, Propanethiol S-oxide. When mixed with certain enzymes in the onion, it creates a sulfur gas. These gases then get to your eyes and create a mild acid which irritates the eyes.

Most of the gas will react with the water on the knife and less likely to make you tear up.

#65

my older neighbor taught me this one: soak fish for no more than 10 min in a diluted vinegar solution to remove the fishy smell and taste from it. Pat dry and season as usual afterwards. I also cut the fillets into chunks and bread them to airfry them. Fish Poppers! takes me less than 20min to make the entire meal :)

Edit to add: I also soak my strawberries this way to keep them from growing mold. They tend to last twice as long!

#66

Buy the biggest damn cutting board you can fit on your counter. Having actual room to work instead of trying to squeeze into a space smaller than your knife will save you time and headaches beyond belief.

#67

Buy a rice cooker. You can get them for as little as $15. Changes the game for rice (so easy), quinoa, cous cous, etc.

Add a little salt and oil to the water when cooking rice. Really ups the flavor. Or, replace 1/3-1/2 of the water with canned coconut milk for coconut rice.

#68

Shredding chicken with a hand mixer. It’s so much faster!

#69

If you're whipping or creaming butter and it's sticking to the side of your bowl, that means it's still too cold. Use a hairdryer on the side of the bowl until it just comes together. No chances of overshooting like the microwave does, no need to put your bowl in the oven, etc.

My hairdryer makes more miles in the kitchen than it does in the bathroom.

#70

Stop being afraid of MSG. "Chinese restaurant syndrome" is a racist myth. You can elevate many of your savory dishes using MSG to enhance the umami sensation. It's also really good on things like popcorn.

And, speaking of popcorn, get yourself a Whirley Pop. It takes just about as long to make popcorn on the stovetop as it does in the microwave, but it's so much better.

#71

Buy a thermometer. Go big and buy one instant read probe, and another with a probe you can leave in the meat. It makes cooking outrageously simple.

#72

Putting Accent (MSG) on food. People shy away from msg because of the stigma but it's been proven not to cause any issues and it makes food taste amazing. Especially fried rice.

#73

Something I love but rarely see, and is the only single-function item (well double, but close enough) I want in my kitchen is a food mill. I use it for tomato sauce and for mashed potato. In both cases, you can leave the skins on, and for the tomatoes is takes out the seeds, leaving you in both cases with fluffier, lighter, more delicious versions of the dish than I was ever able to make without one.

#74

This is a simple one, but salt your pasta water. However much you’ve been salting it - add more.

When you get in the habit of salting that water like the goddamn ocean itself, you’ll notice the flavors in your sauce/meat comes through a lot stronger.

#75

I really don't know if this is common or not, but if I wanna warm up but also kinda steam a tortilla I keep a spray bottle in my kitchen and I just keep spritzing the tortilla as I flip it so I get that perfect balance of moist/chewy and toasted.

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