Cooking Hacks That All At-Home Chefs Should Know
Cooking can be a joyous experience, allowing you to nurture yourself and the ones you love. But it can also feel like a chore, and a challenge to keep coming up with new meal ideas. From grocery shopping to prep work to cleaning up, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when faced with dinnertime.
For most of us, life is full and busy, we don’t necessarily have the time we would like to spend on all these details. We need to find tricks and shortcuts that won’t compromise the flavor and quality of the food but will simplify our lives. In this post, we discuss all the hacks that you need to know in order to maximize your time without compromising on taste.
1. De-skin Potatoes Without the Stress
Products Needed:
Pot
What it Does:
Boiled potatoes peel easier
Est. Cost:
$10-$100*
Potatoes are arguably the most versatile, most loved, and most used vegetable of the bunch. That being said, they can be a lot of work! Peeling potatoes is time-consuming, and let’s face it – ain’t nobody got time for that! So instead of buying frozen, pre-prepared potatoes from walmart.
We’ve got a hack for you so you can continue to use fresh potatoes and save yourself time.
The trick is simple: boil the potatoes before peeling them. Once they are cooked, the skin peels off as easily as a hot knife through butter. Boiled potatoes take half the time to cook too if you are cutting them up for fries or roast potatoes, or of course, you can simply mash them right up after peeling for a creamy mash potato side dish with half the hassle.
2. Shake Your Garlic Cloves
Products Needed:
Mason jar or two equal-sized bowls
What it Does:
Peels garlic faster
Est. Cost:
$5.99*
One could argue that food cooked without garlic is simply not worth cooking. Garlic is the key to deep, flavorful dishes and a must-have in the kitchen. The small, potent cloves can be incredibly frustrating to peel though, and take so much time. There is an easier way though, and here’s how!
All you need to do is break apart the garlic into individual cloves and put the cloves in a mason jar. You can also use two bowls one on top of the other. Vigorously shake the jar or bowls, letting the garlic bang on the sides. This will cause the skin to peel off, leaving you to just pop them right off and trim the edges.
3. Chop Onions Without Tears
Products Needed:
Goggles
What it Does:
Blocks onions from making you cry
Est. Cost:
$10 – $40*
Numerous theories exist on preventing tears while cutting onions. Some ideas are far-fetched and others more realistic. For instance, placing cucumbers over your eyes to reduce irritation (we have to see when we chop, don’t we?) or using eye drops to flush out the eyes (not so practical while holding a sharp knife).
Other theories like ‘make sure there is enough distance between you and the onion’ are not particularly helpful as we all have the arm length that we were born with and there is no way we can control that, can we? The solution to preventing onions from making you cry is simple, not glamorous, but it works. Wear goggles. You’re welcome.
4. Use Pasta Water for Superior Sauce
Products needed:
Pasta water
What it Does:
Flavors and thickens the sauce
Est. Cost:
$0*
Any Italian will tell you that pasta is an art involving high-quality ingredients, perfect timing, and small touches that make all the difference. Cooking the pasta for just 30 seconds too long can totally ruin the dish, and adding the garlic at the wrong moment can cause the dish to be either too garlicky or not garlicky enough.
One tip from a professional chef is to use pasta water for the sauce. The reason for this is that the water will have absorbed the starch and salt and this will help to glue the pasta and the sauce together. The starch also acts as a thickener, creating the perfect consistency for the sauce.
5. Rescue a Salty Soup
Products Needed:
Apple or potato
What it Does:
Absorb salt
Est. Cost:
$2*
There is nothing worse than making a soup from scratch, preparing and cooking all the ingredients only to find it’s too salty. What can you do at that point besides throwing it away? Well, the answer is not quite what you might have guessed!
Did you know that apples and potatoes absorb salt? What you’ll need to do is put a few wedges of sliced raw apple or potato into the soup and let it cook for about 10 minutes on low heat. This will absorb the excess salt, so when you remove the apple or potato your soup will taste just right!
6. Use Ice to Remove Fat
Products Needed:
Ring mold, a chunk of ice
What it Does:
Skims fat from soup or stock
Est. Cost:
$1-$2 per bag of ice*
A chef on Reddit described this as the “fastest, easiest way to skim fat” that he’s ever seen. If you want to get rid of the fat from stock or soup, use ice. Ice will turn fat from a liquid into a solid because the fat and water won’t form a chemical bond.
Use a ring mold pan filled with water and pour the soup or stock into it. Take a big chunk of ice (smaller pieces melt too quickly) and drop it in. Then, once the fat has formed on the ring mold, scrape it into the trash. You’ll want to do this quickly so that you don’t water down whatever you’re trying to cook.
7. Pit Strawberries With a Straw
Products Needed:
Plastic straw
What it Does:
Hulls strawberries quickly and thoroughly
Est. Cost:
$0.89/100-count of straws* (Target)
This fun hack will change how you hull strawberries, making the process faster and more efficient. All you need is a plastic drinking straw. You can buy a 100-count box of them from Target for under a dollar.
Hold the green-stalked strawberry in one hand and the plastic straw in the other. Place the straw at the bottom (the non-stalk part) of the strawberry. Gently push it through, aiming for the green, leafy stalk at the top. The leaves and stalk will pop out if you keep pushing, leaving you with a hulled strawberry that took less than two seconds to pit.
8. Use A Bundt Pan to Slice Corn
Products Needed:
Bundt pan, corn cob, sharp knife
What it Does:
Makes corn on the cob slicing quick and mess-free
Est. Cost:
$50* (Including Pan and Knife)
Summer corn is hot on the market now, and, soon, the last of it will be hitting stores. You want to get your corn on the cob fixed now before late fall and winter hit. Use a Bundt pan if you want to get corn off the cob easily and in a mess-free way.
Balance the base of the cob in the center of the Bundt pan. Take a sharp, large knife and start slicing at the heel. Draw the knife across and down the cob, as opposed to just a top-to-bottom motion. It’ll be easier to slice that way. All the corn will go into the pan, without sending kernels flying across your kitchen counter.
9. Cut Cheese With Dental Floss
Products Needed:
Unscented wax dental floss
What it Does:
Cuts soft cheese quickly and cleanly without damaging it
Est. Cost:
$0.98* (Walmart)
Soft cheeses are difficult to cut into individual slices or rounds. Sure, you can use a very sharp knife, but even that will drag the cheese, causing it to sag and lose shape. One chef-tested and chef-approved hack for cutting soft cheese is to use unscented wax dental floss.
A piece of dental floss is gentle enough that it’ll cut through the soft cheese (or cookie dough or whatever else has a similar consistency) without damaging it. The best part is that, in addition to getting clean, quick slices, you won’t have dirty dishes to clean up once you’re done.
10. Ice Potatoes Before Roasting For Extra Crispness
Products Needed:
Parboiled potatoes frozen up to a month ahead
What it Does:
Parboiling and freezing makes the potatoes extra crispy when you roast them
Est. Cost:
$5.77/10 lb. bag of potatoes
Crispy, roast potatoes are an amazing side to any main dish. If you want to add extra crispiness to the potatoes, consider freezing them. You should freeze the potatoes when they’re cooked or at least half cooked. Raw potatoes contain a lot of water, and when that water freezes, the potatoes become grainy and mushy.
Sainsburys Magazine
suggested freezing parboiled potatoes for up to a month ahead. Once prepared, cut the potatoes into sizable pieces and place them in a pan filled with cold, salted water. Cover and bring to a boil. Allow the potatoes to simmer for five minutes, then drain and return them to the pan. Cover the pan with a clean towel, leaving the lid on, and let the potatoes steam-dry for an additional five minutes. Shake onto a large baking tray and let them cool when finished.
11. Freeze Single-Serving Sauces
Products Needed:
Upcycled plastic egg carton or an ice tray
What it Does:
Allows you to freeze single portions of sauce
Est. Cost:
$1-$3*
Cooking in advance saves time and money. It becomes so much easier to make healthy choices and resist the temptation to order. There is nothing better than having food in the freezer that is ready for you to simply defrost and enjoy. Sauce is no exception to this rule and can be made in larger portions and frozen too.
The only question is how to store the sauce individually, and the answer is quite simple! If you don’t have a spare ice tray on hand, you can simply grab an upcycled plastic egg carton. Give it a good wash and you can fill each compartment with your sauce, making a perfect portion size for your next meal.
12. Make Extra Storage Space
Products Needed:
Hooks
What it Does:
Creates storage space
Est. Cost:
$1 – $10
Storage space is a rare commodity, especially for families where it can often feel like every corner is occupied. There is one area that is usually left completely open, and this area can be capitalized on! The inside doors of our cupboards are a perfect spot for hanging all sorts of kitchen and bathroom tools.
Simply get inexpensive hooks,
Walmart or dollar store ones will do the trick, and hook to the inside of the cupboard. This is a great way to free up drawer space, making it easier to find all the bits and pieces you need while preparing a meal or giving the kids a bath.
13. Use Stand Mixer to Knead Dough
Products Needed:
Stand mixer and dough hook
What it Does:
Kneads dough
Est. Cost:
$50 -$200*
For many of us home bread bakers, the joy is in the process. The care and effort that goes into purchasing the ingredients, meticulously measuring them out, waiting for the right moment when the dough has risen perfectly to move to the next step all to be rewarded with fresh bread which, let’s be honest, is just about one of the greatest things in the world.
However, for many of us kneading dough is just too much hard work. For those who are reluctant to put a bit of elbow grease into their cooking, fear not. Your stand mixer with a dough hook attachment on a low speed will do the trick perfectly well.
14. Give Bananas a Longer Life
Products Needed: Plastic wrap
What it Does:
Prevents ethylene gas from releasing
How many times have you purchased a bunch of bananas with the greatest intentions only to find them just a few days later blackened and soft? Banana bread is delicious but it’s a lot more effort than eating a fresh banana, so how can we avoid this from happening time and time again?
The solution might surprise you, it’s so simple! All you need to do is wrap the end of the bunch with plastic wrap. You could even wrap each individual banana end if you want that extra longevity. This will prevent ethylene gasses from being released from the stem of the banana, keeping it fresher for longer.