24 ingenious life hacks for the kitchen

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Professional chefs spend half an hour on the same recipe, and a newcomer in the kitchen tries to make something similar for one and a half. The fact is that real masters know many useful tricks that facilitate and speed up the cooking process.

1. To make the ice clear, freeze boiled water

The ice served in restaurants is usually crystal clear and clear. And the cubes from your refrigerator are cloudy and white. But this can be fixed: first boil the water (you can twice), only then pour it into the mold.

2. Always check the age of the eggs to make sure they are fresh

To do this, dip them into water:

• the newly laid egg will lie sideways to the very bottom;
• an egg from a week ago will float up with a blunt end up;
• an egg at the age of 2-3 weeks will stand in a glass perpendicular to the bottom;
• a very old egg will float to the surface - under no circumstances should it be eaten.

3. A large number of eggs can be cooked in the oven

In an oven preheated to 160 degrees, they will cook in 15-30 minutes.

4. Press down on the lemon and roll it a little on the table surface

This will make it much easier to squeeze out the lemon juice.

5. Put some frozen grapes in a glass of wine

The drink will turn cold, but not diluted.

6. Using a spoon, you can peel the ginger in a couple of minutes

Ginger has a rather bizarre shape, so it is not very convenient to clean it with a knife: a lot of excess is cut off. A regular tablespoon will do the job better.

7. Store ice cream in a plastic bag

To prevent ice cream from turning into stone in the freezer, put it in a bag first.

8. Shake the garlic well to peel it

Place the garlic in a bowl and shake well with the palm of your hand. Most of the husk will fall off by itself. You can use a jar with a lid instead of a bowl.

9. When grilling fish, place a few slices of lemon underneath

Any fish will be tastier if cooked with lemon.

10. Place a wooden spoon on top of the pot

Then, when boiling, the water will not pour out onto the stove.

11. Bake bacon in the oven

Cafe bacon is always evenly fried: not soggy at the ends, not crumbly in the middle, not tough or overcooked. Most people at home fry bacon in a frying pan, and restaurant staff just send it to the oven.

12. You can cut several cherry tomatoes at once using two lids or plates

Take two plates of the same diameter or plastic lids. Put the tomatoes on one part, and cover the other on top. Holding the top plate, cut through all the tomatoes with a knife.

13. To keep the biscuits soft and fresh longer, store them with an apple wedge

There is nothing like soft, crumbly homemade cookies straight out of the oven. But after a couple of days, they look like crackers. To keep the cookies soft for several days, store them in a container with an apple wedge.

14. To keep the guacamole fresher longer, add a little water

On contact with oxygen, guacamole quickly loses its aroma, and the bright green color turns brown. To avoid this, transfer leftover guacamole from a plate into an airtight container and top with a little water. In this case, water will act as a protective barrier. When you want to eat a snack, just drain the water.

15. Lunch over a fire can be cooked in foil

If you are an avid tourist, then you probably know this trick: you can replace any pot and pan with a piece of foil and cook food in it. Just put all the ingredients in foil, wrap them carefully and send them to the fire. Best of all, you don't even have to wash the dishes after a delicious meal.

16. You can soften the oil with a glass goblet

We often forget to remove the oil from the refrigerator before cooking. Correcting this oversight is very simple: take a glass goblet, hold it in the microwave or under hot running water for a few seconds, and then cover a piece of butter with this glass. It will quickly soften under warm glass.

17. A quick way to peel an orange

Place the orange on a cutting board and cut the rind at the top and bottom. Then make a perpendicular cut in the side. It remains only to pull in different directions, and you will get a strip of slices.

18. Take out the pieces of shells that have got into the egg with wet hands

A situation that happens almost every day: you break an egg in a frying pan and notice a couple of small pieces of shell there. To remove them, you need to wet your fingers with water, and the shell will instantly stick to them.

19. You can peel corn with a muffin baking dish

Typically, muffin tins are round and have a hole in the center. It is necessary for the heavy dough to bake well inside. But you can also use it for cleaning corn. Insert an ear of corn into this hole and remove all kernels with a knife. They will fall into the container and will not scatter throughout the kitchen.

20. To keep cane sugar soft, store it with bread or marshmallows

Cane sugar often hardens during storage. To prevent this from happening, put a slice of bread or marshmallows in a container with sugar.

If the sugar has already hardened, there is an easy way to soften it: pour the sugar into the mold, cover with a damp towel for a few minutes. And then put it in the microwave for 30 seconds - the sugar will become soft and crumbly again.

21. Use dental floss to cut the pie

There is an alternative way to neatly cut the cake or pie without a knife: use dental floss (without any fragrances, so as not to spoil the taste) and divide the cake into pieces. This method works not only for sweet pastries like cakes, but also for soft cheeses.

22. For a richer taste, replace vegetable oil with butter

Popular wisdom says: you can't spoil porridge with butter. And not just porridge. And not only will you not spoil it, but, on the contrary, you will make it better: any dish acquires a denser consistency and richer taste if you use butter instead of ordinary butter. Butter can also be substituted for water in milk recipes.

23. You can squeeze out lemon juice with tongs

If you need to squeeze out a lot of lemon juice but don't have a juicer, no problem. It can be replaced with regular kitchen tongs.

24. Simple Ways to Improve the Taste of Bad Wine

Imagine a situation: you bought a bottle of wine in a store, and it tasted worse than ever. Pouring out, of course, is a pity, but I don't feel like drinking too much. There is a way out - you can try to at least slightly improve its taste.

First, you can make sangria: add pieces of fruit, berries, spices to the wine and chill. The taste will be much better. For winter evenings, there is a decent alternative - to cook mulled wine. Secondly, you can eat some mushrooms. For some unknown reason, after the mushrooms, the taste of the wine begins to seem much more pleasant.

Wine that smells or tastes like sulfur can be made better by tossing a copper coin into the glass. If the smell really appears due to the presence of sulfur compounds in the wine, copper will instantly neutralize them, and the smell will disappear.