When you spend most of your days in the kitchen, like I do, you pick up some helpful tips along the way. I’ve decided to share these nuggets of cooking knowledge in a regular feature on the site: Helpful Kitchen Tips. In our first installment, I’m sharing ten simple fixes for common kitchen dilemmas, from hardened brown sugar to burned rice to broken cakes and more. I’d love to hear your own kitchen tips in the comments, please feel free to share!
1. The next time you’re a little heavy handed with the saltshaker while making soup or sauce, try dropping in a raw, peeled potato. It will absorb some of the excess saltiness.
2. Tired of brown sugar hardening in the bag before you have a chance to use it? Put a couple of marshmallows in the bag to keep the sugar soft (if you keep kosher, make sure they’re kosher marshmallows!).
3. Onions and garlic are super important ingredients in many recipes, but chopping them can leave an odor on your hands for days to come, no matter how much hand soap you use. Try rubbing your hands with a stainless steel spoon when you’re finished, they’ll smell squeaky clean again.
4. Cooking rice seems simple enough, but it’s actually pretty easy to burn. If you find yourself in this predicament, put a piece of white sandwich bread on top of the rice for about 10 minutes to absorb the burned flavor. When serving, be sure to leave out any rice that may have burned to the bottom of the pan.
5. Because of their opaque shell, it’s difficult to tell if an egg has gone bad. An easy way to know if they’re still safe to eat is to place them in a dish with about 4-5 inches of water. Fresh eggs will sink, rotten eggs will float, and eggs that stand upright should be used immediately.
6. Bananas can both help and hinder the ripening of other fruits. If you want something to ripen faster, put it in a brown paper bag with a banana. If you’re not in a hurry, keep bananas separate so that your apples and oranges aren’t overly ripe before you’re ready to enjoy them.
7. Did you break your cake while rushing to remove it from a pan? Simply use your frosting as a binder. Seal the assembled pieces back together and pop the cake into the fridge for about an hour. No one ever complained about too much frosting anyway…
8. To keep parchment from rolling up on your baking sheets before dropping your cookie dough, you can use magnets, cooking spray or even water to seal it down.
9. Bundt pans can be used for more than just cakes and breads. How about using one to help your chicken stand while roasting? Or for keeping stuffed peppers upright while they bake?
10. Does your new cookbook keep turning pages on its own, causing you to lose your place? Stand it in a napkin holder so your hands are free for cooking and chopping.
Do you have a favorite kitchen tip to share? Leave it in the comments below! Your tip might be featured in my next installment!
To stop the liquid ina pot on the stove from boiling over just place a wooden spoon across the pot. It will never boil over. So cooking on a higher flame is no longer a problem
Making a banana pudding? Use a butter patty slicer to slice your bananas. Really fast and the bananas are all the same size. Also, allow your pudding to cool a bit before adding to keep bananas from turning brown.
Great tips! I especially love the egg tip.
When making a tomato sauce for cacciatore or even spaghetti, add dry white wine and orange juice (1 c. wine to 1/2 c. OJ). No one will guess there’s orange juice in the sauce but they’ll know something special’s going on.
For Pauline: same problem now I just scrub whole potato with a brush and water, stab a few times and Bob,s your Uncle.
Old age is not for sissies!!!!!
A whole section could be written for us oldies and our arthritic hands, not to mention eyesight.
Love reading what young cooks are doing/learning.
You,re all great!!!
when trying to get the seeds out of a pomegranate, cut in half and place the seed side down in your hand…hold your hand over an empty bowl…then with a wooden spoon bang the dome and every one of those seeds will fall through your fingers into the waiting bowl…i love this one
I mix 2 or 3 eggs (for scrambling) in one of those 2 cup round Ziploc containers with the screw tops. I put one of those spiral wire “balls” (that come with so many shaker bottles) in the Ziploc container with the eggs.
Start shakin’.
Haven’t tried it, but I don’t know why this wouldn’t work using the larger 4 cup Ziploc container with the screw top for a large number of eggs.
Easier to clean than an actual shaker bottle !
Another parchment paper tip: just crumble it up into a loose ball, then smooth it back out. It’ll still be a little wrinkled, but it won’t roll up anymore.
Miracle Whip polishes copper & brass by just rubbing it on & rubbing it off. I discovered this when using copper measuring spoons to measure some. So easy!
Never, ever whip home made mayonnaise if you are on your, ehem…girly-cycle, no kidding! It will curdle. Besides, it’s a great reason to have someone else do the elbow-work. ; )
Sometimes cutting onions can bring you to tears. I’ve tried cutting them near running sink water or even a small fan. What works best is wearing a pair of swimming goggles.
Use a well greased Bundt or tube pan to bake a kugel. I make a Pineapple Upside Down one and it looks like a gorgeous cake to serve!