36 Kitchen Tips And Tricks That Nobody Told You About

posted in Food & Drink on 9/11/2014

1. Grate Cold Butter
The stick of butter has to be close to frozen for it to work, and you must work fast to keep it from melting, but the grated butter is perfect for adding to flour before baking biscuits, scones, muffins, etc.. It also makes the butter melt much faster.

2. Scooping Up A Broken Shell
Instead of fishing around with your finger to dig them out of your bowl, use one of the egg shell halves to scoop it out!

3. Egg Freshness Test

4. Freeze Ice Pops The Smart Way

5. How To Peel An Orange
This tip is especially useful for those of you that don’t have any nails to dig into the tough skin of an orange. With a few clever cuts of a knife, you can peel an orange and eat it without juice dripping all over your hands.

6. Freeze Leftover Sauce
Essentially you could do this with homemade sauces as well as anything canned that you don’t use up like refried beans, chopped jalapeños, etc.

7. Peeling Garlic The Easy Way
Smash, shake, and separate! It can be also done with two ceramic bowls placed on top of each other (rim to rim) to create a dome for the garlic. The hard surface might work more efficiently than tupperware at breaking apart the garlic.

8. The Smart Way To Reheat Pasta
Instead of stirring your pasta several times in between the cook time in your microwave, leave a small circle empty in the middle of your plate so that the pasta will cook more evenly.

9. Store Ice Cream In A Bag
A plastic freezer bag keeps the cold air from making your ice cream rock hard. If you like straight spoons and soft ice cream, this trick is worth the extra step! Try to push out as much air out of the bag as you can before putting it in the freezer.

10. Keep Your Cutting Board From Sliding
Because sharp knives are not a good combination with a cutting board that slides all over the counter, use a wet paper towel or damp hand towel under your board to keep it in its place.

11. DIY Travel Cup
This stuff works like magic! Stretch Press’n Seal over any cup to make it a little more kid friendly. Poke a straw through the middle and you’ve got your very own homemade travel cup.

12. A Better Way To Cut Watermelon
Cut it up into small pieces and store it in a large tupperware bowl so it’s easy to grab and eat. This cutting technique seems to be the easiest and fastest way to get the perfect little bite-size pieces.

13. Repurposed Pizza Cutter
If you have kids, you know how handy this simple tip can be — this makes it so much faster and easier! It works with a stack of pancakes, waffles and spaghetti noodles, too.

14. Make Your Own Yogurt Pops
Most individual yogurts with a soft top that will allow a popsicle stick to slide in will work just fine.

15. Keep Lettuce Fresh Longer
The dry paper towel absorbs moisture from the lettuce, which is one of the main reasons why it wilts and turns soggy so fast. It’s also important to get the lettuce as dry as possible before storing in the first place.

16. The Easy Way To Pit A Cherry
Use a chopstick to poke the cherry pit out while still keeping the cherry in one whole piece. All of the pits go into the bottle, making clean up easy.

17. Flossing Food
Did you know there is a such thing as a cheese wire? It’s basically a knife made for crumbly soft cheese, but floss will ultimately give you the same results. Nice trick!

18. Rolling Citrus Fruit
If you roll while applying a bit of pressure to your citrus fruits (lemons, limes, oranges, etc.), you will get so much more of that yummy juice.

19. The Best Way To Chill Wine
You can also plop one or two in a glass of red wine that has been kept at a room temperature that is too warm.

20. Parchment Paper To The Rescue
Just in case you were wondering, parchment paper is different than wax paper, apparently, parchment paper will hold up to the heat of the oven, while wax paper won’t.

21. DIY Muffin Liners
The next time you find yourself out of muffin liners with a full box of cinnamon streusel muffin mix to make, just use parchment paper.

22. The Easy Way To Shred Chicken
Put the chicken breasts in your KitchenAid while they are still hot and it will shred it in less than a minute. Nice to know!

23. Peel Ginger With A Spoon?
That skin isn’t as tough as it looks; The edge of the spoon takes it off with very little effort (even in all of the little crevices and bumps). Leave your knife in the drawer and use a spoon!

24. How To Cut A Bell Pepper FAST
You wouldn’t think you’d need instructions on how to cut a bell pepper, but this method is so much easier, and leaves the core in one piece to be easily removed.

25. Coat Cups With Non-Stick Spray
When measuring sticky stuff like honey, molasses or peanut butter, spray your measuring cups with a non-stick spray (or make a quick coat with oil) so that it slides right out.

26. Wooden Spoon Trick
Place a wooden spoon over boiling water to keep it from boiling over. Apparently, metal spoons don’t work because they heat up too fast. It’s worth a try!

27. Save Your Cake And Eat It, Too
If you’ve ever taken leftover cake home and went to eat it later, it’s just not the same (kind of gross, actually). The edges are always stale and crumbly after sitting out. Next time, place a few pieces of bread on the outer edges to keep it soft and moist!

28. Make Your Honey Like New Again

Have you ever thrown out crystallized honey because you thought it couldn’t be saved? I have! But it turns out the crystallization of honey is natural and not harmful. You can revive your little honey bear by placing it in a pot of hot water to warm it up. It will stay soft for a long time!

29. Freeze Herbs In Oil
If you freeze your herbs in olive oil it will prevent them from browning and getting freezer burn. Not to mention they will always be handy, whether in season or not. Toss the cubes in a pan for sautéing meat and veggies, or use them as a sauce for pasta.

30. Opening Jars With Ease
Just put on a rubber kitchen glove, or place a thick rubber band around the lid. The rubber gives you just the right amount of grip to get the job done without tearing a muscle.

31. Cherry Tomato Hack
If you are using them for a salad or other dish, here is a trick using 2 plastic lids to cut them quickly! Make sure you are using a large, sharp knife and being careful.

32. Make Crystal Clear Ice
The process of boiling filtered water eliminates dissolved air and decompresses minerals in the water. This would make for pretty cubes, especially if you’re freezing them with fruit for a water pitcher.

33. Ripen Bananas Quickly
Just in case you’re making banana bread or any other recipe that requires ripe bananas, here is a trick that will have them ripe in less than an hour. The black looks awfully scary, but if you take a peek inside of the peel, you’ll see that they are just right for baking.

34. Cook Fish On Lemons
Because fish sticks and falls apart so easily on a grill, this is the best way to cook it! Not only does the fish soak up the citrus flavor of the lemons, but it keeps your fish in one piece and makes clean up really easy.

35. Muffin Pan Citrus Cubes

This is a fabulous idea for a water or sangria pitcher! A muffin pan gives you much larger cubes, making the ice last much longer. This also looks beautiful with the whole lemon slices in there. You could also do this with oranges; maybe even throw in some mint or sliced strawberries!

36. DIY Fruit & Veggie Wash

Don’t waste your money on those sprays they sell at the store. Not only is this a lot cheaper, but it’s also all natural. Even if you buy your produce organic, giving it a good wash is important. Purchase a small spray bottle, and then fill it with one cup of water, one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, and one tablespoon of baking soda. Shake gently to mix it together (it will bubble and fizz a bit).