659Kviews
Members Of This Online Community Are Debunking Cooking “Hacks”, Here Are 30 Of The Worst Ones
Who doesn't love a good trick? Sometimes life can get a little too hectic, and simplifying everyday things might leave you with some much-needed time on your hands. Nowadays, people come up with some of the most inventive hacks that sincerely work wonders – however, with the number of ideas skyrocketing online, sometimes it's hard to tell whether any are worth trying at all.
Many of us find prepping meals a tad bit too time-consuming, and we're constantly on the lookout to make this whole process more manageable. We're willing to try out those "genius" hacks that promise to make kitchen time much less stressful – yet, let's face it, most of them either overcomplicate things or are downright pointless.
"What cooking 'hack' do you hate?" – this netizen turned to Reddit's r/Cooking community to start an open discussion. They revealed their most dreaded cooking tricks; for instance, store-bought herb pastes, anything that’s supposed to make peeling boiled eggs easier, and any microwaveable recipes, such as mug cakes. The post has managed to garner over 5K upvotes and 3.1K comments discussing so-called life-changing kitchen hacks that, in reality, don’t work.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
"Level-up your instant ramen" by cooking an entire f*****g meal from scratch and then incorporating the noodles.
This isn't a hack. This is just cooking.
I mean it still tastes good, but it not a "hack" it's literally a recipe lol
My pet peeve is the 'one sheet pan dinner' recipe videos where they spread everything out on the pan, THEN add oil and seasonings AS UNEVENLY AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE and just shuffle around poorly with their hands.
just toss it all in a big bowl beforehand, goddamn
Oh yes, and then seeing done by a socalled influencer with nails so long it's actually gross ;P
Any hack that appears on TikTok gets an instant NO from me. I swear that place makes everything more complicated than it should be, or validates some people's horrific food ideas.
Chopping board, chef's knife, peeler, mixing bowl, frying pan, saucepan/stockpot- 90%+ of kitchen jobs can be solved with these. Good quality ones - you use them every day, so invest in them.
Source: ex-chef from a 2 Michelin star kitchen.
Cooking things in the dishwasher. That started in the 70s, now it's a tik tok thing, but it's always stupid.
Cooking in what? Like in "I like to have pieces of yesterday's pasta in my today's steak"?
Those tiktok people who think cutting cake with a wineglass is somehow easier or convenient.
It's not really "cooking" but I saw one that made peanut butter sandwiches 'easier'. It involved creating frozen slices of peanut butter between two small sheets of selophane, which could then be taken out of the freezer and put between bread, and would then melt creating a peanut butter sandwich.
I have no idea how that was less time and effort than just making them the normal way, and it doesn't really extend the shelf life of peanut butter in any meaningful way, and with the added drawback that you can't eat them right away since the peanut butter needs to melt.
Blew my mind for all the wrong reasons.
Using a plastic water bottle to separate egg yolks. And by extension, using any tool to separate yolks. Just use your hands.
For me it's people saying to use mayo instead of butter on their grilled cheese. Mayo just doesn't provide the flavor or crunch I want. Butter is the way
I try my best not to judge others BUT I judge the ever living he!! out of the mayo is better than butter people. Honestly mayo people, who hurt you?
Not that I hate them, but I've tried loads for hummus that don't work.
Blend with ice, blend when chickpeas are hot, used dried/ canned chickpeas, cook them more, take all the skins off, blend the tahini and lemon juice on its own first, soak with baking soda, etc.
Just blend everything together, and make sure there's enough liquid in the blender that it blends properly to get it smooth. Then add salt until it tastes really good
Simple hummus that always gets compliments: 1-1-1-1. One each lemon (juiced), garlic clove, can of chickpeas and spoonful of tahini. Blend with olive oil till smooth and season.
That the hole in the center of the spaghetti spoon is a single serving. If I wanna eat a whole box I will.
Pasta is measured with your heart. Also, don't buy extra dumb kitchen stuff you don't need - why does anyone need a dedicated spoon for spaghetti?
Peeling ginger with a spoon. I just use a knife and square it off. I’m okay with losing a little bit of it if it means not grabbing a spoon and spending twice as much time prepping it.
Also, a new one I’ve seen is using a cooling rack to dice avocado, mango, egg, etc. whoever came up with that has either never cleaned a cooling rack or doesn’t own a knife.
Agree with the veggie scraps one.
Using a straw to de-stem strawberries by poking a hole through the bottom of the berry.
Just rip it off
And if you can't rip it off, use a paring knife. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, there's a little device called a strawberry huller (or corer, I think it's called) and it works. I've tried that straw "hack" and I can confirm that it doesn't work.
Putting olive oil in when the pasta is boiling so it doesn't stick. Give that pasta a stir when you put it in the pot and once every few minutes and save your olive oil for salad dressing. If you don't stir the pasta when you drop it in, no amount of olive oil will keep it from sticking anyway.
Pasta needs to be a bit sticky, its made that way so the sauce will stick to the pasta ;) It's all about timing, so you have your pasta sauce ready when your pasta is done and then serve it.
Breaking eggs with one hand. Get out of here with that black magic b******t
I hate any gadget that a decent knife and a modicum of coordination can replace. I cook multiple times most days but my wife couldn’t make a wish sandwich if you stacked to pieces of bread on a plate for her. So she always shows me videos of kitchen gadgets she thinks I need. 99 times out of a hundred you can do the same thing with a knife in less time and don’t have an extra hard to clean gadget.
Gee. Good for you for having "a modicum of coordination" and not rheumatoid arthritis. I would like to get rid of about five gadgets in my kitchen but then I wouldn't be able to cook half the meals I enjoy. Maybe, just maybe not *all* gadgets are useless. (Also - what's a wish sandwich?)
A wish sandwich in this context is literal - the wife couldn’t even “wish” a sandwich into existence if the two slices of bread were stacked on a plate for her. It’s a pretty mean-hearted comment on his wife’s inability to cook :(
Load More Replies...
Let’s start at the very beginning, in case you haven’t heard this story yet. Sam Farber founded OXO when he saw his wife Betsey having trouble holding her peeler due to arthritis. This got Sam thinking: why do ordinary kitchen tools hurt your hands? Sam saw an opportunity to create more thoughtful cooking tools that would benefit all people (with or without arthritis) and promised Betsey he would make a better peeler. When looking for materials to use on his new idea, Sam went with thermoplastic rubber (TPR), which was pretty innovative in kitchen products at the time. Back then, TPR was mostly only for industrial use, its most common appearance in the automotive industry. Sam chose this material for a few reasons. For starters, it’s soft to the touch and non-slip even when it gets wet. The second reason is more technical: TPR is relatively easy to bond with other materials, which means it’s compatible with a variety of materials that would be used in kitchen tools.
And last but certainly not least, it’s dishwasher-friendly. Since TPR is used on the internal gaskets of many products, Sam knew it’d be perfect for kitchen tools that need to withstand years of wear and tear in the dishwasher. Since the kitchen tool market had never seen anything like the Good Grips line before, Sam knew he had to make the big black handles engaging to consumers. And that’s how the “fins” were born. On the sides of each handle were a little set of fins that flexed when you touched them. They invite people to give them a try, and helped get the brand-new Good Grips products in people’s hands.
Load More Replies... I love all the judgement combined with the simple spelling mistakes in this one.
Any gadget that you use often is a good gadget. I use garlic press all the time so it's a good gadget. I find egg slicers silly but egg cookers are actually brilliant. Agree that there is no substitute for a good set of sharp knives though.
I recently got an appel slicer. I never used one in the past, didn't need to, but I've started making applesauce for my son's lunch and when you're peeling and coring 20 apples at a time that thing is a lifesaver!
Load More Replies...
I am a fan of certain kitchen gadgets. I have an aid that helps me with pooring water away from the pan. I know most people use a lid, yet i always mess this up. I also have an egg that helps me with timing the perfect boiled egg. Peelers. Some kind of chopper that dices my onion in seconds and really makes a good pesto.
Congratulations on not being disabled. News flash: Some Disabled people can’t cook without them
I have a big wooden spoon that I got from somewhere and I love it for just about anything. It's really old and I can't find another one like it. The new ones I've found are cheaply made and not much good for anything. I use it mostly for mixing meatloaf. I refuse to mix that icky stuff with my hands.
The mini food processor my girls bought me is a great time saver for chopping onions. I also have a tiny galley kitchen and no counter space..but I have a large pantry for storing my kitchen gadgets, lol. I cook all the time and my Kitchenaid mixer with all the attachments will have to pried out of my cold dead hands, lol
My hands have shaken since I was little. I need these 'useless' gadgets. I have a lovely open that opens bottle lids both plastic and metal, pull tabs of all sizes, and metal lids from sauces! Love this thing. <.<
I love kitchen gadgets - I have arthritis - most of them don't work, but it doesn't stop me buying something new and trying again.
I used to use a garlic press to crush garlic... then I realised that was just another useless gadget. Now I crush it under the flat of a knife. Less waste and one less thing to wash up.
In my experience the press does the job better than me with a knife. But that's just my opinion.
Load More Replies...
Why would you stack bread toward your wife? Or are you just being a judgmental fxxk? We know that you meant “TWO” slices… but perhaps her talent lies in accurately expressing herself rather than in feeding someone who has stated their ability to feed themselves.
My mom has every gadget under the sun because she has use of only one arm/hand. I have tested food processors, blenders, graters, chopping boards, dicers, etc. Few work for single handed people in terms of putting it together and washing the item. So I help her purchase the useful items. But she keeps buying everything advertised on TV and the Web! All c**p. She’s old and doesn’t remember how to use the food processor or blender properly even though I’ve demonstrated many many times. And some of those c**p gadgets can take your finger off because they slip and break. Frustrating.
My older brother bought a chopper just got onions, I showed him how to cut them easily without your eyes watering too badly but he insisted on the chopper(he used it and discovered it was too powerful when instead of chopped onions he got puree😂)
Could not agree more. A former roommate once watched me cut a banana for my cereal, complimented me on how evenly I cut it, then offered to buy me a banana slicer.
Don't accept the slicer. No one ever asks for a slice of banana for scale.
Load More Replies...
Peeling garlic by shaking it in a container, doesn't work for me. Slicing cherry tomatoes in half by placing a plate on top.
Garlic hates me and does whatever it can to make sure I have a hard time peeling and cutting it; always have a green center that I have to cut out
Making milk froth for coffee in an empty foaming hand soap bottle. Just BUY A MILK FROTHER they are like $10 at target
Wait, that's not a prank? Sheesh. I don't do this, but I'd spend the $10.
Pulling stems of cilantro through a hole (in a microplane, grater, colander, etc) to get the leaves off. Has never worked for me. It's much faster for me to just pull the leaves off by hand.
Any microwave plate or tray that is supposed to "cook" an item better. Anyone remember the "Bacon Wave" that came out in the 80's? It was a tray that was supposed to cook bacon crisp in the microwave and drain the fat at the same time. Problem was that it splattered grease all over your microwave and took about the same time as it does to pan fry it.
I've seen these for every type of egg dish, bacon, coffee, ramen noodles, steaks, and just about anything else. A pointless waste of money.
And Foreman Grill types of presses. It's an over glorified sandwich press and only good if you have no other cooking options. (I admit I had one when I lived in the barracks and had no access to a kitchen.)
Those dumb videos where people dumb dry pasta and slices of cheese and milk in a casserole dish and cook it all at once.
"Use your garlic press to quickly press ginger as well"
Would not recommend.
I'll go first. I hate saving veggie scraps for broth. I don't like the room it takes up in my freezer, and I don't think the broth tastes as good as it does when you use whole, fresh vegetables.
Honorable mentions:
Store-bought herb pastes. They just don't have the same oomph.
Anything that's supposed to make peeling boiled eggs easier. Everybody has a different one--baking soda, ice bath, there are a hundred different tricks. They don't work.
Microwave anything (mug cakes, etc). The texture is always way off.
Saving veggie scraps for broth helps you to save money and being more eco friendly at the same time. It doesn't take up too much place in your freezer (except if you have a tiny one) and you can make it as soon as you peel the vegetables. I usually make the veggie meal, then the broth, put it for one night in the refrigerator and the next day I make a yummy soup or other meal out of it.
Putting cream in risotto
Why would you? The whole point of risotto is the process, which creates the creaminess from the rice's starches. If you need cream, you've done it wrong. Or you've used the wrong type of rice.
premade marinades almost always suck. My only exception to date is Soy Vay veri teriyaki.
Somebody once told me to try using one of those wire egg-slicers to slice mushrooms. I gave it a shot and ruined my parents' egg slicer. Would not recommend.
Cooking in the microwave. I just don't do it. The microwave for me is for reheating or defrosting only.
Ok Kenji, I’ll concede brining shrimp in baking soda makes a difference, but this m**********r be putting baking soda in *everything*
That's a new one. I've heard of using baking soda for cookies, but not this.
In the same vein as your example of using veggie scraps for broth/stock, I also think that using cooked chicken carcasses (looking at you, rotisserie chicken) always makes an inferior broth/stock when compared to that made with raw chicken carcasses.
As some have already said here, some of these show some level of snobbery. A lot of these are perfectly fine for people who have limited capabilities, range of motion, and/or finances. Heck, many of them are even fine for people with full range of motion and capabilities. It simply comes down to preferences and/or mood.
I dont like the hate microwave ovens get. I love cooking in one and have for at least 3 years, all my food. And it works perfectly. There is a few things, it is not like using the oven and to get color on the food there is a few tips that needs to follow etc. So ❤️ to the microwave, I love you. 😄
What can you cook in microwave? I've never seen anybody cook anything other than instant oatmeal or frozen veggies, and I've thought a microwave IS honestly just for melting (when you've forgotten to take the frozen thing out of the freezer in advance) and (re)heating stuff. Am legit curious.
Load More Replies...
Almost everything on B.P has become judgemental why should cooking be any different?
Load More Replies...
I just made a risotto with the light cream and love it! Cook however you want and makes you and your family happy!
This whole post seems like a bunch of people mad about s**t other people decided to do that has nothing to do with them or their wellbeing...
As some have already said here, some of these show some level of snobbery. A lot of these are perfectly fine for people who have limited capabilities, range of motion, and/or finances. Heck, many of them are even fine for people with full range of motion and capabilities. It simply comes down to preferences and/or mood.
I dont like the hate microwave ovens get. I love cooking in one and have for at least 3 years, all my food. And it works perfectly. There is a few things, it is not like using the oven and to get color on the food there is a few tips that needs to follow etc. So ❤️ to the microwave, I love you. 😄
What can you cook in microwave? I've never seen anybody cook anything other than instant oatmeal or frozen veggies, and I've thought a microwave IS honestly just for melting (when you've forgotten to take the frozen thing out of the freezer in advance) and (re)heating stuff. Am legit curious.
Load More Replies... Almost everything on B.P has become judgemental why should cooking be any different?
Load More Replies... I just made a risotto with the light cream and love it! Cook however you want and makes you and your family happy!
This whole post seems like a bunch of people mad about s**t other people decided to do that has nothing to do with them or their wellbeing...
