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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.
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"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.
"Pasta needs to be a bit sticky" yup, and that's also why you don't rinse it before serving (yes, I knew someone who used to do that).
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To prevent the water from boiling over, just put a wooden spoon across your pan and.... there is actually no need to have the heat on high that the water keeps cooking so hard, just lower the temperature a bit and that will also help prevent it boiling over. Then, before rinsing of the water, be sure to check and taste if your pasta has the desired bite ;)
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More than a little, the water should taste like the sea is what the professionals always say
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An Italian once told ma that pasta water should be a salty as the Mediterranean, and I have lived by that rule ever since.
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But it also makes it taste better, also, if you put salt in the water it'll improve the taste and speeden up the boiling time, not a lot mind you.
You add oil AFTER draining for the pasta not to dry and stick if you’re not serving immediately. Otherwise it’s useless.
I grew up putting oil or butter in the water to prevent it from boiling over. I stopped at some point, for some unknown reason, lol
Doing the stupid oil trick also makes sure that when you serve the spaghetti, all the sauce slips off the pasta and into a hidden pool at the bottom of the plate or bowl. Gross. NO oil in the water, half the cooking time in salted water, the other half in the sauce itself.
Put one, single drop of vegetable oil into the pot and the water will not form foam that boils over. It will not prevent your noodles from sticking, they would still do so no matter how much oil you put in if you don't stir it. But it also won't prevent any sauce from sticking to the noodles. It just breaks the surface and prevents the pot from boiling over even at low heat.
Omg my boyfriend does that and even sneaks into the kitchen and adds it behind my back when I'm making the pasta! 😤 Drives me nuts! Pasta that has oil coating it means the sauce will slip right off to it and not adhere. C**p grandma's believed back in the 70s amazes me. Common sense people! Lol
When I was a kid, it was butter, for the same reason. It's been years now, since I've added anything slippery to my pasta, and it cooks up just fine with no sticking. (Except to the sauce, as it should)
OLIVE OIL FLOATS ON THE WATER SURFACE! Jeez, people! It doesn't do anything with pasta when boiling. You put a bit of oil to the DRAINED pasta, to keep it unsticky! Not to the water!
NO !! if you add any sort of oil to the water the pasta is cooking in, the pasta will NOT cook properly as the oil coats the pasta and the water can't get to it. The best way is to cook the Pasta, refresh it under cold water, pop it back into the pan and drop some Olive oil onto it, mix before adding the sauce ....
The only reason to put oil in the pasta water is to reduce the risk of boil over. Large pot also reduces the risk.
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?)
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.
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Almost everything on B.P has become judgemental why should cooking be any different?
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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...
