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“What Trick Did You Learn That Changed Everything?”: 29 People Share Their Best Cooking Hacks
Article created by: Ieva Pečiulytė
How would you rank your cooking skills, pandas? On a scale of “somehow manages to burn cereal” to “can bake a flawless soufflé with your eyes closed”, where do you fall? Personally, I grew up watching way more Food Network than I would be proud to admit, but despite the fact that my child brain was supposed to be soaking up information like tres leches cake soaks up milk, many of the tips and tricks I heard went in one ear and right out the other. So as an adult, I’ve put in countless hours reading recipes, experimenting in the kitchen and studying videos to feel confident preparing a homemade meal. And I have to admit, it was totally worth it, because I love cooking now!But there's always more to learn, especially for my fellow amateur cooks out there. So below, we’ve gathered a list of helpful tips and tricks Redditors have been sharing that might be the exact game-changers you need to feel more at home in the kitchen. From learning how to properly dice veggies to purchasing small appliances that will save you loads of time and energy, these tips might go a long way in elevating your culinary skills. Be sure to upvote the responses featuring hacks you plan to utilize the next time you're responsible for dinner, and then if you’re hungry for even more tips from Bored Panda that can improve your kitchen literacy, check out this delicious list next!
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#1
Get all your ingredients out before you start and put them away as you use them. Saves you from realizing you’re out of something halfway through or forgetting if you added something already.
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#2
It’s silly but adding toasted sesame oil to any rice dish, but especially stir fry. Heck, even a simple chicken and rice dishes are a million times better with sesame oil added
#3
Every recipe blog has a “jump to recipe” button somewhere near the top. Discovering that I could skip the backstory made me way more open to searching for new recipes.
#4
Cooking is an art form, baking is science. You can think of a recipe like a suggestion and improvise accordingly, but when you are baking, precise measurements and methods make all the difference. -Cheers!
#5
Start with a completely clean kitchen and empty sink(s) and a lot of the time you can serve dinner and have 80% of the cleanup completed as well.
#6
When adjusting seasoning at the end, if you've added salt and pepper and the dish still feels like it's 'missing something'. Add a splash of an acid. White/apple cider Vinegar, lemon, lime etc. Use as appropriate for the dish.
#9
If you have lots of garlic, peel it then put it in a food processor or blender, then put it in ziplock bags and flatten it out before freezing it. Whenever you need garlic just break off however much you want from the sheet. Keeps forever and is much better than the stuff you get in the jar from the supermarket.
#10
If you take a dry paper towel and place it in your bag of spinach or kayle it will last months instead of a week and the bag will always be dry instead of building condensation and wilting the leaf.
#11
Sliced peppers and onions can go straight into the freezer fresh and come straight out and into the hot pan, no need for thawing.
#14
Getting and using a stick blender. I thought they were gimmicks until I got one (nearly 20 years ago). I've reached for that thing at least 20 times for every time I even thought about getting the full-sized blender out.
#15
I keep a jar in the fridge which contains the drained oil from anchovies, I add mixed herbs and some smashed garlic cloves. A teaspoon full to sauces gives that umami kick, when you don't have anything else.
#17
When making hard boiled eggs I switched to steaming them instead of boiling them in water a couple of years ago. I've not fought with a stubborn shell once since I made the switch.
#18
We don't eat bacon that often. You can take parchment paper, put a slice on it, fold it over, add another slice, and keep going until you have a roll of individual slices of bacon. Put it in a large ziploc bag and put it in the freezer. Bacon survives freezing just fine, and this way you can remove as many pieces as you want.
EDIT: It is fascinating all the variations people have on dealing with bacon!
#19
The most important thing I learned, years ago from my mentor, was to be mindful of your energy and emotional state when cooking. Your energy goes into your food and people feel that. Never cook angry. Always cook with joy. I have my favorite music going, I'm singing and dancing in the kitchen and having fun, even when it is crunch time. Your food is an extension of you.
#20
Don't blindly follow recipes, no matter how good the food blog looks. I'm convinced a lot of the recipes are untested, and their prep times, cook temperatures, and cook times are often not the ideal amounts. Monitor your cooking and improvise as needed.
#21
Food processors are underrated. I've just started using mine (after using the blender for years) and behold! Nice tomatillo salsa or chimichurri, no problem. But then I saw that you can use it for pie crusts and biscuits and OH MY GOD WHAT A GAME CHANGER FOR CUTTING IN MY BUTTER. Pre chunk the butter, throw it in, and a few pulses later youre in business.
#22
1. I now freeze my left over tomato paste. I can cut off the amount I need for a recipe and throw it back in the freezer.
2. If you store asparagus in a mason jar of water, standing up with the heads out of the water, it can stay fresh for weeks.
#23
For snacking on veggies instead of spending all that time chopping, getting a Mandolin slicer and cutting up cucumber, bell peppers, carrots etc is so much easier and they look great too.
Also, baking bacon on foil in the oven instead of standing stove side the entire time.
#25
Putting a damp paper towel underneath the cutting board so it doesn't slide around while chopping!!
#26
Exact measurements are not essential in 99% of things(not counting baking.) Cook to taste, and taste as you cook.
#27
Realising I can make hollandaise sauce without having to use a bain-marie was a wonderful discovery for me.
Just slowly whisk in 50g of melted butter to one egg yolk, then add lemon juice and season. The consistency’s ever so slightly different, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad difference.
#28
Keeping a lemon in fridge, adds freshness to many things. A little acid into soups, gravy, on veggies...
#29
I guess this counts: when I need minced garlic, I just smash the garlic with the flat of my knife and then give it a quick rocking cut for a few seconds. That's almost always good enough- I'm not spending minutes mincing garlic.
Either that, or I'll microplane it
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