Share your favorite hacks that improved your cooking skills.
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Liven up that boring salad by replacing the lettuce with bacon and place it between two slices of bread.
With a thick slice of fresh tomato, lettuce and Duke's mayonnaise - yes, I'm in the US south!
Can't afford high-quality meat cuts? use baking soda .. sprinkle it on and let it sit for 20 - 30 mins then rinse and cook .. baking soda it will tenderize the meat.
More of a food storage hack, but a food hack nonetheless.
If ever you aren't able to cook everything from a pack of meat, like pork chops or steaks for example, you can use a freezer bag and a pot of cold water to act as an improvised vacuum sealer.
Simply put what you want to "vacuum seal" into a freezer bag, and close the bag most of the way (leaving about a one inch opening, or two fingers if you are eyeballing it). Start by submerging the bag up until the open corner, and as it is submerging, start releasing the air.
Close the bag when the air has been emptied, then you can put it in the freezer for next time.
Works as well if you want to sous vide and you don't have a vac pac.
Learn to cook from people whose cooking you enjoy. And if you find you don't like cooking? *DO NOT* cook. Miserable cooks make miserable food.
I label spice bottles, baking powder, and condiments on the bottom with the date when I open the container for the first time. Great way to remember just how long you have been using the product, and when it's time to drop into the compost.
In New Zealand everything is marked with a "best before" or "use by" date.
Beat the living c**p out of your eggs when making scrambled eggs. Like foam. Them. Up. Makes it easier to get fluffy scrambled eggs if you’re too rough in the cooking process.
Pro tip: separate the yolks from the whites and beat the living c**p out of the whites, then add the yolks in and blend. The foam is easier to make this way
when the food is missing "something", add acid such as lemon juice, vinegar or fish sauce
Hack 1
Do not buy or ask for knife sets as wedding gifts. Instead buy:
-1 great chefs knife, I like a 7" but no one size fits all so play with someone else's before you decide what size you need.
-2 3" paring knives
-1 great 5" sandwich knives
-1 great serrated knife
-1 great butcher knife or 1 great carving knife. If you can't afford both, you can use either for shared jobs
Do not waste your money on cheap knives! Do not waste your energy or efforts trying to use cheap knives.
This is a great small, family owned knife company - I LOVE their knives.
https://warthercutlery.com
Hack 2
Learn to sharpen your knives and keep them sharp!
I like to play a game with myself, where my house has burned completely to the ground and I have to buy everything again without a lot of money. The fun is discovering the few items I would buy at once because I would not want to be without them. In kitchen knives it is a really good chef's knife and a really good knife to slice bread. I can do almost anything with them.
- Marinate everything, and don’t be afraid to be heavy handed with the herbs. After cooking, toss some more herbs through. And to marinate, rather than using a spoon/whatever, put it in a box and toss it, so much easier and a more even coating (doesn’t work for everything)
- plan out your meals in advance, ensuring you have a carb of some sort, vegetables and protein. For example: pasta (carb) in a mushroom (veg) sauce with mince chicken (protein). Or: fish (protein) with roasted vegetable (veg) couscous (carbs)
- split the cooking into two parts. Prep work like cutting and marinating, and the actual cooking. To me it feels like a have more time if I do the prep around lunch, and cook later. Also means that the marinades sit for longer
- see what you can find online/in cookbooks. Don’t just follow them, but see what you can adapt to suit your needs
- practise and experiment. It’s the only way you’ll really get better
Get yourself an InstantPot. I use it 3 to 4 times a week. Game changer.
if you are making mac and cheese from a box (like kraft for example, although i personally use the generic store brand name for mine) add more cheese and more milk and butter. makes it taste better and makes the quantity bigger too so its a win win.
my personal favorites to add in are pepperjack cheese, parmesean, white cheddar and normal cheddar
I didn't try this but i heard adding chilli flakes and/or mustard makes it taste better too
Awesome idea with the chili flakes, and real cheeses especially
Youtube can be tour friend. There are serious chefs that put out how to make almost anything.
This is a great way to start learning how to cook. You've got lots of people making dump and go meals where you're just putting everything into a pot and not really doing anything else for preparation. You've got people making complex dishes that will go step by step show you the entire process warts and all, instead of the TV chef who cuts out steps because they don't look nice, leaves out ingredients because their sponsors don't make it (this is truer than you think) or just really isn't that good of a teacher even though they are a fantastic chef. You can really learn the basics of making just about any style of cooking you want.
Brown your butter. Doesn't matter what you're using it for, it makes a HUGE difference.
Put whatever amount you need in a small saucepan and cook over low heat, swirling the pan regularly, until pale golden brown. Cool until it's the consistency you need and use as you would regular butter. It'll change your life.
Ok, not really. But the flavour is incredible.
Use teabags! They are like ready-to-go spices mixtures. Just cut them open with a scissor and pull them about your meal while its cooking.
I love to put ginger-citrus tea in my veggie pans or in some soups.
If you need lemon juice in a recipe, microwave your lemon for 45-60 seconds. Cut in half and you can just squeeze each half gently with your hand and all the juice just falls out, you don’t even need a juicer. You can also bake raw lemons in an oven which makes the flavour a bit richer and sweeter, and again makes them super easy to juice.
When garnishing a dish, instead of sprinkling seasoning on closer to the food, sprinkle it from further away (higher). It will be more evenly spread onto your food.
Anytime you're cooking meat, salt it as far ahead as you can. Even overnight.
Buy an oven thermometer. Most home ovens aren't calibrated, and can be over 25° different than what you think you're dialing it into. Hanging a oven thermometer in it solves all of that. If you have an electric range top find out where your medium heat actually is on the dial. It may not actually be in the middle. From there you can start to figure out how to heat your pan just by hovering your hand above the hot pan to test for heat.
A lot of people who say they can't cook actually can but don't have stoves or range tops that cooperate.
This is fairly niche, but when I'm making fried chicken, I don't use any salt in the flour coating, I use chicken bouillon ( which is mostly salt anyway ). Amps up the chicken flavor just a bit.
Buy the very cheap gallon-size storage bags at the dollar store. Add ingredients, close and shake to mix up your marinade; then add the meat and/or veg to the bag. If it needs to sit for a while, put the bag on a plate or in a bowl in case of minor leaks. That way you aren't wasting the increasingly expensive name brand freezer bags.
Stale bread? Swipe it twice quickly under running cold water. You don't want to soak it just get it a little wet, then stick it in a 350 Fahrenheit/180 Celsius preheated oven for 3-5 mins. BAM! It will be as fresh as if you just got it from the bakery!
This isn't a hack in that it's not time saving in the first instance - but for something filling easy and cheap:
Mashed potato can be mixed with anything.
Cheese mash
Tomato mash
Tinned mackerel tomato mash - don't knock it. It sounds disgusting but it tastes like a bag of crisps/chips.
Spring onion mash.
Bacon mash
List is endless
Make it and freeze it.
Mash when frozen in a bacofoil tray, defrosted when needed, and stuck in the oven in the same bacofoil tray: It comes out like fluff. So easy to eat. Filling and You know what's in it. I mean what's not to like?
As a college student, air fryers are a total gift. Speed of the microwave, strength of an oven (provided you use them properly, and only with things that can be heated up in them i.e. frozen chicken nuggets). I can't tell you how many times I was exhausted from school and work, and I was happy to just toss some frozen chicken, shrimp, or jalapeño poppers in the air fryers without using too much effort.
To address comments I know I might get: I don't use the everything. The oven is better for doughy foods like pizza, the microwave is better for nachos, etc. However, if you're tired or busy, an air fryer can cook frozen food or vegetables with good results in about one quarter to one third of the time they'd spend in an oven (plus, when you need to flip, all you need to do is shake the basket, rather than tediously flip every morsel).
I have two, the regular basket type and an air fryer over. A whole roast dinner in an hour! I haven't used my actual oven since I got the air fryers and my power bill has gone down dramatically.
This one is for all the Dutch panda's out there. In the Netherlands we have "Hagelslag" or chocolate sprinkles we eat on bread for breakfast. But if you want to make the perfect Straciatella cupcakes or Muffins, don't bother with cooking chocolate, just put some Hagelslag in the battter, the little coating will make it melt at the perfect time.
(bonus tip, dip the frosted cupcake in more hagelslag for a great topping)
Fish sauce (but also it's vegetarian/vegan equivalents).
Adding a bit to appropriate dishes is an easy way to add a savory umami bomb to a recipe. Does it stink to high hell? Yup. But it's pure salty umami and doesn't make things taste fishy despite the name. Adding a small dash to scrambled eggs is incredibly delicious. Adding it to pasta sauces, chili's, soups, curries, etc just add an extra oomph.
And maybe the best application is a dipping sauce of fish sauce, garlic, chilies, lime juice, a tiny bit of sugar, for proteins with rice. It's amazing.
tvp or textured vegetable protein aka soy protein. it basically has no flavor so it absorbs the flavors of other things. it's great to make things go a little further. when i was tight on money i would add it to ground meat or stews/chilis to boost the protein. it's also good when i have a person who prefers vegan meals over as i can cook something that i can separate a portion of prior to adding meat for them.
the other thing would be using appliances for other things than what they were intended for such a rice cooker or waffle/sandwich maker. i don't buy an appliance or item unless it is versatile because i don't want the clutter. maybe one day i will get an insta pot and throw some of the things out but for now i am good with what i have.
An Instapot will change your view of all of it. Life changing thingamajig.
If you want to have a soft whole wheat bread or just a softer baked good add tangzhong (water roux). Add a 125 ml water of water and three spoonful of all purpose flour in a pot and bring it to a boil and . Stir it constantly with chopsticks or a a spoon until a thick paste has formed. Let it cool to room temperature and add into your dough.
Whenever I buy ginger, I buy double or triple what I need. I then chop it finely (or grate it). Whatever I don't use I spread in a thin layer on a piece of plastic wrap, and fold the wrap around the layer of ginger like an envelope. Then I stick it in the freezer laying flat. Once it's frozen I label it using painter's tape and store it vertically in the freezer door.
Then, whenever I need ginger for a recipe, I just snap off a piece from the frozen sheet. I just eyeball how big a piece I need to equal a teaspoon or tablespoon or whatever.
It's a time saver over the long run for just a little extra effort when you have to mince anyway. I do this with ginger and jalapenos as well. It works better than freezing them in an ice cube tray because the amount in a cube is more than what I need for a given recipe.
I meant garlic and jalapeno in addition to ginger.
Mastering the microwave is easy, safe, and rewarding. A few adjustments, and you're good to go.
--Regardless of what the instructions say, ALWAYS cover ANYTHING you heat/cook in a microwave. Waxed paper is your best bet; a slightly dampened paper towel is good for rolls and bread.
--Heating up fully-cooked food at full power in a microwave is tantamount to burning it at the stake.
-Breads: 40% power for 90 seconds max.
-Pizza: 40 % power. 1 slice-2 minutes. 2 or more slices: 90 seconds per slice.
-Soups, stews, chili: 80% power. 4 minutes; stir halfway through. Let rest 1 minute.
--Boneless, skinless meats can be safely cooked in the microwave IF you're willing to take a little more time to ensure safely and flavor. For example:
-Chicken: (add water) 80% power. 3-4 minutes per side; let rest 5 minutes.
-Hamburgers: 70% power. 3 minutes 1st side, 2 minutes flip side; let rest 2 minutes.
-Hot dogs: (add a little water) 70% power. 2 minutes max. let rest 1 minute.
--Coarsely-ground spices are excellent for seasoning meats for the microwave, along with liquid smoke and Worcestershire sauce.
can confirm re the bread. I'd not cook meat in it, just pre-cook. You want to get crispy on the outside and only an oven or pan can do that.
My family hates mayonnaise so they don't know I do this. When ever you bread chicken it's a few gloppy steps for so so breading. I rub the chicken with mayo and put it in the breadcrumbs take it out and its ready to cook. Less prep and clean up too. My bread crumbs include 1/3 Jiffy mix. Bake chicken strips in butter and its foodgasmic.
Smother your food with Trappey's Red Devil hot sauce, especially mac & cheese, and any breakfast foods.
This gives you a complex Cajun flavor with a gentle mild to moderate level of heat
I personally like making roast beef. And to make it extra tasty I add a little wine, a squeeze of lemon, and rosemary. Serve with potatoes and you decide on the drink.
This one just happened. I was leaving the grocery store parking lot and realized I didn’t have any stock for the crockpot pork loin I was about to cook. I considered what I had at home and what I just bought. I had planned on cooking it with canned chipotle peppers, sage, cilantro, minced garlic and onion. I had just purchased some Simply Lime Aid. I was looking forward to it by the time I got home. It was close to amazing, just a little overcooked. It took the southwest to the tropics. I plan on putting it in my rotation, with a few tweaks.
A panettone recipe taught me that it isn't necessary to have warmth to get bread dough to rise. This recipe called for mixing, first kneading, then sticking it in the fridge for a minimum 12 hours to rise in the cold. Now when I make bread, no matter what kind, I make it this way. It rises so slowly in the fridge, the time pressure is off - I can get to the second kneading when I have the time.
Get yourself an InstantPot. I use it 3 to 4 times a week. Game changer.
If you need lemon juice in a recipe, microwave your lemon for 45-60 seconds. Cut in half and you can just squeeze each half gently with your hand and all the juice just falls out, you don’t even need a juicer. You can also bake raw lemons in an oven which makes the flavour a bit richer and sweeter, and again makes them super easy to juice.
Put chopped up veggies and a bit of broth in a muffin tin, and freeze it. Great for soup, and once it's frozen, you can just pull the veggies out of the tin and keep em in a smaller container.
Add citrus if you can’t make something taste the way you want it to even you’ve added enough salt to pay a whole Roman army
Whenever I buy ginger, I buy double or triple what I need. I then chop it finely (or grate it). Whatever I don't use I spread in a thin layer on a piece of plastic wrap, and fold the wrap around the layer of ginger like an envelope. Then I stick it in the freezer laying flat. Once it's frozen I label it using painter's tape and store it vertically in the freezer door.
Then, whenever I need ginger for a recipe, I just snap off a piece from the frozen sheet. I just eyeball how big a piece I need to equal a teaspoon or tablespoon or whatever.
It's a time saver over the long run for just a little extra effort when you have to mince anyway. I do this with ginger and jalapenos as well. It works better than freezing them in an ice cube tray because the amount in a cube is more than what I need for a given recipe.
How do I delete this second post that I posted accidentally?
The way to prevent bread going stale is keep it in the breadbox with a large potato. The potato releases water very slowly which keeps bread fresh. I've kept bread for like a month in this way - it was still fresh when the mould started growing! Alternative is to freeze it. Most breads freeze just fine and can be microwave defrosted, BUT defrost on low power with a toweling cloth wrapped around it so the steam doesnt escape and dry the bread out. If you let it defrost at room temperature slowly it is even better.
The way to prevent bread going stale is keep it in the breadbox with a large potato. The potato releases water very slowly which keeps bread fresh. I've kept bread for like a month in this way - it was still fresh when the mould started growing! Alternative is to freeze it. Most breads freeze just fine and can be microwave defrosted, BUT defrost on low power with a toweling cloth wrapped around it so the steam doesnt escape and dry the bread out. If you let it defrost at room temperature slowly it is even better.
