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Baking is a science, but cooking is an art. A true culinary master can simply follow their instincts and whip up a delicious meal out of seemingly simple and underwhelming ingredients. But we can all manage to improve our skills in the kitchen, so if you’re interested in learning some cooking hacks, you’ve come to the right place.
Redditors have been revealing their best kept kitchen secrets, so we’ve gathered the most brilliant ones down below. From incorporating creative ingredients to going against the grain and making up their own cooking methods, enjoy reading through all of these unconventional tips. And be sure to upvote the suggestions that you can’t wait to experiment with while making dinner!
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#1
That I have absolutely no idea what I did and can't recreate it exactly if I tried.
Ace 4 months ago (edited)
Well yeah, I think many people do that to a certain degree. I generally know exactly what I put in, but not in what exact quantities, particularly herbs, spices and seasonings, which tend anyway to be adjusted to taste towards the end of cooking. I rarely measure anything except for baking. And of course there's often a degree of substitution if you find you've run out of one ingredient, or used tinned vs. fresh tomatoes, that sort of thing.
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#2
The secret : if someone makes something you love, don't ask for the recipe, ask to make it with them one day. Sometimes the hidden secret is in how they make something, not the recipe itself.
#3
That's one of my biggest peeves. I'm a fairly accomplished chef. It has paid my bills for the last 15 years. If someone asks me a question I will answer it honestly and try to give them good advice.
I've worked with chefs that will say s**t like, "if I told you, I'd have to k**l you."
Yeah hilarious Matt, was it fennel or star anise you pedantic a*****e?
Sarah Belt 4 months ago
My chef Matt was like this, too. Bro, the url to epicurious is at the bottom of the printed recipe you gave me.
#4
Cinnamon and Nutmeg are often thought of as holiday spices, when used in conjunction and with sugar. But these are hardly their only uses. Both have very strong savory applications. I add some to chili and tomato sauces to add warmth and complexity. Nutmeg is my secret ingredient in any bechamel base.
Edit: it has become painfully aware that some of you snooty brats think nutmeg isn't a secret to which I say, yeah it's not really if you watch food Network on the regular. However there are some parts of the world where people never heard of adding it to their cheese sauce. And I come from those parts. Check yourself. Thank you in advance.
#5
I have no secrets. If anyone asks me how I make anything I'll tell them exactly how I'm exhaustive detail it they're willing to listen. Even my family's most treasured recipes I will teach you how to make it.
StrangeOne 4 months ago
Unless you're planning on profiting off a special recipe, I don't get why people refuse to share recipes and guard them as if they're a rare treasure.
#6
One day I walked in on my boyfriend chopping onions to freeze. SITTING IN FRONT OF THE TV WITH A LITTLE WORKSTATION.
I don't know why it never occured to me that you could sit down while doing repetitive prepping. Growing up I had only seen little old ladies do that and I guess I internalized that as a privilege to come with age ?
Anyways yeah. My secret is that I peeled these potatoes on the sofa and I think you can taste the extra layer of comfort. The potatoes peeled over a bowl in the sink taste like "I've been peeling for 10 lbs and my back hurts from the weird angle I've been holding my neck at while I dissociate in a room with zero entertainment ".
Mabelbabel 4 months ago
I do a lot of baking-its far easier sitting down when mixing (and holding the bowl in your lap whilst creaming the butter and sugar helps the butter soften much better). It makes it more comfortable and doesn't affect my efficiency, so why not? It's like making cashiers stand as opposed to sitting at check-outs, they can do the job just as well sitting, so why force them to stand and be uncomfortable?
#7
I still cook with a lot of butter, lard, and bacon fat. Heavy cream, sour cream, or Greek yoghurt where it calls for milk in a lot of recipes or boxed mixes, like mac and cheese. I don't cook with "low-fat" anything.
#8
I think cooking secrets are irritating. I always tell people exactly what my recipes are if they’re interested.
meeeeeeeeeeee 4 months ago
Why has BP picked so many comments saying they don't like secrets...yes, great, but you've titled this 60 cooking secrets, so maybe pick the comments with them.
#9
A couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce elevate minced beef.
#10
Having an actual secret recipe that you won't tell anyone else is straight up weird. So much of cooking is passing on knowledge to others.
SouthernGal 4 months ago
I used to know someone who always changed a quantity or omitted an ingredient if she shared a recipe. She didn’t want anyone to make it as well as she did. What an insecure jerk!
#11
Butter is way better than mayo for grilled cheese. Who cares if the browning is even, I want it to taste good.
#12
I bring baked good to work quite often and I’ll print out stack of the recipes, and what I’ve changed, so people can make it at home and know exactly what the ingredients are.
There are way too many food allergies and I don’t want to accidentally k**l my coworkers.
#13
I like to blend up some charred jalapeno and fresh cilantro and add it to my homemade corn tortilla dough.
Also, I love adding roasted poblano peppers to my pinto beans (and often actually go for peruano beans instead of pinto too).
#14
Add very thinly sliced garlic fried in oil to your pastas or fried rice. It gives it so much flavor and a really nice crunch. Also, the secret to never burning your garlic is to keep the heat consistent and add garlic to the pan while it’s still cold. First add it with the oil, then turn the heat on medium and keep it on the same level of heat. That way, the flavor slowly infuses in the oil and makes it fragrant. Once it’s starting to get nice and golden you can take it off the heat - it’ll continue to fry up since the oil is still hot. Literally everyone obsesses over how I make my fried garlic, but it’s very easy :).
#15
Key lime juice instead of lemon in hummus. People always ask me my secret, and that’s the only change I make. (Have had a key lime tree out back for years.).
#16
A dash or two of soy sauce in a meat gravy is never amiss.
#17
I entered a chili cookoff last year, but I didn't have a good recipe up my sleeve since it's not something I ever make. After delving into a ton of research about the secret ingredients people use, I eventually threw my hands up and ended up putting in practically ALL of them. We're talking 10 different types of chiles, ground espresso, dark cherries, fish sauce, masa harina, cocoa powder, steak, pork butt, bacon, pumpkin beer, tomato paste, beans, shallots, sweet potatoes, worchestershire sauce, msg, coriander, Mexican oregano, galanghal, smoked paprika, cloves...
If someone wanted the recipe, there's no way I could have even come close to piecing it together. It was certainly unlike any chili I had ever eaten, but to my great astonishment, it actually won the grand prize!
BrownEyedPanda 4 months ago
I've GOT to try this chili! Served with homemade cornbread, I would happily lose my everloving mind!
#18
I always save and use the flavoured oil in jars of preserves like marinated feta or artichokes. Especially in blended soups like pumpkin or carrot. Also a bit of chocolate in many savoury dishes like curry or thick soup. Just a square of dark chocolate.
#19
A pinch of MSG in anything savory, and a teeeeny pinch of salt in any dessert, especially if it involves chocolate.
#20
Fish sauce in many non-Asian dishes. Perfect umami and doesn't taste taste like fish.
#21
I throw a cinnamon stick or two into my pot of chili.
Mel in Georgia 4 months ago
It's the key to Cincinnati chili. Also just made moussaka and the cinnamon made the dish!
#22
I take lazy shortcuts, make the guests do the work, and pretend it’s part of the dining experience. People literally eat it up. Like roasting an entire unprocessed bulb of garlic in oil and showing guests how they can squeeze the garlic out of the skin like a paste and dip bread in the oil. Takes 2 minutes and I don’t have to peel the garlic. Or setting out ingredients for people to make DIY pizzas or paninis.
DIY dishes have been some of my most popular dinner parties, and nobody will ever know I chose the dish at the last minute because I had to clean my house and didn’t have time to make something. I don’t even roll out the pizza dough, I just sprinkle down some flour with a rolling pin and say that’s part of it.
#23
Coffee & chocolate have always complimented & enhanced each other.. As a French chef once explained to me. When in Switzerland you get a small cube of chocolate with your coffee, you put the cube of chocolate under your tongue - every time you take a swig of coffee you wiggle the coffee around in your mouth slowly melting the chocolate which enhances the coffee. Inexperienced people just eat the chocolate & then drink their coffee.
#25
My meatloaf is packed with carrots, celery, onions, spinach, and other healthy stuff that my mother's family would avoid. I blitzed in the food processor, sweat them in a pan, and add to the mix. They love it, and request my meatloaf often, they'll never know I'm poisoning them with health.
Also, I add oyster sauce to my pasta salad. My wife knows, but everyone else would probably wig out. Everyone says I have the best pasta salad around.
Lady Eowyn 4 months ago
I hope you tell people. Oysters are among the shellfish I'm deathly allergic to.
#26
The absolute key to all of my curries is tomato paste. No fresh tomatoes, or tinned, chopped, diced etc. it creates silky, umami, concentrated flavor.
#27
Putting a couple of drops of toasted sesame oil into the water before making my rice pilaf.
#28
When making home fries, dredge the boiled potato chunks in instant mashed potatoes. It gives them a lovely, crunchy coating.
Mabelbabel 4 months ago
Mary Berry recommends coating par-boiled spuds in semolina for added crunch (the dry flour version, not the tinned milky dessert version).
#29
Huge Secret: DC area resident here. There is a chain of restaurants around the DC area called Flame Kabob that has homemade 'White Sauce" that they serve, which is more addictive than crack c*****e. I spent several years trying to replicate the sauce, trying several dozen recipes. It is said by most kabob gurus to be a "Yogurt" based sauce. I finally managed to get a peek at someone making a large vat of this white sauce in the kitchen of one of their restaurants. Newsflash: It f*****g made mostly from Hellman's mayonnaise, spices, and cucumber, with VERY little yogurt in it. I was shocked, to say the least. Yes, I can now reliably replicate the sauce, and my entire social circle thinks I am some sort of cooking God...lol.
Saint_Zipcodus 4 months ago
I love kabob, I love mayo... But I really dislike the so-called youghurt sauce that's unmistakenly based on mayo.
#30
Everyone loves my meatloaf recipe and I’m happy to share the ‘secret ingredient’ - its chorizo. A pound of ground beef, half a pound of ground pork, and a ~3 inch chunk of chorizo. It hides in the background just enough.
#31
I always add around a tablespoon of dill pickle juice into my creamy potato salad and pasta salad dressings.
Also a touch of honey instead of sugar in mayo based dressings is divine.
#32
* Parmesan on tomatoes for sandwiches
* Chili crisp oil on eggs for salads
* Salt in coffee grounds
* Instant coffee in dry rubs
* Turmeric replacing saffron
* Cold day old rice for fried rice
* Yellow potatoes any time a recipe calls for Russets
* Dot of mustard to keep any mayo base from separating
* Taco seasoning instead of standard chili seasoning
* Wrap burgers and subs
* Salt egg mix before scrambling
* Don't stir the rice. Just leave it covered till it looks dry then wait 5-10 minutes.
Lady Eowyn 4 months ago
I've always salted my eggs before scrambling them. My dad taught me that. Scrambled eggs was the only thing he ever cooked.
#33
Tiny cubes of apple in a potatoe salad is the most amazing surprise blast of flavor ever.
Ren Karlej 4 months ago
I know I would personally highly dislike that - it would be a sudden 'wrong' texture for me when bitten into. The flavour would be fine. Each to their own though 😃
#34
I don’t gatekeep if asked, hell I’ll just share for the joy of it.
Gatekeeping “secret” recipes or ingredients is so lame and will make me not want to eat someone’s food anymore.
I’m also really good at reverse engineering dishes anyways. So I have pissed a few snooty people off pointing out I can taste the “secret” ingredient.
Good. You shouldn’t be trying to prevent the sharing of ideas and good food.
Here’s one of my weirder ones that is really nice; when making a blackberry pie or cobbler- add about 1/8-1/2 tsp basil, finely ground. Yes. Basil. Also about 1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground is best.
It brings out the deep jammy berry flavors more but you can’t taste the spices.
(And it very well may be a thing already but I did stumble across it on my own).
Huddo's sister 4 months ago
Basil is nice with blackberry, or quince. I have seen some good recipes for pizza with a blackberry, basil and fetta topping.
#35
Oh, that soup I made that you think is so flavorful and restaurant-like? I just made it with a pressure cooker like the restaurant would lol
Also butter. SO much butter.
nottheactualphoto 4 months ago
The pressure cooker is a wonderful tool. A proper stovetop pressure cooker, that is, not no fool Instant Pot :-)
#36
Adding gochujang paste to cheese toasties adds umami in a way that adding more cheese doesn't. Not a secret tho, just that I only just discovered this myself.
Trisec Tebeakesse 4 months ago
Gochujang is my new God. I've always been a big hot sauce person, but my son is in actual chef that specializes in Asian cuisise and he introduced me to this. I've been known to eat it directly from the tub with a spoon, calling it "Red Pepper Pudding".
#37
There is a specific meal in my country which requieres weird combo of ingredients to be perfect. Imagine hash browns, sauerkraut and slow roasted pulled pork all mixed in one fatty and fulfilling dish. To keep the hash browns from soaking up the fat so much and to keep the whole think moist, a little milk or cream should be poured in before adding the meat. Which, combined with sauerkraut, is the the ultimate hell for many people.
I'm not gatekeeping this because I want to keep my secret recipe, but because people find it disgusting. I don't get it, but it's true. Nobody cares about cream in sauerkraut soup, but find it weird in this one.
#38
I sub espresso for the water in the Ghirardelli box brownies. I also love adding a good tahini swirl (chocolate tahini is next level) & some flakey salt on top. If I’m feeling lazy, I use blonde espresso from Starbucks. Not a secret, and I will tell anyone who asks. If you need something easy but exciting to bring to a party, make these and enjoy complements & a slight ego boost lol.
Ace 4 months ago
This is a packet cake mix, I assume? (rather than the old Kodak camera that came into my head when I read Box Brownie) . In which case I suggest they just learn to cook themselves. You can make brownies from scratch with just ten minutes or so of mixing, they'll be cheaper, better and with whatever 'special' ingredients you care to add.
#40
I know there's a well-known cookbook that covers this, but:
If anything you make seems bland, you need to add more fat (oil or butter), more acid (tomato, citrus, or vinegar), more heat (cayenne, hot sauce), or - most of the time, and especially with desserts - more salt.
No matter what spices, no matter how fresh your ingredients, whatever is not popping with your dish can be fixed this way.
Auntriarch 4 months ago (edited)
Sounds like "Salt, fat, acid, heat" by Samin Nosrat. One of my favourite books. But in the book heat refers to temperature not spices.
#41
I'll tell anyone these "secrets":
I grate nutmeg into my English style scrambled eggs
I add a not shy amount of Chinese Five Spice to my ground Italian sausage when making a Zuppa Toscana
I add a healthy tablespoon of Smoky Harissa Paste to my Texas chili, bloomed in rendered beef fat.
#42
I do the coffee trick as well. Mayo on grilled cheese I find abhorrent though. It makes the sandwich taste the way a wet dog smells. Butter forever and always.
I start regular dried pasta in cold water. They cook faster and it prevents sticking. People bristle when they see it because of the mandate to add pasta to boiling water, which I assume came from cooking fresh pasta where it is necessary. But cold water works better for dried pasta. Biggest proof is lasagne noodles. I can cook two boxes in a big pot that started in cold water. No stirring. No oil. And pull them out one at a time with no sticking. Do that with boiling water and it’s a big ball of pasta gum.
Trisec Tebeakesse 4 months ago
I'm Italian - I always add pasta to boiling water; I've never seen it gum up like that. I also camp, and I've seen Scouts add dry pasta to cold water and heat it up. You could patch highways with the resulting blob of goo. So I have no idea what this person is actually doing.
#43
A bit of red curry paste in pumpkin soup gives it a nice flavor.
ROSESARERED 4 months ago (edited)
I add ground ginger, sweet Paprika, tumeric and keens curry powder. I also roast the pumpkin with tomatoes onions and a couple of carrots...lots of pumpkin, and bacon fat.ti help the riasting..Serve with a swirl of cream, partly, and pumpkin seeds.
#44
1 TBSP mayonnaise in the batter when making a Dutch baby gets the most dramatic puff ever.
#45
The classic restaurant cook technique: enough olive oil to k**l you.
Carrie Laughs 4 months ago
Going to be very honest - I dislike the flavour of olive oil (so does my husband coincidentally) and if too much is used I find it can spoil the flavour of food, it is a very strongly flavoured oil after all. Yet I love olives! 🤷♀️
#47
I mince and fry saute my onions and garlic ahead of time.
50# of onions get minced and thrown in a pot with water and a touch of salt to break down cell walls. Then they're roasted with olive oil till golden brown and delicious. Cooled, flat-frozen, done for the year.
Garlic is blenderized then fried in oil, then put into a strainer to recapture the oil for re-use. The low-oil result is flat frozen too.
Doing multiple batches all at once on one day really reduces total time spent. I can leapfrog that 20 minutes that start every dang recipe!
#48
A small amount of curry powder in chicken soup. Not enough that you can identify it. Kicks it up a notch.
#49
If you’re cooking chicken, ALWAYS add white pepper. No matter what recipe, it fits every single time. White pepper is the secret ingredient.
Sally Moen 4 months ago
I grew up in a family that loved their black pepper, especially fresh ground black pepper from a pepper grinder. Wasn't until later I found out about the subtle peppery taste in white pepper. Same plant, different parts.
#51
I've used marmite in brownies and it gives them a chewy sort of chocolate cheesecake flavor and no one ever knows what it is but they always love it. I said what I said. I'd be happy to tell but a few people might be grossed out and not eat my brownies lol.
Roxy222uk 4 months ago (edited)
When my kids were little I used to make ‘party sandwiches’ filled with ‘party spread’, cut into appealing shapes, like stars, with biscuit cutters. They always went down well. Unless someone had allergies I didn’t reveal the recipe because it was literally just throwing butter and Marmite into the food processor until it was savoury and well mixed. Literally nothing else in the sandwiches. I got the idea from Nigella Lawson who quite rightly pointed out that children at parties aren’t there for the sandwiches, so why waste time with expensive or fiddly fillings. Plenty of Marmite haters ate those sandwiches right up.
#52
Smoked salt. So easy, adds so much depth.
We’re vegan/vegetarian and it makes all the difference in dishes that use bacon. (If anyone knows of a *good* bacon substitute I am all ears!) And I sprinkle it on vegetarian burgers as they cook and they get that nice smoky flavor.
#53
A bit of ketchup or sugar in stews, stir frys, pretty much anything with tomato or acidic sauce.
#54
I use bourbon in place of vanilla extract 90% of the time and it's almost always better. Everyone is always shocked or think it somehow makes what I'm baking boozy or something but it's roughly the same alcohol concentration as vanilla extract, it's just a different flavor.
Lady Eowyn 4 months ago
I know a lot of people who don't drink who would be upset about this, despite the fact that the alcohol burns off in the baking. I like vanilla extract and it's a staple in my pantry.
#55
Happy to share, it’s only a secret cuz nobody’s asked 🙃
A little caper brine (as long as the vinegar precedes the salt in the ingredient list) really wakes up dressings, pasta salads, … anything that needs a little acid. Just mind the salt, I often then cut down on any additional.
#56
The trick to kfc chicken is dried tomato soup mix. Lipton used to make it and it's now hard to find because it's the "11 herbs and spices". If you make a copycat recipe it will only taste ALMOST like kfc.
#57
Put 1-3 Anchovies in anything stewed - Goulash, Bolognese, Chili, Curries, whatever. Pure umami and not recognizable at all.
#58
I don't understand why you wouldn't tell people about the instant coffee thing.
#59
This isn't so much a secret, but maybe a rare hack for pie crust. I was taught as a child to karate chop the dough before separating and rolling it out. You form it into a ball, and just square it/flatten it slightly to a length and width that matches the sides of your hands. Then quickly "chop" a pound sign into the dough, one time on each side. It's been tender, firm, and flaky every time.
On another note, a secret/not secret ingredient I like to employ is cardamom, just to show it some love. It doesn't seem to be used a lot in American dishes. It brings much spicy joy to coffee, pancakes, pumpkin and zucchini bread, fruit or veg pies, etc...
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Betsy S 4 months ago (edited)
Not a secret but a trick I learned when I had step kids that refused to eat vegetables. Get a chipper! Kids will eat almost anything if it's presented as French fries. I would do multi-coloured carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, parsnips, yams, white potatoes, and anything else I came across that was dense enough. Supply fun dips (salad dressing) and they'll go to town. Did the same with apples and pears. Made them into "sticks". Kids love anything that's stick-shaped.
Papa 4 months ago
My children also went through a spell where they didn't want to eat vegetables. My wife would put them in a blender, add the results to tomato sauce, and put it over pasta. They never knew the difference.
Load More Replies... Robin Roper 4 months ago
The Chocolate Chip Cookies I make and everyone raves about are made from a recipe published in Consumer Reports about 40 year ago. The ingredients are the same as the one on the chocolate chip bag but the process different. Everyone says they are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies they have ever tasted.
Deborah B 4 months ago
Add a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of tahini to a pot of leek and potato soup, as well as some grated cheese. You can't taste the lemon or seseme, but it gives it a much more satisfying flavour profile. I also use ham stock, and add bacon, unless I'm cooking with vegetarians.
Roxy222uk 4 months ago
I never thought of putting tahini into soup, thank you. It gets bought for one or two recipes and then just sits in the cupboard.
Load More Replies... Betsy S 4 months ago (edited)
Not a secret but a trick I learned when I had step kids that refused to eat vegetables. Get a chipper! Kids will eat almost anything if it's presented as French fries. I would do multi-coloured carrots, turnips, sweet potatoes, parsnips, yams, white potatoes, and anything else I came across that was dense enough. Supply fun dips (salad dressing) and they'll go to town. Did the same with apples and pears. Made them into "sticks". Kids love anything that's stick-shaped.
Papa 4 months ago
My children also went through a spell where they didn't want to eat vegetables. My wife would put them in a blender, add the results to tomato sauce, and put it over pasta. They never knew the difference.
Load More Replies... Robin Roper 4 months ago
The Chocolate Chip Cookies I make and everyone raves about are made from a recipe published in Consumer Reports about 40 year ago. The ingredients are the same as the one on the chocolate chip bag but the process different. Everyone says they are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies they have ever tasted.
Deborah B 4 months ago
Add a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a tablespoon of tahini to a pot of leek and potato soup, as well as some grated cheese. You can't taste the lemon or seseme, but it gives it a much more satisfying flavour profile. I also use ham stock, and add bacon, unless I'm cooking with vegetarians.
Roxy222uk 4 months ago
I never thought of putting tahini into soup, thank you. It gets bought for one or two recipes and then just sits in the cupboard.
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