Are you a home chef? Do you look forward to the time you spend in the kitchen, whipping up your newest concoction? Whether youre a veteran or a novice, whether youre the next at-home Rachel Ray or you cant tell a teaspoon from a tablespoon, everyone can use some handy tricks to make cooking easier.
Have you ever wondered why a recipe that says it takes an hour to make online ends up taking you an hour and a half in your own kitchen? Oftentimes its because the person who wrote that recipe knew some handy tips and tricks that you didnt. If you are ready to take your cooking skills to the next level, read on. We will teach you 45 amazingly simple and genius kitchen hacks that will transform the way you cook forever!
Bake tuna in a can with … toilet paper. Yes, toilet paper.
This one is apparently an army trick. In Israel they have a lot of canned tuna rations, and if you get bored enough with your tuna rations you start to think. Lets see, Ive got this canned tuna, some toilet paper, and a lighter. What can I do with that? Turns out what you can do is cook the tuna in its own oil in the can. All you have to do is cut a piece of toilet paper to size (you want about three sheets per can), open the can, and stuff it in on top. Leave a little pocket for the air to escape so it doesnt blow up in your face. Make sure that the entire toilet paper sheet is wet with oil, and then light each corner of the toilet paper.
You dont have to wait for the flame to go out on its ownif you do, you will wait around 25 minutes. You will need to experiment and decide just how well done you want your fish. Blow it out whenever you are ready. The toilet paper is surprisingly easy to remove, and the result is delicious smoked tuna. You can use a napkin as well, but for whatever reason, toilet paper seems to work a lot better. You may feel embarrassed about cooking with toilet paper, but just think how awesome you will feel about cooking with an open flame!
Keep brown sugar soft.
Brown sugar likes to compact, and when it does, it can become as hard as a brick. When you are baking, you dont want to waste time making your brown sugar soft again (but we have a hack for that too, which well share with you in just a moment). You can prevent your brown sugar from going hard by simply storing it with a piece of bread. We dont want to get all science-y, so suffice to say, it works. Whats really cool is that you never have to change out the piece of bread either, because sugar prevents mold from forming. Alternatively, you can also use a marshmallow.
And what if your brown sugar is already as hard as a brick? It turns out this is also easy to deal with. Just put it in a baking dish, cover it with a wet paper towel, and throw it in the microwave for twenty seconds. Ta-da! Soft sugar. Dont have a microwave? You can do it in the oven; it takes five minutes. Just use the bread trick though and this wont happen anymore.
Fast and easy ice cream servings
Shuck corn the easy way.
Corn … golden, sweet, life-giving, buttery and delicious. Corn goes great as a side dish with pretty much anything. Did you know there is an incredibly simple way to shuck corn? It literally takes just two steps. Even people who grow corn often dont know this little trick.
All you have to do is put the ear of corn down on a cutting board. Chop off the end (the end with the stem, not the other end). Stand the corn upright on the flat end you have chopped. Grab it by the top and unsheathe it from the leaves by gently tugging on them. The corn ear will literally fall right out.
This hack is only applicable if you are going to go through a whole carton of ice cream (you could use it if you arent, but it would be a bit much just to get a bowl or two). It is a great way to speed things up and make sure the servings are even (for a dinner party for example). Instead of struggling with an ice cream scoop and hard ice cream, take the ice cream carton and put it under warm water in the sink for 15-30 seconds. Turn the carton over on top of a plate. The ice cream should slide onto the plate in a block. Warm up a knife the same way you did the carton, and then try cutting into it. You should be able to cut easy slices, put them into bowls, and serve!
Bonus tip: That trick with the warm knife? That also works great for cutting perfect cake slices! It isnt the only easy way to cut cake perfectly though. Well share another amazing cake cutting trick with you in just a bit!
Get touch lids off jars with a bottle opener.
Tired of wasting time in the kitchen trying to get impossible lids off of jars? If you dont have one of those nifty rubber things handy, but you have a bottle opener, you can get the lid off. Lift with the bottle opener at the edge of the jar lid until you hear a pop. Then you can easily unscrew the lid. Alternatively you can use any sharp thing to get the lid pop.
Replace ice cubes with frozen fruit in drinks.
Serving up some drinks with your meal? Instead of adding ice, think about adding frozen strawberries or grapes or other fruit pieces. They will subtly change the flavor of the drink, so it may take some experimenting to figure out what you like. A lot of people enjoy frozen grapes in white wine for example. Why is this an awesome idea? Frozen fruit cools down your drink without watering it down, and at the end, you can eat the fruit.
Use dental floss to cut cakes and more.
Earlier we talked about using a warm knife to cut cake perfectly. Another easy alternative is a piece of dental floss. Get the unscented type so you wont mess up the flavor. The floss will make a nice clean cut, and can be used for cakes, pastries, and more. You can use it for soft cheeses too.
Replace vegetable oil with butter to make your recipes richer.
This is a suggestion for improving cake, but you can actually improve a number of foods this way. It works great for brownies as well if you want a richer flavor and consistency. You can also replace water in these recipes with milk. Depending on the recipe and your taste, you might also prefer something like coconut, buttermilk, or even juice. Just about any recipe will automatically taste more decadent when you cook this way. This applies to savory foods like eggs as well (more below).
Cook up the perfect sunny-side up egg.
If you have problems getting your sunny-side up eggs to come out sunny-side perfect, youre not alone! A lot of home chefs struggle to get their eggs to spread out nicely, cook evenly and thoroughly, and not burn in the process. Grab a bouillon bowl or something similar, break your egg in it, and take a moment to whisk the whites. Be careful not to break the yolk! This one simple step will help your egg to spread out perfectly in the frying pan and cook evenly!
You can grease your frying pan with vegetable oil, but this is yet another recipe where butter can contribute to a better-cooked egg with a richer flavor. You can also try bacon grease, which goes great in lots of other recipes as well. Prefer your eggs scrambled? A quick tip for perfect scrambled eggsstir in a little milk before you scramble them. They will come out fluffy, rich, and delicious!
Get flatter, evenly baked cakes.
When your cake comes out of the oven, does it look raised or indented? This might not be a big deal if you are planning on just chowing down and enjoying it, but if presentation is one of the main reasons youre making the cake, you want it to be perfect! This is especially helpful if youre going to be decorating it.
Heres a super easy way to make sure you get a perfect flat cake! Have an old towel you dont need? Cut a strip that measures the same height as your cake tin. Get it damp, and wrap it around your cake tin. Put the cake tin in the oven, cook as usual, and hooray! you will get the perfect cake!
Tin foil dinners.
If you do a lot of camping, then you probably already know this one. If not, youre about to learn a really easy way to cook without pots and pans. A tin foil dinner is literally a dinner you make in a tin foil. There are hundreds of recipes out there. You throw the ingredients into a sheet of aluminum foil, ball it up, and hold it over a campfire (or your fireplace). Once its done (how long it takes depends on what you make), you pull it out of the fire, open it carefully, and dig in. Easy, fun, delicious, and no cleanup afterwards!
DIY Instructions and Project Credit Diycozyhome.
