Cooking hacks are a beloved part of our culinary journeys, providing us with fresh perspectives on our favorite meals and helping us save precious time in the kitchen. Recently, a passionate food enthusiast sparked a lively discussion on a popular online forum, seeking fellow foodies' favorite cooking hacks.
The responses poured in, sharing a wealth of invaluable advice, from essential tools to enhance your cooking to clever techniques that elevate flavors.
Hack #1: Revive Veggies by Soaking Them in Cold Water
One foodie shared this tip for making water-filled produce crisp again: “Revive veggies that have lost their water by cutting their edges and soaking them in cold water. Lettuce, carrots, celery will be crisp again.”
Hack #2: Get a Set of Quality Scissors
If you want to ensure that you are getting the best scissors for using in the kitchen, you’ll want to use this tip: “A quality set of scissors will save you so much hassle…”
Another foodie agreed, adding: “They should be able to disassemble at the hinge point for cleaning purposes.”
Hack #3: Make Bland Food Tasty
One foodie shared: “If your food is bland even though you've added salt then it's missing acidity. Lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar are easy additions.”
Another suggested a way to take this one step further: “if you wanna splurge, champagne vinegar or prosecco vinegar is delicious in just about anything as a finishing acid.”
Hack #4: Salt Your Food Before Cooking
One foodie suggested: “Salting your food 20-40 minutes before cooking makes a world of difference in the salt permeating the food.”
Others agreed adding: “Pat the meat dry first, then salt. This shift in osmolarity between the surface and the inside allows better penetration if the salt.”
Hack #5: Use Soy Sauce to Bring Out Savory Flavors
One foodie shared: “I use soy sauce in a lot of stews and soups to help bring out savory flavors. My minestrone, for instance, usually has some soy sauce in it.”
Another user chimed in sharing: “Similarly, unsweetened cocoa powder. I add this to stews and chilis and it adds a rich depth of flavor and no one can pick out cocoa.”
Hack #6: Use Raw Garlic In Dishes Right Before Serving
One foodie commented: “If you’re making a savory dish that uses crushed/minced garlic, reserve a little bit of the fresh garlic and stir it in to the dish right before serving. The fresh garlic adds a bit of a pop that you lose if it’s cooked.”
Many agreed sharing: “Understanding how to push the limits of garlic is what makes good cooks into great cooks.”
Hack #7: Brown your Butter Before Making Cookies
One foodie shared: “Not mine, but my wife browns the butter before she adds it to chocolate chip cookie dough and they're the best freakin cookies I've ever eaten!”
Another user added: “If my recipe calls for cinnamon or other spices and melted butter, I let the spices cook in the butter for a bit to bloom them.”
Hack #8 - Clean While You Cook
Many users agreed that this is one of the best cooking hacks out there. One person shared: "Yes! Once I started doing that I actually enjoyed cooking more.
Once I learned to accept that the people dining with me did not want to help after the meal (not all the time...sometimes), I started cleaning up as I went. Didn't take any extra time and I enjoyed not having cleanup when I was full."
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