You’re a busy little thing. You’ve got a million and one things to do each day, and the last thing you need is having half your day eaten up worrying about how to cook a perfect meal for that special someone, who happens to be coming over tonight.
We’ve got just the thing for you. Courtesy of refinedguy.com, the following is a list of 16 food hacks and secrets that are so effective, yet largely unknown – until now that is!
While this list won’t transform you into the next Martha Stewart, what it will do is make you a smarter cook by being able to take shortcuts, work less, and even make things tastier.
Even if you consider yourself a fairly proficient chef, I’m sure you’ll pick up at least one or two cool new tricks here. Bon Appétit!
Food Hack #1 – Getting The Perfect Microwave Popcorn
Microwave popcorn can be a bit pricey, and making popcorn on the stovetop can get messy and time-consuming. The solution? Add a quarter cup of corn kernels to a microwavable container, cover it with a plate, and then cook on high for 2min 45secs. Take it out of the microwave. Are there still un-popped kernels? No problem, just run the stubborn ones back through again. You’ll never go back once you see how perfect the popcorn end result is.
Food Hack #2 – Avoiding Citrus Spray
You’re whipping up a couple mean margaritas and the last thing you need is an eyeful of lime juice. Take your lemon or lime wedge, and cut a slit right in the centre (as shown in the photo above). This will create less splattering and allow for a more controlled dribble.
If you want to take your citrus game to the next level, this genius little product will do the trick.
Food Hack #3 – Microwave muffins and pastries without drying them out
You ever tried reheating a muffin, pastry or biscuit in the microwave, only to find that you ended up with an excessively dry finished product? Plop your baked good on a paper towel inside the microwave, along with a bowl of water beside it. As it heats, the water will evaporate and put out moisture into the air, which the pastry will absorb.
Food Hack #4 – Scoop Slice some ice-cream
Ice cream too hard? Don’t bother waiting for it to soften up. Break out the knife and slice that sucker up. That also gives you the opportunity to get a little creative with your presentation.
To view the rest of the food hacks, please unlock the content below:
Food Hack #5 – Roast your turkey upside down
The below video takes just 2:00 min to explain everything you need to know about roasting a moist, juicy turkey:
Food Hack #6 – Dealing with a broken wine cork
You got the case of the nerves and accidentally broke off some cork into the wine bottle? No big deal! Time to show your date that you’re not just a pretty face! Secure a piece of cheese cloth over the bottle opening. This will keep the cork bits out when you starting pouring the drinks.
Food Hack #7 – Make perfect hardboiled eggs, in the…oven?
Need to boil a big batch of hardboiled eggs, and have them coming out just right? Put your eggs into a muffin pan and bake for 25-30 min at 325 degrees. Take them out, let stand for 5min and then immerse them in cold water for approximately 30 min. Voila!
Food Hack #8 – Be a cherry tomato slicing ninja
This has got to be one of our favourite tricks for saving time and energy. If you ever need to slice cherry tomatoes in bulk, place them between two lids and gently press down. Now take a sharp knife and glide it along the gap between the two lids.
Food Hack #9 – Use frozen grapes to chill wine
As long as you or your date aren’t too snobby when it comes to wine, this trick works great in a pinch. When you want to serve some chilled white wine but forgot to stick it in the fridge, add some frozen grapes to the glass to act as organic ice cubes.
Food Hack #10 – Muffin Pan? Nope. Condiment Tray
This clever trick means less dishes to clean up, and a more organized eating experience.
Food Hack #11 – Wooden Spoon + Boiling Pot = No Spills
Cooking pasta used to almost always involve some boiled water spilling over. However, by laying a wooden spoon across the mouth of the pot, the spoon breaks up the foaming bubbles and reduces frothing. As a result there is little to no spillage. Note: If you’re using this trick, don’t use a plastic spoon (it will melt), or a metal one (hot!).
Food Hack #12 – Cut your cake with floss
Some cakes are so soft that using a standard knife to cut through them could put your sweet treat at risk of being mangled. Enter dental floss. Just be sure not to use a flavoured floss for the job – unless you’re going for that minty taste!
Food Hack #13 – Pit your cherries with a chopstick
Now you can pop those cherries into your mouth without ruining the romantic moment by needing to spit those pits out. Keep things elegant by using a chopstick to poke through the cherry and pushing the pit out the other side.
Food Hack #14 – French Toast prepared while you sleep
If you’re as busy as we think you are, if it isn’t already, a slow cooker should be your best friend by now. And now you can use the slow cooker to make perfect, fluffy french toast. To start, use the same recipe you use for traditional french toast, dip your pieces of bread in the mixture, and then place in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours, and be greeted to the delicious smells of fresh french toast when you wake up.
Food Hack #15 – You won’t hate peeling garlic (as much) after seeing this
This one was a game changer for us. To make the bowl-method even easier, first microwave the garlic cloves for 15-20 secs.
Food Hack #16 – Make cold butter spreadable
Grate your cold hard butter onto your toast with a cheese grater. The slender strips of butter will melt much faster on hot toast. Also a great trick to apply together with Food Hack #1!
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