Just visualizing the rush and mess that probably happens in the kitchen every morning sometimes dampens our urge to cook. Your kitchen hides secrets that enable you to cut down your time in the kitchen.
Here are some kitchen tricks or hacks that will make your life easier in your kitchen:
Grate cold butter
Stick of butter has to be close to frozen for it to work, and you need to work fast to keep it from melting. Rather than using butter stick, you can save your time by grating the cold butter. Grated butter is perfect for adding to flour before baking biscuits, scones, muffins, and other food. Grated butter also melts faster, so if your butter is too cold to spread, you can grate it first then topping your favorite pancakes, toast, or baked potato.
Peel off the garlic
If you don’t have time to peel off the garlic one by one, you can try this trick. Smash the whole garlic with a plate or bowl until all the cloves are loose. Put the garlic in a tight-lidded jar, and shake it thoroughly for around 2 minutes. Open the jar and voila: your garlic is detached from each other and all are peeled off!
Scooping up a broken shell
Sometimes, brown organic egg shells seem to break off into little pieces easier. You can do two tricks to get rid of the broken shell: first, dip your fingers in water then dig the shells out of the bowl. Second, use one of the egg shell halves to scoop them out.
Test your egg’s freshness
Test the freshness of the eggs by tossing them in a bowl of water. If it floats, it means that the eggs had gone bad. There is a logical explanation about this. Eggshells are porous, so it allows air to slowly get in over time. As more air enters the egg, the egg will get lighter and lighter, which explains why the egg will eventually float.
Peel oranges the right way
It is somehow annoying when you need to dig your nails into the tough skin of an orange. Actually, with few cuts of a knife, you can peel an orange very easy and eat it without juice dripping all over your hands. Just cut a little top part of the orange, then make vertical slice on the orange’s skin (don’t slice it too deep). Pull the sliced skin out and the orange is ready.
Roll your lemons
To get more juices from your lemon or lime, roll them while applying a bit of pressure on a cutting board or table.
Wooden spoon trick
Place a wooden spoon over boiling water to keep it from boiling over. The spoon will pop a lot of the bubbles once they come into contact with it, and it also absorbs some of the moisture
No more clumpy brown sugar
To avoid clumpy brown sugar, add some slices of bread in the sugar jar or storage.
Revive crystallized honey
Place the honey container in a bowl of hot water until the honey is smooth and runny for 5 to 10 minutes. To prevent crystals from forming again, store the honey in a cool, dry place (not in the refrigerator).
Freeze leftover tomato paste
Most recipes for pasta sauce and chili call for only a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste. If your tomato paste is in a can, don’t toss the remainder or let it dry out in the refrigerator. Instead, freeze it in tablespoon-size portions in an ice-cube tray. Once they’re solid, transfer the cubes to a plastic freezer bag.
Make perfect hard-boiled eggs
Cracked shells are one of the problems from boiling eggs. To prevent the egg shells from cracking, add a pinch of salt into the boiling water. To make it easier to peel, add baking soda or vinegar to the water when boiling.
Slice meat easily
Need to thinly slice meat? Stick the meat in the freezer for one hour. It will be easier to slice when the meat is partially frozen.
Maybe you could add more of your favorite kitchen hacks to this growing list.
