Invaluable Kitchen Hacks (2020): A Run-Down of Some of the Most Useful Cooking Hacks That Can Benefit Everyone, Regardless of Skill Level.

Invaluable Kitchen Hacks (2020): A Run-Down of Some of the Most Useful Cooking Hacks That Can Benefit Everyone, Regardless of Skill Level.

Genius ideas from the Cooking Light brain trust show you how to save time, minimize effort, make do deliciously, and not let anything get in your way when it comes to cooking. These quick and clever kitchen hacks will change how you cook for the better.

Related articles

Kitchen, a Ladies Asset

In many households, it's the woman who still spends more than half of her day in the kitchen, if her kitchen doesn't bring her joy the task becomes a burden. She has to cook food for everyone in the family, manage the pantry and so much more. There are a number of things she can do to save time and energy to do other things rather than investing most of her time in the kitchen.

Look around your kitchen and see if your electrical appliances take up a lot of space? If you are not able to find the right things when you need them in a hurry? Do you need some help in learning a few tricks to save your cooking time and enjoy that saved time with your family? If yes, then scroll down and read some very useful tips that will help you do so. Don't hate your kitchen but organize it, don't hate cooking but learn some kitchen and cooking hanks and enjoy your time in your kitchen. These hacks are very simple and can make your life so much simpler.

10 Super Kitchen Hacks to Save Time and Money

Two Hacks That Make Using Eggs Easier!

If you love to cook and be creative in your kitchen you must be using a number of recipes to feed your family and if you are an egg lover then you must be cooking a lot of dishes that need the egg whites separated from the yolk. It can become a hassle if you try to do that without learning how to do it properly. It is quite simple, just gently squeeze a plastic water bottle over the opening of an egg, when the bottle refills with air it will make a vacuum and scoop the yolk in it. Squeeze it again in another bowl to remove the yolk from the bottle and you get a perfect golden yellow yolk separate from the egg white.

Another problem most of the people face is while removing eggshells from a boiled egg. You end up peeling some of the egg with it or take just too long. All you have to do is add a little vinegar or a tsp of baking soda in the water you use for boiling eggs. Both the substances permeate the eggshells and make it easier to come off the egg.

Prevent Water from Boiling Over

Don't you hate when you have just cleaned the kitchen and put some water on the flame to boil for tea or pasta, you turn around and it boils over and makes a mess on your countertop? You have to spend another 5 minutes in cleaning the water. You can avoid that by simply putting a wooden spoon across the top of the pot and it won't boil. Now, you can leave your kitchen with boiling water on the stove without worrying about it boiling and spilling over.

Preserving Your Herbs for Long

We all love to use fresh herbs in our dishes, a dish is complete when garnished with green fresh herbs but it is difficult to keep them fresh for a long time. You can't buy herbs whenever you need them. If you want them to look fresh and make your dish better, put your herbs in an ice tray with some olive oil or water. Freeze them, take them out when you need them, put it in your dish and they are as fresh as new.

Properly Clean Wooden Cutting Boards

Chopping boards are great. They help save a lot of time and helps you cut your vegetables in perfect size every time not to mention using a chopping board keeps your finger soft as they don't come in contact with the vegetables as much as they do when you hold them and cut them. The problem is that chopping boards could look clean but if not cleaned properly then bacteria can build upon it and you won't be able to see it and continue using it. To clean a chopping board properly cut a lemon in half, dip the coarse side in salt. Scrub the lemon with salt on your cutting board, rinse with warm water. You will have a clean chopping board in no time and you can cook hygienic food for your family.

Prevent Onions from Making You Weep

Onions are considered the soul of any dish. You can't cook most of the dishes without onions. They make great gravy and are used in salads but cutting them can leave you crying for a long time. If you want to serve those perfect onion rings as salads or use it in your other dishes freeze the onions before chopping them, but use them right after you chop them or else they will get soggy and spoil your dish. You can also try holding a slice of bread in your mouth while cutting onions to prevent tear built up. Bread prevents tear-inducing gases to reach your eyes and makes life a lot easier.

Pimp Your Refrigerator

Refrigerators are the most important device in your kitchen, you store your cooked and uncooked food in the refrigerator and you want it nice and clean. Cleaning the shelves of a refrigerator can be tiresome but you can do it easily if you cut decorative shelf paper or plastic sheets to fit in the shelves, this way you won't have to clean the shelves over and over again. Just peel off the paper and put in new ones and your work is done.

Hang What You Can

A great kitchen needs a lot of space. You want all your things easily reachable and organized but if the kitchen is small it can become tricky. Not anymore, if you start hanging everything that has a handle you can save a lot of time. You can find a lot of decorative hooks to hang your pots and pans, your mugs and lids on the walls to save that counter space in the kitchen. Get creative and hand whatever you can.

Get Rid of Extras

Source freshome.com

A kitchen holds a special place in a women's house, it is called the heart of the house and women love to shop for new things for their kitchen. They want their kitchen to look stylish and hip and sometimes they tend to overdo it. They tend to buy a lot of things which might never be used. It is important to declutter your kitchen from time to time and get rid of the extras to save up space. You can organize an exchange get together with your friends where they can bring over their extra things like that extra peeler, or a knife or an extra set of steel plates they never use and you can switch them with the things is you don't use. This way you will get rid of your extras and might end up getting new things for your kitchen without spending money. It will be a great party with food and new things for your kitchen.

Pull-Out Refrigerator Storage Drawers

Source www.ebay.com

No matter how big or a refrigerator you buy, you will always find it filled up. You empty your food in a storage container, bring it to your refrigerator and find no space in it. It's an everyday story in all households. You can avoid the frustration of organizing your kitchen to find some space to put your leftover food or fruits and vegetables buy using pull out storage drawers. They are very handy, come in various shapes and colours and look very stylish. You will save up a lot of space by using these drawers by storing food in it and over it.

Make Soggy Chips Edible Again

Your kids are hungry or you get unannounced guests over and all you have in the kitchen is some potato chips, you open the container and find them soggy and no good. Don't worry you can make them edible again and people won't even know it. Put a napkin or a kitchen towel on a plate and place your chips on it. Put them in a microwave for 30 seconds and your chips will be nice and crispy again and your guests will be happy too.

Some Amazing Indian Cooking Hacks You Will Love

Here are some tips for the chef in you. If you love to cook Indian food, you need to try these hacks to save your time and be smarter than others.

  • While making puri, roll them into whatever shape you want and put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes before frying them. They won't soak up a lot of excess oil and keep your puris healthy.
  • You should always keep the baking powder in your kitchen. They are great cleaners, you can use to clean tough kitchen sink stains, blender tops and even inside your oven. They leave your kitchen sparkly clean.
  • Another great hack for cleaning your kitchen which regularly gets dirty with spilled spices, tea etc is to mix vinegar and baking soda into a paste and apply it on a dirty surface, leave it for 24 hours and wipe them with a damp cloth and see them sparkle.
  • You get mint, coriander or curry leaves for your kitchen but they get limp in a matter of hours. To keep them fresh nip the leaves off from the stem and keep them in an airtight container in your fridge, they will last a lot longer and look fresh when you use them for extra flavour.
  • You put a lot of things in your refrigerator which leaves its odour in it, especially if you put fruits like leeches or a cantaloupe you will find your other food, milk and water smelling like it. You get rid of any odour from the fridge put a used tea bag in it. The odour will be gone in minutes.
  • You love bananas and usually buy them in a dozen or two but they start to ripe fast and get all squishy and spotty if you want your bananas to last longer remove them from the bunch and cover the end with a plastic wrap.
  • You want to use lemon juice in a certain dish but all you have is an old, brown and hard lemon sitting in the corner of your refrigerator. If you want to squeeze a good amount of juice from it, microwave it for 15 seconds and they will be plump as fresh lemons.
  • If you are not sure whether the eggs you bought from the store are fresh or not just put them in a bowl of water. If they are fresh they will sink in the water and lie on their side but if they are old then they will stand upright and float in water. This happens because the tip of the eggshells is porous and lets air inside so if it floats that means there is a lot of air in it and it will be best to throw that egg away.
  • When you reheat your left-over pizza it gets dry and hard, to avoid that put a cup of water while heating the pizza in a microwave.
  • If the blades in your mixer and getting dull, grind some salt in it. They will be as sharp as new blades.
  • We all love to eat papad with khichdi and dal chawal but if you don't keep them properly, they become soggy and tasteless. To extend the life of your papad store them in an airtight container and keep them in the fridge.
  • Peeling a clove of garlic and take up a lot of time and leave your fingers burning. To peel garlic easily chop the top and the bottom of garlic clove and microwave it for 15 seconds. It will get a lot easier to peel them after it.
Writer
Sarita Tiwari
Sarita worked in the development sector for 20 years but found her passion in writing. She is a blogger, a content writer and a ghost writer for various industries. When not writing, you will find her spending time with her family, cooking and traveling. She is an introvert and feels that writing gives a voice to her thoughts.
Related articles
From our editorial team

How to Keep Your Recipes Clean

When we cook, we often use a recipe book or our own notes. It can be a bit difficult to put the book on the worktop open on the right page without getting it splashed and stained. To protect cookbooks from this fate, use a regular trouser hanger to keep the book open on the page you need and suspend it over the work surface, where it’ll be quite safe.

With so many time-saving kitchen hacks under your belt, you should be ready to whip up your fastest meals ever. What are you going to do with all that extra time?