Brilliant kitchen tips and tricks
File photo.
One of the reasons I love cooking is because it provides me with an endless opportunity to learn. Even cooks who live to be 100 years old can still be amazed by kitchen hints they’ve never heard before. I’ve been writing about food for six years and I probably only know about 5 percent of what there is to know about the topic. Or less.
That’s the beauty of books that offer lots of kitchen tips and tricks. One such book is “How to Squeeze a Lemon” by Fine Cooking magazine, which promises “1,023 kitchen tips, food fixes, and handy techniques” between its covers. I’ve been holding onto this book for long time with the intention of sharing some of its best hints with you. So here goes:
* Protect your nonstick cookware by placing sheets of bubble wrap between them in the cupboard (that is, if you can keep yourself from obsessively popping all the bubbles first).
* To clean broiler pans, lay heavy-duty paper towels on the dirty surface of the pan and wet them with hot water. Let sit for a while. A lot of the gunk will supposedly stick to the paper towels. I haven’t tried this, but if it works it’ll be magnificent.
* To clean a blender without taking it apart, fill 1/3 full with warm water and add a squirt of dish soap. Put on the lid and turn it on for a few seconds, then pour out water, sponge off any remaining residue and rinse.
* Save cereal box liners and use them as wax paper. Or cut off one end and slide meat inside before pounding it.
* When filling a liquid soap dispenser, use a straw. The air escapes through the straw and keeps the soap from bubbling up.
* You can freeze citrus zest in a sealed container for up to 3 months!
* Use the tough core of a fresh pineapple in marinades.
* If you wrap celery in tin foil, it will last for up to a month.
* Store corn cob holders where you can find them easily and not stab your fingers by sticking each pair in the ends of a wine cork.
* Tenderize kale by washing it, stuffing it in a freezer bag and freezing it for a few hours or up to a month. Cook it right out of the freezer.
* Cilantro stems can be used just like the leaves, so long as they aren’t old and limp.
* Rehydrate dried mushrooms with wine instead of water.
* After working with spicy peppers, rub a little vegetable oil on your hands before washing with soap and water. This removes the capsaicin. (My note on this is that oil also works beautifully to remove sticky substances such as pine sap or bubble gum).
* To get the meat out of lobster legs, remove the leg and run a rolling pin over it, from the foot up.
* If you forget to remove the butter from the fridge in time to soften it up for things like toast or muffins, use a cheese plane to cut off thin slices, which melt quickly.
* When melting a small amount of butter in the microwave, use a paper muffin cup instead of dirtying a dish.
I could go on and on, but I won’t transcribe the entire book here on the blog. But aren’t these some great tips? Even though this book is a couple of years old, it would still make a fantastic gift for the cook on your list. I guarantee you there are a bunch of ideas in it that even a 100-year-old cook has never considered.
Were you aware of any of these tips? Got any tips you’d put in the book if you were the author?
December 6, 2012 - 5:59 AM
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Other than Emily Post, does anyone still use corn cob holders?
The book sounds interesting. It’s the kind you can read to others and constantly say – ‘Hey, did you know…?’
Great hints. My tip on working with spicy peppers is to wear gloves. This tip was learned from a painful experience.
Separated bananas from the stem will last longer.
love the tip about working with spicy peppers! never heard this before. wonder if it will help with onions-i have tried everything but still get onion smell on my hands for (what seems like) days!
I am sooo using that tip about wine corks on the corn cob holders. My finger tips thank you.
Debbie, after a bad experience with chopping a jalapeno and taking my contacts out (hours and hours later, after multiple hand washings), I don’t go near peppers without gloves.
I clean my microwave by wetting a rag, squirting it with a little cleaner, then nuking it for 8 seconds. Then I let it sit and steam for a few minutes…the gunk comes off easily, and the nice heated rag is great for cleaning the inside of the fridge too.
On another note, for any fellow cheese lovers out there…am I the last person to discover murrayscheese.com?
I’ve had the same eye-scorching experience when taking out my contacts after doing jalapenos, Kristen. After that, I always take out my lenses before I work with jalapenos.
As for onions, I’ve heard that rubbing your hands with lemon juice or using one of those stainless steel soap bars works, but I generally just wash my hands really well and let it wear off.
RE: bananas. Have you guys seen that method for opening bananas that’s just like monkeys use? They don’t peel from the stem end; they gently squeeze the other end so it splits open, then peel it down from that end and hold it by the stem to eat it. Works like a charm.
Kristen, I’ve heard about Murray’s Cheese but I’ve never experienced it.
Lindsey, I spent some glorious time last night online picking myself out a few Xmas gifts. Their packages look delicious.
I don’t recommend making homemade chili powder in a blender while indoors without really strong ventilation. Even after letting it settle for an hour, we still maced ourselves and had to leave the house for a couple hours to let that dissipate. Made for some really great chili powder though!
We’ve done that blender trick a lot, but we run it through the dishwasher anyway.
We got tired of the cold/hard butter thing, so we now keep a butter bell on the kitchen table at all times.
I use white vinegar to get onion and garlic smell off my hands, works really well!
My great tip is for rolled cut out cookies: instead of refrigerating the dough, then rolling it out to cut out the cookies, roll it out between sheets of waxed paper and then refrigerate it. Then pull off the top layer of paper, cut and put on the cookie sheet. It chills faster and holds its shape better.
Kristen, I went to my parents house one day and my mom had left to run an errand. I saw that she had a bunch of banana peppers that my dad had grown, in the sink that she had been slicing up. I wrongly assumed that they were sweet peppers and decided to finish the job for her. I cut them up and scooped out the seeds with my bare hands. A little while after I finished my hands started burning. Terrible pain and a lesson learned.
After chopping fresh garlic, when washing your hands rub your hands on your stainless steel faucet or sink. It removes the smell of the garlic. Don’t know the reason why this works but, it really does.
Akin to the rehydrating mushrooms in wine tip … rehydrate raisins in balsamic vinegar before using in savory recipes like couscous and curries.
A reader emailed this comment to me: the stainless steel thing REALLY works! I usually just run my hands (very carefully!) over the blade of my chef’s knife under running water and there is no smell on my hands afterwards! if you don’t feel brave enough to use your knife, any piece of stainless will do – I think a brushed finish probably works better than a polished one. The lemon juice thing does not work at all (IMHO)
When a recipe calls for “water”, something else is almost always better.
When I bake brownies, I line the pan with non-stick foil. When they are done, I lift the brownies out with the edge of the foil, place it on a large cutting board and cut them with my trusty Pampered Chef pizza cutter.
The celery in the foil works, too. I’ve had it last longer than a month, too.
If you happen to be using potatoes the same meal that you’re using onions, after cutting the onions, rub your hands with potato peels, then wash your hands as usual. The peelings remove the onion smell from your hands. I also rub my hands on the sides of the stainless steel sink after handling garlic. Works like a charm! Rub your hands with lemon juice to remove the smell of fish. If you don’t use gloves when chopping hot peppers, rinse them with milk afterward to reduce the burning. It works the same as drinking milk when eating something spicy hot. Eases the burn. Lining cake, brownie, fudge and other dessert pans with parchment paper allows you to lift the food from pan before cutting. Always wipe a cast iron pan down with a little bit of oil after washing to keep them rust free and seasoned. To reheat biscuits, pancakes or other breads that were refrigerated, put a cup of water into the microwave with the bread. The water helps the bread retain moisture. To make it easier to clean the microwave, heat a tablespoon of white vinegar in a cup of water until the water boils. Let set in the microwave for about 3 – 4 minutes, then just wipe out the inside. The steam loosens the food particles and they wipe right out. When selecting spicy peppers remember that the ones with straight stems have less heat than the ones with curved stems. Can you tell I LOVE household hints? Lol!
Thanks for the great tips, Vickie!
Wow, you are the kitchen tip queen, Vickie! Thanks for all of those. I’ve never heard the thing about straight stems vs crooked stems on peppers.
Speaking of cast iron, after I clean mine I will sometimes put it in a warm oven to dry because sometimes even when you wipe it with a dish towel or a paper towel, you don’t get all the moisture off and it can get rusty in the cupboard.
Here are some readers tips from the latest issue of Cook’s Illustrated. Rather than discarding the heels of bread or extra hot dog or hamburger buns, tear them up and freeze them in a zip lock bag. When you need bread crumbs, just toss the bread in the food processor.
For brown sugar thats turned hard, run it over a cheese grater.
The silicone tubes that you use to peel garlic, make a good potholder in a pinch. Slide the tube over the handle of the pot and you can grab it without getting burned.
So this is a tip I just figured out a few months ago. When making stew or soup or something, I save the ends of carrots, celery, onions and garlic cloves in a ziplock bag in the freezer. When boiling a poultry carcass or beef bones for broth, I dump the baggie in the water.