These 10 clever food hacks will make life in the kitchen more enjoyable and cooking easier, from making eggs with cookie cutters to whipping cream with a whisk and preserving ginger in vodka.
It doesn’t have to be difficult to put delicious meals on the table.
Simply take advantage of these easy DIY food hacks to save money, time, and the aggravation of the kitchen.
Softening brown sugar food hacks
Brown sugar is great in recipes but if you don’t use the whole box of it, you will likely find a hardened mess the next time you need to use it.
There is no need to throw the box away! Just use this cooking tip to soften brown sugar easily.
Cooking hack – soften brown sugar with bread
Add a slice of bread to the bag or container of brown sugar. Within a few hours (longer if it is really hard), the brown sugar will become soft again.
Why does this work? The slice of bread contains moisture. This moisture will evaporate if the bread is exposed to air.
However, if the bread is in a sealed container with some dried out brown sugar, the water vapor molecules will stick to the sugar crystals. This causes them to be surrounded by a thin layer of water, so the sugar will soften and crumble.
Tip: Be sure to remove the bread so that it does not grow mold.
These are some other kitchen hacks that will help to soften brown sugar:
- Zap the brown sugar in the microwave for a few seconds
- Cover the brown sugar with a damp clean towel and leave overnight. It should be soft by morning.
- Place the brown sugar in a zip lock bag and add a slice of apple.
- Wrap brown sugar in aluminum foil and cook it in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes.
Cookie cutter eggs hack
It’s time for some fun in the morning. If you are like me, you will have a whole host of cookie cutters that you rarely use. Put them to a creative use by making cookie cutter eggs.
Kids love these breakfast treats and even the kids who don’t particularly like eggs might be tempted to eat them.
Any shape of cookie cutter will work as long as it has a decent sized edge. The one pictured here is a flower but you could let your imagination go wild.
Imagine the smile that an egg on a plate shaped like a flower would bring? Use your festive shapes for any holiday breakfast treat.
For this breakfast shape, a flower cookie cutter was used. Metal cookie cutters work best because they are coated and are designed withstand the heat to make eggs.
This food hack works best if you like your eggs sunny side up, of course!
Choose egg rings in flower and star shapes as well as many other designs for a whimsical breakfast.
For more ideas for using cookie cutters to make eggs, head on over to this cookie cutter eggs post.
Shucking corn food hack
One of the pleasures of summer is eating corn on the cob – until you get a mouth full of corn silk, that is. This corn on the cob hack will teach you how to cook corn easily so that every trace of corn silk is gone when you shuck the ears.Get silk free corn every time with this fool-proof coking hack
The trick is to cook it in the microwave, husks and all. The steam will release the husk slightly so that you can pull off the entire outside, along with the silk, in one motion when it is done.
Storing ginger hack
Did you know that you can grow ginger from ginger root? It is easy to do and this hack shows how to store the ginger you grow.
Ginger is one of those spices that I need when I want to do a Chinese stir fry, but I find that I can’t use up a big piece of it fast enough to prevent deterioration. I’m always on the lookout for different means of ginger storage.
‘Cooking hacks – storing ginger in vodka
Ginger Storage is Easy with a Bottle of Vodka!
It is possible to freeze ginger, but I have found it will get mushy when defrosted. If you do freeze it, grate it in a frozen state and return the unused portion back to the freezer.
Storing ginger, even in the fridge, (unless you use it often) usually means that you ends up with a wrinkled piece just when you decide to use the ginger in a recipe.
Here is a neat ginger storage hack that includes vodka. Hey! What is not to like? Vodka is not just for drinking.?
To store the ginger in vodka just peel the piece of ginger and chop it into 1″ pieces. Place the cut ginger into a small jar of pure vodka. Dry sherry, sake or rice wine will also work.
The ginger will stay very fresh and won’t get that slimy film that you can get with just plain water. Also, there is no residual alcohol taste. Use it up over the course of a couple of weeks.
It’s not just vodka that will keep the ginger fresh. Any spirit will do but it may change the flavor quite a bit. Vodka keeps the ginger the longest and changes the flavor the least of all the spirits.
Stored this way, the ginger will retain its flavor and crisp texture for a long time. You can grate what you need and replace the rest back into the jar.
As an added bonus, over time, the alcohol will take on a ginger taste and can be used in cocktails, so there is no waste of the vodka!
Making vanilla ice cubes
Have you ever heard of a vanilla ice cube? This simple food hack makes a yummy ice cube that can be used in all sorts of drinks and cocktails.
Use the ice cubes in coke to make vanilla coke, or add them to make a delicious iced coffee or tea. The options are limitless.
These vanilla ice cubes give a creamy vanilla taste to whatever you decide to put them in.
Cooking hacks – Making ice cubes with vanilla beansTo make the vanilla Ice cubes, you’ll need almond milk, sugar, a vanilla bean and pure vanilla extract.
Not only do these ice cubes add the flavor of vanilla to your drink, they also add some creaminess, and a touch of sweetness. Think of all the cocktails just waiting to use these!
Vanilla beans have a very intense flavor, so using them in the recipe gives us the best results. You can find them online or at Whole Foods or other specialty stores.
Combine the almond milk with the granulated sugar in a saucepan. Add the vanilla bean and heat until the flavors combine. Mix in a touch of pure vanilla extract for an even more intense flavor.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve when cool.
Pour into silicone ice cube trays, and freeze into cubes. Add the cubes to any drinks to give it a lovely hint of vanilla.
Frozen grapes for wine hack
Chilled wine is a great drink to have when it’s hot outside, but sometimes we end up with a bottle that has not been cooled down yet.
Don’t water down your warm wine with ice cubes. Keep frozen grapes in the freezer and add them to the warm wine. It is a great way to chill wine.Freeze grapes to chill wine
Why chill wine with grapes?
This food hack makes so much sense, since wine is made from grapes in the first place. If you keep a bag of frozen grapes in the freezer, you can just use them as needed. You will never again have a warm bottle of white wine!
Ice cubes will chill the wine but water it down as they melt. Frozen grapes won’t do this.
You’ll maintain the flavor of your wine, chill the wine and give yourself a healthy snack at the end of your drink. Triple benefit!
Peeling garlic cooking hack
Garlic adds so much flavor to any recipe, but those tiny cloves can be a chore to peel. That does not have to be the case with this food hack.
What if I told you that there is a way to peel an entire head of garlic in just seconds?
To peel the garlic quickly, all you need are two bowls (one metal) and a head of garlic. Shaking the containers with the garlic inside removes the skins easily in about 30 seconds.
I’ve put together a tutorial with video to show how this peeling garlic hack works.
Freezing buttermilk hack
If you are like me, you will find that most recipes call for much less than a carton of buttermilk and the rest of it can go to waste before you use it again in another meal idea.
Don’t waste the rest of the container. Freezing Buttermilk is the answer.
When you are done with your recipe, pour the remainder of the buttermilk into a Tupperware container and freeze it. Be sure to measure it first and mark the container so that you will know how much the container needs. 1/2 or 1/4 cup measurements are handy.
I find normal ice cube trays handy for this job. They hold about 2 tablespoons, so using 2 of them in a later recipe gives you 1/4 cup, or 3 will work out to 1/3 cup.
There are also extra large silicone ice cube trays that hold about 1/2 cup of liquid and this makes them perfect for the task.
When it is time to use the buttermilk in future, just thaw and incorporate into any recipe!
Whipped cream hack
Homemade whipped cream is much better than an aerosol version any day of the week.
You can take the time to get out your stand mixer and whip it, of course, but if you are looking for just a small amount of it, it’s easier to whip it by hand with a whisk.Food Hacks – Whipping cream with a whisk
Just grab a bowl and be sure that the cream is chilled before you start. Cold cream whips faster. If you think to chill a metal bowl and the whisk earlier in the day – even better.
To whisk the cream, just beat it until soft peaks start to form. Be patient and you’ll have soft and fluffy whipped cream in no time at all.
Once you have the soft peaks, fold in some sugar to taste. Be sure to do this before you have stiff peaks, or you will end up over-whipping the cream.
Left over sauce food hack
Left over Sauce is something that always seems to happen when I make stove top dishes. Since I mainly cook for two people, here is always too much of it to use right away.
Here is a tip for using the left over sauce that is similar to the buttermilk hack – Just freeze the sauce in ice cube trays!
