Tired of spending ages in the kitchen every time you make a meal? Check out these 9 brilliant time-saving kitchen hacks, straight from restaurant kitchens to yours!
Peel Several Eggs At Once
Peeling hard-boiled eggs individually can be painstaking work, especially if you need to peel several of them at once! To make potato salad or egg salad easier, here’s a helpful hack for peeling them all at once.
Place up to 6 hard-boiled eggs in a shallow plastic container, then fill the container about halfway full of water. Put the lid on tightly, then shake the container about 30 times to shatter the shells and knock them loose.
Then open the container, use the water to help remove any remaining bits of shell from the eggs, and voila! You’ll have perfectly peeled eggs in less time than ever. 🙂
Hot Pepper Protection
Most restaurant chefs slip on a pair of disposable gloves to protect their hands when handling hot peppers like habaneros. But if you don’t have disposable gloves or want a waste-free option, try using a little olive oil instead!
Before you start slicing and dicing your hot peppers, pour a teaspoon or so of olive oil into your hand. Rub your hands together like you’re washing them, and make sure to get some of that oil under your fingernails too.
Once you’re oiled up, go ahead and cut your peppers. The thick olive oil will act as a barrier between your skin and the natural oils of the pepper, and once you’re done, just wash your hands thoroughly to wash away both the pepper oils and the olive oil!
Keep Cookies Soft
To keep cookies and other baked goods soft after baking, add a slice of store-bought white bread to an airtight container. Your cakes, cookies, and muffins will keep their day-one softness. Friends and family will think they’re fresh! Try this trick with our Big & Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies…that is if you have any leftovers.
Peel Garlic Effortlessly
Planning to make a batch of pesto, or some other recipe that requires a lot of fresh garlic? Make it easier for yourself by placing the unpeeled cloves of garlic in a container of water overnight.
After a night of soaking, you’ll be able to push the skins right off the cloves with little to no effort. Even soaking garlic cloves in water for a few minutes will make them easier to peel, though overnight will yield the best results.
Use Sheet Pans as Trays
Sheet pans: They’re not just for dinner anymore! Use your trusty baking sheet to stay organized while you meal prep. Keeping ingredients in one place helps you stay efficient and expedites cleanup, too.
Chill Your Plastic Wrap
I’m sure we’ve all had enough rage-inducing plastic wrap encounters to understand how frustrating it can be to handle! But you can make it much easier to deal with by storing it in your fridge rather than at room temperature.
Chilled plastic wrap is a bit more rigid and less prone to folding over on itself. This simple storage swap is sure to save you plenty of time and frustration!
Slicing Soft Cheeses
Soft cheese like goat cheese can be tricky to slice neatly without smashing them in the process. So set your kitchen knife aside and grab some sewing thread instead!
A long piece of thread (or dental floss) is a great tool for cutting soft cheeses. It makes a clean cut and requires less force, so you can get clean slices without smashing your cheese.
Use Your Oven as a Proofing Drawer
Sometimes the kitchen is just too cold to get good proof on homemade bread. If that’s the case, pop the dough in the oven—don’t turn it on. Instead, place a pan of simmering water below your dough and shut the door. The warmth and humidity from the hot water will help you get the lift you need.
Rapidly Ripen Avocados
Need ripe avocados fast, but you can only find ones that are still rock hard? Bury it in flour. Like other tactics, the flour amplifies the avocado’s ethylene emissions. It also has the added effect of absorbing excess moisture, producing an avocado that’s perfectly ripe, green, and creamy rather than one that’s brown and squishy.
Roll Your Bacon
Due to the compression happening in the package, it can be tricky to separate strips of bacon without pieces ripping apart or clumping together. But you can make your bacon easier to separate later by rolling the package lengthwise and securing it with a rubber band before storing it in your fridge.
Keep Ice Cream Cool
Bubble wrap is a powerful insulator. While on the road, keep your Chunky Monkey from melting by wrapping the pint in plastic bubble wrap. It’ll stay firm for hours.
Grating Soft Cheeses
Grating soft cheeses (or any cheese that’s a bit warm, for that matter) can turn into a smeary mess! Before grating your cheese, place it in your freezer for about 30 minutes. This will help it firm up enough to make grating easier!
Get More Juice
Next time you need fresh lemon juice, (maybe for one of our lemon-flavored recipes) try this restaurant tip. Microwave a lemon for 7-10 seconds. Then, roll the lemon back and forth under your palm on the counter. When you squeeze, you’ll get more juice from the lemon with way less effort. Try it with limes, too!
Skim Fat From Soups
Quickly skim fat from soups and stews with the help of an ice cube! Drop an ice cube into your pot of soup or stew, and as it melts, the fat will condense and congeal on the surface, making it easy to skim off!
Label Jars the Thrifty Way
In a pinch for labels? Just reach for the rubber bands. Wrap ’em around your mason jars and you’ll never mistake salt for sugar again. As an added benefit, they help make jars easy to open.
Keep Apps Cold
Want to serve shrimp, deviled eggs, or one of our other favorite cold appetizers at your next get-together? This clever trick will keep your food cool and photo-worthy. Fill a large bowl with a resealable bag of crushed ice and cover with lettuce leaves. Butterhead works nicely! Place your app on top and you’ll serve food-safe bites all night.
Quickly Hull a Strawberry
Insert a drinking straw (or stainless steel reusable) into the tip of the berry and push it through to the other end to quickly remove the stem.
Shred Chicken Quick
Shredding chicken can be a fiddly task for even the most dexterous cooks. It might even deter you from cooking meals that require it. But did you know you can make fast work of shredding chicken with your stand mixer’s paddle attachment? Simply add your leftover chicken and give it a spin.
Make Herbs Last Longer
Nothing is worse than buying fresh herbs and seeing them wilt the next day. Keep herbs like parsley and cilantro bright with this simple storage tip! Trim the stems and place them in a small glass of water. Then place a plastic bag (like the one you got at the grocer) over top and secure by tying the plastic in a knot or wrapping it with butcher’s string. Store in the fridge or on the counter for up to two weeks!
