If you’re regularly in the kitchen, you’re probably familiar with cooking hacks like keeping an avocado pip in guacamole to stop it browning, or that the best way to pick out eggshell is with more eggshell.
But there are so many more tips out there all cooks should know to improve their food!
Here are the top 8 cooking hacks I swear by — and that helped me write a cookbook — that no one seems to know about:
Whether you’re peeling and pre-boiling them yourself or using tinned potatoes, make sure they start their roasting journey in hot oil. Add oil to your roasting tray and leave it in the oven as it heats up. When it’s gotten to temperature, tip in your seasoned potato chunks and coat them in the oil. That way, they start crisping up as soon as you tip them in. Be careful though, they might spit at you for a second! They’ll come out perfect after 50 minutes at 400°f/200°c.
Poaching is cooking in boiling water, right? Nope! Poach your eggs in barely simmering water to stop the white fluffing up into a big mess. Bonus tip – strain the raw eggs before you start poaching to get rid of any straggly white bits.
This is an absolute life-saver for smaller households trying to eat healthily who can never get through their salad leaves before they go gross. Bags of spinach, lettuce, rocket, and every other green can get very damp and make your leaves go bad before they need to. Keep them fresh for longer by shoving a couple of pieces of paper towel into the bags with them to absorb excess moisture.
You know when you salt your freshly popped homemade popcorn, but the top of the bowl is never salty enough and the bottom tastes like the Dead Sea? It’s the worst. With this cooking hack, you’ll spread your seasoning evenly and keep it stuck to your popcorn, not falling to the bottom of your bowl. Add salt to the oil you’re popping it in, instead of dusting it over afterward. With kernels popping in salty oil, they’ll come out perfectly coated.
Eggs usually last a lot longer than the use-by date on the carton suggests. But we don’t want to eat bad eggs! Test their freshness by putting them in a glass or bowl of water. If they sit at the bottom, you’re good to go. But if they float, it’s time to chuck ‘em.
Ginger is so small and fiddly that by the time you’ve peeled it with a knife or peeler, you’ve chopped off half the stuff! Instead, scrape the skin off with a teaspoon so you waste as little ginger as possible.
Does your lemon or lime feel hard as a rock in your hands? Then it won’t be gifting you much juice. Before you cut it open, roll it back and forth on your counter with some force to mush up the insides and make sure you get your money’s worth.
Finally, how to fix the dreaded onion waterworks: if you don’t have goggles handy to keep your onions from attacking your tear ducts, wet a paper towel and keep it nearby, like next to the chopping board. I don’t know the science behind it, but it works!
I hope these nifty tips will help you in your kitchen! Let me know in the comments if these cooking hacks have changed your cooking for the better, and check out my cookbook for more tricks.
