A kitchen hack from my granddaughter, the mini-chef: A smile and cute apron will always improve the pancakes.
It’s been awhile since I listed kitchen hacks for young and old. Now I’ve accumulated a bunch more. Some come from the professionals (Country Living, Cooks Illustrated and various chefs), but others are just conventional kitchen wisdom. Reviewing these tips reminds us that there’s always something new to learn in the kitchen If you find just 3 or 4 things to try, it’s worth the read.
Kitchen Wisdom
- Fluffy pancake hack from Food52: Separate eggs and stir in eggs whites as last ingredient. No need to whip the egg whites!
- Meatloaf: Make a mini-patty and cook it in a frying pan. Taste and adjust seasonings before shaping the loaf.
- Don’t use oil in cooking pasta. It keeps the sauce from sticking to the noodles.
- Take David Leibowitz’s advice for this simple French vinaigrette and never be without. Recipe here.
- To bring out the flavor of garlic, chop it really fine, then sprinkle with salt and grind the salt into it with the flat side of the knife.
- Make soup more flavorful with a rind from a chunk of parmesan cheese. Rinds are sold separately in some stores.
- Marinate cheap cuts of meat in one of the following: beer, vinegar, citrus, pineapple or tomato juice. They contain enzymes, or acids, that combat toughness.
- Fresh basil keeps longer at room temperature with the stems in water.
- For quick flavor boost, finish grilled, baked, or fried fish with a squeeze of lemon.
- When cooking cauliflower add a bit of milk to the water along with salt to keep the vegetable bright white.
- Tips from the Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa: For best results use Crisco for pie crusts; use Pinot Grigot in recipes calling for white wine; don’t buy grated parmesan, it can contain wood pulp; add fresh thyme when roasting butternut squash seasoned with oil, salt and pepper.
- Tip from Giada de Laurentis: After draining pasta and while it’s still hot, toss it with some grated parmesan so the sauce has something to stick to.
- Make your own fruit and vegetable wash with these 3 ingredients in a small spray bottle: 1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice; 1 Tbs. baking soda and a cup of water. (It will bubble and fizz a bit.)
- This kitchen hack from Wolfgang Puck: After draining cooked potatoes, return them to the pot, cover tightly and let them steam 5 minutes before mashing. Potatoes will dry out a bit and soak up butter and milk better when mashed.
- Enhance the flavor of asparagus by letting it cure in equal parts sugar and salt for 10 minutes, rinse and prepare recipe.
- To optimize the juice you get from a lemon or lime, roll it hard under your palm for a minute before juicing.
- Sauté vegetables (carrots, onions, peppers, garlic) in oil or butter before adding to a pot of soup. It will bring out the taste and caramelize the sugars. Don’t shortcut the stew; take time to sear the chunks of meat and enhance the flavor.
- Discard the green shoot inside garlic; it adds bitterness.
- Make sure your cookie dough is chilled before cooking. It allows the leavening to work before the butter flattens out.
- Check the freshness of an egg by seeing how it behaves in a glass of water. Fresh eggs sink; bad ones, float.
- For best results, bake bacon instead of frying. Bake at 300-350 degree until crisp and perfect.
- Restore flat sparkling wine or champagne by dropping a raisin or two in the bottle. Natural sugar works magic.
- If you need just a few drops of lemon juice, don’t cut the lemon in half. Puncture it with a skewer and squeeze what you need.
- Honey is the only non-perishable food substance. If it’s cloudy or crystallized, microwave in 30-second increments to make it clear again. Or set the container in a pot of hot water. Voila! Like new.
- Hard brown sugar? Microwave for 30 seconds or seal in a bag with slices of bread or apple.
- Remove fat from the top of soup by tossing a large lettuce leaf into the pot. Discard once it looks limp. Fat will also cling to ice cubes. Or just refrigerate the soup until fat congeals on top.
- For a smoothly sliced cake, run the knife under hot water for about a minute, wipe dry, and watch it slide easily through the cake.
- Storing ice cream cartons in a plastic freezer bag keeps them from becoming rock solid.
- Place a paper towel over the top of a bowl of lettuce and cover it with plastic wrap. The towel will absorb moisture that wilts lettuce, keeping it fresh longer.
- Boil your rice in chicken stock instead of water and watch your guests’ mouth water! Perfect way to prepare rice before stir frying.
