Share your Kitchen (Cooking) Hack

[KC Smoke]

A little splash of oil (think pasta) will prevent a pot from boiling over as well.

 

[Kevin DeShazo]

Something I did last night, not sure if its a hack or just a twist, when making brownies, whether from a box or homemade, instead of plain water, sub in coffee.

If we have some leftover coffee from the morn Ill use that or of not we have some instant coffee packs, Folgers and Cafe Bustello, Ill use one of those to mix into the brownie batter. Chocolate and coffee play very well together

 

[chopsaw]

sub in coffee.

I bet that is good .

 

[BugHunter]

I keep a bottle of CitriSurf 77 on my counter. My company bought it for passivating stainless steel Tig welds, but there was an 'employee theft' problem, as I really didn't need it there. Back before I got my induction cooktop, it was possible to overheat a stainless pan. That of course stains them and can cause a heat affected zone on the surface, making it no longer stainless. By heating the pan and using this, I can re-passivate the stainless. They're like new when done. I do pots for others who forget them on the stove too.

Another cleaner is PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash) from 5 Star Chemical. It's for cleaning stainless and plastics, and there is NO cleaner that cleans like that. Wow... It is caustic however. A substitute that also works is Oxy Clean (detergent) which is a lot cheaper.

 

[ajbert]

My wife has been out visiting the daughter and her family for oldest granddaughter's high school graduation. She does 95% of the inside cooking and I do 100% of the outdoor cooking. Anyways, I learned to not leave the kitchen to see what is going on in the ball game I'm watching with a grilled cheese in the pan. Ended up burning both sides but still ate it. Being a bachelor for so long now I have forgotten some of the cardinal lesson about cooking inside. I am still good at nuking a tv dinner, though!

 

[BugHunter]

I do have one I've never seen other folks do. For several foods, I buy in bulk, prep and then freeze for later use. Yes, that part folks do, but not in this context. For things like Onions, peppers both hot and green/red/yellow/orange, I'll buy a lot of them or grown them, do all the prep and then freeze them in ziplock bags for later use. I just did 40 pounds of onions last week (gave most away). Once diced and frozen, just either hit with a solid item or bang on the counter, and open the bag to dispense what you need. Cook as usual, and reseal the bag and put it back in the freezer.

For Jalapenos I do basic prep (clean and remove stems). Then freeze, and once frozen, put the cheese blade in the food processor and run them through that frozen. Put the resulting powdered peppers in a bag and keep in the freezer. Now all that prep work is done any time you want to make something with those items. Not gonna work for sutff that requires being fresh, but to be honest, I rarely use those items without them being cooked so I really don't care. This covers move of my uses. (like 95%).

I also keep my fresh ginger in the freezer in a bag, but that I just peel and do what I need on a Microplane. That works great too. It'll ruin a microplane every decade, but, just buy a new one. :D

Another item little known, and there's loads of videos on it, is using baking soda in the kitchen. There's a zillion things it does, not the least of which is it transforms ground beef/chicken/pork or whatever. Reduces onions in minutes, works for beans, cooking dry beans, you name it. Indespensible. Good video is What's Eating Dan (From America's Test Kitchen) on baking soda, but there are many others.

And don't forget baking powder for poultry prep. It does poultry skin like nothing else. See Serious Eats for that article.

 

[gmc2003]

One my grandmother and mother used to do. Was to put a wooden spoon over the top of a pot of boiling water to prevent it from boiling over.

Chris