Hot Food Hacks Posts
Divide & Conquer: How to Keep Apples, Bananas, Tomatoes, & Other Fruits Fresher Longer
Ethylene is an invisible, odorless, naturally occurring gas that aids in the ripening process of fruit. As a fruit produces more ethylene, it begins to create enzymes which help break down cell walls and starches, making the fruit softer and sweeter over time. If it weren't for this small hydrocarbon gas, the shelf lives of most fruits could last well over a year.
How To: 41 Household Cleaning Hacks That You Needed in Your Life Yesterday
Cleanliness is next to godliness. My interpretation of that age-old adage means that keeping your house clean is just as un-fun and boring as being a goody two shoes. That's why they call things like laundry and doing dishes "chores," I assume. Yuck.
How To: A Cold Stone Is Not Needed for This DIY Coldstone Ice Cream
Watching an ice cream pro build you a custom frozen treat mixed with your favorite fruit, candy, and/or toppings makes buying a cone even more exciting. But why go out for ice cream when you can create your favorite combinations in your own kitchen? While you might not have an expensive frozen slab for ice cream topping your kitchen counters, you can mimic the creamy consistency and customizable options from Cold Stone Creamery and Marble Slab any time you're craving it. Best of all, you don'...
How To: Cook Rice in Casseroles for Less Cleanup Afterward
Often, the most frustrating part of crafting the perfect dinner is feeling like you have to clean every single pot and pan in your kitchen after cooking just one meal. With so many components, it can feel like each step of a single dish requires its very own pot.
How To: Baking Soda Is the Surprising Key to Extra Creamy Hummus
Hummus seems like it should be easy to make, but creating that ideal creamy consistency can be pretty difficult. Often it comes out too chunky, which means your hummus won't be good for dipping into. Luckily, there is one trick that will help you create the creamiest consistency and make you never want to go near store-bought hummus again: add baking soda.
How To: Reduce Browning in Avocados & Other Fruits by Switching Your Knives
Keeping apples or avocados from browning after being cut is impossible; within minutes of being exposed to air, these fruits (yes, avocado is a fruit) begin to brown. No matter what you try—adding lemon juice, keeping the pits in place, immediately sealing the produce in an airtight bag—brown discoloration always occurs. However, air is not the only reason that foods like apples, avocados, and lettuce brown: it's also due to the knife you're using.
Food Tool Friday: Is Vintage Cast Iron Better Than New?
Cast-iron cookware breeds a strange kind of obsession. When I got my first pan, I spent untold hours seasoning, cooking, researching the best non-soap methods to use for cleaning, and re-seasoning that thing. Finally, I became exhausted by the whole process and realized that you can skip seasoning a cast-iron pan as long as you use it regularly and clean and oil it properly in-between uses.
How To: Skip Room Service with These 4 Ways to Cook in Your Hotel Room
Are you stranded in a hotel room with no kitchen, but craving the comfort of a home-cooked meal? Fear not, I have found some interesting ways to cook food without the luxury of an oven, stove, microwave, or even a toaster!—also known as "hotel room cooking."
How To: Water, Lemon Juice, Vinegar, or Nothing: Should You Even Bother Rinsing Chicken?
There's an ongoing debate about whether or not it's safe or even desirable to rinse meat before you cook it. Many fall into the anti-rinsing camp, saying that it's not effective at dislodging bacteria, especially on poultry, as we've discussed before. Meanwhile, some argue that rinsing certain meats, like bacon, could be beneficial since it possibly prevents it from shrinking.
How To: Stop Waiting Around! Bring Eggs, Milk, & Butter to Room Temp in Minutes
I'm an impulsive baker, which means that the instructions to "bring ingredients to room temperature" make me want to kick myself for not thinking ahead. Sure, some ingredients like milk or water you can heat up, but that means messing up an extra pot or pan.
How To: Why You Should Skip Store-Bought Stock & Just Use Water Instead
When I became serious about cooking, nearly every cookbook and guide I picked up emphasized the importance of using fresh stock, whether it was chicken, beef, or vegetable. When I didn't have time to make my own, I bought the highest quality boxed or canned stock I could find at the market.
How To: Tell When Your Chef's Knives Are Truly Sharp (And Keep Them That Way)
After years of making do with a cheap knife, I finally bought a really good 8" chef's knife—a Henckels, although I was also eyeing a Global santoku. It quietly but literally changed my life.
Cracking the Code: How to Always Get the Freshest Loaf of Bread at the Grocery Store
The bread at your local supermarket will most likely always be fresh, but how do you know which loaf is the freshest out of the bunch? You can squeeze and inspect them like an annoying TSA agent, but there's actually a much simpler way to do it.
How To: Make Bad Booze Taste Better with These 10 Easy Hacks
When alcohol tastes bad, there's little you can do to save it—or so you think. While it might seem easier to toss your entire bottle of old, opened wine, or to give up and drink crappy vodka anyway, there are creative ways to turn a spoiled or just plain bad boozy beverage into one you actually want to drink.
Bottled vs. Tap: 5 Reasons Why You Should Choose City Water Over Plastic
There is a huge myth that most Americans believe, and it might be the marketing triumph of the 20th century. We pay an absurd markup (Zero Hedge says as much as 280,000% for "designer" water) on something we can get for free because most of us believe that bottled water is healthier than tap water. But is it? Here are 5 reasons why tap water is probably better than that bottled stuff you drink. 1. It's Not Cleaner (& Might Be Dirtier) Than Your Tap Water
News: Ditch Your Mandoline for a Handheld Slicer Instead
At first glance, mandolines seem like such a good idea. After all, who wouldn't want a tool that can create picture-perfect and paper-thin slices of fruits and vegetables that would put even the sharpest chef's knife to shame? Your French fry game would never be the same. Salads would become works of art. Your casseroles would cook perfectly evenly, since the ingredients would be cut uniformly.
How To: Make Cereal Milk—A Momofuku-Inspired Drink
If you have satisfying memories of slurping up the sweet milk left in the bowl after eating your cereal, then this cereal-infused milk will make you feel like a kid again. Although people have technically been enjoying cereal milk since the invention of cereal, it was recently made popular as a standalone drink by the playful and quirky Momofuku Milk Bar in New York City. Created by pastry chef Christina Tosi, it's a "recipe" that is both simple and brilliant. The original Momofuku brand cere...
How To: The Secret Trick to Peeling Shallots More Easily
Certain foods like garlic, onions, and shallots are food staples for a reason—they're unbelievably flavorful and cost very little. However, with their papery thin skins, they're also a pain to peel.
How To: Why You Don't Really Need to Season Your Cast-Iron Pan
I love my cast-iron skillet, but I never seasoned it properly. Instead, I took that sucker out of its packaging, wiped it down with a damp cloth to remove any factory dust, and started cooking with it ASAP. And you know what? It works just fine.
How To: Why You Should Be Using Fleur De Sel Instead of Regular Table Salt (Plus, How to Fake It)
Foodies and big-time chefs like Thomas Keller go crazy for fleur de sel. This finishing salt appears in fancy eateries and cookbooks the world over, and in the early 2000s, it was not uncommon to see diners in a high-end restaurant sprinkle a pinch of fleur de sel on their plates from their own personal stash.
How To: Doctor Store-Bought Salsa So It Tastes More Like Homemade
Fresh salsa is so tasty. Who can resist the robust mix of spices, the mouth-watering heat of jalapeños, and the juiciness of fresh tomatoes? Alas, I don't always make my own and have to get the pre-made stuff.
How To: The One Trick You Need to Use When Microwaving Leftovers
There is and always will be a staunch anti-microwave camp, but they're a fact of life. The whole point of a microwave is convenience, right? But it's not so convenient when you pull out reheated leftovers and discover that your food is only partially warm.
DIY Rehydration Drinks: How to Make Your Own Electrolyte-Enhanced Water for Cheap
While it's easy to make fun of water with "electrolytes," there's actually some science behind it. Despite the name, electrolyte-enhanced water isn't all that high-tech, it mostly means that it's been infused with vitamins and minerals such as potassium and sodium, which are very helpful in preventing dehydration. Unfortunately, electrolyte water isn't especially cheap, and compared to the tap, it's downright expensive. Luckily, there's a few recipes out there that can help you mix your own e...
How To: At Last—We've Hacked Thai Rolled Ice Cream So You Don't Have To
Yes, I know it's autumn and the trees are losing their leaves, but the seasons do not decide when I can or cannot enjoy ice cream. No matter how warm or cold is is outside right now, I will remain completely fascinated by rolled ice cream. Yes, rolled.
News: Those Soy Sauce Packets from Your Takeout Chinese Are Probably Lying to You
Since the dawn of time—well, that maybe a slight exaggeration, but let's roll with it—sly entrepreneurs have been swindling the general public with inferior products for the sake of saving a few cents. Nothing is sacred when it comes to saving money: caviar, cheese, or even baby formula. Hell, there's even an entire book dedicated to the history of food swindling.
How To: Fish Cooked in Milk—It's Not Gross, It's Magic
Out of all of the "odd couple" food pairings you could imagine, this has got to be one of the outright weirdest.
How To: The Absolute Best Way to Clarify Butter... Period
Ah, butter—the (literally) heart-stopping star of the dairy world. Everything tastes better with it, from pie crusts and cookies to veggies and steaks. Hell, you can even fry things in butter if you want the best-tasting fried foods of your (short) life.
How To: Vegans Rejoice! Finally, a Damn Good Substitute for Bacon
Seaweed isn't just for rolling sushi anymore. The food science world is introducing chefs and home cooks to dulse (rhymes with pulse), kale's wacky seaweed cousin that tastes surprisingly like bacon and may even be the next big superfood.
How To: Using the Right Bakeware Is the Difference Between Baking Fail & Baking Win
For so many of us, bakeware is bakeware. As long as it's oven safe and able to tolerate the high heat, it's fine to bake in, right? Wrong!
How To: De-Gunk Your Dirty Grill Grates with Aluminum Foil
As you get barbecuing this summer, you're likely to encounter a few grills that aren't exactly the cleanest. At parks or campgrounds and even on your friends' grills (or, um, your own), no one wants to place food on gunked-up grill grates.
How To: Creative 3-Ingredient Add-Ins That Make Vanilla Ice Cream to Die For
During our high school years, one of us (hint: her name starts with a B) worked at Cold Stone Creamery. She loved working there, and from this love emerged a fascination with adding creative ingredients to plain ol' vanilla ice cream.
How To: Are Your Herbs & Spices Too Old? Here's How to Check
Dried spices and herbs seem to be immortal; a peek in your parents or grandparents' cupboards will likely unveil cinnamon, basil, and oregano older than you.
How To: Do This Before Freezing Chicken, Turkey, & Other Poultry for Insanely Juicy Meat
I'm no coupon-cutter (I just don't have the patience for it, sadly), but I do love buying things in bulk to save a buck or two. And one of the staples on my bulk-buy list is chicken; I cook with chicken so often that trying to save money on it is a no-brainer.
How To: The Secret to Making the World's Easiest Latkes
Hanukkah, also known as The Festival of Lights, commemorates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem in 168 BCE. (Jews and secular publications, such as academic or scientific papers, use BCE—"before common era"—rather than the Jesus-centric BC, or "before Christ.")
How To: The Simple Trick to Rescuing Over-Toasted Food
It's Friday night, you're in the kitchen, and your guests are arriving way sooner than you want them to. The soup is not thickening like it's supposed to, the salad still needs dressing, and the pine nuts for the salad are... wait, what's that smell? Crap, the pine nuts!
How To: 12 Tofu Hacks That Even Tofu-Haters Can Appreciate
Tofu has been a staple food in Asia for over 2,000 years, but due to the health craze of recent years, it's enjoyed a surge of popularity in the Western world. Derived from the milk of soy beans and typically coagulated by calcium or magnesium salts, tofu can be found in consistencies ranging from extra-soft or silken to extra-firm. Based on which firmness you prefer, there are a myriad of ways to prepare your tofu for consumption.
How To: Properly Flambé Without Burning Your Food
Few things in life are as exciting and magical as fire. And setting things on fire while cooking? Well, now you're speaking my language. I'm not talking about grilling, though I do love some outdoor cooking. No, I'm talking about the most badass trick in any cook's arsenal: the flambé.
How To: Make Restaurant-Grade Sushi Rice
Contrary to popular belief, sushi is not the raw fish that one gets at Japanese restaurants, but the rice that comes with it. It's hard to tell whether this popular misconception led to or came about because of the primary flavors that we think of in sushi are the fish. We often say a sushi restaurant has great fish, but almost never that it has great rice.
Shake It Up: How to Peel Eggs with a Glass of Water
Hard-boiled eggs are such an amazing snack, but there's nothing quite so frustrating as trying to get all the shell off without damaging the egg underneath. I've ended up with many a sadly pitted and pockmarked egg that somehow doesn't taste quite as good as when it emerges all white and smooth.
How To: Cook Broccoli, Kale, & Other Brassicas So They Actually Taste Good
It's universally known that broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and all cruciferous vegetables (also known as brassicas) are good for you—but you probably don't know exactly how good they really are.