Hot Food Hacks Posts — Page 7 of 30 « Food Hacks

How To: This Hack Lets You Cook Everybody's Omelets at the Same Time

If you spend weekend mornings sadly turning your omelet attempts into scrambled eggs rather than enjoying a perfectly flipped omelet, reach for a resealable plastic bag. Using a ziplock bag to make an omelet is not only foolproof, it's the perfect solution to cooking for a crowd, where you can make everyone's customized omelets at the same time. How cool is that?!

How To: Mug Cake Tips That'll Change How You 'Bake' Cakes Forever

There are countless recipes for mug cakes (and breads) on the internet, but not all of them are good. Mug cakes promise a warm, moist, and fluffy cake after a few minutes and with minimal work... but sometimes, all you end up with is a chewy, rubbery mess.

How To: All Out of Pancake Mix? Try Cake Mix Instead

If you're a frequent baker like myself, you've probably realized that one box of cake mix makes quite a bit of cake. If your goal is to make a simple Bundt or an easy dozen cupcakes, all you really need is half the box mix—which leaves the other half for another baking occasion.

How To: Take the Bite Out of Garlic

Garlic is magical. It fends off vampires (or so I hear), helps lower blood pressure, reduces the production of cholesterol in the body... oh, and it's also freaking delicious, of course. Garlic is a culinary staple in countries all over the world. That lovable stink and sharp bite of flavor are essential to many dishes we know and love today, from spaghetti to sesame chicken.

How To: Make Custom-Shaped Chocolates at Home

It is a truth universally acknowledged that food molded into fancy shapes somehow seems tastier. That's true even with chocolate, which is inherently delicious. Now, while you can buy chocolate that's been pre-molded into fancy shapes, you can have a lot of fun and save a few bucks by making your own specialty chocolate molds. All you need to get started are items you most likely already own.

How To: Use Your Thumb for Perfectly Shaped Burger Patties Every Time

A homemade burger is a delicious thing, but it can be hard to load up with all the fixings. Why? Because said burger is usually wider in the middle and thinner around the edges, like so: Chances are that patty will still be delicious, but your lettuce, tomato, et al. are going to slide off the surface because of this patty's dome shape.

How To: DIY Altoids! How to Make Your Own Miniature Mints in Any Flavor You Want

It's always a good idea to have a pack of mints on hand, especially right after a cup of coffee or a lunch made with loads of garlic. Whether you're going on a date, to the dentist, or to an interview, bad breath is a major faux pas and totally avoidable. Simply pop a mint! But not just any old mint — homemade ones not only freshen your breath but can give you a sense of pride every time you need one.

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.

News: Leftover Pizza Should Never Go in the Fridge [DEBATE]

Okay, check your Food Safety guidelines at the door, because things are about to get real subjective in here.

How To: Cook Dried Beans in 1 Hour Flat

When given the choice between canned and dried beans, many of us are guilty of reaching for cans. They're much more convenient than investing 5-6 hours of your time to make dried beans edible.

How To: Clone KFC's Nashville Hot Chicken

What began as a regional specialty has turned into a national trend that looks like it's here to stay: Nasvhille hot chicken has caught on like wildfire, with hot chicken restaurants popping up across the country—not to mention the 8 hot chicken restaurants that you can find in Nashville alone! The history of this Deep South dish is fascinating, and you can read more about it here.

How To: This Quiche/Soufflé Hybrid Is Both Easy & Delicious

The morning started out like most of them do: I was hungry, and it was time to chow down on some breakfast. However, this particular morning had me craving something besides the usual milk and cereal.

How To: 7 Steps to the Best Baked Potato You’ll Ever Have

If I could only eat one food for the rest of my life, it would definitely be potatoes. In fact, when I recently saw The Martian, I didn't feel that badly for Matt Damon. I mean, sure... he was stranded on a hostile planet, millions of miles from home. But he got to eat potatoes all the time! Pretty fair trade, if you ask me.

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: The Easiest Way to Make Quick Cheese at Home (Using Only 3 Common Ingredients)

As much as I love eating weird foods, when it comes to my favorite food, there is only one simple choice: cheese. Since cheese is my favorite to eat, it should come as no surprise that it's one of my favorites to make as well.

How To: Get Rid of Fruit Flies Naturally Using Cloves

Fruit flies are nearly as frustrating as ants and equally impossible to eradicate—but there are a few ways to get rid of them. We've already shown you that apple cider vinegar, dishwashing soap, and plastic wrap is a great way to trap and kill fruit flies, but if you just want to keep them away, there's another option—cloves. Fruit flies are attracted to ripened fruits and vegetables, but don't actually eat them. They eat the fungus or rot that grows on them, according to Todd Schlenke, assis...

How To: Make & Use Breadcrumbs at Home (Bread Optional)

Using breadcrumbs in the kitchen is the perfect way to add crisp and crunch to the usual salad, entrée, or dessert. As chef and media personality Mario Batali once said, "There's almost nothing I wouldn't put homemade breadcrumbs on."

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.

Keep Champagne Bubbly (Hint: A Spoon Doesn't Work)

One booze hack that's been making the rounds for years is that inserting a spoon by the handle in a champagne bottle's neck will preserve its carbonation. This is one of those tips that I wish were true. Champagne is a great thing to have around on a special occasion, and it seems a shame to pour any leftovers down the drain once its lost its fizz. While there's lots of anecdotal evidence surrounding this trick, Harold McGee and Stanford University chemist Richard Zare debunked this myth as d...

Addictive Snacks: How to Make Homemade Popcorn Taste Exactly Like Movie Theater Popcorn

No matter which brand you buy, microwave popcorn never tastes as good as its movie theater counterpart. Even if you pop it yourself on the stovetop and drizzle it with real butter, it doesn't have the same flavor. That's because movie theaters don't use real butter—their popcorn has one secret ingredient that gives it that distinct taste.

How To: The Cleanest & Easiest Way to Eat a Mandarin Orange Without Peeling

Like a lot of other fruits, mandarin oranges are delicious but annoying to peel. There are tons of tricks for peeling fruits and vegetables faster, but what if you don't want to peel them at all?

How To: Make Homemade Breast Milk Ice Cream (The Easiest Recipe)

There's no shortage of ice cream recipes out there, but one ice cream shop in London has found a unique recipe to sell to its customers, and of course it's controversial—breast milk ice cream.

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.

How To: Gooseberries Come with a Cape... To Rescue You from Boring Recipes

Whenever I went to the grocery store on a mission for blueberries, I'd inevitably find myself staring at these weird little tomato-looking berries... and wondering what the hell they really were. Tomatoes? Berries? A weird science experiment? Then, I'd set a pint of blueberries in my cart and carry on, forgetting about them for the time being.

How To: The Number One Way to Use Up All That Mustard Powder in Your Pantry

We're maniacs for mustard: we put it on our sausages, our salmon, our turkey club sandwiches... you name the dish, we find an excuse to spread mustard on it. So it's not surprising that it's a common item on our grocery list.

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.

How To: Ditch the Extract & Get Serious About Baking with Vanilla Beans

Most home bakers rely on vanilla extract as a flavor component to their cakes and cookies, but little do they know what they are missing until they trade in their extract for whole vanilla beans. The rich complexity and different notes of flavor of a true vanilla bean are often washed out and distilled into a one-note sweetness, especially if the extract is cheap or imitation. If you want to get more serious about baking, you need to get serious about using vanilla beans.

How To: Cook Any Cuisine Perfectly by Knowing the Right Ingredients to Use, Part 1

Home cooks are often quite intimidated when trying to reproduce the delicious ethnic dishes they enjoy at various restaurants. Thankfully, there are definite flavor profiles and spice/seasoning/herb combos that are very specific to various regional cuisines and cultures; with a little guidance, you can create dishes that are tasty homages to the cuisines you love to eat. In this two-part article (second part here), I'll cover both categories and sub-categories of some of the most popular ethn...

How To: 5 Surprising Uses for Your Coffee Grinder

During my time living in dorm rooms and small apartments, I would find myself in need of many different appliances—a food processor for making hummus, a blender for vegetable smoothies, or even a mortar and pestle for muddling mojito-bound mint leaves. Luckily, there was one tiny, inconspicuous tool that solved all of these problems: the coffee grinder.

How To: Burn Your Cake? Keep Calm & Make Delicious Desserts

We've all been there before. Preheated the oven, popped in the cake, and then became distracted by this, that, or the other... until we either smelled burning or had the smoke detector pierce our eardrums.

Weird Ingredient Wednesday: The Magic of Pork Dust

A no-carb, gluten-free substitute for breadcrumbs. Sounds and probably tastes like cardboard, right? Unless you're talking about Pork Dust. Yes, you read that right. Pork. DUST.

How To: The Easiest Way to Smoke Food Without a Smoker

There's something primal about the smell of smoking food. Somewhere deep in the recesses of our souls, we remember a time when humans only ate by the fire. Or perhaps that's just something I tell myself. Either way, it's hard to smell smoke and food and not feel like you should be eating. And, as chef Edi Frauneder said in a recent Saveur article, "Grilling is convivial. There's something about this act of coming together over an open flame that just says vacation."

How To: What You Should Eat (& Avoid) When You’re Hungover & Why

As glorious as a good drink (or five) can be, the aftermath of alcohol on the body is one of life's least enjoyable features. A few hours of fun can come at the expense of a day or two of feeling dead to the world, with an upset stomach, an aching body, and a headache that makes it feel as though your friends used your head for a piñata.

How To: The Secret to Making Strawberries Taste Like Candy

I'm as adventurous an eater as just about anyone, but some foodie trends leave me scratching my head and wanting nothing more than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. But sometimes the trends become trends because they're, well, brilliant.

How To: 5 Reasons Why You Should Always Keep Stale Cereal

It happens to even the most avid cereal eaters: sooner or later you open a box, unfurl the crinkled plastic bag, and find that the cereal inside is stale. Maybe you forgot about it, maybe you ate it too slowly, or maybe you just found a new, better cereal and left it behind like Andy left Woody. Either way, the crunchy goodness is now stale, and you grab the box and walk to the trash can. Stop!

Weird Ingredient Wednesday: This Swedish Fish Will Blow Your Mind

We're big champions of exotic and surprising ingredients, but we'd be the first to admit that they're not necessarily for everyone, especially people with timid palates.

How To: 5 Delicious Ways to Reinvent Your Stale Potato Chips

Now that the Super Bowl is over, you might find that you have an econo-sized bag or two of opened potato chips slowly going stale in your pantry. After all, there are only so many bowls of Buffalo Chicken Pizza Beer Dip you can eat with 'em—and you definitely don't want them to get so old that you have to throw them out.