Hot Food Hacks Posts
Weird Ingredient Wednesday: It's Marmite Time!
Marmite: either you love the stuff or hate it. ("Love" meaning you are British and grew up eating it, and "hate" meaning you are everyone else.)
How To: 6 Easy Edible Bowls You Can Make at Home
Even though we love taco salads and bread bowl soups, edible bowls and dishes have now gone far beyond those oldies-but-goodies. Using food as serving dishes helps with cleanup, reduces food waste, and makes your spread more creative and interesting.
News: Why You Need to Cook on a Himalayan Salt Block
Salt is a miraculous substance. From the Ancient Egyptians to the Christian Bible, many cultures believe it to have mystical powers that can ward off evil, among other things.
How To: Fix the One Mistake Most People Make When Cooking with Garlic
Garlic isn't just a food, it's a legend. It's been found in the pyramids of Egypt and is referenced in the Bible. Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, prescribed it regularly, and it was given to the first Olympic athletes in Ancient Greece to enhance performance (take that, Lance Armstrong). And, of course, it's famed for its ability to ward off evil, whether it's in the form of vampires, demons, or werewolves.
Ingredients 101: Use Baking Soda to Neutralize Bitter & Sour Flavors in Food
Baking soda is a powdery miracle. Not only is it the secret ingredient to making mashed potatoes fluffy, it can help you make authentic-tasting soft pretzels at home and caramelize onions in half the time. It's actually got lots of surprising uses you might not know about, and one of them is that a pinch or two can correct sour and bitter tastes in your food.
How To: Why You Should Use Boiling Hot Water for Faster Ice Cubes
It's a small but very real frustration: you want a chilled drink, but you open the freezer only to see nothing but empty ice trays. Fortunately, there's a simple way to make ice cubes quickly—use hot water. Yup, you read that correctly. Hot water freezes more rapidly than cold.
Cook Like a Chef: Use Ratios, Not Recipes
Recipes are invaluable to cooks who are just starting out, but what if you want to get to the next level? Then it's time you learn how to apply simple math to food. In other words, learn how to cook using ratios, not recipes.
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.
How To: Light Hard-to-Reach Candles & Pilot Lights Without Extra Long Matches or Lighters
One of my least favorite tasks is crouching in front of the kitchen oven or gas heater, and burning my fingers as I try to restart the pilot light with regular matches. I end up cursing the fact that I don't own extra-long matches or a stove lighter, but then I never go out and buy them, even though I know this issue will come up again. What can I say? I'm cheap. Now, instead of risking life, limb, and burned fingertips to reignite your pilot light or to kindle the wick on hard-to-reach candl...
How To: Make Amazing Hard-Boiled Eggs That Are Easy to Peel
Hard-boiled (also known as hard-cooked) eggs are notoriously easy to mess up. We've all ended up with tough, rubbery egg whites and overcooked yolks that have that unappetizing gray-green ring around the edge. An ideal hard-cooked egg has a firm yet tender white, while the yolk is creamy and well-done without being mealy.
How To: Make Soggy, Wilted Lettuce & Other Leafy Greens Edible Again
Sometimes you've got a head of lettuce that you want to eat but it lacks a certain youth. In other words, it's wilted and browning at the edges. Other times, you get to the grocery store near the end of day and the only lettuce or greens available look a little on the sad side. Never fear. You're not doomed to a meal of fast food or mouthfuls of soggy salad. You can easily revive those leaves and have something crisp, green, and delicious for your next meal, so don't dump it in the trash.
How To: Make Easy Homemade Buttermilk, Sour Cream, & Crème Fraîche
Cultured dairy products are great for topping chilis and soups, stirring into dips, and adding tanginess to breads and pancakes. They're extremely versatile and often interchangeable, and they contain probiotics that offer a long list of health benefits. They're also super easy to make at home with just a few basic ingredients. Here's how to make your own buttermilk, sour cream and crème fraîche.
How To: The Secret to Perfectly Fluffy Microwave Popcorn Isn't the "Popcorn" Button
Microwave popcorn promises so much—a tasty, relatively healthy snack that's ready in minutes—yet it rarely delivers. Most of the time you'll end up with a scorched bagful or a bunch of stubborn un-popped kernels, but it doesn't have to be that way. With a few simple tricks, it's easy to get perfectly fluffy, tender-crisp popcorn every time.
How To: The Easiest Way to Serve Stubborn Ice Cream Isn't with a Scooper
Rock-hard ice cream is the bane of my culinary existence. If I try and scoop it out with a spoon, the spoon invariably bends. If I use a traditional ice cream scooper, I end up with a torqued wrist and one or two pathetic curls of ice cream for my efforts.
News: Why Skim, Low, & Reduced-Fat Milk Are Actually Worse for You Than Whole Milk
I don't drink a lot of milk, so when I do, it's always whole milk. I'll drink two-percent if it's the only kind available, but skim? I'd rather have none at all. Tons of people buy reduced fat milk because they're trying to eat healthier, but to me, the extra calories are totally worth it. And, contrary to popular belief, whole milk is actually better for you anyway. Just like diet soda, the downsides of reducing the number of calories in milk outweigh the benefits. Studies have found that co...
How To: 10 Vegetables & Herbs You Can Eat Once & Regrow Forever
There are some ingredients I cook with so often I can never buy too many of them, and most of them are produce. Onions, garlic and fresh herbs are staples in a lot of dishes, and they may be inexpensive, but when you use them on a daily basis it can add up.
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.
Miraculous "No-Knead" Bread: Hack Yourself a Loaf in 10 Minutes
Making bread from scratch is extremely difficult. Painstakingly following instructions does not necessarily guarantee successful results. Baking delicious homemade bread takes practice, skill, and frankly, a level of real culinary artistry.
How to Beat Dehydration: Bye-Bye Gatorade, Hello Banana Bag
The war on dehydration is a commercially burgeoning marketplace. An increasingly sophisticated consumer population hoping to conquer everything from 26-mile marathons to vodka shots is deconstructing every functional remedy in the fight to quell the effects of severe dehydration.
How To: Finally—Impress Your Friends with Espresso in a Cone
In the past, creative chefs and bakers have been rewarded for their daring in the kitchen with viral attention from the internet—like the rainbow bagel or cronut. These sensations weren't crafted for the sake of going viral, but ended up generating an insane amount of buzz anyway.
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: Cooking Fish with Foil Is Fantastically Foolproof
Sometimes the idea of cooking fish, especially for a group of guests, can be intimidating. There's the fear of the fish not cooking right, or sticking to the pan or grill. And even if you cook it right and the fish doesn't stick, you're left with the inevitable fishy-smelling cleanup. Not fun!
How To: 15 Lightning-Fast Dishes for the Chronically Impatient
My husband's and my daily schedules are constantly changing. Frankly, it's complete chaos sometimes, so I can't plan to have elaborate dinners on the table at six o'clock every day. And by the time we actually get to eating in the evening, we've become so hungry that our moods have taken a nosedive.
How To: Deep Fry All the Things! Try These 5 to Start
Fried food is the best. That's not an opinion; that's a fact, Jack. And while fried standards like wings, French fries, and onion rings are all stellar, there's no way you should stop there.
How To: Caramelized Sugar—Your New Secret Baking Weapon
Caramel is delicious, but it can be a tricky flavor to incorporate into baking. Traditionally, caramel is a liquid, and that doesn't always suit dessert preparation since adding extra liquid to baked goods can ruin them. So how do you get that buttery, toffee-like flavor?
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: Food Processor Pasta Is So Easy Anyone Can Do It
Fresh, homemade pasta definitely beats the dried stuff from the store. However, most of us aren't usually in the mood to knead dough for 10 minutes... or to clean up a sticky, doughy, floury mess afterward.
How To: Turn a Bottle of Coke into Jello… Shaped Like a Coke Bottle
Soda bottle jello went viral when the popular YouTube channel AwesomeDisneyToys posted video directions for this revolutionary gelatin confection. I just had to try it out to see what the hype is all about.
How To: For Perfect Sunny-Side Up Eggs Every Time, Whisk Them (Seriously)
Don't Miss: How to Make Perfect Poached Eggs, Every Single Time
News: This Hack Makes Rolling Sushi, Pinwheels & Roulades a Cinch
Plastic wrap is, arguably, man's greatest invention—or at least, the 2000 Year Old Man thought so. Its primary use is to protect food from getting dried out in the fridge or on the counter; but if that's all you're only using it for, you're missing out.
How To: Use Chayote Squash for Fries, Salad, Pie, & More
Several years ago, I moved to Brooklyn, New York, just outside a Spanish neighborhood. It was here that I was introduced to chayote. Fast-forward to present day: I live in Los Angeles and buy several chayote squash a week to cook with—yes, I said several. It's so versatile and healthy! For the uninitiated, chayote (chai-YOH-tee) is a light green squash shaped like a pear originating from central Mexico. Although it's considered a fruit, chayote is a member of the Cucurbitaceous (gourd) family...
How To: It's Actually Really Simple to Make Fritos, Doritos, & Tostitos at Home
Chips are one of the most overpriced snacks on the market, and they're wildly unhealthy... even though they don't need to be.
How To: Make Perfectly Crispy Hash Browns at Home with This Trick
Delicious hash browns are ridiculously easy to make at home. So skip the diner and save your money—use this salad spinner trick instead to make crispy and seasoned hash browns quickly and with ease.
How To: The Secret to Making Deliciously Soft Cookies Is Cake Mix
This is the easiest cookie batch you'll ever bake, I promise. And no, take-and-bake cookie dough doesn't count. With this recipe, it'll take you less than 20 minutes to go from your sad, cookie-less life to cookies in your absolute favorite flavor... of cake.
How To: Make Eggs That Slide Right Out of Their Shells
There are a million (okay, slight exaggeration) ways to peel an egg, and countless numbers of tips, tricks, and hacks that are supposed to make that deviled egg appetizer you agreed to make for the party an absolute snap. More often than not, though, experiences vary... and pock-marked, greyish-yolked boiled eggs find their way into your collection whether you like it or not.
How To: The Foolproof Way to Perfect Home-Baked Bread
Almost every bread recipe will tell you to look for a golden brown crust or to tap on the bottom of your loaf and listen for a hollow sound. That visual and sound technique will work most of the time, but it can still come up short, leaving you with a soft and gooey spot in the middle of your loaf.
How To: Make Delicious & Juicy Sausage at Home in Just 10 Minutes
I hate wasting money. To be fair: I doubt there are many people out there who relish the idea, but I especially hate it. And I also dislike spending in excess of what I need. This happens all too often, I feel, when it comes to recipes that involve using sausage.
How To: The Only Seasoning Your Cast Iron Pans Will Ever Need
Cast iron pans are a timeless treasure—they're an essential kitchen tool that will stand the test of time, and no home kitchen is complete without one. However, they do have a reputation for being difficult to care for... with arguments both for and against regular seasoning. In 2010, a blogger named Sheryl Canter claimed that she found the best way to season a cast iron pan that would keep the cast iron from rusting... or requiring re-seasoning! And after a few hands-on test by Cook's Illust...
Good Veggies Gone Bad: When to Throw Out Those Onions, Mushrooms, & Greens in Your Fridge
Most of us lead busy, work-filled lives, often clocking in a 9-to-5 five days a week. And when that clock signifies the hour to leave, the last thing on anyone's mind is: "Time to go to the grocery store to pick up more fresh produce!" (Well, to be fair... maybe more people are psyched about this, but I know with certainty that I am not one of them.)
How To: The Easiest Way to Make Homemade French Onion Soup—In Your Microwave
I was fortunate enough to be visiting one of my college classmates in Columbus, GA last spring and saw two large bags of onions in his kitchen... but not like the ones you get at the grocery store. Two standing 50 lb. bags!