Hot Food Hacks Posts — Page 9 of 30 « Food Hacks

How To: One Thing You're Not Doing That You Should for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a theory that chocolate chip cookies are the gateway drug to cooking. The recipe is easy, no special equipment is required, and at the end, you get warm, fresh-from-the-oven cookies that are simply irresistible. It's how I got hooked on baking and cooking, and anecdotal evidence (i.e. me asking my other kitchen-obsessed friends and a few culinary students) supports me.

How To: Why Life Is More Fun When You Eat Bacon & Cook with Bacon Fat

I grew up in a household where bacon was considered its own necessary food group. My mom saved the bacon fat in a jar and reused it in other dishes, which my friends considered vile, unless they were also from immigrant families or the American South, where saving bacon fat has never gone out of style.

How To: Cook Tuna with Toilet Paper

Toilet paper isn't the first thing that comes to mind when you want a hot meal, but when you're camping or out in the field (i.e. military training), a little TP is the difference between cold tuna and luxury.

How To: Smoke Foods on Your Stovetop Using Kitchen Gear You Already Own

Smoked foods are popular all over the world, but most of us don't have smokers at home. If you want smoked salmon, brisket or Gouda, you usually have to go out and buy it. Outdoor smokers aren't usually an option for city-dwellers, and the indoor versions can be pricey.

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.

How To: Cook Food Perfectly at Home with a Super Cheap DIY Sous Vide Machine

Unless you're a pretty avid home cook, you probably don't know a lot about sous vide. Sous vide is a low-temperature cooking method where food is cooked in vacuum-sealed plastic bags in a water bath for a prolonged period of time.

Browning Prevention: This Food Hack Keeps Sliced Fruits & Veggies Fresh & Bright for a Full Day

Prepping fruits and vegetables ahead of time makes putting together the final dish a lot easier, but once you cut them up, they start to turn brown almost instantly. However, thanks to this quick and easy tip from America's Test Kitchen, you can keep them looking fresh for much, much longer.

How To: Make Nachos That Are Mathematically Perfect—And a Whole Lot Less Messy

Nachos are one of those foods that are really hard to hate. Cheese, salsa, guacamole, sour cream...what's not to love? They're a favorite at Mexican restaurants, concession stands, and even inspired their own kind of cheese, so what's the downside?

Stop Your Sloshing: How to Carry a Hot Cup of Joe Without Spilling Any Coffee on You

For the vast majority of people, coffee is a must-have in the morning. It provides a stimulating effect that not only wakes you up, but sets your mood and attitude for the rest of the day. Personally, I wouldn't get anything done without coffee.

How To: How I Made Cat Poop Coffee (Kopi Luwak)—The Best Cup of Crap Ever

I am a man who enjoys a good cup of crap. Not just any crap, but the kind that makes the Seattle coffee-snob inside of me feel all warm and happy as if the sun were out (which of course it isn't.) It's the kind of crap that has traveled through the intestinal tracts of a nocturnal marsupial, cutely called a Civet. It's the kind of fermented brew that everyone should lay their lips on at least once.

How To: Extract Pomegranate Seeds More Easily by Making Precision Segment Slices

Hate the sticky mess of slicing into a pomegranate? Of course you do, but it doesn't have to be like that. By cutting off the top and making a few precision incisions down the outside, you can crack that sucker open and knock out all of those little arils into a bowl (or, just eat them straight out of the fruit).

How To: 5 Creative Flavor Combos to Upgrade Your Boring Old Popcorn

Calling all popcorn fanatics: we know a bit of drizzled butter is all that's needed to make a delicious bowl of your favorite finger food, but we've got some interesting mash-ups of flavors that we think you should try the next time you veg out on your couch for another Netflix marathon.

How To: This Thanksgiving, You Can Have Your Booze & Eat It, Too

To some people, Thanksgiving is merely quality time with family and friends that they can't get throughout the rest of the year. To others, it's that one time when it's okay to be a greedy hog and get hammered all weekend long.

How To: 47 Baking Hacks That You Shouldn't Live Without

Right now is that magical time of year when the general public decides to embrace their inner fattie and get baking in the kitchen. Hello, pies and cakes and cookies and everything carbs. Goodbye, diets—see you in the next year, when you cripple us with unbridled guilt and longing.

How To: Golden Milk Is the New Fall Superdrink

There was once a time when everyone scoffed at the turmeric tonic tea sold at the coffee shop I work at. Funny, because as of recently, we seem to be selling out. How can this be explained? Beyoncé must have been spotted buying turmeric beverages on the cover of some celebrity magazine. That's got to be the only way to explain its sudden popularity, right?

Candy vs. Caramel: Which Halloween Apple Reigns Supreme? [DEBATE]

With folks drawing lines in the sand before the upcoming election this November, it's important to know where you stand on some of the most important issues: the economy, foreign affairs, domestic affairs, and apples—caramel or candy apples, that is.

News: Stop Using Black Peppercorn—Your Taste Buds Will Thank You

Every recipe on the face of this planet (okay, maybe a slight exaggeration there) ends with the same six words:

Tested: Make Bad Beer Taste Better with a Bit of Bitters

When your day sucks, all you want is a tall, ice-cold glass of beer at the end of it all. Nothing complicated about having some booze to temporarily drown your sorrows.

News: The Culinary World Is Embracing Ants & You Should, Too

If you're grossed out by anything creepy, crawly, and with more than 4 legs... then stop being so close-minded and eat some bugs already, dammit.

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.

Tested: Baking with Cricket Flour Is Not as Gross as You Think

If you've ever played the game of Would You Rather, you've probably been given the ultimatum between eating insects or doing something else that sounds absurd, like licking a cactus. I'm advising you to always choose the insects, and here's why:

How To: Skip the Fondant—Make Picture-Perfect Cakes with Paper Towels Instead

Fondant looks pretty, but man, it sure does taste weird. Don't Miss:

How To: Flavorful & Intense Whipped Cream Is Simple with Freeze Dried Fruit

We're wild for whipped cream in our coffee, atop our brownies, and in-between wafer cookies, so we always have some in our fridge. To be specific, we always have homemade whipped cream in our fridge, because the taste is just so much better than the pre-made stuff.

How To: 5 Must-Know Tips for Better Home-Baked Cakes

It's very easy to get your hands on a good cake. These days, a store-bought cake or even one made from boxed cake mix will usually be pretty good. Heck, make the first simple recipe you find on the internet, and it's likely to taste fine.

How To: Make Better-Tasting, Healthier Nutri-Grain Bars from Scratch

When we were kids, snacks on-the-go or in our lunch box were often Kellogg's Nutri-Grain cereal bars. There were flavors like strawberry, blueberry, and our beloved apple-cinnamon.

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: Stop Tossing Food—Expiration Dates Mean Nothing

I'll admit it: I ignore expiration dates. No matter if it's a sell-by date, "best if used before" date, or even a use-by date, I don't care. I just check for signs of food decay and keep on eating.

How To: 6 Wonderfully Weird Sorbet Flavors You Have to Try

Ah, the sensation of that first bite of sorbet in the heat of summertime: icy, refreshing, decadent in flavor and texture. We love sorbet almost as much as we love ice cream, and making it at home is actually pretty simple. Most recipes call for just water, sugar, and a base fruit of some sort (like strawberries or watermelon).

How To: Stop Arguing About How to Make the Best Snickerdoodles: We Have the Answer

If I were to write a snickerdoodle FAQ list, the top question would undoubtedly be "Do I really need to use cream of tartar in my snickerdoodle cookies?"

How To: Make Copycat Pocky Sticks in Any Crazy Flavor Combination You Want

There are two kinds of people standing in the international section of the grocery store: the kind who love Pocky and the kind who don't yet know that they love Pocky because they've never had it.

How To: Make Hershey's Cookies 'n' Creme Bars

Cookies 'n' Creme is one of Hershey's most popular candy bars, right behind their classic milk chocolate bar, Kit Kat, and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

How To: Make Amazing Affogato with Ice Cream Cubes

In Italian, the word affogato means "drowned." Kind of a morbid name for such a delicious goodie, right? But there's a reason it's called that.

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: 10 Fascinating Rosé Facts Every Wine Drinker Should Know

There seems to be a nearly cult-like craze surrounding those glasses filled with summery, pink-hued rosé wine. From picnics in the park to long days spent on the beach, rosé wine offers light, warm-weather refreshment to its lucky imbiber.

How To: Save Your Limp Cucumbers & Carrots with Old Pickle Juice

When there's no more pickles in the pickle jar, most of you probably dump the remaining brine down the drain and recycle the bottle. While recycling is commendable, throwing out good pickle "juice" is not.

How To: Say 'So Long' to Soggy Hash Browns with This Crispy Hack

Hash browns are a breakfast staple and for good reason: they're simple, salty, and crispy, and so delicious that you can easily down several servings of them in one sitting. Basically, they're the French fries of breakfast.

News: How Spam Went from Hated Ration to Cult Classic

Whether you simply can't stand it or consider it a separate food group (or not food at all), there's no denying that Spam is everywhere. America's favorite canned mystery meat got its humble beginning in Minnesota, but is now used in dishes and found in homes around the globe.