Food Hacks How-Tos
How To: 10 Brilliant Substitutions for Specialized Kitchen Tools
My kitchen isn't nearly as well-stocked as I'd prefer, and I often come across recipes that call for odd tools and appliances I don't have. Let's just say I've resorted to some unconventional methods to get the job done without them.
How To: 5 Easy Velveeta-Free Cheese Dips for Your Super Bowl Party
Personally, I think Velveeta is pretty gross. Nothing about its texture, flavor, or color resembles real cheese. But your taste in cheese isn't the important part—what matters is having something good to eat while you watch the game.
How To: Your Aluminum Foil & Plastic Wrap Dispensers Have Hidden Tabs That Will Make Your Life So Much Easier
The dispensers for aluminum foil and plastic wrap are among the most annoying-to-use kitchen items, but that's because the majority of people apparently don't know how to use them. On the ends of the boxes are two little tabs that make them so much easier to use, and believe it or not, they've always been there.
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: 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: Make Your Own Sriracha at Home
The possibility of the Sriracha factory in Irwindale, CA being shut down was one of the biggest food stories of 2013. Huy Fong Foods was almost forced to close the plant due to complaints about the factory's smell, but luckily the brand emerged triumphant.
How To: Create a Beautiful Edible Apple Swan
We will show you with easy step by step instruction how to create a beautiful edible apple swan. This swan is easy to create and can be done in under 5m. Makes for a great centre piece during a special dinner.
How To: Screw Brita—Filter Your Water Using Fruit Peels & Rubbing Alcohol Instead
Drinking water is important, but bottled water and water filters are usually pretty expensive. You can make your own filters for your Brita pitcher to save some money, but what if you don't have one?
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: This Holiday Food Hack Keeps Homemade Cookies Fresher Longer
Baked goods are always a popular gift during the holidays. Whether you love to bake or just don't know what else to give someone, homemade goodies are almost always well-received.
How To: Remove Seeds from a Pomegranate Like a Boss
Despite its deliciousness, the pomegranate is one of the hardest fruits to eat. Once you cut it open, the seeds are stuck behind a bitter-tasting white membrane, and trying to pull them out with your fingers just results in a huge mess.
How To: Break Open a Can of Food Without a Can Opener
Canned foods aren't only for Doomsday Preppers—they're great for camping trips and super quick meals on the go. When the hunger starts knocking, that can of goodies could be a savior during the Zombie Apocalypse or that day before grocery shopping.
How To: Scramble an Egg Inside Its Shell Using a Tennis Ball
This is a simple way to scramble an egg inside of its own shell using a tennis ball and some string. It's way more effective and easier than using a shirt sleeve—and no batteries required.
How To: Turn an Ordinary Apple into a Deliciously Artful Swan
The next time you come across a basket of fruit, don't just eat it—have fun with it. In this guide, I'll be showing you how to turn ordinary apples into exquisite-looking edible animals. More specifically, I'll be showing you how to cut an apple into a tasty, decorative swan, a design that has a few modifications to the original idea.
How To: Turn an Innocent-Looking Cucumber into a Slithering Snake Using a Sharp Knife & Precise Cuts
There are plenty of good reasons to always make sure your knife is as sharp as it can be. Obviously a honed blade cuts better, but you're also less likely to hurt yourself with it. And have you ever tried to slice a tomato with a dull knife? You may as well just skip the extra step and crush it with your hands.
How To: The Simplest, Most Natural Way to Clean & Disinfect Wooden Cutting Boards
A good cutting board is almost as important as the utensils you use on it. The wrong type can cause your blades to dull faster, and certain materials hold onto juices (and therefore bacteria) from food. You can wash a plastic board with just about anything, but what about wood?
How To: The Easiest Way to Prep, Peel, & Cube a Butternut Squash for Your Favorite Fall Recipes
Fall is the season of obnoxious food trends. You can't go out to eat or to the grocery store without seeing something pumpkin spice- or candy corn-flavored. Less annoying, but equally prevalent is the butternut squash. For the next several months, we will be pelted with recipes for butternut squash soup, butternut squash risotto, stuffed butternut squash... and the list goes on. Butternut squash is everywhere. But how many people actually know how to prep the stuff?
How To: Preserve & Dry Your Own Garden-Fresh Herbs at Home
Using fresh herbs can make a huge difference in almost any dish, but they're not always available everywhere. Depending on where you live, you can't always get them during the colder months. Personally, the problem I run into the most is not being able to use fresh herbs before they go bad.
How To: Turn Your Favorite Fruit Juice into Cheap Homemade Booze
Making your own alcohol at home sounds like fun, but it's a long, complicated, and sometimes expensive process. You need all sorts of equipment, and by the time you're finished, it's been a few weeks—even months.
Knife Skills 101: How to Chop, Dice, & Mince Onions Like a Pro
A lot of people hate chopping onions, and understandably so. Their shape and layers make them difficult to handle if you don't have much practice, and even if you know exactly what you're doing, it's a task that usually ends in tears.
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.
How To: The Quickest, Most Painless Way to Peel Peaches, Tomatoes, & Other Thin-Skinned Fruit
Peaches—to peel, or not to peel? For some, it's not a question at all. The fuzz on the outside of the fruit is enough to turn some off to it completely, even though the peel doesn't have a bitter taste. Others may not mind the peel, but don't want it in their pie or cobbler. Regardless, getting rid of it is a gigantic pain.
How To: A Layer of Water Stops Guacamole from Browning
Guacamole is one of those things that tastes far better than it looks. To someone who isn't a huge fan of avocados, guacamole's texture can appear slimy, and on top of that, its chunky green appearance brings up visions of Nickelodeon-style slime. What's even worse is the browning that occurs in just a few minutes of being exposed to air, and it's even worse if there's salt in it. I love guacamole, but that brown is enough to turn off even the most enthusiastic connoisseur. Few things are mor...
How To: Form a Makeshift Roasting Rack Out of Foil for Crispier & Healthier Oven-Cooked Bacon
There are so many kitchen gadgets that only do one thing. You can buy a special tool to strip the kernels off an ear of corn, de-stem your strawberries, or cut bananas into perfectly uniform slices, but that's all it'll do. It's easy to get carried away, and before you know it you find yourself designating an "everything" or "miscellaneous" drawer. Then there are the tools that have multiple functions, but you know you'd never use them often enough to justify spending the money. Unless you co...
How To: Brita Filters Costing You a Fortune? Use These DIY Methods to Clean Your Water for Half the Price
No matter what the clean freaks out there try to tell me, I still drink my Los Angeles tap water without a care in the world. I figure that I've already consumed much more heinous things in my lifetime. Street vendor "steak" burritos comes to mind.
How To: Turn Your Favorite Coffee Cup into a Makeshift Knife Sharpener to Tune Up Dull Kitchen Blades
With one exception, every time I've ever cut myself in the kitchen was due to a dull knife. The duller the knife, the more force you have to exert to use it and the higher the number of cuts it takes to get the job done.
How To: 10 Awesome Food Hacks That Every Home Cook Should Know
Every home cook has their most-hated kitchen task. For me, peeling hard-boiled eggs and garlic are pretty high up there. Actually, peeling just about anything is, but for every annoying job, there's a shortcut to make it easier.
How to "Eat" Your Sunscreen: 10 Nutrient-Rich Foods That Will Increase Your Sun Tolerance
Even as someone with super pale skin that burns instead of tanning, I don't use sunscreen nearly as often as I should. Or, uh...ever. My skin cancer prevention routine mostly involves hiding from the sun as much as humanly possible. If you're like me and hate the greasy feeling of sunscreen, there are other ways you can protect your skin by increasing your sun tolerance. Your diet actually has a lot to do with how easily you burn, so by getting enough of a few key nutrients, you can decrease ...
How To: 5 Ways to Make Crispier French Fries, Chicken Nuggets, & Bacon at Home
I know Americans love to hate on the French, but from my standpoint, they've given us a lot of things we should all be thankful for, like French kissing, casual sex, Pepé le Pew, and of course, French fries. Well, maybe not...
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.
Grill Hacker: You've Been Cooking Hot Dogs Wrong Your Entire Life — Learn from a Master
Everyone enjoys summers more than I do. At least, that's how it seems. While I take pleasure in the decline of clothing covering up my lady friends, I could definitely pass on the heat and absurd air conditioning costs. However, one summer staple that balls above all else is cooking on the grill.
How To: Make a Self-Freezing Coca-Cola Slushy (Or Any Kind of Instant Soda Slurpee)
In my last quick clip, I demonstrated how to take a bottle of soda and freeze it on command. I received many requests for a more detailed article on this, so here we go. This "super cool" trick works with cans of soda too, not just bottles!
How To: Dunk an Oreo in Milk (Hack)
How to hack an Oreo, i.e. dunk an Oreo in milk perfectly.
How To: Chill Wine with Grapes
Don't ever put ice in your wine. Chill it with frozen grapes so you get a less diluted drink. Not to mention, grapes will only help bring out the other grape tastes in your wine.
How To: Shake Cream into Butter Like a Boss
Don't panic the next time you pull an empty tub of butter from the fridge. If you have some heavy whipping cream, save yourself a trip to the grocery store and just make your own. When heavy cream is shaken violently for a long enough duration, it turns to butter—and if you're doing it by hand, it also feels like your arm turns to jello.
How To: Keep Tiny Dust Crumbs Out of the Last Bowl of Cereal for More Crunch, Less Mush
Cereal may be the most popular of breakfast choices, but one thing that has always bothered me about it is the crumbs. Just like a bag of potato chips, when you reach the last third of cereal in the bag, you're left with nothing but shattered remnants of what used to be. At least with a bag of chips, you have the choice to skip the tiny crumbs or not. It's a little harder with cereal, especially when it's mostly dust that flies right into your bowl.
How To: Hack Your Morning Pancakes for a Less Sticky & More Delicious Breakfast
Over 56 million Americans decided to skip breakfast this morning. That's 18 percent of the population. You're probably sick of hearing that the first meal of the day is the most important, but it's true—studies have shown that those who skip it consume more calories and fewer essential nutrients than regular breakfast eaters. Regardless of nutrition, who can pass up devouring a batch of warm, fluffy buttermilk pancakes drizzled in sweet maple syrup? And why, you ask, is there a giant hole in ...
How To: The Easiest Way to Make Sure You Get Your Daily Dose of Fruits and Veggies
According to the CDC, less than 33 percent of adults eat the recommended servings of fruit each day in the United States. When it comes to vegetables, Americans are even worse, averaging less than 27 percent. Most adults should consume at least 2 servings of fruit and 3 servings of vegetables each day, depending on age, gender, and level of physical activity. Eating lots of fruits and veggies has been linked to a better immune system, faster weight loss, and way too many other health benefits...
How To: Make Perfectly Sized, Uniform Patties for Sliders & Mini Burgers Without Getting Your Hands Dirty
There is no such thing as a pulled pork slider. In fact, there is no such thing as a pork slider. Or a chicken slider. Or turkey or fish. The term "slider" actually means a lot more than just a hot miniature sandwich, and if it's not beef, it automatically missed the first cut. Sorry, but that is not a slider above.
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.