The Latest on Food Hacks

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15 minutes prep Cost: ~$20-30 for a family of four

Difficulty: Moderate Time: 2 hours (40 minutes prep, 1 hour 20 minutes cooking) Cost: ~$15-18 Yield: 6 servings (about 30 meatballs)

Difficulty: Novice Time: 10 minutes per order Cost: Saves $5-25 per order

Got 30 minutes? Here’s how to pick the perfect air fryer without getting overwhelmed by endless options. These compact powerhouses circulate extremely hot air around food, so you get that crispy texture we all crave with minimal oil (Consumer Reports). Market research shows they remain among the most popular countertop appliances, with growth continuing despite post-pandemic expectations (Consumer Reports). What started as a simple gadget for reheating frozen fries has turned into a versatile...

4 Smart Fast-Food Hacks That Cut Your Bill in Half

TikTok's latest fast-food hack is everywhere. Tempting, a little chaotic, and it might make you rethink lunch. A viral wave of videos reworking basic drive-thru orders has racked up millions of views, pulling viewers in with equal parts fascination and side-eye. Multiple creators keep upping the stakes, according to various viral posts, with some clips clearing 28 million views. The promise is big, a reinvented fast-food experience, but some combos tip from clever to what are we even eating.

Freeze Coffee Beans Like a Pro: 4 Easy Steps to Lock in Freshness for Months

Difficulty: NoviceTime: 5-15 minutes per hackCost: Free (using included cruise amenities)

Reviewed by: Jame Jimenez

Difficulty: Novice to Moderate Time: 5 minutes to 1 hour (depending on recipe) Cost: Under $15 for most recipes

Ready to turn your kitchen into a personal coffeehouse? The path to café-quality espresso at home just became clearer, thanks to extensive professional testing that has separated the standouts from the also-rans. After over 80 hours of rigorous testing by CNET's experts and over 3600 espresso shots pulled by coffee professionals across 75+ machines, the takeaway lands cleanly. 2025's espresso machines deliver real upgrades for home baristas at every price point.

Difficulty: Novice Time: 10-15 minutes per order Cost: Save 25-50% with strategic ordering

Reviewed by Julianne Ngirngir

Difficulty: Novice Time: 20-30 minutes per hack Cost: $0-50 per technique

Ever wonder how to squeeze more flavor, value, and satisfaction out of your McDonald's breakfast run? Whether you're rushing to work or treating yourself to a weekend morning meal, there are clever ways to transform basic menu items into something spectacular. Former McDonald's Corporate Chef Mike Haracz has shared insider tips, and savvy customers have discovered ordering tricks that can save money while delivering better taste. These breakfast sandwich hacks range from simple substitutions to...

You know how sometimes you stumble across someone who just seems to have everything figured out? That's exactly what happened when I started noticing how Australian McDonald's customers approach their dessert orders. These folks have cracked a code that goes way beyond just knowing what's on the menu—they've figured out how to work the system to get exactly what they want, when they want it.

Difficulty: Novice Time: 15 minutes Cost: Free Savings: Up to $500 annually

Difficulty: Novice Time: 2-60 minutes per recipe Cost: Free with meal plan to $6 per serving

Got 15 minutes and a wallet that's feeling a little light? Here's how to slash your grocery bills while eating amazing plant-based meals. Research shows that switching to a whole-food vegan diet can cut food costs by 19 percent—that's about $650 in savings per year. The secret isn't complicated: plant-based staples like brown rice, potatoes, and beans are some of the cheapest and healthiest ingredients in the supermarket. Plus, inflation has hit meat at nearly twice the rate of vegetables,...

Difficulty: Novice Time: 30 minutes setup, ongoing savings Cost: Free (saves £5-15 per visit)

Greek yogurt has always been in my regular snack rotation. Packed with more protein than plain yogurt, it fills me up and stabilizes my energy with its low levels of carbohydrates and sugar.

We like our Egg McMuffins around here, albeit homemade with our preferred ingredients: whole wheat (or homemade sourdough) English muffins, a slice of thick Tillamook cheddar cheese, a meat, perhaps, like Canadian bacon, and finally — that perfectly-fried, perfectly-shaped egg.

I grew up in a rural town, which meant we dehydrated a lot of food. Even with a hungry family of five, there was no way that we could eat all the season's tomatoes before they molded, all the orchard's apples before they grew soft, or all the wild mushrooms we picked. And so our dehydrator was always getting a good workout.

There's an ongoing debate about whether or not it's safe or even desirable to rinse meat before cooking 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, can rinse away excess surface salt and may reduce shrinkage — though evidence is strictly anecdotal.

Many people rely on the date printed on an egg carton to decide when to toss the dozen, but sell‑by and best‑by dates are quality guidelines — not safety deadlines. If you've been pitching eggs solely because of the date on the carton, you may be wasting perfectly good food.

People will go to amazing lengths to make a grilled cheese sandwich. They'll use irons, waffle makers, or whatever appliance gets hot enough to marry golden, crisp bread with oozy, molten cheese.

I'm not a big fan of single-use tools, especially ones that aren't used particularly often. I'm especially not a big fan of seldom-used single-use tools that take up a large amount of space.

Want to show all your foodie friends that you're really in the know? Then it's time to master the art of making edible dirt. Chefs are finding ways to dry, char, and combine various foodstuffs to give the appearance of actual dirt — only with a rich, savory taste.

Fish are delicate, flaky, and can be damn tricky to cook; more often than not, you end up with a hard, dry block of flesh that makes your taste buds sad. And the best ways to cook fish that you know of — c'mon, who doesn't love a fried fish — take way too much effort for you to bother with on a weeknight. Or maybe you're looking for a healthier way to enjoy fish that doesn't require batter or frying at all.

Skip the drive-thru — you can fry up KFC-style Nashville Hot Chicken at home in less time than it takes to find out whether it's still on the menu.

Instant ramen has been popular in the States for decades, and restaurants that serve the real thing in any variety you can imagine have been popping up everywhere in the last few years. But you don't have to go out or cook all day to have a gourmet ramen experience.

We're all familiar with the sinking feeling that happens when you cruise through a recipe, only to arrive at an instruction that calls for a tool you don't have. Some of the best food hacks (and my personal favorites) exist to combat that problem. Why spend money on a kitchen tool — or worse, avoid a recipe altogether — when you could find a new way to achieve the same result?

There are few kitchen tools as elusive as the oyster knife. Many people—even seafood lovers—don't own one. If you own one, it probably gets used so infrequently that it gets sent to the back of the shelf, where it proceeds to get lost. Then you accidentally find the knife once a month when you don't need it, but you can't for the life of you find the sneaky little thing when you do need it.

Many lazy cooks skip rinsing their grains before cooking them, but that's a big mistake for several reasons. Some grains have coatings you should rinse off to cook properly and taste good.

Valentine's Day is right around the corner... which is the perfect excuse to ignite your inner cupid and bake a heart-shaped cake. If you have a heart-shaped cake or springform pan, you're all set. If not, don't worry—you don't need one! With a little ingenuity, you'll have a beautiful heart cake using the pans you already own.

Cake decorating is one of those activities that used to leave my hands sticky and my spirits dampened. No matter what I seemed to do, the final result always ended up looking like a preschool art project.