Food Hacks Features
How To: Clean "Uncleanable" Scorched Spots from Pots & Pans
You're in the middle of cooking and a car alarm, cute kitten, or neighborhood brawl made you step away from the stove for a few minutes longer that you should have. It happens to almost every home cook. Most of the time, nothing dramatic happens, but every now and then, you end up with something like this:
How To: Make Cheese Fondue Without a Fondue Pot
Fall is the time for comfort foods—and what is more comforting than crusty bread slathered in melted cheese? Owning a fondue pot is both convenient and wonderful, but not all of us have the luxury of space for nonessential kitchen appliances. However, there are plenty of ways to make an absolutely delicious, lump-free fondue without the traditional equipment.
How To: The Ultimate Potato Cheat Sheet: Which Potato Goes Best with What?
I've been a fan of potatoes ever since I can remember... but mainly because they weren't a big part of my daily diet (which usually consisted of rice). And because my experience with potatoes was so limited, I only knew of two varieties growing up: big, brown Russets and sinewy sweet potatoes. As for cooking with potatoes—well, I'm embarrassed to admit that the only time I cooked potatoes when I was a kid was with the instant kind.
How To: The Secret to Drinking All Night Long Without Getting Drunk
You don't always plan on getting drunk, it usually just sort of happens, right? You finish one beer, move on to the next, and all of a sudden you're a six-pack in and feelin' it. And when you're drinking in places you're not supposed to, it can get ugly.
How To: Why You Need to Heat Up Store-Bought Tortillas (And the Best Ways to Do It)
Even though I often end the workday exhausted and just want to wrap rotisserie chicken parts in a store-bought tortilla and shove it in my eating hole, I generally try and take a couple of minutes to warm up said tortillas before I begin my meal. But if you're starving, do you really need to take the time? Do warm tortillas really make that much of a difference?
How To: Make Perfect Poached Eggs, Every Single Time
Two slices of whole-wheat toast with lots of butter. Two eggs, poached to a firm yet custardy texture. The yolks should absolutely not be hard-cooked and the whites should be tender, not rubbery. That's my idea of the perfect breakfast.
How To: Make Easy Imitation Caviar at Home
At first glance, caviar doesn't seem overly appealing to the masses; not very many people would be willing to spend upwards of $1,000 on a tiny spoonful of salty sturgeon eggs from the Caspian Sea. Caviar truly is the ultimate symbol of luxury and fine dining.
Velveting Meat: The Best-Kept Chinese Restaurant Secret
One of my favorite things about American Chinese food is how easy it is to eat: the pieces are bite-sized, the flavors are addictive, and the meat is always tender and easy to chew. But if you've ever tried to replicate any of your favorite takeout in the kitchen, you've likely noticed that the high heat required for most recipes thoroughly dries out the meat that you're trying to cook.
How To: Why Bananas, Flax, Chia, & Even Blood Make Great Egg Substitutes
Eggs are incredibly important to cooks, and not just because they're tasty and a complete protein (many erratic genius/artist types make a point of eating an egg or two for breakfast). Yes, they are great when perfectly poached, scrambled, hard-boiled, and even scram-boiled, but they serve literally dozens of functions when used in recipes, especially baked goods.
How To: Eat More Sprinkles with These 12 Fairy Bread Creations
If you've spent any time at all recently on social media, then you've probably seen pictures of fairy bread. This magical creation comes to us courtesy of Australia, so we have yet another thing to thank those clever folks Down Under for... along with shrimp on the barbie, Vegemite (the Aussie cousin of Marmite), and Hugh Jackman.
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: Save Money on Box Mixes with These DIY Versions Instead
Convenience in the kitchen can be a very, very good thing. As fun as it can be to spend hours toiling over Julia Child's boeuf bourguignon, there's a reason that we have canned soup, microwave dinners, bouillon cubes, and, of course, boxed mixes.
How To: 10 Herbs You Can Buy Once & Regrow Forever
Fresh herbs are a surefire way to enhance a dish, but buying them at the store each time you need them is costly. Luckily, growing your own herbs is a lot easier than it seems: You can even using cuttings from the herbs you already buy to start your own little herb garden.
How To: 5 Ways to Make Plain Potato Chips Taste More Like Gourmet
In my opinion (and I suspect in the opinion of the masses), there is no greater snack food than potato chips. They're crunchy, they're salty, they're fried, and they're bite size; what's not to love? But I believe that, like almost all foods, potato chips can get even better. Especially if they're the most basic garden variety type of chip: sea salt.
How To: A Step-by-Step Guide to Homemade Sushi Rolls
Without a doubt, sushi is one of my favorite foods—dainty and delectable, while also fun to make. So let's get started with maki rolls, aka makizushi, probably the most iconic form of sushi. You know, the one filled with rice and your standard sushi ingredients, rolled up in a sheet of dried seaweed.
News: Why Guinness Tastes Better in Ireland (& More Surprising Guinness Facts)
Any beer aficionado who's been to Ireland will always talk about how the Guinness there "just tastes different." But save your eye rolls, skeptics: it turns out your favorite lagerhead actually has a valid point.
How To: Why Does a Wooden Spoon Stop Pasta from Boiling Over?
You've undoubtedly seen this trick on the internet or from your beloved Italian nonna: balance a wooden spoon across a pot of cooking pasta to prevent the water from boiling over and creating an unsightly, sticky mess all over your stovetop. It's almost magical, that's how easy it is. The most popularly held belief is that the wooden spoon prevents heat from building up too much at the center of the pot, thus preventing the liquid from boiling too high—but this is not true.
Ingredients 101: Why Properly Rinsing Rice, Barley, Farro & Quinoa Is So Damn Important
Many lazy cooks skip rinsing off their grains before they cook 'em, but that's a big mistake for a few reasons. Some grains have coatings on them that need to be rinsed off to cook properly and taste good.
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.
How To: Get Water Out of a Coconut Without a Drill
My first time opening a coconut was a confusing and frustrating experience. I remember the loud echoing noise as I hit it with a knife, a hammer, and my countertop. It took multiple tools, YouTube videos, and plenty of angry sighs for me to get it open.
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: 7 Delicious Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Throw Away Stale Bagels
Confession: I love bagels. I love to make them, but above all, I love to eat them. In college I ran a mini-bagel business from my kitchen, and on bagel-making day, it wasn't uncommon for me to eat the circular goodies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yet even with my obsession I can't always eat bagels fast enough to keep them from going stale. That's why I started learning ways to use bagels even when they're a day or three past their prime. As it turns out, there are a million and one thin...
How To: Why You Should Start Eating Raw Meat (Or Eat More of It)
A friend of mine is a classically trained chef, and she often invites me over to her house to eat whatever goodies she has concocted. A few years ago I asked her the cliché question that every chef is sick of answering: "What's your favorite food?"
How To: Why You Should Never Throw Away Chicken Fat
Poor chickens. Bacon fat is revered (and justifiably so), and duck fat is a staple at most fine grocers. Marbles of fat make a steak divine, and goose fat is the holy grail of fatty goodness. Yet chicken fat is usually thrown away.
Cook Like a Chef: Use Parchment Paper Lids Instead
Simmering or poaching food is a total pain sometimes. The problems are numerous: a layer exposed to air often dries out and creates a gross skin that can ruin the texture of the sauce, the poaching liquid evaporates too quickly and causes the poached protein to burn, and so on.
How To: Sour Patch Recipes Your Kids'll Go Crazy For
In my opinion, there is no candy greater or more timeless than Sour Patch Kids. They're the ultimate treat: sweet and refreshing, yet sour and tangy. These contrasting flavors are what make Sour Patch Kids perfect for the people of all ages—especially your kids. So let's make dishes that incorporate this awesome candy into your cooking rotation!
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: Why You Should Always Order Large—At Least When It Comes to Pizza
Check it out: you save more dough (ba dum bump) when you order a large pizza than with any other size. Why is this true? NPR reporter Quoctrung Bui's engineer friend pointed out that a medium pizza was twice as big as a small one, yet only cost slightly more.
How To: De-Stink Old Smelly Jars with Two Simple Ingredients
It's so nice to be able to reuse old glass jars for food storage. Occasionally, though, even the sturdiest container has to be recycled because it retains the smell of its previous contents. Usually the culprit was garlic, garlic-based, or something pickled, and you're certainly not going to store your fresh herbs or fruit in that. There is, however, a quick and easy way to get that old stink out of your jar and make it usable again. You just need two things...
How To: Zest Citrus Fruits Without a Zester Tool or Microplane
When I first started cooking, if I saw lemon juice or zest in a recipe, I almost always left it out. Unless it was a main component, I never thought it made much of a difference in the overall flavor of the dish, but I couldn't have been more wrong.
How To: Water, Lemon Juice, Vinegar, or Nothing: Should You Even Bother Rinsing Chicken?
There's an ongoing debate about whether or not it's safe or even desirable to rinse meat before you cook 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, could be beneficial since it possibly prevents it from shrinking.
How To: Split an Apple in Half with Your Bare Hands
Have you ever looked at a piece of fruit and thought to yourself, "you suck, fruit, sitting there all smug and happy, I wish I could just destroy you here and now?" If so, read on—your favorite Fat-man is going to show you how you can get your revenge on that happy smug fruit sitting in your fridge by breaking an apple in half with your bare hands.
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: The Science of Sourdough & Why It Tastes So Much Better in San Francisco
As a lover of food, I'm often asked, “If you could only have one food the rest of your life, what would it be?” My answer is always the same: sourdough bread. (Okay, it's not always the same... I usually cheat and say sourdough, fancy cheese, and a good beer.) Admittedly, I'm biased by my own sentimentality. My mother is an expert bread baker, with a major in making sourdough. Her sourdough starter is older than I am, and in all honesty, she's made thousands of loaves, each better than the ne...
How To: Juice Without a Juicer
There is very little in this world that tastes as good as a glass of fresh-pressed juice. The flavors in fruit and vegetables are more clean and immediate on your palate, while the chlorophyll and nutrients seem to zip right into your bloodstream. A really great glass of fresh juice makes you feel more alive and the pasteurized versions on supermarket shelves just can't compare. However, as much as I love a glass of fresh juice, if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't buy a juicer. The o...
How To: Make Crappy Cheap Vodka Taste Like the Good Stuff
Let's be honest, most of us buy the bottom-shelf vodka either because we're broke or because we're going to disguise the gag-inducing taste of it with juice or something fizzy. If you're cooking or baking with vodka (ice-cold vodka works wonders in pie crust), what's the point of buying Belvedere?
Ingredients 101: How & Why You Should Clarify Butter
Unless you're vegan or lactose intolerant, butter is an indispensible ingredient. However, butter is no one-trick pony. It can take many forms that make it even more versatile and useful in the kitchen. Clarified butter has many advantages over regular butter—but there are certain cases where you shouldn't use it. More on that later.
How To: Cold-Smoke Meats Indoors Without Any Expensive Equipment
For me, the smoky brilliance of a good barbecue can't be beat. The way the smoke flavor seems to permeate every part of the meat is, in my opinion, the closest thing we have to food magic. Throw a piece of meat in a smoker with some select wood choices, wait a few hours, and suddenly you have something rich, complex, and bursting with smoky flavors.
Better Than Brita: Water Filters with No Plastic Parts
I used a plastic water filter for years. Who wouldn't? It cuts down on buying bottled water, which, as it turns out, is pretty much the same as unfiltered tap water. Plus, bottled water is terrible for the environment and your wallet, too. Water that costs only pennies a day and actually was purified as opposed to just saying it was? That's a no-brainer.
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.