These cooking hacks make your life a lot easier
We love handy tips in the kitchen: anything that makes cooking just a little bit easier! We love to cook, but some chores are just awkward and time-consuming. These cooking hacks make sure that your dishes are done much quicker. We wish we knew about these so much sooner!
It can be that easy.
1. Peeling eggs
Do you think peeling eggs is a lot work? Not with this trick! Fill an empty jar or glass halfway with water. Put your egg or eggs in and close off the glass with a lid or your hand. Shake it well for a few seconds and then take the egg out. You’ll see that the shell slides off the egg easily. This trick also works with a lot of eggs at the same time. Really handy!
2. Peeling eggs 2
When you don’t think the first trick is for you, you can try this next egg-peeling trick. Crack the top and bottom of the egg against the countertop. Then roll the egg with a flat hand forcefully over the countertop. You’ll see that the shell comes away from the egg and slides off easily. Another option is to cut the boiled egg in half and take the egg out of the shell with a spoon.
3. Garlic
The next cooking hack prevents a lot of misery and smelly fingers. You only need a glass jar for this one as well. Put the whole bulb of garlic in the glass jar and screw the lid on. Shake the jar a few seconds and you’ll see the garlic cloves come away from the bulb and the skins around it peels away. Open the jar, throw the skin away, and put the garlic cloves back in the jar to shake off the rest of the skin. After about 30 seconds, all the skin will be removed. This way you don’t have to fumble with the cloves and use your fingernails. It saves you a lot of effort!
4. Peeling kiwis and mangos
We usually eat kiwis by cutting them in half and eating the fruit with a spoon. But what if you want to eat a fruit salad? Simply get yourself a glass and a knife. Half the kiwi lengthwise with the knife. Then push the kiwi out its skin using the rim of the glass. Same goes for a mango. Cut the sides off the mango and use the rim of the glass to get the mango out of its skin. It’s a lot easier than cutting the mango with a knife!
12 cooking hacks you wish you had known about sooner
5. Needle in a banana
Do you also feel a bit awkward when you eat a banana in public? With this cooking hack, you take you banana with you pre-cut in its skin. You start at the top by sticking a needle in the banana at the longest curved side. Next, move the needle from the left to the right through the flesh of the banana. Repeat this process a few times with a few centimetres in between until you reach the bottom. Then when you peel your banana, it will be sliced and ready to eat! This way you can eat the slices straight from the peel. Try it once without other people knowing what you’re doing. When you open your banana, nobody knows how it is possible that it is already cut!
6. Cutting a bell pepper
Do you think that cutting a bell pepper is a difficult job with all those seeds inside? This is the best way to go about it. Cut with a sharp knife the top and the bottom off the bell pepper. The middle of the bell pepper now still has the core with the seeds in it. Then cut the bell pepper sideways and sever the threads that connect the flesh to the core. Now you can cut your bell pepper easily into pieces. Push the stalk out of the top with your fingers to cut that up the top as well.
7. Peeling potatoes
Peeling potatoes can be a time-consuming and irritating job. Is it not your favourite job by far? Try this cooking hack! Before you boil the potatoes, score the skin with a knife round the potatoes in a kind of spiral. After you boil and drain them, you can peel away the skin easily. This trick works best with waxy potatoes. Keep in mind that you don’t boil the potatoes too long, but they do need to be cooked of course.
8. Strawberry caps
Do you always cut off the tops of strawberries to get rid of the cap? Then you know that there is always a part of the fruit that gets thrown out. None of that with this hack! Take a straw and push it against the bottom of the strawberry. When you push the straw through the strawberry, the core and the cap go up and out. When you use this trick, you’ll never eat the bitter core.
9. Cutting an onion
Can you never manage to cut an onion well or do you just hate doing it? Cut the onion in half and take the skin off. Then just get a grater and grate the onion on the largest setting. This way you get a finely sliced onion that you can use in soups or pasta sauces. This is one of the many cooking hacks that are so simple that you’re kicking yourself for not thinking of it before.
10. Needle in a lemon
Do you really want to use some lemon juice, but do you think it’s a waste to use the whole lemon for just a little juice? Then don’t run to the supermarket immediately to buy some lemon juice because you can easily get some juice without wasting the whole lemon. All you need is a thick needle. Roll a lemon over the countertop with your flat hand and stick the needle lengthwise in the bottom of the lemon. Then squeeze the lemon hard and watch the juice trickle out of the hole you just made. The lemon is now not as exposed to oxygen as when you cut it and therefore it will not go bad. Now you can still keep your lemon in the fridge for a little while.
11. Preserving your baguette
Does you baguette also get stale or tough quickly? There is a way to make your sad baguette go back to being the original delicious baguette with a crispy crust on the outside and soft bread on the inside just as you bought it. Simply pour water over the baguette and make sure that the entire crust is wet. Then put it in a pre-heated oven on 180 degrees Celsius. Put it in the oven for three minutes before turning it over. Leave it for another three minutes and check whether the crust is crisp again. If it’s not, leave the baguette in the oven for a little longer. You’ll see that the steam makes the crust crisp and the inside soft again.
12. Peeling ginger
When you want to peel a piece of ginger, you probably get a knife or a potato peeler to do it. Unfortunately, you take a lot more than the thin skin off that way and you lose some ginger in the process that you could have used in a dish. The following method is a lot safer and more convenient! If the piece of ginger is really big then cut it into two pieces to make it easier. Instead of a knife, use a spoon to get the skin off. That way you can easily remove the thin skin. What’s more, a spoon can get into those odd misshapen parts of the piece of ginger.
Are you curious about how these cooking hacks work? This video explains a few of them.
