A food hack is a clever way of doing something to make your life easier. Food hacks are the new craze. They are everywhere and are intended to help you cook easily, eat healthier, and save money. However, not all food hacks live up to their promise. Here’s a blog on 25 smart food hacks to make your life tastier. Pay attention to this post if you are one of the food hacks lovers.
25 Smart Food Hacks to Make Your Life Tastier
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Lessen the saltiness of a soup
If your soup is salty, there are many ways to remove the saltiness. You can dip a cube of sugar in the soup until it melts. If it is still salty, you can add more sugar cubes or a small amount of cereal to the soup pot and boil until it absorbs the extra salt.
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Softening a tough piece of meat
Making meat more flavorful and tender is desired. Professional chefs use tricks to soften the meat to make it easier to chew, making the taste more enjoyable.
You can soak the meat in mayonnaise before cooking it to soften it. You can alternatively use kiwi. Cut the kiwi into pieces and rub the kiwi pieces on the meat till its extract or juice touches the meat. This makes the meat both juicier and tastier.
Another trick to softening hard meat is to boil it with pawpaw leaves. The extract from pawpaw leaves contains bromelain and papain, which will soften the meat and make it juicer. Many people claimed it assisted in the softening of tough meat.
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Separation of the egg’s yolk
You do not need to use any special utensil to easily separate an egg yolk from the white; you can do this with a simple plastic bottle. You first need to crack the egg and gently place it inside a container. Then place the inlet of the bottle on the yolk and add a little pressure around the bottle.
Release the pressure afterward and watch the magic. The bottle will suck the egg yolk into the bottle, leaving behind the egg white. However, the effectiveness of this method depends on how fast you are. The sucked egg yolk can stay in the bottle inlet for a few seconds, after which it will drop off again. So be fast while doing it.
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Preserve the freshness of chopped onions
To keep chopped onions fresh, place them in a salted dish. You can add a little vegetable oil to the onion and keep it in a closed container. You can use the same hack to preserve vegetables like cucumbers, garden eggs, green beans, and a lot more for a long time. This is the same method used to preserve canned green beans. The water in which the beans are suspended is salted water or brine. The salted water increases the PH of the food such that spoilage bacteria will not set in.
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Getting rid of fish odor
Fish has a delectable flavor, but it can leave a lasting odor that you’d rather avoid! Aside from disagreements over who will wash dishes, one of the most prevalent concerns about home cooking is getting rid of lasting food odors, particularly the scent of fish.
The flavor of fresh, uncooked fish should not be pungent. However, soak the fish in milk for about half an hour if you are worried about the odor. Doing this will neutralize any odor. Alternatively, submerge the fish in a small amount of water containing lemon juice solution or vinegar. The acid will inhibit the growth of bacteria that create foul odors, without altering the flavor of the fish.
After you are done preparing your fish soup, your hands will likely smell strongly of fish. You can remove the smell by rubbing your palm against your sink and rinsing it with detergent and water. A ceramic sink doesn’t work for it, so a stainless steel sink is ideal. Also, you can wash your dishes with water and vinegar to eliminate the smell.
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Keep your bread fresh with an apple
Do you enjoy the aroma of freshly baked bread on your dining table? Baking your bread at home is extremely satisfying and cost-effective, but doing it daily is stressful. You should have enough bread for all your meals by baking once a week. However, keeping a baked loaf for too long will make it stale. If you’re sick of eating stale bread, it might be time to learn a few tips to keep your bread fresh for longer.
First, slice an apple into two equal parts, then place a slice of the apple in the container holding the bread and store it. You might wonder what the magic apple does, right? Loss of moisture from the bread crust often results in staling. Moisture from the apple will be supplied to the bread to prevent it from drying out, thus keeping it fresh for some days.
Only take as much bread as you need from the package because the rest will go stale faster. With this tip, you won’t be eating stale bread for breakfast again! Also, check the bread each night to see if the apple has started deteriorating.
Other ways to keep your bread fresh are by storing it in a dark, cool place (ideally a bread box) to prevent exposure to light that can dry it out. You can also wrap it in paper or foil to keep it from getting soggy.
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Making a tasty and crunchy potato
This is a trick to make your french fries tasty and crunchy. This hack is important for someone who wants to prepare poutine. Poutine is a mixture of French fries and cheese. Many foodies guide to Montreal tag poutine as one of the iconic foods of Montreal. It is important to keep the French fries crunchy to have the best poutine.
Here are some steps for the perfect fried potato. First, dry the potatoes with a paper towel or put them in the microwave for a while. Second, chop and wash the potatoes, then fry them to have crunchy French fries. While this is a very simple process, it can still go wrong. If you don’t dry your potatoes enough, you’ll end up with soggy fries. If you fry them for too long, they’ll be hard and too crispy to eat. Many people use different ingredients to get different tastes. You could use mustard, butter, or ketchup to improve it!
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Using ice to defat soup
Do you need to defat a broth or a sauce and don’t have time to chill it completely in the fridge? Wrap some ice cubes in a cloth, cheesecloth, or a couple of pieces of kitchen paper and wipe them across the surface of the soup. The fat will solidify, and you can easily scoop it with a spoon or small strainer.
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How to Peel a Hard-Boiled Egg or Mollet Easily
This hack will help you easily peel boiled eggs without losing a large portion of the egg to its shell. Do this by adding a generous splash of vinegar to the cooking water. The acid in the vinegar will soften the eggshell, and the eggs will peel very easily.
If you have already cooked the eggs with just water, put them in a container with a lid. Shake it like a cocktail shaker; the shell will break into small pieces and offer little resistance.
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Remove the odor of burned rice.
Sometimes things get a little frantic in the kitchen, and before you know it, the rice pot on the burner has started to burn. While you can scoop the burned black pieces from the base of the pot, your cooked rice will still have a burnt odor. This can be remedied by adding substances to absorb the noxious odor, allowing you to save your rice.
Do not stir the rice to remove the burnt scent; doing so will mix the charred grains in with the unburnt grains and mess up everything in the pot of rice. Scoop out the unburned grains of rice and place them in a mixing dish with care. Peel, grate, and slice an onion and place it in the mixing dish. The onion will absorb the scent of burns, and your rice will no longer smell like burns.
Alternatively, you can put bread in the rice or on the rice paddles to get rid of the smell of rice burn. Simply place a piece of bread on the surface of the rice and leave it to brew. Furthermore, after a few minutes, you do not need to remove the piece of bread from the saucepan. While serving the rice, leave the bread in the saucepan. Bread absorbs the odor of burns and is simple to use.
You can put some sliced potatoes in the pot of rice if the rice has begun to burn before it is done. The potato will absorb the burnt odor and give you burnt-free rice. Practice this every time your rice gets burnt.
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You can easily peel boiled potatoes without a knife
Peeling raw potatoes before cooking them is time-consuming and stressful. It also leads to the loss of a lot of the water-soluble vitamin C. The vitamins drips out of the potatoes while cooking. A good way to save time and retain a good amount of nutrients in potatoes is to peel them after cooking.
How do you easily peel off cooked potatoes? Run them under very cold water for 30 seconds after removing them from the boiling water. Then, make a few superficial cuts, and the potato skin will practically peel off easily. You can try this next time you want to easily peel off cooked potatoes in your kitchen.
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Peeling ginger root ginger is an important ingredient in restaurants and kitchens
It is widely used in a lot of cuisines as a spice. However, peeling off the peel of ginger can easily pose a challenge. The common way to peel ginger is by using a Y-peeler or pairing knife.
However, using a peeler or knife to peel a ginger root full of nooks and crannies and thin skin is difficult. The most convenient and satisfying way of peeling ginger is by using a spoon or a drawer shaped like a spoon.
Scrape the root with it; you will remove the skin easily, quickly, and without leaving half a piece in the attempt. Peeling ginger with a spoon has many advantages over using a knife or a y-peeler. Peeling ginger with a spoon is the ideal method because it is fast, efficient, and reduces waste.
Furthermore, using a spoon allows you to get into all of the corners of the ginger root, guaranteeing that you can peel the root fully without scraping off some parts. Other kitchen utensils such as y-peelers, are too thick to fit into the nooks and crannies of ginger root, and knives can waste a lot of ginger, which can have a long-term impact on your bottom line.
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Remove dirt from dirty potatoes with ease.
Are you feeling lazy about cleaning dirt from potatoes that are so full of dirt from the garden? Thinking about the time you are going to spend rubbing potatoes to clean them can give you a lot of concern. You do not have to worry about cleaning your potatoes anymore. Rinse them under the tap for a while until the dirt is released. Then, put them in the dishwasher without soap and run a fast and cold cycle of water through them (or just a rinse, if they’re there). Now you have a clean dirty potato without stress.
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Removing a container’s residual odor
Have you ever stored a strongly smelling food in a container or Tupperware and its odor doesn’t go away even after removing the food? Do not worry. Fill the container with wrinkled newspaper and leave it closed for a couple of days: the odor will disappear as if magic was used. After that, wash the container and you are ready to package another food in it without fear of introducing a different odor into it.
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Preventing hot pepper hands without using a glove
Wearing gloves before cutting chili peppers is a proactive step, but hurrying while cooking can make you ignore it. This can make you experience a pepper burn on your hands. Pepper burn occurs when a resin from the pepper known as capsaicin adheres to your hand. The chemical component is found in spicy peppers, and it’s what gives them their addicting, scorching flavor.
It only takes a small amount of spicy pepper juice to burn your hands. Not only can it damage the hands, but it can also impact other parts of the body. Chili peppers have enough capsaicin to cause a burn in the mouth, ears, face, eyes, nose, or other sensitive areas. You may never know when you are going to rub your face with your hand. The burning might begin hours after you’ve completed cooking!
Here is how to prevent a hot pepper burn on your hands. Rub your hands with oil before cutting the chili peppers, and wash your hands with hot water and soap after you’re done.
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Prevent items on the cutting board from slipping
Have you ever tried to cut something on a cutting board but it was slipped off? It’s annoying to have your food or other items on the cutting board slip right off while cutting. You can avoid this problem by laying kitchen paper or a damp cloth under the cutting board while cutting. This will help to prevent it from slipping on the kitchen counter. This hack helps to reduce the risk that this usually poses to fingers and other appendages that hang around near the knife.
Another way to avoid slipping on a cutting board is to use a cutting board that has feet on it. The feet will keep the cutting board elevated so it won’t slip. Another option is to make sure you are cutting away from your body so the cutting board doesn’t move towards you. You could even get a small cutting board to avoid this problem altogether. Either option should keep you from ever dealing with a slippery cutting board again.
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Clean stains from cookware
Kitchen spoons, spatulas, and other wooden implements can absorb odors and take on colors when used to make sauces or soaked too long. They will recover (at least in part) their original appearance if they are boiled for a few minutes in water and then left to dry in the sun.
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Keeping the color of mashed potatoes
Some people add cold milk to mashed potatoes. Adding cold milk to mashed potatoes changes their color, so it is best not to add cold milk to mashed potatoes. Boil the milk and add it to the puree while it is still hot so that the color of the puree does not turn gray.
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Long-term storage of vegetables
Use foil to wrap vegetables like broccoli, celery, and asparagus, and they will stay longer. If you’re going to keep vegetables in the refrigerator, wrap them in aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or waxed paper. This will help prevent moisture from escaping them and keep them fresher longer.
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Lessen the spiciness of your food
Have you been longing to eat your favorite food only to discover that you over-seasoned it? Cooking is a skill that requires a lot of practice for perfection. Even the best chefs sometimes make mistakes when it comes to the amount of ingredients they use in a meal.
You may simply compensate for a lack of flavor by adding more ingredients. However, too much of anything can be deadly, whether it’s salt or spice. Though some people can endure high levels of spice and even love it, there is a limit to how much spice one can take.
Adding more spice than necessary is a common cooking error. Maybe you accidentally put the spice powder in twice, or the chili was too hot and you added too much of it. Whatever went wrong, the dish’s flavor suffers, and your eating mood suffers as well. If you find yourself in this situation, don’t be concerned.
There isn’t an issue that a simple kitchen hack can’t address. You can add some raw ingredients like vegetables, legumes, or meat to reduce the spiciness of the food. If you do not have a problem with the sweetness of the food, you can add some honey or sugar to it.
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Mash boiled potatoes without making them stick together
Mashed potatoes require a significant amount of labor to prepare. Not only do you have to heat, peel (if desired), and smash the potatoes into a smooth purée, but you also have to season them, inspect them for lumps, and make sure they don’t get too thick before serving. You’ll otherwise wind up with a paste. Making mashed potatoes (especially on a workday) is obviously inconvenient, even though the effort is clearly justified.
However, you can easily use a simple meat grinder to mash the boiled potatoes. This makes the potatoes look more attractive and helps make them tastier. Do not use a blender to do this as it will make the potatoes sticky.
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Prepare a quick homemade mayonnaise
Mayonnaise is a condiment that almost everyone is familiar with. The smooth and creamy sauce is used in anything; in pastries, cakes, burgers, casseroles, and a lot more. However, you might want to use a mayonnaise alternative due to some reasons. Mayonnaise is calorie-dense, and not everyone enjoys its taste or appearance. You may sometimes be out of mayonnaise and want an alternative.
Here is the mayonnaise alternative for people who want to minimize calories, don’t like the taste of mayonnaise, or following a vegan diet. You can easily make a mayonnaise-like sauce with sour cream. So if your mayonnaise is over, do not worry. Combine sour cream with boiled egg yolk and add a tablespoon of mustard.
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Refresh cooked foods
By some miraculous favor, you’ve avoided devouring the entire pizza. That is an achievement itself, and you should be proud of your admirable control. However, the optimal manner to reheat leftover pizza has not been thoroughly researched. The microwave will turn your slice into a soggy mess with a mushy crust. Using the oven to heat pizza will dry out your cheese and toppings but restore the crispness of the pizza. The drying out of cheese will not compensate for anything.
So, what is the best way to heat cold pizza and add fresh taste and smell to it? You can heat the pizza in a frying pan instead of the microwave.
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A quick way to cool drinks
Wrap a damp paper towel around the drink can or bottle and put it in the fridge to cool the drink quickly.
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Extract more juice out of lemon
To get more juice out of those hard lemons or limes that look more like a throwing weapon than a fruit, roll them a few times on the counter or table by pressing down with your palm.
Hope you learned something from these 25 smart food hacks to make your life tastier? You can also learn about hacks used by food delivery hack experts if cooking is not your thing. Kindly drop a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.
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