Cooking Hacks We Wish We Knew Sooner

Cooking a good meal usually takes time. For some, that’s not a problem because they could happily spend hours in the kitchen. For others, it just makes mealtime a part of the day worth dreading. Luckily, if you find that making food takes too long, there is something you can do about it.

Thankfully, all sorts of cooking hacks exist to streamline the process. From making prep work easier to helping you deal with the post-cooking mess, the cooking hacks we wish we knew sooner could make all the difference.

It’s easy to remove a strawberry’s stem with a straw

Strawberries are a delicious fruit that can be enjoyed year-round, although they’re typically at their best in the summer. They make a wonderful addition to a fruit salad, just as much as they’re great on cakes or even by themselves. However, preparing them can sometimes be a little frustrating because of the stem that doesn’t always come off easily.

If you’re done with trying to pluck off those leaves, why not bring a reusable straw into the mix? You simply need to push this up through the bottom of the strawberry, and it will take the stem with it when it emerges from the other side. It’s so quick to do once you get into the swing of things.

Use a microplane to grate ginger rather than cutting and mincing it

Adding herbs and spices to a dish is something we’d always recommend. The added flavor or little kick that such ingredients provide can really transform your meals. However, not all of them are super easy to prepare. Ginger, for instance, can be a bit of a hassle if you’re using a root, but there are some ways to change that.

For one, we’d advise keeping this stuff in your freezer as it should help it retain its freshness for longer. Then, when you want to add it to a meal, simply use a microplane to grate what you need. It will save a ton of time worrying about peeling or mincing the ginger, making your cooking that much quicker.

Storing baked goods with bread can help them retain their moisture

Not everyone cooks something intending to eat it right away. In the case of baking, most goods aren’t made to be consumed in one sitting right after they’ve come out of the oven. However, you can’t leave it too long to eat them; otherwise, they’ll lose their freshness - or will they? This hack suggests there’s no need to rush.

If you want things like cookies and muffins to remain soft and delicious for longer, you simply need to store them in an airtight container with some bread. It appears that putting a slice or two of this stuff in the container will help your baked goods to retain their moisture. The more you know, huh?

Put your garlic in the microwave to make peeling much easier

Garlic is another one of those ingredients that we’d advise you always have in your pantry. Adding a clove of this stuff to most meals will give them that extra little something you’ve been looking for. Unfortunately, using garlic means having to peel the outer layer every time, which isn’t always a fun job, especially without sharp nails.

If peeling is proving a problem, though, you can make things easier on yourself by just sticking your garlic in the microwave for about 30 seconds. You may want to shorten the time a bit if your appliance is on the more powerful side. Hopefully, though, the garlic will come out nice and easy to peel.

Dental floss makes a great alternative to knives when cutting certain foods

Some foods are more of a hassle to cut than others. Luckily, when it comes to softer stuff, you can take away some of the effort by swapping your knives for dental floss. Ideal if your sharp utensils all need cleaning, this stuff can cut through things like goat’s cheese and cake with wonderful ease.

As floss is so thin, you don’t have to worry about it creating drag the way a knife’s blade does. Everything it cuts through comes out so smoothly, which is particularly useful if you’re trying to maintain the presentation of something. That cake you spent hours making deserves to still look amazing after it’s been cut, don’t you think?

A plastic water bottle will help you separate yolks from egg whites

Eggs are one of the most common ingredients a person will use when baking, up there with stuff like sugar and flour. While those dry ingredients can usually just be poured into a bowl, though, many recipes require you to only use the yolk or whites of an egg. That means having to crack and separate your eggs carefully.

Do this wrong, and you risk breaking the yolk, which will render the egg unusable for that recipe. A simple hack that should prevent this from happening is one where you squeeze a plastic water bottle, hold the opening above the yolk, and then release it. Relieving the pressure will suck up the yolk without any mess.

A fork will help you remove the tendon from a chicken breast

Chicken is by far the most popular meat consumed in the US. Unfortunately, while it might be widely consumed here in the States, that doesn’t mean it’s always the easiest thing to prepare. Even if you buy a chicken breast from the grocery store, you still have the potential that it’s got the tendon attached.

For some people, this isn’t an issue. However, as this connective tissue isn’t always the nicest to eat, getting rid of it is usually preferred. Luckily, an easy way to do that is to slide the tendon between the prongs of a fork and pull it in the opposite direction. It should come away cleanly every time.

Peanut butter can help to neutralize the burned taste of dishes like chili

Burning a dish is something that many people dread, especially when they’re not that accustomed to cooking. Unfortunately, the only way to ensure this never happens is to stand there watching it the entire time. We don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty boring to us. Luckily, if you burn something like chili, you can fix it pretty easily.

One of the best cooking hacks is to slowly pour the chili into a new pot, keeping the most burned parts out. Then, put some peanut butter into the stuff you can still salvage. This is quite effective at neutralizing the burned flavor and can work with all sorts of sauces and stews. Just be mindful of nut allergies.

Storing natural peanut butter upside down helps the oil to mix better

Speaking of peanut butter, how often do you open a jar of the stuff only to find you have to mix the oil back in? It’s something that can be quite a hassle with natural peanut butter, but there are ways to make this process easier. The solution here is to simply store your jars upside down.

When you then flip the jar back up to use, the oil will begin rising to the top, meaning it will already be much more mixed in. A little stir will then be all you need to do before scooping out however much you wish to use. It’s a little hack but it can still save you precious time.

You can avoid bell pepper seeds going everywhere with this cutting hack

It’s important to get a good fix of fruits and vegetables every day. One way you can do this is by adding things like bell peppers to most of the dishes you make, as they’re a pretty versatile ingredient. As their sweetness generally differs between colors, it’s usually not too hard to make one work in a meal.

The problem with bell peppers is that they have so many seeds you don’t really want in the dish. So, we’d recommend trying this hack where you flip the pepper upside down, cut down the grooves, and then detach them from the stem. It’s an easy way of getting what you want without seeds going everywhere.

A carrot can help balance out the acidity of a tomato sauce

One of the simplest ways to save yourself time in the kitchen is to buy jars of sauce rather than making one yourself. However, the problem with doing this is that you may be exposing yourself to ingredients you don’t really want. It’s usually much healthier to make a sauce yourself, although that can be hard to do right.

When making a tomato sauce, for instance, it can sometimes get quite acidic, which isn’t really what you want. However, if you peel a carrot and put it in the sauce, you should find that the sweetness of this vegetable helps to balance things out. Just remember to remove the carrot before you serve the sauce with anything.

Bubble wrap should keep your ice cream tub from melting

Who doesn’t love themselves a tub of ice cream? Whether you’re feeling down or you’re in the mood to celebrate, you can’t really go wrong with this stuff. However, if you have it out of the freezer for any extended period of time, you can expect it to start melting on you. That is unless you utilize this next hack.

All you need to do is wrap the outside of the tub in bubble wrap because this material is a surprisingly powerful insulator. With this in place, you should find that your ice cream lasts a few more hours than it would have done otherwise. That’s ideal if you’re taking the tub to someone else’s house.

It’s possible to remove lettuce leaves without accidentally ripping them

If you are interested in trying to live a more healthy lifestyle, it’s always a good idea to think about substituting some of the things you already eat. That way, you don’t have to change up your diet too much while still doing better by your body. A good example of this is switching out tortillas for lettuce leaves.

These can make for delicious wraps, and you don’t need to worry about accidentally ripping them during prep. You can easily keep your leaves intact if you slam a lettuce head on the counter before removing the core. After sticking the lettuce in a colander and shaking it under running water, the leaves should pull away without any trouble.

Prepare things in advance for days when cooking time is limited

We totally understand the frustrations people have when it comes to cooking. If you’ve just worked a long shift, the last thing you probably want to do is cook something if you’re not someone who enjoys being in the kitchen. That’s why it’s always good to try and prepare things in advance when you have the time available.

Certain things you won’t be able to do this for. However, stuff like chopping vegetables can be done several days in advance without issue. When the time comes to use them, you can simply toss them in the pan without a second thought. Stuff like this breaks down your cooking time into manageable chunks that can save plenty of hassle.

A touch of acidity can work wonders for what you’re cooking

You never want a meal to be too acidic; otherwise, it will ruin the taste experience of the dish. That’s why cooking hacks exist to balance things out. However, a bit of acidity can actually be a good thing, provided you don’t go overboard with it. That’s why we recommend adding some lemon or vinegar to your food.

A squeeze here or a splash there might not look like much, but it can actually do wonders for whatever you’re cooking. Just make sure that you’re using this in dishes that aren’t already naturally quite acidic. You don’t want to overpower the taste of your food, even if the acidic sources you use have different flavor profiles.

A box grater is effective at stripping herbs without any fuss

Regardless of what herbs you want to use in your dish, you should be able to find a jar of it at the grocery store. However, some people much prefer using fresh stuff in their meals as these can often be more fragrant and flavorful. The downside of cooking with these, though, is they’re more of a hassle to prepare.

If you find that stripping your herbs takes too long, you’ll be glad to know we have a solution. One cooking hack recommends that you pull things like parsley or dill through a box grater if you want to easily remove the leaves. It takes just seconds to do this, leaving you free to carry on with your cooking.

A pizza cutter can be a useful tool for cutting up herbs

Of course, stripping the leaves isn’t necessarily the only thing that you need to do with your herbs. You typically want this stuff to be in small chunks when you cook it into a dish, which is why dried herbs can be so useful sometimes. You simply open a jar, sprinkle some in the pot, and then mix them in.

You can make your fresh herbs just as convenient to use, though; you simply need to cut them up first. Thankfully, a pizza cutter can actually make this job incredibly simple. If you’re not quick with a knife, a pizza cutter is easy to roll back and forth over your herbs until you have your desired consistency.

Storing marshmallows with brown sugar should keep the latter nice and soft

Some ingredients have a lot more staying power than others. You can’t buy fresh fruit or vegetables and expect them to last for weeks. However, bags of flour and sugar can easily sit in your pantry for months. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean this stuff will always be as good to use as they were when you first bought them.

Brown sugar, for example, can harden over time, making it more difficult to utilize. There is an easy way to soften this stuff up, though, and that’s by keeping it in a tightly sealed container with some marshmallows. The moisture from the confectionery gets absorbed by the sugar, helping it to soften up and stay nice and easy to use.

Several hacks can save your eggs from being overdone

How often have you cooked something to the timings that a recipe advised, only to find that your food seemed a little more overdone than anticipated? This might be because food will continue cooking after being removed from a heat source. You tend to see it a lot with eggs, which can already be a headache to make sometimes.

If you’re boiling eggs, a way to keep them from cooking further is to put them in an ice bath. That should remove the heat so they’re cooked through without being overdone. Meanwhile, if you’re doing something like scrambled eggs, the best option may be to remove them from the heat source while they’re still a little underdone.

Ice cube trays are a great storage tool for leftover sauce

We’ve already mentioned how useful it can be to prepare things in advance. Sometimes, you can actually do this while cooking another meal, with certain leftovers from that dish helping you somewhere down the line. For instance, if you make a sauce and have more than you need for one meal, why not freeze what’s left?

Ice cube trays can be good for this, as can plastic egg cartons that have been thoroughly cleaned. You simply fill the holes with the sauce, allow them to freeze, and then pop out the flavorful ice cubes into a resealable freezer bag. When you next need the sauce, just thaw the cubes in the refrigerator for several hours.

Oranges are much easier to get into with this simple cutting hack

Oranges are one of the best fruits that you can eat. Full of vitamin C, folate, fiber, and potassium, eating these regularly can only do your body good. However, we totally understand why more people don’t make time for them - peeling them is so frustrating sometimes. That’s why it’s wise to utilize this hack that makes the process simpler.

With a paring knife, score a circle around the top of your orange before then doing the same vertically around the peel. Do this about six times, making the cuts evenly spaced, then peel away from that incision in the top. The outer layer should pull away easily, allowing you to enjoy the nutritious goodness that’s inside.

An apple slicer will help you make steak fries without any fuss

Fries are a side that’s difficult to say no to. They work with most things and are such a comfort food. There’s no need to buy a bag of them from the grocery store when you can just make your own at home, though. It’s a bit more effort in the kitchen, sure, but not by much.

If you use an apple slicer, you can easily cut a potato into steak fries, perfect for your next meal. Simply season the fries with what you want, then put them in the oven to cook. It’s as simple as that, and this way, you know what’s going into your body. You can do this with sweet potatoes, too.

Breadcrumbed chicken is more likely to remain intact if refrigerated for half an hour

Knowing that chicken is such a beloved meat in the US, it goes without saying that people cook it in all sorts of ways. Some chop it up into small pieces and toss it in a pan. Others leave the meat intact and simply stick it in the oven to cook, perhaps wrapped in bacon or with a filling inside.

For those who like to fry their chicken, something we’d definitely recommend is keeping this stuff in the refrigerator after egging and breadcrumbing it. By doing this for at least half an hour, it’s much more likely that the breadcrumbs will stay in place when you stick the meat in the fryer. That means better-tasting chicken when the cooking’s done.

A plastic lid will help you cut through multiple tomatoes at once

Preparing a salad to go with your dish is an excellent way to make a meal more healthy. Even if the food you’ve cooked isn’t that amazing for you, some salad on the side will definitely make up for that. It can take more time than you might think to prepare this, though, so some useful hacks are in order.

One of the best is this one that makes slicing tomatoes a breeze. You simply put your tomatoes together on a chopping board, then cover them with something flat, such as a plastic container lid. As you gently hold this down, proceed to cut through the tomatoes underneath in one smooth horizontal motion. That’s all there is to it.

Use hot water in the oven to prove your bread

Making bread yourself can be an ambitious undertaking, but one that can lead to amazing results. If you have the time and patience, we’d definitely recommend giving it a go. However, be wary of the temperature in the room as it might be too cold for the bread to prove adequately. Fortunately, we do have a solution to this issue.

All you need to do is place your dough in the oven with a pan of simmering water on the shelf beneath. You don’t need to turn the oven on; simply close the door and let the heat and humidity from the water do its thing. When it’s time to take the dough out, it should have a nice rise.

A damp dish towel is all you need to keep your mixing bowl steady

Do you ever feel like you don’t have enough hands when you’re in the kitchen? We suppose if you’re not home alone, a convenient solution is to ask for help. However, sometimes, having another person in your cooking space isn’t actually ideal. So, if you’d prefer to keep this a solo activity, we have a hack that might help.

If the problem is that you can’t keep your bowl still while you’re trying to mix ingredients, you don’t need someone to come in and hold it steady. Instead, you can take a damp dish towel and create a ring around the base. This will create enough resistance to stop your bowl from moving around on the counter.

You can use a cooling rack to dice hard-boiled eggs quickly

We’ve spoken about how to ensure you don’t overdo your hard-boiled egg. However, something we haven’t spoken about yet is the best way to serve it. Some people like to cut these in half or even serve them whole on a plate. Personally, though, we’re all about dicing these eggs, especially when adding them to salads or sandwiches.

It can be a little tricky to do this with a knife, which is why we use this hack that utilizes a standard cooling rack. Simply place this on top of a bowl and then put your hard-boiled egg on top. As you press down on it with your palm, the surface of the cooling rack will dice it.

Parchment paper can save you a cleaning job after baking

For most people, baking is probably considered a much more joyful activity than cooking. You still have to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but as it’s not for an essential meal, those who do this activity are usually more willing. That doesn’t mean that baking is without its problems, though, such as the cleanup afterward.

One way you can reduce mess is by rolling out dough for things like cookies in parchment paper. Your countertops should stay clean if you sandwich your dough between this paper before using your rolling pin. Not only does this save on mess, but not rolling your dough in flour reduces the likelihood of your goods being tough and dry.

A stand mixer is perfectly capable of shredding your chicken for you

Just because you cook chicken a certain way, that doesn’t mean you have to serve it like that as well. Someone might choose to stick a breast as is in the oven and let the heat do its thing. However, after taking it out later, they may then wish to shred the chicken for use in something like a salad.

As this can be quite a fiddly task, a good idea might be to put your chicken in a stand mixer. Just make sure there’s a paddle attachment in place, and let the appliance do its thing. You might be amazed at how effectively the mixer shreds your chicken, saving you effort on what could have been a frustrating task.

Buy vegetables when they’re in season and freeze them for later use

Even though most produce can’t be efficiently grown year-round, you’ll typically see this food available in the grocery store whenever you visit. Just because such stuff is almost always available, though, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be at its best whenever you buy it. This is why it’s wise to purchase things in season and then freeze them.

Various vegetables can last for months in the freezer, meaning you can enjoy their great taste no matter what season it is. Just make sure you blanch the vegetables before sticking them in resealable freezer bags. This should also save you some money, as prices tend to increase on vegetables and similar produce when they’re not in season.

A bowl of warm water can bring your eggs up to room temperature

When it comes to baking, you generally want your ingredients to be at room temperature. Why? Well, this makes it easier for them to bond with everything, ensuring a smoother batter that will result in more delicious desserts. Of course, a lot of the stuff you need to use when baking is stored in the refrigerator beforehand.

Luckily, you don’t always have to stand around waiting for things to warm up. With eggs, for instance, you can simply put them in a bowl of warm water. Give them several minutes, and they should be the perfect temperature to use for your baking. This is ideal if you forget to take the eggs out of the refrigerator early.

Baking fish in parchment paper can really help to seal in the flavor

If you’re looking to make your diet healthier and you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, eating more meals with fish might be worthwhile. This stuff is full of omega-3 fatty acids and can help to lower the risk of cardiovascular issues and extend your life. Of course, the taste can be hard to embrace for some people.

This is why it’s usually worth putting fish in parchment paper first before you cook it. Having the fish encased with all the flavorings you add to it will ensure that those extra ingredients really get infused into the dish. It can be a good way of masking the fishy taste that doesn’t appeal to everyone.

You can have whipped cream in an instant with an immersion blender

Whipped cream can give a dessert that extra little something that really takes your taste buds on a journey. However, the stuff you get from a can is less likely to be fresh than making it yourself. Plus, this stuff is never as natural as what you can create at home because it’s full of artificial flavors and preservatives.

We know what you might be thinking, though. Isn’t it a lot of effort to whip cream yourself? Thankfully, the answer is no. All you need to do is put some cream in an immersion blender and give it a quick blitz. When you want a little dollop of the stuff for your dessert, this hack is quick and easy.

When microwaving butter, consider covering the container with the butter wrapper

If you ever want to melt butter, the microwave can be a good place to do this. However, you have to be careful if you want to avoid a mess. For one, it’s smart to put the appliance on a lower power setting so you don’t open the door to find the inside painted yellow.

Making sure the container is microwave-friendly is also wise, as is perhaps covering said container with the wrapper your butter came from. You never want to completely seal the butter inside as the pressure that will accumulate will inevitably cause a mess. So, this wrapper should be a nice compromise that will keep your microwave as clean as possible.

Cutting butter into cubes will help it reach room temperature quicker

Eggs aren’t the only thing you’ll probably need to bring to room temperature when baking. Butter is usually an essential ingredient in these recipes, and it, too, needs to be refrigerated when not being used. Anyone who has tried to bake with a block of butter that’s not warm enough will understand how much of a struggle this can be.

You don’t need to stick the butter in a microwave or sit around for an hour to get it to the right temperature, though. Instead, you can simply cut it into cubes and leave them for about 20 minutes. You’ll still need to wait, but the butter being in smaller chunks will save you a lot of time.

Lazy Susans are useful storage solutions to keep your kitchen organized

Utilizing these cooking hacks can save you a lot of time and effort. However, if your kitchen is a mess that lacks any sort of organization, cooking still won’t be as efficient as it could be. That’s why something we would recommend is buying a couple of lazy Susans to use in your cupboards, on countertops, or in the refrigerator.

Whether you’re arranging condiments, sauces, herbs, spices, tools, or something else, a lazy Susan can ensure you always have access to what you need. No more losing things in the back of the cupboards or having to constantly move stuff around to get what you’re after. A couple of these could be a very wise investment indeed.

An apple or potato could be the solution to a salty soup

Salt is one of those things that we have to be careful about. A sprinkle of this stuff can do wonders to a recipe, more than you would think possible. However, this stuff is high in sodium, too much of which can raise your blood pressure and put you at risk of heart disease. So, you’ve got to be careful.

If you’re concerned that the soup you’re making might be a little on the salty side, you don’t need to trash it and make another one. Instead, sticking an apple or potato in the pot can actually rescue your dish. These should absorb some of the excess seasoning and release a bit of sweetness to balance things out.

Salt and cold water could be key to cleaning cutting boards effectively

A cutting board is one of those kitchen essentials that everyone has. While you can technically prepare stuff on the counter, you’ll have to clean this thoroughly before and after use. It’s much better to use a cutting board that you’ll still need to clean but is a bit easier to deal with, even after using things like onions.

If you find that your board seems to smell of this ingredient after a good wash, it could be that you’re not cleaning with the right stuff. The best idea is apparently to wash your cutting board with salt and cold water whenever you’ve used onions. That’s a hack that comes courtesy of Julia Child, so we trust it wholeheartedly.

Serve appetizers in an ice bowl to keep everything cool

Planning on having guests over and want to serve them some chilled appetizers? It’s a great idea, although the longer those bowls are out, the less chilled they’re going to become. You could serve them in a bowl with a bag of crushed ice at the bottom to keep everything cold, or you could go one better.

You can make an ice bowl by taping a small bowl down inside a large one and then filling the space between them with cold water. You can stick some lemon wedges in there, too, before freezing the bowls. When you later remove them, you will have a third bowl available - one made completely of ice.

Fresh herbs won’t wilt on you so quickly with the right care

Now that you know some great hacks for fresh herbs, you might feel more inclined to use these ingredients instead of the dry stuff. After all, they tend to be more flavorful, so we definitely wouldn’t say this is a bad idea. Of course, the downside of fresh herbs is that they don’t tend to keep for very long.

Rather than constantly buying herbs when you want to use them, though, we’d instead recommend doing something to keep your current ones around for longer. You can achieve that by trimming the stems, sticking the herbs in a small glass of water, and then covering the top in a well-secured plastic bag. Now, they should last you a few weeks.

Toast one side of your bread and face it inward for sandwiches

Sandwiches are great, but they can sometimes be a bit too plain. The obvious solution to this would probably be to switch up the ingredients inside. However, maybe you enjoy what you currently put in your sandwiches and don’t wish to change anything. In that case, perhaps you should change your bread, or at least how you prepare it.

Toasting the bread beforehand will add a crunch to the sandwich that might provide what you’re after. However, eating such bread can sometimes cut up the inside of your mouth. A good solution to this is to only toast one side of the bread and have this facing inward so that you don’t do yourself any unnecessary harm.

You can hold potatoes still with a fork when peeling them

Peeling is probably one of the most frustrating tasks you have to do when preparing food. Not only can it take up time, but it can also be unnecessarily tricky at times. Trying to peel something perfectly with your ingredients rolling around everywhere is a real nightmare, especially when you’re not a pro in the kitchen.

If you want a hack that will resolve this issue for you, we’d suggest sticking a fork in things like potatoes when trying to peel them. You’ll be able to hold the food steady as you go around it with your peeler. Not only will it save some fuss, but as you do this repeatedly, the process should get quicker.

Using non-stick spray on measuring spoons will make cleanup less hassle

We wish we had a hack to save you the trouble of having to measure everything. Unfortunately, many recipes require you to use a certain amount of each ingredient, especially when baking. Being too much over or under with something could ruin the entire dish, which isn’t what you want after spending so much time in the kitchen.

While we can’t remove the need to measure ingredients, we can ensure that cleaning your measuring spoons is nice and simple after you’ve used them. You just need to use a non-stick spray before you scoop things up, and this will stop stuff like honey or syrup from getting attached to the surface. That’s one less thing to worry about.

Finished butter wrappers are great for greasing pans with

Depending on how much butter the recipe asks for, you may well use up a stick of the stuff when baking. While the temptation might be to throw the wrapper straight in the trash, we’d actually advise against this. That’s because these wrappers can be a valuable tool in the kitchen, namely for greasing things like baking pans.

Doing this should stop your baked goods from crumbling when it comes to removing them later. So, it’s definitely worth holding onto any empty butter wrappers. Even if you don’t need to grease anything when you finish a stick of butter, you can still keep the wrapper in a resealable bag in the refrigerator to use another day.

Measuring everything in one bowl on a digital scale should make things easier

If you do find that measuring ingredients is a pain, there is potentially a way to make things simpler. Instead of separating each thing out into separate containers, you can just go ahead and measure stuff as you add it to the bowl. If the bowl is on a digital scale, there shouldn’t be any problems.

However, you might need to familiarize yourself with different weight measurements, as not everything in the recipe book will be in grams or fluid ounces. You’ll also need to take care not to go quickly once you start pouring multiple ingredients into the bowl. After all, it’ll be difficult to take stuff out if you go over the required weight.

It’s possible to juice a lemon mess-free without a juicer

A juicer is quite a convenient kitchen accessory to keep in your home if it’s something you’re going to get plenty of use out of. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t have one, though. After all, it’s easy to squeeze what you need out of something like a lemon with little effort and no mess.

You simply need to roll a lemon back and forth to soften it up and make things looser inside. Then, poke a skewer into one end of the fruit before holding it over a container. As you squeeze the lemon, the juice should flow out of the bottom pretty easily without your hands getting messy at all.

An ironing board makes for a surprisingly effective cooling rack

We imagine that when you look at an ironing board, your first thoughts aren’t about food. Why would they be? However, what you might not realize is that this home essential could actually be one of the most useful things to use in the kitchen, especially if you’re a baker. It’s the perfect cooling rack.

If you remove the cover from your ironing board, the surface underneath should be ideal for leaving baked goods on to cool. You’ll probably want to clean the ironing board first or use parchment paper as a protective layer underneath the food. Otherwise, it’s great to use as is. It’s ideal if you can’t use your other cooling racks.

Hooks on the walls and doors will help to avoid a disorganized kitchen situation

A kitchen that doesn’t utilize storage effectively is one that can be a nightmare to use whenever you go in it. Of course, if your kitchen is on the smaller side, it might be difficult to store everything effectively without things becoming cramped. This is why hooks are so useful, whether you attach them to walls or doors.

You might be amazed by how many different things you can hang up, from pots and pans to measuring spoons and other accessories. Find what space you can in the kitchen or pantry and put up some hooks to help your storage problems become a thing of the past. Then, cooking should become much less of a headache.

Scissors might be better for cutting pizza with than a pizza cutter

We now know that pizza cutters are a good tool to keep around if you want an easy way to cut fresh herbs. Surprisingly, this may be a better use for them than what they’re actually made for, i.e., cutting pizzas. Let’s face it: they’re not the best at that job, which is annoying when you want equal slices.

A good tool to use in place of a pizza cutter might be scissors, although not the kind you probably keep in the craft drawer. Culinary scissors should cut through any pizza with ease and will save arguments about who got the bigger slice. Just make sure your scissors are clean before you use them on your food.

Try to clean as much as you can while you’re still cooking

After you’ve finished cooking a meal, it’s sometimes hard to feel accomplished. After all, as you’re serving up your food, all you can see is the mess that needs to be cleaned up once you’ve finished eating. You could just leave it for the time being, but then you have a messy, uninviting kitchen to deal with tomorrow.

The solution to this is to try to clean where you can while cooking. Certain things will have to wait until after you’ve eaten, and some dishes may require too much of your attention to do anything else. However, if you have an opportunity to do some cleaning when you’re cooking, we’d definitely recommend going for it.