A lot of people think of cooking as a chore or a laborious task while the process can be easier than you think, fun, and even relaxing. If you have a few tricks up your sleeve, then you can streamline processes in the kitchen that would be tedious to do otherwise. Additionally, there are ways to optimize organization in the kitchen, the longevity of products, reduce messes, and many more useful tips and tricks that only bring benefits. Let’s take a look at some of our favorites.
Freeze Foods Flat
Whether it’s leftovers, meat, and fish, or berries, freezing food to use for later is a lifesaver, but it also takes up a lot of space in your freezer. The average refrigerator doesn’t have a significantly large freezer which means you’ll need to choose carefully what you store in the freezer. To make the most of the space, don’t freeze your food in large Tupperware containers. Opt for freezing them flat in thinner containers or zip lock bags instead. That way you can maximize the space in the fridge and make defrosting a breeze since you won’t have to wait forever for a large bulk of food to come back to room temperature.
Utilize a Mandoline
Kitchen utensils can streamline processes in the kitchen and make prep work significantly easier if you know what tools to get. Slicing, chopping, and dicing are repetitive and difficult to do evenly, especially for beginners. A mandoline is one of the most optimal kitchen utensils you can equip yourself with to make prepping fruits and vegetables take half the time that they would with a knife.
Revive Melted Food
Melted chocolate and melted butter are only a few ingredients that are prone to melting quicker even when you think you’ve only set it aside for a few minutes. Don’t throw in the towel just yet — there’s a simple way to revive melted ingredients. And no, it doesn’t involve sticking it in the fridge for hours. If possible, keep the chocolate or butter intact as much as possible and put it into a bowl. Get another bowl and fill it with ice water and float the bowl with the melted ingredient on top of it. Lightly touch it with your finger to determine how solid it has gotten and remove it from the ice water once it’s as hard enough as you need it to be.
Store and Revive Herbs
All fruits and vegetables come with a short shelf life, but herbs take the cake. They wilt and shrivel up in record time. If you want to make your herbs stay fresh for longer, don’t leave them out of the refrigerator or in Tupperware. Instead, wrap them in a damp cloth or paper towel and keep them refrigerated. If they are beginning to shrivel up, put them into a glass of water and that is just maybe enough to freshen them up if they haven’t entirely gone bad yet.
Use a Kitchen Scale
Are your cookies and muffins not coming out of the oven the way they look in the recipe? Baking is all about chemistry and when you’re even a few grams off with one ingredient, it’s enough to throw the entire batter out of balance. A kitchen scale is certainly a handy tool in the kitchen that many home cooks overlook when in reality it is the key to stirring up picture-perfect dishes every time.
Knead Dough With a Mixer
Making warm, crusty bread at home isn’t too complicated, except for the kneading process. Many dough recipes require a few minutes of kneading that requires a certain amount of upper body and arm strength. Thankfully, the hook attachment on a stand mixture is a great substitute for kneading.
Freeze More Than Ice
Once you start freezing liquids other than water in your ice tray, you’ll never go back. Freeze wine and even add berries to it and then add to your drink later to not water it down. Freeze coffee or milk and then add it to your morning coffee for the same effect. Anything from soup seasonings to broth is possible to freeze and use later for multiple uses.
Warm Up Your Plates
Does your dish run cold before it even reaches the table? Rinse your plates under very hot water and then dry them well before serving the food on top. It will provide your dish with a few minutes of additional heat retention so that the food is still warm during the first bites.
