All of us at some point in life wish to master the art of handling shores. Sometimes, it happens and most of the time we terribly fail to put everything in place.
But that’s alright, we cannot be Zubaida Appa (may her soul rest in peace). Anyways, we decided to compile a list of little hacks of the kitchen that can help you from food prepping, cooking and baking predicament to softening the butter the easy way.
We tried to cover all under this blog.
So let’s start our top 10 Kitchen hacks that you wish you knew earlier.
1: Slow down the rotting tomatoes
The best way to increase the freshness of tomatoes is to store them with their stem down.
This way you will prevent air from entering and moisture from exiting the scar where once tomatoes attached to the vine.
The other best way to prolong the freshness of tomatoes is to store them in room temperature rather than storing them in the fridge.
Also read: 5 Nutrition myths that you should stop believing right now
02: Prevent cut fruit from browning
There are two ways to apply this kitchen hack.
The first one is to squeeze lemon onto the apple slices which will seize the browning and make it look more appetizing.
The second one is equally effective that is a mixture of one part of honey and two parts of water which will keep the cut fruit in its actual color.
The citric acid in lemon and peptide in honey slows down the oxidation process that causes fruits to get a brownish color.
Also read: These 4 trends will transform that will shape market of the future
03: The egg-freshness test
Okay, you may have read or seen it on social media but it is an important one so we had to include it.
You can test the eggs that are in your fridge and see if they are incredibly good or not. Take a bowl of cold water and put all eggs in it.
The eggs which sink to the bottom is an OKAY and fresh. The ones which float have seen better days.
The science behind is simple, the egg liquid evaporates over the time through porous shell and leaving a gas bubble inside. So the floatier it is, the older it is.
04: De-skin potatoes without a peeler
Now it’s time to ditch the peeler and de-skin the potatoes without it.
Peel a potato with a snap by boiling it and then giving it an ice-bath. The skin will then separate it from the potato and you’ll be left with ready-to-cook potatoes only. So bye-bye peeling days.
05: Make citrus juice even juicier
To squeeze the maximum juice out of lemon try this hack.
Refrigerate and then microwave it for 15 to 20 seconds. Here’s an extra tip. Roll it over before squeezing, cut them in lengthwise, and/or use a pair of tongs to squeeze the juice instead of using your two hands.
06: Tear-free onion cutting
To stop onion from getting you teary-eyes, freeze them before chopping.
This hack is only effective if you are planning to cook later otherwise after the onion thaws out, the raw pieces of onion will be bit soggy.
And if you want to cook in a haste, then put a piece of bread in your mouth (partially sticking out), which will absorb the irritating smell before it reaches your eyes.
07: Soften Butter in a flash
Keeping the butter out of fridge for an hour isn’t an ideal way especially when you have a tight schedule.
To speed up the process, grate it with a cheese grater, or flatten it with a rolling pin.
If you don’t want to use the above-mentioned hack then you can cut the butter into 6-8 pieces, which will allow to speed up the softening process.
Also read: Everything you need to know about tetrapack in Pakistan
08: Reheat Pizza without drying them out
We often have some leftover pizza or baked food at home.
Whenever, you re-heat them in a microwave, put a glass of water with it which adds moisture to the air. Thus it prevents pizza and other baked food from drying out.
Also read: 5 insane tricks no one tells you about grocery shopping
09: Remove cooking smell from your hands
Neutralize garlic and onion smell from your hand by rubbing them with lemon juice, baking soda or stainless steel.
You’d be wondering why with stainless steel? When you rub against the stainless steel, the molecules in the steel bind with stinky-stanky causing molecules (such as sulfur from garlic).