10 Kitchen Hacks You Should Know

I’ve collected my top 10 favorite kitchen hacks and thought I’d share them with you! I’ve spent a lot of time in the kitchen, and some of that time has been spent either trying to fix a mistake or looking for an easier way to do something. As I’ve mentioned before, the internet has been a great asset to me and I’ve learned much from it. Lately I’ve been spending a lot of time on Reddit, originally because I was broke and needed cheap meal ideas, but as I’ve been digging around I’ve noticed that there are a LOT of different things you can do to make life in the kitchen easier.

Top 10 Kitchen Hacks

1. Leftover pizza

My first kitchen hack has come in handy numerous times, as a single woman living on her own sometimes you don’t want to spend the time cooking every day, so I’ll try to make a pizza last a couple of days. Instead of warming up the leftover pizza in the microwave, try heating up your slices on a frying pan for a few minutes. I like using a heavy cast iron skillet, set at med high and covered with tin foil. Timing will depend on the size of your pizza, but generally should not take longer than 10 minutes. If your pizza comes out a little dry you can liven it up by adding a teaspoon of water, the steam will help add moisture back into your pizza. Just be careful not to burn your crust!
[Submitted by dirtyboxing]

flickr/horsepunchkid

2.  Pies

Not in the mood for an entire pie? Rather than add more crust to the pie, use the leftover pie crust and filling to make mini-pies in cupcake holders. That way there aren’t some pie slices that are overly crusty and instead you will end up with nice little pies that you can use to do ‘quality control’. Or just eat them yourself!
[Submitted by RedditorSaiddit]

flickr/ljnewman

3.  Spaghetti sauce 

Add lemon juice or a lemon slice to help balance out the acidity and flavor if you added too much sugar to your spaghetti sauce. If you’re wondering why anyone would put sugar in their spaghetti sauce in the first place, sugar helps counter act the acidity in the tomatoes. So if your sauce tastes too tomatoey a teaspoon of sugar will help. But if you add too much sugar and your tomato sauce starts to taste too sweet, add in some lemon!
[Submitted by PastaCleates]

flickr/adashofsass

4. Make measuring easy

Have a favorite recipe you make over and over? Whether you’re making drinks or another batch of cookies, help yourself out by marking the measurements on your measuring cup ahead of time with a piece of tape (painters or masking tape works best). This will come in handy at your next Cinco de Mayo party when you’re trying to quickly make a new batch of Margaritas.
[Submitted by e6c]

lifeprotips.com/e6c

5. Counter space

If you are like me and have a small kitchen then you’ll want to make the most out of what space you do have. So if you run out of room on your counters and in your cupboard, then put it in your microwave.  Microwaves are airtight so your bread will last longer, just remember to take it out when you need to heat something up. [Submitted by StevenSanders90210]

thisisthelittlelife.com

6. Rice to the rescue

Rice can be used for all kinds of things, other than eating. If you’re big into baking then you’ll want to definitely keep this in mind: put rice at the bottom of a pan for grease-free cupcakes (use cupcake liners). Plus, not only can a bit of rice keep your cupcakes from sticking to the pan, but it can also help you blind bake a pie crust! Just roll your crust out into the pie dish, cover with tin foil and throw in some rice. The rice will weigh things down and help the crust stay flat. Just keep this baked rice in a separate container and reuse when necessary.
[Submitted by ryelo]

camillecooksforyou.com

7. Buying spices on a budget 

Spices are always cheaper in your ethnic food section. They’re even cheaper than that at your ethnic supermarket. This was a life saver for me, when I moved out on my own I had to supply my own spices. Momma wouldn’t let me take her whole spice rack, but what I didn’t realize is how expensive spices can be! Don’t get me wrong, I love saffron, but I’m not sure I want to pay $15 for a thimble full! So when I was wandering through one of my local ethnic markets and noticed that they carried spices by the BAG, it caught my eye and I decided to stock up on stable spices. [Submitted by Col_Monstrosity]

flickr/gavinbell

8.Sticky fish 

They say that if you get the grill nice and hot then your food won’t stick, but sometimes it still sticks. At the end of my grilling session you’d think that I was trying to make pulled fish sandwiches or something. Instead of putting the fish directly on the grill, put it on top of a bed of sliced lemons! Not only will that prevent the fish from sticking but it will also add a delicious citrus flavor. Other things you can use: cedar planks!
[Submitted by RalphiesBoogers]

flickr/criminalinten

9. Replace a broken/missing wine bottle cork

If you’re like me, then you can’t really open a bottle of wine without completely damaging the cork. Which can really suck when you aren’t planing on finishing the whole bottle by yourself (what, people don’t do that?). If you don’t have a carafe or anything that you can use to store your wine then you will just need to stick with the bottle. But instead of trying to stuff the broken cork back in, just use a tube of lip balm that’s tightly wrapped with strips of plastic wrap. You will need to fold a sheet of plastic wrap about eight times to make it the correct width, and then you can store it in the refrigerator or on your counter (depending on what kind of wine it is). [Submitted by ShaneFromaggio]

flickr/carmelo61

10. Remove the air

If you need a bag to have absolutely NO air (freezing/sous vide cooking/etc), dip the bag (with the food inside) in a bowl of water just up to the zip/lock seal, don’t let any water get into the bag. The water will push any air in the bag out.
[Submitted by AshenMoon]

modernistcuisine.com

And there you have it, some of my favorite kitchen hacks. Don’t get me wrong there are many more but these were some of my more common problems so maybe they’d be yours as well.

What are some of your favorite kitchen hacks?
Let us know in the comments for part two!