17 Tricks That Will Help You Feel in the Kitchen Like a Pro

For some people, the kitchen is the favorite place in the house, while others prefer to stay away from it whenever possible. Nevertheless, we still have to cook. And you can make your life easier and even enjoy your cooking experience if you pick up a few tricks.

1. You can keep butter outside the fridge.

If butter is salted, you can safely keep its small portions outside the fridge at room temperature. It will stay good for a couple of days.

2. If you want to roast corn and not waste time on husking it, place it directly in the husks in a preheated 350˚F oven for 30 minutes.

To prevent it from burning, hold it in water for about 20 minutes beforehand.

3 If your food contains fat and salt, try splashing it with lemon or lime juice for a new flavor.

4. To prevent the sauce from splattering inside the microwave, pour the sauce on the bottom of the plate and place the garnish (e.g. pasta) on top of it.

Pasta will heat up faster and the sauce will stay in place.

5. If you are cooking something with melted chocolate, add a pinch of salt. This will bring out the chocolate flavor even more.

6. To balance the acidity of the tomato sauce, add a quarter teaspoon of baking soda to it. Do this at the beginning of cooking.

7. If the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl, try kneading it in a non-stick pan.

8. To prevent a kitchen board from sliding on the table, place rubberized shelf liners underneath them.

9. Don’t throw away the plastic netting that oranges and so on come in. You can use it to remove dough residue from the tableware or table later on.

This way, you won’t make the sponge dirty with dough, and the netting can be discarded right away.

10. If you want to marinate meat in pineapple, don’t keep meat in it for longer than 20–30 minutes. The acids will simply turn the meat into mush.

11. The taste of black pepper will be much more noticeable if you add it to a cooked or almost cooked dish. The aroma will also be much stronger.

12 If you like cheese flavor but can’t eat dairy products, add nutritional yeast. It can be added to all kinds of foods.

This yeast is even called Parmesan because of its characteristic odor. It can be used in salads, soups, scrambled eggs and sandwiches.

13. Use empty sriracha containers as twist top cooking oil dispensers.

This bottle makes it easy to measure the amount of oil, especially if you need just a little. Important: Be sure to keep transparent containers in a dark place if you store olive oil in them.

14. If your pan is made of stainless steel, heat it first before adding oil.

To check whether the pan is hot enough, drop a little water on it. Droplets should “roll” across the surface.

15. A tea infuser ball works fantastically to sprinkle powdered sugar evenly.

16. Bread knives are good to use for any fruit and vegetables with soft pulp and plenty of juice.

17. To prevent eggshell fragments from getting into your food, break eggs on a flat surface, not on an edged surface.

And here are a few professional tricks that can help you clean your house much faster.