20+ Cooking Secrets That Will Elevate Your Dishes

Almost every person who cooks regularly has their own culinary secrets that make their dishes especially tasty: their mashed potatoes are tender and airy, steak is juicy, and chocolate biscuits melt in the mouth. We decided to find these secrets, tricks, and lifehacks shared by Internet users. Many of them can literally make the flavor of a familiar dish brighter and richer in just a couple of seconds.

To make main dishes, soups and sauces have a richer flavor

• If you’re tasting your dish and think “hmmm, this needs... something,” it’s probably acid. Especially if you’ve already salted a bit. Citrus and vinegar are definitely the best ways to add acid at the end.
  I like red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar, depending on the recipe, because they also have their own flavor contribution in addition to the acidity. Starting with some tomatoes up front is a great way to tweak a recipe that needs more acidity. © HamsterPositive139 / Reddit
• Butter. I get annoyed when we go eat at a restaurant, and my wife says the food is so good, I mean it is, but the cook also didn’t have her standing there going, “OMG, don’t use that much butter.” It’s good at a restaurant because it’s usually absolutely full of stuff you’d otherwise try to avoid too much of. Anyway, when she’s not looking, I basically shove a stick of butter into our salad. © tykogars / Reddit
• Having worked in several Michelin-starred and top-rated restaurants around the world, I can tell you that there is one ingredient that separates an amateur dish from a professional one — the stock. Stock is the basis for many dishes, including sauces. There are a few nuances that will make it perfect.
  Firstly, always pour cold water over the ingredients for stock, and when you boil it, don’t cover the pot with a lid. Secondly, constantly remove any foam and fat that floats up. Thirdly, if the stock is cooked on bones, put the bones in ice water in the fridge for 12 hours beforehand: this will remove all impurities and the stock will be clear. © Jordi Bross / Quora

• When I fry onions for soup, I add turmeric powder, it gives my soup nice color and has health benefits. I also put it in water when boiling pasta. © Irina Sadygov / Quora
• Cook anything slower and on a lower heat, and it will come out better. I had a cooking lesson by a well-known French chef once and of all the little tidbits he said, the main one that stuck with me was that “Most people try to cook things too fast. You have to respect your ingredients.” © Haunted_Entity / Reddit
• Small sprinkle of cinnamon in your pasta sauce. My Italian great-grandmother did it, and it makes the pasta taste like hers. © orangewaterbuttle21 / Reddit
• Ground coriander. It goes in almost anything savory. I usually use around a tablespoon, but start slow if you want. It just adds the extra flavor that most savory dishes need. Gravy, chicken noodle soup/chicken and dumplings, cheddar broccoli soup, casseroles, etc. © JigglyPumpkin / Reddit
• Add instant coffee or dark chocolate to any heavy tomato-based dishes — anything from a casserole to a Bolognese, it will deepen the flavor. © Unknown author / Reddit
• The one thing I learned from my mom is to add a pinch of sugar to unlikely foods, such as spicy dishes. It calms the hot ever so gently. © Pamela Reed / Quora

• I put nutmeg in everything. Something about its deep, earthy flavor rounds out anything perfectly. I use it in savory dishes like sauce, salad dressings, casseroles of any kind. Not a lot, mind you, but a sprinkle or a pinch or a dash goes a long way. © Nancy Koziol / Quora
• Adding a dash of pickled beetroot to any tomato based dish (I’m talking ragu, Bolognese, etc.) makes it a zillion times better. © lemmylive19 / Reddit
• The flavor of sauces for pork, chicken and fish can be livened up by adding any fruit or berries. Mango, raspberries, pineapple, blackberries, cherries, papaya, plums — anything will do the trick. © Albert Cornelius Doyle / Quora
• Always roast nuts before you use them in a recipe. © manicmidwestern / Reddit

To make the side dishes tastier and more appetising

• Unless you have good reason to be wary of bits of rock, or debris, or whatever in your rice... don’t rinse it. Toast it. Basically get the broth/water up to a simmer in a saucepan, put a little oil/butter in a frying pan and toast the raw rice in it until it turns opaque, then put it in the liquid. It prevents clumping much better than rinsing (while taking less time), enhances the flavor, and makes sure the rice doesn’t lower the broth’s temperature when you put it in. © Unknown author / Reddit
• I add 2 or 3 crushed garlic cloves to my boiling, salted water for pasta. The cooked pasta will have a slight garlic flavor when done. © 210Angler / Reddit
• It is better not to cut potatoes for mashed potatoes into small pieces before boiling. This way they will lose some of the starch and pectin, absorb excess water and eventually become more watery. And after boiling, it’s advisable to drain off all the water and dry the potatoes a little before adding butter, cream or milk: dry potatoes will absorb both better.

For delicious egg dishes

• Add a pinch of salt to eggs before you scramble them, let sit 10 minutes, then scramble as normal. The best fluffy eggs you’ve ever had. © ackillesBAC / Reddit
• When cooking any type of eggs, using cumin and Greek seasoning brings some hella good flavor. © Tarertotz / Reddit
• Kill the heat 2–3 minutes early when cooking your eggs (scrambled, over easy, etc.) and let the residual heat finish them in the pan. Eggs are like avocados. The window of perfection is tiny. © GhostofEdgarAllanPoe / Reddit
• There is this simple Chinese eggs and tomatoes recipe. I was taught by a Chinese friend to make this. Basically, you just stir-fried tomatoes with a bit of soy sauce and let it cooked until soft. Add scrambled egg, mix, and garnish with spring onion. They are great with rice. © Brigita Ma / Quora

To make desserts taste better

• Add a little bit of coffee grounds or coffee itself to all chocolate cakes / pies / cookies, etc. Espresso and instant coffee work too. It adds a rich undertone, and it will make a box chocolate cake taste much richer and more homemade. Folks always marvel at my chocolate cakes. © beachblanketparty / Reddit
• My favorite “secret ingredient” for cakes, muffins and cupcakes is non-fat vanilla yogurt. It adds moisture to cakes and everything else and makes for a softer, lighter texture. © Donna Capalbo / Quora
• Adding salt to hot chocolate. It doesn’t make it salty at all, but it makes it somehow more chocolatey. Everyone always says my hot chocolate is the best, but I just use prepackaged with milk and a dash of salt! © Unknown author / Reddit
• When I make apple pie, I always add a pinch of salt to the filling. Salt brings out the sweetness of the apples. And I add a tablespoon of sugar to the pie crust along with the other dry ingredients to make it brown better. © Judy Levy Pordes / Quora

And here are a few family recipes you might want to try out.