Master

Spatulas are great for anything that needs to be flipped or scraped, like eggs and pancakes. For everything else, tongs are the way to go. They’re much more nimble and less awkward to use, and you’ll find far fewer things jumping from your pan onto the floor. Be careful though, if you have Teflon cookware, be sure to use tongs with nylon tips. 

Peeling and pressing garlic is a huge waste of time. To use a clove of garlic, set it on a cutting board and smash it with the flat side of a big knife. The skin will come right off, and you can mince it real quick right there in about 10 seconds. 

Keep a separate cutting board for things you don’t want flavored with garlic and onion simply put. It's always wise to keep a separate board for when you're cutting onions or garlic, as these two are known to flavor other foods.

Herbs that are supposed to be green should be purchased fresh, not drydon’t get too lazy with your herbs. While we all know it's easy to purchase dry, the fresh ones are so much more flavorful and easy to grow too. So give it a go!

Spices go off quickly, and when their color starts to dull they’ve lost a lot of their flavor. There are several dried spices that are invaluable in the kitchen (cinnamon, cloves, curry powder, cumin, coriander, chili pepper, etc.), but you should purchase them as you need them, and in small quantities unless you use them frequently.

Overcooked vegetables are mushy and flavorless, overcooked meat is tough and chalky, overcooked grains are soggy and fall apart. In other words, overcooked food is bad food. Learn the art of taking food off the heat just before it is done, and let it finish cooking with its internal temperature. You can always cook it more, but you can never cook it less.

If it tastes OK but not great, it probably needs salt—and maybe some vinegar or olive oil Sometimes all your dish needs is a little more salt (but don't go crazy). However, if you think you’ve added enough salt but something is still off, try a small splash of vinegar or lemon (any acid) to brighten the flavor. If the food is dry or sticky, try adding a touch of olive oil. These three things can fix almost any lackluster meal.

For most everyday cooking, milder onions will enhance your dish and give it more nuance. Big, strong onions certainly have their place in cooking (soups, roasts, etc.), but most kitchen experiments will be improved by more subtle onion flavor.

Refrigerators dull the taste of most produces, so if you bought something that doesn’t need to go in there leaves it out. Most fruits including apples, oranges, pears and bananas don’t belong in the refrigerator unless you’re not planning on eating them soon. Also, don’t refrigerate tomatoes, avocados or peppers either. Very hot climates are an exception, however.

To get rid fruit stains on your fingers, rub them with a fresh, peeled potato or white vinegar.

Avoid putting citrus fruits or tomatoes in the fridge, the low temperatures take away the aroma and flavor of these fruits.

If your milk fresh for longer and stop it from going off, try adding a pinch of salt to the bottle when you first open it.

To clean an electric kettle with calcium buildup on the heating element, boil a mixture of half white vinegar and half water, then empty.

When storing Tupperware, throw in a pinch of salt to keep them from getting stinky.

When making a soup, sauce, or casserole that ends up too fatty or greasy, drop in an ice cube. The ice will attract the fat, which you can then scoop out.

If you have some leftover wine, freeze it in ice cube trays for easy addition to soups and sauces in the future.

After boiling pasta or potatoes, cool the water and use it to water your house plants, the water contains nutrients that your plants will love.

If you aren’t sure how fresh your eggs are, place them in about 10cm of water. Eggs that stay on the bottom are fresh. If only one end tips up, the egg is less fresh and should be used soon. If it floats, it’s past the fresh stage.

Keep lettuce fresh in the fridge by wrapping it in a clean, dry paper towel and storing lettuce and paper towel in a sealed bag in the fridge.

If you over-salt a pot of soup, just drop in a peeled potato, the potato will absorb the excess salt.

If your loaf of bread is starting to go stale, just put a piece of fresh celery in the bag and close it back up.

For burnt rice, place a piece of white bread on top of the rice for 5-10 minutes to draw out the burned flavor.

Don’t store your bananas in a bunch or in a fruit bowl with other fruits. Separate your bananas and place each in a different location. Bananas release gases which cause fruits (including other bananas) to ripen quickly. Separating them will keep them fresh longer.