1. Use cooking spray to make less of a mess
When measuring out super sticky ingredients, coat your measuring cup with a butter- or oil-based cooking spray first. It ensures the sticky substance will slide right out and prevent you from having to scrub at your cups forever afterward.
2. Use that same small strainer for eggs
That same strainer can be used to make perfectly shaped poached eggs. How? Crack the eggs into the strainer over the sink and swirl them around gently to remove the excess watery white. What’s left will be a tight, egg-shaped egg that poaches up clean. You can use the same trick to make picture-perfect, billboard glamour-shot-ready fried eggs. Check out the video above for more details.
3. Freeze liquids in useable portions!
Freezing wine in ice cube trays and stores them in the freezer, ready to be pulled out one at a time and added to pan sauces and stews, saving you from having to open a whole bottle every time a recipe calls for some wine.
Similarly, if you make yourself a large batch of stock, freeze it in convenient portion sizes in the freezer—ice cube trays and half-pint deli containers are great for this—then transfer them to a plastic freezer bag to be pulled out an used whenever you need fresh stock.
4. Heat a dish towel in the microwave to get rid of fish smell
Trust us: If you put some dish soap on your dish rag, heat the rag itself for a few minutes, leave the rag in the microwave for about half an hour, return to the rag, and wipe the walls of the microwave down, you will be free of that fishy microwave smell that’s been plaguing you since, well, the last time you microwaved fish.
5. Slice avocados in their skins
To slice avocados for salads or guacamole, split them in half, remove the pit by whacking it with the heel of your knife and twisting it out, then slice it directly in the skin using the tip of a paring knife or chef’s knife. When you then scoop it out with a spoon, you’ll have slices ready to go, with less mess than trying to fiddle with slippery peeled avocado a cutting board.
6. Partially freeze meat before cutting
Slicing meat to grind or cook in a stir-fry can be tricky even with a sharp knife. To make it easier, place the meat in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to stiffen it up.
7. Peel ginger with a spoon
Ginger can be tricky to peel with all its bumps and irregularities. Rather than using a paring knife or vegetable peeler, reach for the spoon. Scrape it against the skin and it’ll come right off, following every contour and minimizing waste.
8. Run your potatoes through the dishwasher
Seriously, it’s a foolproof way of cleaning your dirty vegetables when hand-washing won’t suffice. Make sure there’s no soap in the machine, of course, and a simple rinsing cycle will do the trick.
9. Prevent bubbling over with a wooden spoon
If any of your pots are boiling over, quickly place a wooden spoon across the rim—that’ll settle the frothy bubbles and prevent more over-boiling.
10. Make scrambled eggs in the microwave
Grab a mug and spritz it with nonstick spray. Crack a couple eggs inside. Top with a splash of milk or water, sprinkle with some salt and pepper, then stir with a fork to combine. Microwave at 30-second intervals, stirring after each, for a total of 90 seconds and a 12-grams-of-protein-strong breakfast is served!