25 Food Hacks that Might Change Your Life

Well, today we’ve got a whole list of little things. And the best part is, they all pertain to food. These hacks won’t turn you into some culinary wizard capable of whipping up gourmet meals in ten minutes or anything like that, but they will make little everyday tasks simpler, faster, easier, safer, tastier and/or awesomer.

Also, they might just help you impress a special lady.

So check them out. I dare say that even if you fancy yourself an expert in the kitchen, you might learn at least one new food hack.

25. Perfect Microwave Popcorn

Making popcorn on the stovetop is too messy and time-consuming, and microwave popcorn (a) is more expensive and (b) leaves so many un-popped kernels. So here’s the solution: just put a quarter cup of kernels in a microwave safe bowl, cover it with a microwave safe plate, and zap it for 2:45. Then take it out, remove the un-popped kernels, and run them through again.

The result? Perfect popcorn with no waste.

Eat it, Orville Redenbacher.

24. Avoiding Citrus Spray

Who likes being squirted in the eye with lime juice when making margaritas? Nobody, that’s who.

23. A Cup of Water in the Microwave Saves Pastries

Want to reheat a muffin, biscuit, croissant, or other pastry? Just pop it in the microwave on a paper towel along with a bowl of water. The water will evaporat, putting moisture into the air. And with that moisture in the air, the moisture in the pastry won’t have anywhere to go, thus preventing from drying out.

It works on bread, too.

22. Don't Scoop, Slice

If your ice cream is too hard, don’t wait for it to soften or go through any other silly procedure to soften the treat. Just cut that bad boy up with a knife and serve. It may not look quite as pretty as a rounded scoop, but who cares? It’ll taste the same.

21. Roast that Turkey Upside Down

This video tells you everything you need to know about roasting a turkey (or chicken), but the most important part is the upside-down thing. Who knew?

20. The Solution for a Broken Cork

Many wineries have moved to plastic corks or even—gasp!—twist off caps these days, but there are still wines that have the old fashioned corks made out of…well, cork. And if you happen to botch things up with opening such a bottle getting bits of cork in the wine, just put a piece of cheese clothe over the bottle (or wine glass) when you pour to strain it out.

In fact, if you’re having a lady acquaintance over for dinner, crumble the cork on purpose and then do this. She’ll be impressed with your wine skills.

19. Make Perfect Hardboiled Eggs...in the Oven

You can only make so many hardboiled eggs at a time with the traditional stovetop method. If you try to put too many in the pot they will break. So if you want to make a huge batch, do this: load eggs into a muffin pan and bake for 25-30 minutes at 325 degrees. Then take them out, let them stand for 5 minutes, and place them into cold water for about a half hour, or until their cooled all the way through.

Boom—perfect hardboiled eggs.

18. The Perfect Bagel Tote

Don’t just throw out that old CD spindle. Give it a thorough wash and then use is as a bagel tote. The spindle part will keep that bagel from moving around, and the cover will keep it from getting squashed in your bag.

Also, your co-workers will be like, dude, you’re a freaking genius.

17. More Ketchup, Fewer Trees

Fit more ketchup into those little condiment cups at the fast food joint by simply pulling them out a bit. This will also save trees which, as you will explain to the girl you are with, is very important to you.

16. How to Slice a Bunch of Cherry Tomatoes

To be honest with you, I rarely have to slice a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes. But I have had to do it, and this is a cool trick: just place the tomatoes between two lids and gently hold them down. Then take your knife and slice.

That’ll save you at least 10 minutes. So you’re welcome.

15. Use Frozen Grapes to Chill Wine

Big wine snobs will guffaw contemptuously at this one before giving a lecture on viniculture, but the rest of us can appreciate how it could be useful when your lady wants a glass of white wine and you don’t have any chilled.

14. Muffin Pan = Perfect Condiment Tray

Whoever thought of this first is a genius. Thank you.

13. Wooden Spoon + Boiling Pot = No Mess

Don’t you hate how the water boils over when you’re cooking a pot of spaghetti? Well here’s the solution: simply lay a wooden spoon across the top of the pot like so. The spoon will break the bubbles and reduce the foam so that there is little or no spillage.

And yes, you can do it with a plastic or metal spoon…but plastic melts and metal gets hot, so don’t.

12. Cut Cake with Dental Floss

Some cakes and pastries are so soft and delicate that using a regular knife to cut them will just mangle the tasty treat. So instead, use a laser. Or if you don’t have a laser, just use dental floss—but the unflavored kind, of course…unless you like minty cheesecake.

11. Pit Cherries with a Chopstick

Cherries are one of my favorite fruits, and I’d love to grab a couple at a time and pop them in my mouth. But of course I don’t on account of the pits.

Solution: use a chopstick to poke through the cherry and push the pit out.

Result: poppable cherries.

10. Easy Homemade Ice Cream

Ice cream is impossible to make at home without an ice cream maker, and those can cost a lot of money.

But wait! It turns out it’s not impossible. Some genius over at seriouseats.com discovered a method for making insanely delicious homemade ice cream that requires only an ice tray and a food processor—an appliance much more versatile than an ice cream maker. I won’t go into all the scientific details, but basically you freeze a batch of ice cream mix in an ice tray, then puree the cubes in a food processor to smooth them into rich ice cream.

Now please excuse me while I go make a batch of ice cream

9. French Toast While You Sleep

Who wouldn’t want to wake up to the smell of French toast, right? Well, it’s possible without having to sleep over at your mom and dad’s house. You can make perfect fluffy french toast in a slow cooker. Just take the same recipe you’d use for traditional french toast, then place the dipped piece of bread in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours. It’s that easy.

I think I’ll do this tonight…and put the slow cooker in my bedroom.

8. Peeling Garlic Doesn't Have to Suck

Yes, that just happened. And if you want to make the bowl-shaking method work even better, microwave the garlic for 15-20 seconds first.

Now you have no excuse for using powdered garlic instead of the fresh stuff.

7. Make Pizza in a Skillet

I’m not joking. This is serious. Making a pizza in an oven is kind of a pain, so here’s a way to do it all on your stove top.

Throw the dough in a medium skillet and cook the first side a bit, then flip it and do the other side. After that, remove it from the skillet and top it with all your favorites. Then place it back in the skillet with the heat reduced, cover, and let it sit until it’s cooked.

Ridiculously easy pizza.

6. How to Make Cold Butter Spreadable

Butter is rock hard just out of the fridge, so how the hell are you supposed to spread it on your toast? Well, here’s one solution: grate the hard butter onto your toast with a cheese grater. The small ropes of butter will melt much faster on hot toast.

This is also a great idea for when you want to melt a whole stick of butter to put on, say, popcorn that you just cooked perfectly in your microwave.

5. How to Fix the Floating Straw

I don’t know many guys who use a straw to drink soda from the can, but I know a lot of guys who know girls who do, and this trick may impress those guys who want to impress those girls.

To keep the straw from bouncing out of the soda can, put it through the tab and then pinch it gently to the side. That’s it.

See, I told you this list might just change your life.

4. Waffle Iron + Cinnamon Roll Dough = Awesome

You don’t need an explanation. Just look at that picture. It’s glorious.

I don’t have a waffle iron, but I’m going to buy one just to do this every day for the rest of my life.

3. Use White Bread for Dumpling Wrappers

If your not into cooking, you might be thinking, yeah, “but I never make dumplings.” But to that I reply, “don’t think of them as dumplings. Think of them as homemade pizza rolls.”

Now you’re on board, aren’t you?

Anyway, this one is actually the suggestion of a professional chef, so you know it’s good. Just flatten white sandwich bread with a rolling pin and cut off the crust to create easy dumpling wrappers.

2. Chip Bag Bowl

Now this is a life-altering food hack. And in case you have trouble with the picture instructions, here’s a video, too:

1. Cook a Steak in a Beer Cooler

There’s this fancy way of cooking meats with a fancy French name that caterers use. It’s called “sous-vide,” and what you do is seal a cut of meat in an air-tight plastic bag and submerge it in water that is the exact temperature you want the meat to be in the end. When the meat has reached that temp, you then take it out and just brown it a bit, then serve.

Caterers use this method because you can keep the meat at the temperature for a long time without it ever getting overcooked—helpful when you need to serve 50 steaks at the exact same time. Unfortunately, the sous-vide machines that keep the water at the exact temp cost north of $400, so it’s not a very good investment for your home kitchen.

Luckily you can cook a steak the exact same way with a beer cooler. You see, while coolers are designed to keep cold things cold, they are also capable of keeping hot things hot. So all you have to do is heat water to about 2 degrees higher than you want a steak to be (so, about 127 degrees), put it in the cooler, seal your steak in a bag with a meat thermometer in it, and submerge. In about 45 minutes you’ll have a perfectly cooked steak. Then you can just toss it in a pan and brown it and eat.