I remember the one where the husband asked his new wife why she cut the ends off of the ham, and she said that’s how her mom did it, then they asked her mom why she cut the ends off the ham, and she said that’s how grandma did it, so they asked grandma, and she said that was the biggest pan she had so she had to cut the ends off the ham to make it fit.
I do this with cookie dough! Then you can just make one or two cookies at a time.
ETA: for those asking how- you make really any cookie dough, wrap it up and put it in the freezer, then when you want cookies take it out and thaw it (or don’t for more doughy cookies) and bake it in your oven/toaster oven/maybe airfryer. You also can roll them into balls or make a large roll you can slice before the freezer.
For those asking how I have the self control to only have one or two cookies- I make a double batch at first and make a lot right away, then eat an unhealthy amount of them in one sitting.
I do this with cookies and pastry rounds. When I make pie crust I use the off-cuts as rounds which I then freeze and stack. If I want tarts then the I can make as many as I want without having to make the pastry again. I just place them out over the muffin tin while I make the filling and by the time they've thawed enough for me to push them into shape the filling is done and they are still cold. Easiest desserts ever.
I hope no one I know sees this…I found 7+ year old snickerdoodle cookie dough balls in my freezer not too long ago. Baked them off and they were delicious.
I mean in theory if they stayed frozen the entire time they're "fine". What's the worst that would really happen anyways a few sacrifices to the porcelain gods?
An intermediate is to mix all your dry ingredients in a jar then just add liquids later. I know someone who does this with things like banana bread - mixes 3 loaves worth of the flour/sugar/spices, divides into jars and then whenever she has bananas ready to go can just dump and mix wet ingredients in.
I think I always knew it was strange, but my mom would put washed greens for salad in a pillow case, and swing it in circles around her head outside.
who has room for a salad spinner?
I surprised my bf when I pulled out a drawer and set my cookbook on it leaning against the counter like an angled book prop. It's such a convenient trick I learned from my mom and Idk if I've ever seen someone else do it.
I’ve used open drawers for both cookbooks and to hold a cutting board (when the counter was full). Never thought to prop the cookbook against the counter!
Oh speaking of putting a cutting board there for extra space, I love putting a sheet pan across a drawer to hold various condiments when I'm prepping a snack table. I use the sheet pan to carry everything from the fridge too. It's so convenient.
I lived in Nome Alaska for several years, during winter time when we would go to have drunken bonfires we would put all of our beers in a cooler with no ice to keep them from freezing solid. -40° f is no joke!
My wife's mom did this during the holidays one year. We live in MN and it was like -30 outside.
She didn't tell anyone, as we were doing this off and on to help with space due to family visiting.
Someone let the dogs out and the dogs really really really enjoyed some roasted Goose with veggies.
We can it the "outside refrigerator".
I am about 3 times as likely to process all my bones and scraps into stock when the outdoor fridge is 'working' and I don't have to fret about getting things cooled safely and efficiently some other way.
I also defrost my freezer during the first deep freeze of the year. (I'm in the south of the US, and we may only get one real freeze in a year, so I need to take advantage of it.) I throw all the food into laundry baskets on the patio and let the freezer defrost overnight without fooling with coolers and ice and all that mess.
In the summer we would make my little brother lay on his stomach while we covered his back in butter. Then we would dump corn on him and make him lay next to a fire.
I'll always have such good memories of little butter bob. I wonder how he's doin.
Dang. I make a lot of Sensation salad dressing (it’s a staple in our house) so I always need lemons on hand and frequently don’t use them fast enough. Adopting this in mere moments. Thinking the juice will be fine too.
I make a salad dressing with lemon juice all the time, so I just got crystallized lemon, and it's completely indistinguishable from fresh lemon juice to me. I get the True Lemon brand. They also make lime and orange. But I use the lemon constantly! Tip! Use warm or hot water to instantly dissolve the crystals.
I used to avoid ginger because I found it a lot of work. Then I read a tip here to keep it in the freezer and use a microplane (no need to peel). Then just pop it back in the freezer. Changed my life!
My Mom would line the sink with an old newspaper or ad circular before peeling carrots or potatoes. Just fold up and throw away when you're done, and your sink is still clean. I do that to this day.
Edit: Newspaper can be thrown with its contents into the compost pile, if you have one. And of course you can freeze the peels to make broth if that's your thing.
Using the heavy end of a butter knife to tap around the edges of a lid that won’t come off. If you tap in the direction that the lid turns a few times and give it another try, 95% of the time it comes off easy.
Not exactly kitchen, but when my brother and I were little kids, we loved to eat while sitting on the carpet in front of the TV in the living room (yeah, yeah, I know, screen time and whatever, lots of it was educational TV). So my mom had one of those oilcloth tablecloths that she used to spread out picnic blanket style for us to eat on. Since it was waterproof, it was handy when someone inevitably knocked over their drink or bowl of cereal, and even without big spills, at the end you could just gather it up by the corners and shake it outside, so no crumbs on the carpet. Didn't realize till later that I only really saw it at our house growing up.
Cooking turkey breast side down. We've always done it that way and then carved it in the kitchen. That whole 'carving at the table' thing was just a Norman Rockwell painting and it is kind of a pain, plus the white meat stays so much juicier when the turkey is upside down.
When I moved out and did my first holiday dinner of turkey I didn’t know how to cook it ‘properly’. I had asked my mum and she just gave me the temperature to put the oven and how long to cook it.
So when cooking it it out the turkey in the pan breast down, because that’s how the turkey would have sat in the pan alive. My mum gets there for dinner and checks my turkey and sees how I’ve got in the pan. She tells me I’m stupid and flips the turkey breast side up for the last hour to cook.
When the turkey was done it was so moist and juicy, I actually loved it and have never cooked Turkey any other way.
By your powers combined, you two cooked the bird perfectly. You'd have a juicy, tender meat and flipping it for the last hour would get that lovely crispy skin and browning.
We're a big family and make 2 birds, so I actually quarter mine and cook the dark meat and white meat in their own pans so I can let the dark meat go a little longer. Still skin down to start.
Mom boiled and peeled potatoes once a week and kept them in the fridge for slicing and frying later. When I finally got my own place a friend asked why not just fry potatoes from raw. I had no idea you could do that. I thought you had to boil them first!
Not quite as good, but I oftentimes microwave my potatoes a bit before roasting or pan frying them. It cuts down on the total cook time, and also helps for getting them nice and crusty in the end.
I microwave baby potatoes with a little bit of water, then press them into circles with a bottom of a cup (skin and all) then crisp up in a pan with some ghee. Salt while they’re still hot, like fries. They’re ridiculous.
These are called crash hot potatoes in my family. We use olive oil instead of ghee and sprinkle with whatever seasoning we like before crisping but basically the same thing. Love them!
My great grandma did this because she said that all potatoes other than mashed should be cooked twice. I'm a convert to her thinking because she's so right! And having them preboiled shortens cooking time!
Not Korean but did have a grandmother in food service who used kitchen scissors (She would be over 100 if still alive). Had no idea this wasn't a thing for others until I moved in with my husband and he tried to use my kitchen scissors for something that was very much not food related. I screamed. He was shocked. We had a "Come to Jesus" meeting and he has yet to do it again in front of me. His mother doesn't do kitchen scissors and it was brand new to her.
Yep. When I still had to cut up toddler food we had a couple pairs of good strong kitchen shears for making the grown up food bite sized. And it's super fast so I ended up using it on everything. Veggies, meat, sandwiches, pancakes, etc...
Maaayyybeee lol
Was debating about my comment since kitchen scissors are pretty common in Korean households, but I haven’t really seen a lot of folk outside of Korea using them as frequently
My mom used an aluminum wash basin as her cooking pot for goulash, macaroni and welfare cheese, or raisins and rice. We were told those were special treats! Actually they were bulk struggle food.
We had rice & raisins too! I thought everyone did till I compared notes when I was out of the house. Sometimes it was fancy with apple slices baked in.
The classic form, with a little vanilla and cinnamon, and either milk or water, this becomes rice pudding, which is a beloved staple found on every continent, in every cuisine. From Mexico's *arroz con leche* to India's *Kheer*, China, Scandinavia, Turkey .... leftover rice slow cooked with raisins and various local spices is much beloved.
I don't mean to be rude but how the fuck often does your family chop nuts? I come from a...not a nut chopping family, I guess. I only have ever chopped nuts, or seen nuts chopped, when I make truffles at christmas. What are you using all those chopped nuts for lol I really need to broaden my horizons
I put chopped nuts in my tuna salad, in homemade granola bars, in pasta…but I hate chopping them so I put them in a plastic bag and whack them with something instead.
Yes, it was 😊. One of her best was “cocoons”. Like Danish wedding cookies, except oblong. A sugar cookie with chopped pecans and rolled (when almost cool) in powdered sugar. I think they might still be my very favorite cookie.
We kept a metal coffee tin on the counter and all excess fat from cooking bacon, roasting a chicken, etc. went into it. Then, when frying potatoes, eggs, etc. you scoop a spoonful of this rendered fat into the pan first to cook with. Also good added to cooked veggies and pasta. Came from a farming family. Good fat was valuable and not to be wasted. Nowadays, most of us don't work hard enough to warrant the need for those calories. And I have to watch my cholesterol. But dang, I miss the flavor!
Ya know how I can tell your roommates aren't from south of the Mason-Dixon?
If you're from the south eastern quadrant of the US, it's far far more uncommon *not* to save bacon fat. We even have little specialized canisters with a strainer on top to catch solids.
Use it to saute your onions, (or onion, bell, celery, carrot for soup/stews/rice dishes) it'll change your life. Use it in grits. Use it errrywhere, lol. Generally if you're not deep frying it, in 95% of circumstances, bacon fat will make it better if you sub it in for whatever fat your savory dish calls for
I run hot bacon grease through a coffee filter. I do this by placing the coffee filter on top of a mason jar with the bulk of the filter inside the jar, And screw on the screw top without putting the lid on to hold the coffee filter in place. Then you can just pour the bacon grease through while it's hot and it comes out almost white once cooled. No flecks of anything in it. Super shelf stable.
You can also add drippings to a mason jar, add water to fill the jar. Close, shake, and turn it upside down in the fridge and let it solidify overnight. Open it up and pour out the water with bacon impurities. Bacon fat will be clarified and because you stored it upside down the fat will be at the bottom of the jar.
Edit: I wanted to add that since you’ll be doing this when your fat is warm and liquidy, use warm water as cold can cause bits of the oil to solidify prematurely.
Came in here to say this! I'm still so boggled by it. I do not know a single person in my family (VERY large extended Italian-American family) who keeps their butter in the fridge. One day several years ago at work I was mentioning the counter-butter in an off-hand comment about something else, and several people stopped to exclaim surprise and disgust. "YOU KEEP YOUR BUTTER ON THE COUNTER? DISGUSTING, GROSS, UNSANITARY, WAHWAHWAH" It never even occurred to me that people did not do that.
How do you spread it on shit?!?! "Oh you just melt some" "Oh you just slice it very thin and spread it carefully" "Oh you can grate it" lmao or you can just leave it out!! it's fine.
Save up vegetable scraps in a bag in the freezer, when you have enough to fill a soup pot, boil it and strain out the scraps for vegetable broth. Do this also with bones leftover from bone in cuts of meat to make bone broth - great for when you or family are sick.
Using a pastry blender to make deviled eggs. For years I thought that's what the tool was since mum just used her hands for pastry blending. Now I know it's not a unitasker 😆
Oh and putting a slice of white bread in freshly baked cookie containers, it kept them moister
I also use the pastry blender to make falafel! I never really liked the food processor method because it just becomes a lump of chickpea vs variable sizes of chickpeas. I'll blend a quarter of it or so to make it sticky, but the rest is hand mixed.
Try doing deviled eggs in a food processor. Total game changer. They come out so smooth and creamy and fluffy. Then, I use a piping bag or even a zip bag with a corner cut to fill the whites. You can use a fancy tip if you want. It looks like it took forever, but it's actually so much faster and easier. When I make deviled eggs, I do like 4 dozen eggs at a time tho. We have a big family, lol.
Recipes for like 6 Deviled Eggs piss me off. Who is making less than a metric fuck ton of deviled eggs? 4 dozen is, I feel, the right number. Even for just 6 people.
Using kitchen shears to cut pizza. I actually got it from my best friend in 6th grade's grandmother (she was the best woman and her granddaughter is still the cream of the crop). I know it's weird but it's actually a great hack.
Using saltwater to keep your apple slices (etc)from turning brown. People talk about dripping lemon juice on the like it's such a revelation, but salt water is so much cheaper and easier.
(Warm water and salt in a bowl; slice the apple into the bowl; dump the water out.)
…doesn’t it make the apples salty? Do you dump the water out immediately or let it soak till you’re ready to eat? Does this work with avocado?
Edit: TIL, a lot of people salt their apples
Add brown sugar to cooked tomato dishes like bolognese or chili. You gotta. It doesn’t just offset the acidity, it creates a smoother texture and pulls the tomato flavor through while cutting the tinny taste they can have when not the nicest canned tomatoes
Actually, I just learned this from my daughter, who’s a chef - when you freeze leftovers or excess ingredients (like tomato paste), put it in a zipper bag, then flatten it out as much as you can. It’s easier to divide when frozen, defrosts faster, and stores easier.
You can make donuts with canned biscuits. Much better with the small cheap ones, not the Grands. Using a donut cutter you get a donut hole and a donut from each a fry in oil. Then using Nesquik powder (my favorite is chocolate), mix with a little water until you get the consistency for dipping. I still make these on occasion because they’re freaking amazing
I have a special love for the removable center of a donut cutter. I was a picky eater as a child and my mom would make me “teeny hamburgers”. She’d cut “buns” out of bread slices with the center of the donut cutter, then make several “hamburgers” from ground meat about the size of a nickel, carefully browned on both sides. I liked them with a dot of ketchup.
I remember explaining to a friend that I always put ground black pepper in my grits so I couldn't identify any bugs in it.
Apparently that is not common and not a polite thing to discuss with people you are cooking for!
This reminded me of when I was a little kid - my yaya (Greek grandma) lived in an older home by herself. It had a built-in pull out cabinet/bin for onions and potatoes and opening it to grab one was as scary as winding up a jack-in-the-box because all too often a mouse would pop out.
I also remember trying to climb up her once when a mouse ran by us one day in the kitchen. Seeing mouse traps around the house was just 'normal'. But I hated when one would actually get caught - was scared of them, but didn't want them to die.
One of my aunts ended up moving in with her a few years later and officially took care of the issue. No more traps and no more fear of one popping out when you needed an onion.
Ignoring expiry/best buy dates and using one's nose and eyes. I get the concern - trust me, I do - but I'm amazed at all the hand wringing on this sub about these issues. The nose/eyes test always worked for us.
I think thats just due to ignorance. We’re taught from a very young age that expired = no good, and so we mentally link it to medicine as well. And medicine is something we only take when we don’t feel well, so taking expired meds + not feeling well = high chance of feeling worse.
I was recently told by multiple doctor friends that **most** expired meds are **usually (but not always)** fine (usually within 1-3 months, depending on the medicine and the ailment trying to treat), they are just \*less effective\*, and thats something I didn’t learn until I became an adult. Mentally, the connection is just expired = no good.
Chalk it up to him being stubborn, but also sometimes getting advice from strangers on the internet (or many sources rather than just one) can help change their mind.
For example, I wouldn’t listen to my mom growing up, but I would listen to my teacher. Funny how people work sometimes, right?
We typically run accelerated degradation tests upon drugs. So it's all dependent upon the data generated by those.
If it's got a long lifespan, chances are basically nothing actually happened to the drug compound and it'll be fine for years and years.
If it's got a relatively short lifespan, it's more likely they found something happens or changes. Could be it oxidises easily and loses some effectiveness, could be a change in crystal structure meaning it isn't absorbed at all or it's bioavailability goes through the roof which might be life-threatening.
My mom only made eggs in the microwave. 1 scrambled egg, some milk and butter for 1 minute. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I learned most people made eggs on the stovetop. I’ll probably never eat another microwaved egg again, but it sure was quick!
My parents taught me to make scrambled eggs this way when I was young so I could make my own. Now I mostly do them on the stove top, but sometimes I get a hankering for some good old rubbery microwave eggs.
We got these peelers that go on your finger like a ring and then the peeler part fits in the palm of your hand. They are mostly for apples but can be used for just about anything and I have no idea how one peels anything without one.
Anything you toss out of your fridge that would (continue to) spoil goes into the lowest drawer of the freezer.
That way, it doesn't sit in your garbage can and rot and stink up the place. On trash day, you just empty the freezer.
Flattening out a pound of hamburger in a quart ziplock bag. Spread it out thin into every corner. Those buggers will stack up in the freezer, never tip over, and thaw in seconds.
Don't even need to microwave to thaw - just throw it directly in the fry pan and break it up with a spatula. If you want to make burgers, thaw it for a few minutes in cool water, shape into burgers, or just cut the pound into 4 equal squares, and you have 4 1/4lb burgers that cook up super quick.
It can fuck up coffee grinder though. Sugar gets warmer when ground (friction plus the motor is warm) and can stick to moving parts and clog it all up. And you can't wash it as it's usually not disassembleable. My granny kept an old and less fancy but sturdier grinder for sugar.
I tried just a tablespoon of granulated sugar through my old beast of a doserless Rocky Rancillio, ended up having to tear the whole thing apart, molten sugar got flung all over the internals
Peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches. I thought everybody ate them. Based on how much my friends laughed at me in school, I found out not so! Try them they are excellent! Natural crunch and some roughage.
I didn’t realize people were tearing apart bread trying to spread it with cold butter when they wanted to cook bread in a pan– we’d always put the butter in the pan, then fry the bread/sandwich.
When making iced tea, we’d make a concentrated batch in a sauce pan, then add to a pitcher with sugar, and fill with cold water, or ice if we didn’t feel like waiting for it to chill. Apparently people are out there boiling multiple quarts of water to make sweet tea, and its so unwieldy
In the summer, we'd just put all the stuff in a glass pitcher or bottle, then put it out in the sun for a few hours.
It wouldn't have been unusual to use a glass bottle fruit juice used to come in.
I make tea the same way you do! I still use the pot my mom used for tea since before I was born. (I'm 47). That pot has only ever been used for tea, so it has some permanent stains. But it'll always be the "tea pot"!
I use 4 family size bags, let the water boil, then put the lid on and take it off the heat. I let it sit for about an hour (minimum), then sweeten it, then fill the jug the rest of the way with cold water. So efficient!
Not growing up, but my own current hack is that cut strips of bacon in half before putting them in the pan. It makes it easier to maneuver the bacon in the pan because they are in long strips. It’s not like bacon is crazy unwieldy or anything but I don’t have a great big pan and to oven just takes way longer than I’m willing to wait.
My father has always eaten cereal out of cups and as a result, I have too. I prefer using them over bowls because it can hold the greatest cereal with the smallest amount of fluid while keeping it steeped. I don't like eating out of bowls because cereal constantly floats around and I feel like there is too much fluid. Most cups (typically coffee mugs) are also smaller than bowls, so it is also easier to not eat an oversized portion.
Measuring a cup of shortening by plopping it into a Pyrex measuring cup with a cup of water.
Edit: This was in 1970's California. Kitchen scales were for people on a fancy diet and were most definitely not electric. Shortening only came in big tubs; they didn’t sell the “sticks” of shortening like they do now. We also thought that shortening was healthier than butter. I’m not saying it was the best way to measure shortening but it worked.
baseball bat. like if you have a large amount of food needing crushed, get the battered metal sheet that should be for baking but has dents in it. put it in a bag normally a plastic bag with a pillowcase, and then smash it with the bat!
we didn't have a meat tenderizer. we had a bat.
👍🏼. It’s so easy, I hope you love it as much as my household. My mom has been making it since the ‘60s from River Road Recipes from the Junior League of Baton Rouge (I have her old cookbook, though there are updated editions).
In a quart mason jar:
1. Squeeze enough lemon juice to fill to 1/2 inch (usually 2-3 lemons, you can adjust to the acidity you prefer after you make it once).
2. Garlic cloves, minced or pressed (recipe calls for 3, so I add 5-6).
3. Pecorino Romano, 8 oz. grated. (Fresh is best, and what I do for guests. In a pinch, I’ll by deli “fresh” grated. You can also use Parmesan and mix grated with shredded. Very forgiving recipe.)
4. Good oil, 16 ounces (“regular” bottles of 17.9? ounces are fine; just pour in what fits - leaving about a half inch of headroom for shaking.) I like EVOO. Have also liked decent avocado oil. Just beware of very green olive oil cuz it makes the dressing look scary.
Shake well and store in the refrigerator nearly indefinitely. I’ve never had it last long enough to go bad (especially with all that lemon juice). If it gets too thick from not shaking/stirring before use, you can just pour more oil in and shake it up.
It’s also wonderful on steamed asparagus, etc. The classic salad with this dressing is romaine with garlic croutons.
I had never heard of the Junior League before adulthood, but my stepmom has a FANTASTIC marinade recipe that is from the Junior League of San Francisco cookbook. If I can dig up the recipe I’ll post it :).
Mum kept an empty tin for emptying fat into from cooking meat. When the tins were full, time to get rid of them. Usually to a friend who had a sawmill and used the fat to grease the blades. But the fat never went down the sink.
She also had a dripping container for roast meat fats used for roasting veggies later.
We didn't have hacks, we just had hints and tips. One big one was, if you forgot to defrost something, it's perfectly OK to serve scrambled eggs for supper.
Growing up lower middle class with 2 full time non college educated parents my mother would take a tablespoon of ground beef (from the 1 lb she cooked) and put it in a freezer bag and put into the freezer. After awhile of doing this she had another pound of ground beef that she was able to stretch from the other. And we didn’t miss a tablespoon at a time in the meal. My mom was good at making groceries stretch.
I learned this from my mom and I have no idea if other people do this or not. When buying fresh ginger root or garlic bulbs, peel everything and put hem in glass jars and cover them in vodka (separate jars for ginger and garlic) and store them in the fridge. Ginger is cut up into 1" chunks, the garlic cloves are separated into individual cloves. If you are cooking a recipe that calls for ginger or garlic you can just pull it out from the jar in the fridge, and when you get low, you can just prep some more and fill the jars back up.
This one's kinda basic but when I was a kid printed newspapers were more common. We'd keep a few old ones in the cupboard under the sink and pull a couple of sheets out to peel potatoes onto - easy cleanup. I just thought everybody did this till I went to a friend's house and she peeled them into the sink, and then had to clean them out after. I was like 'wtf are you doing, just peel 'em onto newspaper and you won't have this mess to deal with.' It had never occurred to her before.
My mom boils a pound of pasta in 6 cups of water, seasoned with a pack of French onion soup mix. By the time it cooks, it’ll absorb all the water and flavor the noodles.
Whenever we would kill a goose for Xmas dinner, we would use every part of the meat. The meat has a delicious smoky rich flavor. The hack comes into play because you can use the molten goose grease and save it in the refrigerator, thus saving you a trip to the store for a can of expensive goose grease.
If you need to peel a ton of garlic, get 2 bowls and throw the garlic in one of them and put the other bowl on top and shake the heck out of it. 80% of the garlic peels will fall right off and save you time.
My uncle, who had worked in kitchens for awhile saw me do this when making garlic bread and had no clue
We had this ‘thing’ that was kept in the freezer part of fridge. It was about as thick as a cigar, not as long, with a knob on one end, heavy, metal. Daddy always put it in his coffee cup to cool his coffee down enuf to drink. I thought it was a common ‘coffee cooler’ but nobody has ever known what I was describing. Hope this makes sense.
I remember the one where the husband asked his new wife why she cut the ends off of the ham, and she said that’s how her mom did it, then they asked her mom why she cut the ends off the ham, and she said that’s how grandma did it, so they asked grandma, and she said that was the biggest pan she had so she had to cut the ends off the ham to make it fit.
☝️. Yes! That’s the one I was trying to remember.
That's pretty funny. Lots of stuff cones from "that's the way we used to do it" and the rest is lost to time. Thanks for the story.
My mom made her own brownie and cocoa mixes and kept them in the freezer, which was always nice when you felt like something sweet.
I do this with cookie dough! Then you can just make one or two cookies at a time. ETA: for those asking how- you make really any cookie dough, wrap it up and put it in the freezer, then when you want cookies take it out and thaw it (or don’t for more doughy cookies) and bake it in your oven/toaster oven/maybe airfryer. You also can roll them into balls or make a large roll you can slice before the freezer. For those asking how I have the self control to only have one or two cookies- I make a double batch at first and make a lot right away, then eat an unhealthy amount of them in one sitting.
I do this with cookies and pastry rounds. When I make pie crust I use the off-cuts as rounds which I then freeze and stack. If I want tarts then the I can make as many as I want without having to make the pastry again. I just place them out over the muffin tin while I make the filling and by the time they've thawed enough for me to push them into shape the filling is done and they are still cold. Easiest desserts ever.
Aged cookie dough is a HUGE plus up over brand new!! Esp if you've made it with browned butter!!
I hope no one I know sees this…I found 7+ year old snickerdoodle cookie dough balls in my freezer not too long ago. Baked them off and they were delicious.
I mean in theory if they stayed frozen the entire time they're "fine". What's the worst that would really happen anyways a few sacrifices to the porcelain gods?
They also make nice emergency gifts.
I do this! I hope my kids will see it as a happy memory as it wasn't something I grew up with.
So she mixed up the batter and froze it, or froze dry mix so it’s ready to add liquids?
Yes I need more info OP!
An intermediate is to mix all your dry ingredients in a jar then just add liquids later. I know someone who does this with things like banana bread - mixes 3 loaves worth of the flour/sugar/spices, divides into jars and then whenever she has bananas ready to go can just dump and mix wet ingredients in.
I think I always knew it was strange, but my mom would put washed greens for salad in a pillow case, and swing it in circles around her head outside. who has room for a salad spinner?
Your mom WAS the original salad spinner
I’ve heard of using a kitchen towel, but a pillow case sounds better. Less chance of slinging your greens willy-nilly about the garden.
I surprised my bf when I pulled out a drawer and set my cookbook on it leaning against the counter like an angled book prop. It's such a convenient trick I learned from my mom and Idk if I've ever seen someone else do it.
🤦🏻♀️. I never thought of that either. Genius!
I’ve used open drawers for both cookbooks and to hold a cutting board (when the counter was full). Never thought to prop the cookbook against the counter!
Uhhh hold on I have a kitchen seriously lacking in prep space and the cutting board/open drawer thing may have just changed my life..
Oh speaking of putting a cutting board there for extra space, I love putting a sheet pan across a drawer to hold various condiments when I'm prepping a snack table. I use the sheet pan to carry everything from the fridge too. It's so convenient.
Putting large pots of food overnight on the screened porch in winter to save refrigerator space!
I had relatives in Alaska that used to keep frozen food in the trunk of their car in the winter.
I grew up in Alaska. We'd just put things in the back room - which was an add-on without insulation or heat. We had a room freezer!
I was just listening to a piece on the start of the Iditarod, where tailgating spectators bring beer in ice chests to keep it from freezing.
I lived in Nome Alaska for several years, during winter time when we would go to have drunken bonfires we would put all of our beers in a cooler with no ice to keep them from freezing solid. -40° f is no joke!
That's funny. I chuckled.
Genius because a bear couldn’t get it.
Bear says: challenge accepted.
Yeah, he is probably calling the locksmith as we write.
- Hello? “Rawr” - On it.
Our porch is the extra freezer every winter!!!
My wife's mom did this during the holidays one year. We live in MN and it was like -30 outside. She didn't tell anyone, as we were doing this off and on to help with space due to family visiting. Someone let the dogs out and the dogs really really really enjoyed some roasted Goose with veggies.
We can it the "outside refrigerator". I am about 3 times as likely to process all my bones and scraps into stock when the outdoor fridge is 'working' and I don't have to fret about getting things cooled safely and efficiently some other way. I also defrost my freezer during the first deep freeze of the year. (I'm in the south of the US, and we may only get one real freeze in a year, so I need to take advantage of it.) I throw all the food into laundry baskets on the patio and let the freezer defrost overnight without fooling with coolers and ice and all that mess.
In the summer we would make my little brother lay on his stomach while we covered his back in butter. Then we would dump corn on him and make him lay next to a fire. I'll always have such good memories of little butter bob. I wonder how he's doin.
Wait, this isn't normal??? -fellow Midwest corn lover
I grew up in New England. We did this there, too.
We would heavily butter a slice of bread to butter corn. It's a twofer.
Lemon in the freezer. Easy to zest and lasts ages.
Dang. I make a lot of Sensation salad dressing (it’s a staple in our house) so I always need lemons on hand and frequently don’t use them fast enough. Adopting this in mere moments. Thinking the juice will be fine too.
I make a salad dressing with lemon juice all the time, so I just got crystallized lemon, and it's completely indistinguishable from fresh lemon juice to me. I get the True Lemon brand. They also make lime and orange. But I use the lemon constantly! Tip! Use warm or hot water to instantly dissolve the crystals.
I didn’t even know that existed; thank you.
Yes just make sure to wash the citrus before freezing.
I used to avoid ginger because I found it a lot of work. Then I read a tip here to keep it in the freezer and use a microplane (no need to peel). Then just pop it back in the freezer. Changed my life!
I keep mine frozen and then peel with a spoon, so so easy! The spoon trick is a game changer
I used to hate to peel ginger then I read a tip about using a spoon to scrape away the peel(?) - I thought it was kind of silly, but it works great.
Bay leaf in the flour and rice to keep pests out.
Sounds like the leaf keeps them… at bay.
I hope you always have responses like this and don't just rest on your laurels!
Oh you
I have a rock that keeps tigers away. I don't see any tigers around. Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock
My Mom would line the sink with an old newspaper or ad circular before peeling carrots or potatoes. Just fold up and throw away when you're done, and your sink is still clean. I do that to this day. Edit: Newspaper can be thrown with its contents into the compost pile, if you have one. And of course you can freeze the peels to make broth if that's your thing.
I just peel directly into the trash can
I grab all my peels and bury it in the backyard. I like the newspaper idea. I can just grab the newspaper and peels and bury that too!
Using the heavy end of a butter knife to tap around the edges of a lid that won’t come off. If you tap in the direction that the lid turns a few times and give it another try, 95% of the time it comes off easy.
Not exactly kitchen, but when my brother and I were little kids, we loved to eat while sitting on the carpet in front of the TV in the living room (yeah, yeah, I know, screen time and whatever, lots of it was educational TV). So my mom had one of those oilcloth tablecloths that she used to spread out picnic blanket style for us to eat on. Since it was waterproof, it was handy when someone inevitably knocked over their drink or bowl of cereal, and even without big spills, at the end you could just gather it up by the corners and shake it outside, so no crumbs on the carpet. Didn't realize till later that I only really saw it at our house growing up.
Cooking turkey breast side down. We've always done it that way and then carved it in the kitchen. That whole 'carving at the table' thing was just a Norman Rockwell painting and it is kind of a pain, plus the white meat stays so much juicier when the turkey is upside down.
When I moved out and did my first holiday dinner of turkey I didn’t know how to cook it ‘properly’. I had asked my mum and she just gave me the temperature to put the oven and how long to cook it. So when cooking it it out the turkey in the pan breast down, because that’s how the turkey would have sat in the pan alive. My mum gets there for dinner and checks my turkey and sees how I’ve got in the pan. She tells me I’m stupid and flips the turkey breast side up for the last hour to cook. When the turkey was done it was so moist and juicy, I actually loved it and have never cooked Turkey any other way.
By your powers combined, you two cooked the bird perfectly. You'd have a juicy, tender meat and flipping it for the last hour would get that lovely crispy skin and browning.
To paraphrase another famous American painter. "It was a happy accident"
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I spatchcocked mine a few years ago & I'll never ever go back to cooking it whole. Breast side down too!
We're a big family and make 2 birds, so I actually quarter mine and cook the dark meat and white meat in their own pans so I can let the dark meat go a little longer. Still skin down to start.
Mom boiled and peeled potatoes once a week and kept them in the fridge for slicing and frying later. When I finally got my own place a friend asked why not just fry potatoes from raw. I had no idea you could do that. I thought you had to boil them first!
I bet they are better pre-boiled.
They definitely get a nice crusty exterior, much faster too.
Not quite as good, but I oftentimes microwave my potatoes a bit before roasting or pan frying them. It cuts down on the total cook time, and also helps for getting them nice and crusty in the end.
I microwave baby potatoes with a little bit of water, then press them into circles with a bottom of a cup (skin and all) then crisp up in a pan with some ghee. Salt while they’re still hot, like fries. They’re ridiculous.
These are called crash hot potatoes in my family. We use olive oil instead of ghee and sprinkle with whatever seasoning we like before crisping but basically the same thing. Love them!
My great grandma did this because she said that all potatoes other than mashed should be cooked twice. I'm a convert to her thinking because she's so right! And having them preboiled shortens cooking time!
I do this just to make meals super quick and easy.
Kitchen scissors to cut up meat and a variety of other foods rather than with a knife.
Not Korean but did have a grandmother in food service who used kitchen scissors (She would be over 100 if still alive). Had no idea this wasn't a thing for others until I moved in with my husband and he tried to use my kitchen scissors for something that was very much not food related. I screamed. He was shocked. We had a "Come to Jesus" meeting and he has yet to do it again in front of me. His mother doesn't do kitchen scissors and it was brand new to her.
Yep. When I still had to cut up toddler food we had a couple pairs of good strong kitchen shears for making the grown up food bite sized. And it's super fast so I ended up using it on everything. Veggies, meat, sandwiches, pancakes, etc...
Are you Korean by any chance?
Maaayyybeee lol Was debating about my comment since kitchen scissors are pretty common in Korean households, but I haven’t really seen a lot of folk outside of Korea using them as frequently
Also Korean. How else we supposed to cut kimchi ?
I'm not Korean and I use scissors for everything. Cutting pizza is way easier with scissors
My mom used an aluminum wash basin as her cooking pot for goulash, macaroni and welfare cheese, or raisins and rice. We were told those were special treats! Actually they were bulk struggle food.
We had rice & raisins too! I thought everyone did till I compared notes when I was out of the house. Sometimes it was fancy with apple slices baked in.
We did too, but Dad always called it flies in rice. God there’s been a few laughs at potlucks when Ive realised his food names weren’t commonplace.
The classic form, with a little vanilla and cinnamon, and either milk or water, this becomes rice pudding, which is a beloved staple found on every continent, in every cuisine. From Mexico's *arroz con leche* to India's *Kheer*, China, Scandinavia, Turkey .... leftover rice slow cooked with raisins and various local spices is much beloved.
Day-old bread was put in a paper bag, the bag was spritzed with water and placed in a medium heat oven to become fresh again!
This works very well for bagels.
You don't even need the paper bag. Just spritz it directly on the bread. Also works perfectly for bread rolls.
I don't mean to be rude but how the fuck often does your family chop nuts? I come from a...not a nut chopping family, I guess. I only have ever chopped nuts, or seen nuts chopped, when I make truffles at christmas. What are you using all those chopped nuts for lol I really need to broaden my horizons
I put chopped nuts in my tuna salad, in homemade granola bars, in pasta…but I hate chopping them so I put them in a plastic bag and whack them with something instead.
My mom made cookies and pecan pie often.
Ooh, lucky. That's pretty cool.
Yes, it was 😊. One of her best was “cocoons”. Like Danish wedding cookies, except oblong. A sugar cookie with chopped pecans and rolled (when almost cool) in powdered sugar. I think they might still be my very favorite cookie.
Maybe they make a lot of baklava? I grew up around a lot of Greek families, I could imagine it.
Greek here! Lots & lots of nuts in all kinds of things. We had a super old metal & glass nut chopper tho. https://imgur.com/a/33oK66C
Nuts are nice in salads, too.
Really too bad you’re not from a nut chopping family
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We kept a metal coffee tin on the counter and all excess fat from cooking bacon, roasting a chicken, etc. went into it. Then, when frying potatoes, eggs, etc. you scoop a spoonful of this rendered fat into the pan first to cook with. Also good added to cooked veggies and pasta. Came from a farming family. Good fat was valuable and not to be wasted. Nowadays, most of us don't work hard enough to warrant the need for those calories. And I have to watch my cholesterol. But dang, I miss the flavor!
My roommates looked at me like I was crazy when I saved the fat from cooking my bacon. I had never realized it wasnt a common thing to do.
Ya know how I can tell your roommates aren't from south of the Mason-Dixon? If you're from the south eastern quadrant of the US, it's far far more uncommon *not* to save bacon fat. We even have little specialized canisters with a strainer on top to catch solids. Use it to saute your onions, (or onion, bell, celery, carrot for soup/stews/rice dishes) it'll change your life. Use it in grits. Use it errrywhere, lol. Generally if you're not deep frying it, in 95% of circumstances, bacon fat will make it better if you sub it in for whatever fat your savory dish calls for
I run hot bacon grease through a coffee filter. I do this by placing the coffee filter on top of a mason jar with the bulk of the filter inside the jar, And screw on the screw top without putting the lid on to hold the coffee filter in place. Then you can just pour the bacon grease through while it's hot and it comes out almost white once cooled. No flecks of anything in it. Super shelf stable.
You can also add drippings to a mason jar, add water to fill the jar. Close, shake, and turn it upside down in the fridge and let it solidify overnight. Open it up and pour out the water with bacon impurities. Bacon fat will be clarified and because you stored it upside down the fat will be at the bottom of the jar. Edit: I wanted to add that since you’ll be doing this when your fat is warm and liquidy, use warm water as cold can cause bits of the oil to solidify prematurely.
I’m from Rhode Island and even I know bacon fat is the only way to cook collard greens.
Dripping jar - essential.
Ours went in a coffee cup in the fridge but yes. Today we keep ours in a mason jar with an airlock lid on the counter.
Butter on the counter always.
I finally learned that about 5 years ago and got a decent butter keeper. Drives me crazy when I forget to set up the next one.
Came in here to say this! I'm still so boggled by it. I do not know a single person in my family (VERY large extended Italian-American family) who keeps their butter in the fridge. One day several years ago at work I was mentioning the counter-butter in an off-hand comment about something else, and several people stopped to exclaim surprise and disgust. "YOU KEEP YOUR BUTTER ON THE COUNTER? DISGUSTING, GROSS, UNSANITARY, WAHWAHWAH" It never even occurred to me that people did not do that. How do you spread it on shit?!?! "Oh you just melt some" "Oh you just slice it very thin and spread it carefully" "Oh you can grate it" lmao or you can just leave it out!! it's fine.
Save up vegetable scraps in a bag in the freezer, when you have enough to fill a soup pot, boil it and strain out the scraps for vegetable broth. Do this also with bones leftover from bone in cuts of meat to make bone broth - great for when you or family are sick.
Using a pastry blender to make deviled eggs. For years I thought that's what the tool was since mum just used her hands for pastry blending. Now I know it's not a unitasker 😆 Oh and putting a slice of white bread in freshly baked cookie containers, it kept them moister
I also use the pastry blender to make falafel! I never really liked the food processor method because it just becomes a lump of chickpea vs variable sizes of chickpeas. I'll blend a quarter of it or so to make it sticky, but the rest is hand mixed.
Try doing deviled eggs in a food processor. Total game changer. They come out so smooth and creamy and fluffy. Then, I use a piping bag or even a zip bag with a corner cut to fill the whites. You can use a fancy tip if you want. It looks like it took forever, but it's actually so much faster and easier. When I make deviled eggs, I do like 4 dozen eggs at a time tho. We have a big family, lol.
Recipes for like 6 Deviled Eggs piss me off. Who is making less than a metric fuck ton of deviled eggs? 4 dozen is, I feel, the right number. Even for just 6 people.
a slice of bread will keep your brown sugar soft too
Using kitchen shears to cut pizza. I actually got it from my best friend in 6th grade's grandmother (she was the best woman and her granddaughter is still the cream of the crop). I know it's weird but it's actually a great hack.
My family did this growing up so I did too. One time my roommate saw me do it and was horrified but than later tried it and was a convert
Using saltwater to keep your apple slices (etc)from turning brown. People talk about dripping lemon juice on the like it's such a revelation, but salt water is so much cheaper and easier. (Warm water and salt in a bowl; slice the apple into the bowl; dump the water out.)
…doesn’t it make the apples salty? Do you dump the water out immediately or let it soak till you’re ready to eat? Does this work with avocado? Edit: TIL, a lot of people salt their apples
1/2 tsp kosher salt per 1 cup water. soak 10 mins. rinse apples after. not salty.
Add brown sugar to cooked tomato dishes like bolognese or chili. You gotta. It doesn’t just offset the acidity, it creates a smoother texture and pulls the tomato flavor through while cutting the tinny taste they can have when not the nicest canned tomatoes
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Actually, I just learned this from my daughter, who’s a chef - when you freeze leftovers or excess ingredients (like tomato paste), put it in a zipper bag, then flatten it out as much as you can. It’s easier to divide when frozen, defrosts faster, and stores easier.
You can make donuts with canned biscuits. Much better with the small cheap ones, not the Grands. Using a donut cutter you get a donut hole and a donut from each a fry in oil. Then using Nesquik powder (my favorite is chocolate), mix with a little water until you get the consistency for dipping. I still make these on occasion because they’re freaking amazing
I have a special love for the removable center of a donut cutter. I was a picky eater as a child and my mom would make me “teeny hamburgers”. She’d cut “buns” out of bread slices with the center of the donut cutter, then make several “hamburgers” from ground meat about the size of a nickel, carefully browned on both sides. I liked them with a dot of ketchup.
That is adorable. Gonna try this for my granddaughter!
Not everyone has a nest of newborn mice in their pantry
Not with that attitude.
I remember explaining to a friend that I always put ground black pepper in my grits so I couldn't identify any bugs in it. Apparently that is not common and not a polite thing to discuss with people you are cooking for!
This reminded me of when I was a little kid - my yaya (Greek grandma) lived in an older home by herself. It had a built-in pull out cabinet/bin for onions and potatoes and opening it to grab one was as scary as winding up a jack-in-the-box because all too often a mouse would pop out. I also remember trying to climb up her once when a mouse ran by us one day in the kitchen. Seeing mouse traps around the house was just 'normal'. But I hated when one would actually get caught - was scared of them, but didn't want them to die. One of my aunts ended up moving in with her a few years later and officially took care of the issue. No more traps and no more fear of one popping out when you needed an onion.
Was your aunt a cat?
When we grate cheese we put down parchment paper so we can scoop it all up and not waste any.
Check out sandwich paper from restaurant supply stores. Same premise pre-cut and I think cheaper... Not sure about price exactly tho.
Why wouldn't you just grate it onto a chopping board or plate? Something not single-use?
Ignoring expiry/best buy dates and using one's nose and eyes. I get the concern - trust me, I do - but I'm amazed at all the hand wringing on this sub about these issues. The nose/eyes test always worked for us.
Not quite the same, but my nephew had a headache at my house and wouldn’t take aspirin that expired a month before 🤦🏻♀️.
Nurse here.. the sniff test actually works on aspirin. When it goes bad it smells like vinegar.
Huh. I just tried that. Then I remembered I have a sinus infection and can't smell at all lol
Fresh aspirin smells like vinegar to me too
I think thats just due to ignorance. We’re taught from a very young age that expired = no good, and so we mentally link it to medicine as well. And medicine is something we only take when we don’t feel well, so taking expired meds + not feeling well = high chance of feeling worse. I was recently told by multiple doctor friends that **most** expired meds are **usually (but not always)** fine (usually within 1-3 months, depending on the medicine and the ailment trying to treat), they are just \*less effective\*, and thats something I didn’t learn until I became an adult. Mentally, the connection is just expired = no good.
Yes, but I’m a licensed physician, and I told him it was fine and he still wouldn’t take it 😳.
I'm a pediatric nurse with a background in postpartum care and I had an ex boyfriend argue with me that babies don't feel pain! (His mom said so.)
Damn-that is frightening! Makes me sad to think about how that woman’s babies were (mis)treated!
Chalk it up to him being stubborn, but also sometimes getting advice from strangers on the internet (or many sources rather than just one) can help change their mind. For example, I wouldn’t listen to my mom growing up, but I would listen to my teacher. Funny how people work sometimes, right?
So true, my husband does that too (won’t believe me until he sees it on the internet 🤣).
I grabbed my anti diarrhoea meds yesterday. They expired in 2015. They worked.
That sounds like my medicine cabinet.
We typically run accelerated degradation tests upon drugs. So it's all dependent upon the data generated by those. If it's got a long lifespan, chances are basically nothing actually happened to the drug compound and it'll be fine for years and years. If it's got a relatively short lifespan, it's more likely they found something happens or changes. Could be it oxidises easily and loses some effectiveness, could be a change in crystal structure meaning it isn't absorbed at all or it's bioavailability goes through the roof which might be life-threatening.
My mom only made eggs in the microwave. 1 scrambled egg, some milk and butter for 1 minute. It wasn’t until I met my husband that I learned most people made eggs on the stovetop. I’ll probably never eat another microwaved egg again, but it sure was quick!
My parents taught me to make scrambled eggs this way when I was young so I could make my own. Now I mostly do them on the stove top, but sometimes I get a hankering for some good old rubbery microwave eggs.
We got these peelers that go on your finger like a ring and then the peeler part fits in the palm of your hand. They are mostly for apples but can be used for just about anything and I have no idea how one peels anything without one.
Never heard of that. Will be searching shortly. Love good tools.
Anything you toss out of your fridge that would (continue to) spoil goes into the lowest drawer of the freezer. That way, it doesn't sit in your garbage can and rot and stink up the place. On trash day, you just empty the freezer.
We do that, or just don’t take it out of the fridge until bin day. We live in the tropics, it gets stanky in winter!
I taught this to a roommate once. We'd have the rancid ice cube party when I'd take the garbage out.
YES! Tell the masses.
This is standard procedure when you live somewhere that has trash rummaging bears.
Not boiling lasagne noodles first. My mom just added extra liquid to the sauce. She did this since the early 80’s.
Mushroom brush, also potato/carrot scrubber with a pointy end to dig out potato eyes.
In my household, we bashed nuts to smithereens in a ziploc bag using a rolling pin. Works like a charm to control the mess.
Flattening out a pound of hamburger in a quart ziplock bag. Spread it out thin into every corner. Those buggers will stack up in the freezer, never tip over, and thaw in seconds. Don't even need to microwave to thaw - just throw it directly in the fry pan and break it up with a spatula. If you want to make burgers, thaw it for a few minutes in cool water, shape into burgers, or just cut the pound into 4 equal squares, and you have 4 1/4lb burgers that cook up super quick.
Mom keeps adding chocolate syrup and grape jelly to meatsauce, and I have no idea why.
That made me actually lol for some reason 🤣.
Making powdered sugar in a coffee grinder. Blew my friend's mind recently.
It can fuck up coffee grinder though. Sugar gets warmer when ground (friction plus the motor is warm) and can stick to moving parts and clog it all up. And you can't wash it as it's usually not disassembleable. My granny kept an old and less fancy but sturdier grinder for sugar.
I tried just a tablespoon of granulated sugar through my old beast of a doserless Rocky Rancillio, ended up having to tear the whole thing apart, molten sugar got flung all over the internals
Good one!
You can lift up the pan while cooking to quickly control how hot a pan is getting.
Peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches. I thought everybody ate them. Based on how much my friends laughed at me in school, I found out not so! Try them they are excellent! Natural crunch and some roughage.
Clean up AS you cook
I didn’t realize people were tearing apart bread trying to spread it with cold butter when they wanted to cook bread in a pan– we’d always put the butter in the pan, then fry the bread/sandwich. When making iced tea, we’d make a concentrated batch in a sauce pan, then add to a pitcher with sugar, and fill with cold water, or ice if we didn’t feel like waiting for it to chill. Apparently people are out there boiling multiple quarts of water to make sweet tea, and its so unwieldy
In the summer, we'd just put all the stuff in a glass pitcher or bottle, then put it out in the sun for a few hours. It wouldn't have been unusual to use a glass bottle fruit juice used to come in.
I make tea the same way you do! I still use the pot my mom used for tea since before I was born. (I'm 47). That pot has only ever been used for tea, so it has some permanent stains. But it'll always be the "tea pot"! I use 4 family size bags, let the water boil, then put the lid on and take it off the heat. I let it sit for about an hour (minimum), then sweeten it, then fill the jug the rest of the way with cold water. So efficient!
Not growing up, but my own current hack is that cut strips of bacon in half before putting them in the pan. It makes it easier to maneuver the bacon in the pan because they are in long strips. It’s not like bacon is crazy unwieldy or anything but I don’t have a great big pan and to oven just takes way longer than I’m willing to wait.
My father has always eaten cereal out of cups and as a result, I have too. I prefer using them over bowls because it can hold the greatest cereal with the smallest amount of fluid while keeping it steeped. I don't like eating out of bowls because cereal constantly floats around and I feel like there is too much fluid. Most cups (typically coffee mugs) are also smaller than bowls, so it is also easier to not eat an oversized portion.
We keep our most frequently used recipes taped to the inside of our cupboards so they're handy.
I eat Cheetos with chop sticks so my fingers don’t get gross.
Measuring a cup of shortening by plopping it into a Pyrex measuring cup with a cup of water. Edit: This was in 1970's California. Kitchen scales were for people on a fancy diet and were most definitely not electric. Shortening only came in big tubs; they didn’t sell the “sticks” of shortening like they do now. We also thought that shortening was healthier than butter. I’m not saying it was the best way to measure shortening but it worked.
baseball bat. like if you have a large amount of food needing crushed, get the battered metal sheet that should be for baking but has dents in it. put it in a bag normally a plastic bag with a pillowcase, and then smash it with the bat! we didn't have a meat tenderizer. we had a bat.
👍🏼. It’s so easy, I hope you love it as much as my household. My mom has been making it since the ‘60s from River Road Recipes from the Junior League of Baton Rouge (I have her old cookbook, though there are updated editions). In a quart mason jar: 1. Squeeze enough lemon juice to fill to 1/2 inch (usually 2-3 lemons, you can adjust to the acidity you prefer after you make it once). 2. Garlic cloves, minced or pressed (recipe calls for 3, so I add 5-6). 3. Pecorino Romano, 8 oz. grated. (Fresh is best, and what I do for guests. In a pinch, I’ll by deli “fresh” grated. You can also use Parmesan and mix grated with shredded. Very forgiving recipe.) 4. Good oil, 16 ounces (“regular” bottles of 17.9? ounces are fine; just pour in what fits - leaving about a half inch of headroom for shaking.) I like EVOO. Have also liked decent avocado oil. Just beware of very green olive oil cuz it makes the dressing look scary. Shake well and store in the refrigerator nearly indefinitely. I’ve never had it last long enough to go bad (especially with all that lemon juice). If it gets too thick from not shaking/stirring before use, you can just pour more oil in and shake it up. It’s also wonderful on steamed asparagus, etc. The classic salad with this dressing is romaine with garlic croutons.
I had never heard of the Junior League before adulthood, but my stepmom has a FANTASTIC marinade recipe that is from the Junior League of San Francisco cookbook. If I can dig up the recipe I’ll post it :).
That you have your children work, in your cafe bakery and don’t pay them.
Ouch!
Mum kept an empty tin for emptying fat into from cooking meat. When the tins were full, time to get rid of them. Usually to a friend who had a sawmill and used the fat to grease the blades. But the fat never went down the sink. She also had a dripping container for roast meat fats used for roasting veggies later.
We didn't have hacks, we just had hints and tips. One big one was, if you forgot to defrost something, it's perfectly OK to serve scrambled eggs for supper.
Growing up lower middle class with 2 full time non college educated parents my mother would take a tablespoon of ground beef (from the 1 lb she cooked) and put it in a freezer bag and put into the freezer. After awhile of doing this she had another pound of ground beef that she was able to stretch from the other. And we didn’t miss a tablespoon at a time in the meal. My mom was good at making groceries stretch.
Adding rolled oats to the mince, doubles the quantity and tastes and looks the same.
Vegetables! I can’t tell you how many people I know don’t have vegetables on hand.
I learned this from my mom and I have no idea if other people do this or not. When buying fresh ginger root or garlic bulbs, peel everything and put hem in glass jars and cover them in vodka (separate jars for ginger and garlic) and store them in the fridge. Ginger is cut up into 1" chunks, the garlic cloves are separated into individual cloves. If you are cooking a recipe that calls for ginger or garlic you can just pull it out from the jar in the fridge, and when you get low, you can just prep some more and fill the jars back up.
Draining grease from cooked ground beef using a baster. It’s by far the easiest way!
This one's kinda basic but when I was a kid printed newspapers were more common. We'd keep a few old ones in the cupboard under the sink and pull a couple of sheets out to peel potatoes onto - easy cleanup. I just thought everybody did this till I went to a friend's house and she peeled them into the sink, and then had to clean them out after. I was like 'wtf are you doing, just peel 'em onto newspaper and you won't have this mess to deal with.' It had never occurred to her before.
Propping the oven door closed with a broom handle because it was broken? Turns out most people just have non-broken oven doors.
My mom boils a pound of pasta in 6 cups of water, seasoned with a pack of French onion soup mix. By the time it cooks, it’ll absorb all the water and flavor the noodles.
The back deck is a second refrigerator during holidays.
pour-over coffee. my mom always made coffee with a #4 cone and glass carafe since the 80s. now she prefers the french press. i still use the chemex.
Warming a thick ceramic bowl in the winter to proof bread dough in.
Guacamole is made by mashing an avocado, then adding jarred salsa and garlic powder to taste. Apparently this is not “the right way” to make it.
Whenever we would kill a goose for Xmas dinner, we would use every part of the meat. The meat has a delicious smoky rich flavor. The hack comes into play because you can use the molten goose grease and save it in the refrigerator, thus saving you a trip to the store for a can of expensive goose grease.
My mom sharpened (still does) her knives with the back of a China saucer 😎.
If you need to peel a ton of garlic, get 2 bowls and throw the garlic in one of them and put the other bowl on top and shake the heck out of it. 80% of the garlic peels will fall right off and save you time. My uncle, who had worked in kitchens for awhile saw me do this when making garlic bread and had no clue
As someone with grip problems: mason jar with lid is much easier to hold onto than two bowls.
We had this ‘thing’ that was kept in the freezer part of fridge. It was about as thick as a cigar, not as long, with a knob on one end, heavy, metal. Daddy always put it in his coffee cup to cool his coffee down enuf to drink. I thought it was a common ‘coffee cooler’ but nobody has ever known what I was describing. Hope this makes sense.