Nowadays, many people, particularly on social media, claim that cooking is easier with various hacks. However, these hacks are rarely as effective as they’re claimed to be. In fact, some can even make your kitchen experience more challenging, and here are some of them to avoid despite their popularity.
Adding Salt to Coffee Grounds
Some chefs suggest adding salt to coffee grounds to reduce bitterness, but this will just alter the coffee’s natural flavor profile, leading to an unpleasant taste. Instead, choose high-quality coffee beans and ensure your brewing method is optimized for a better-tasting cup–no salt is needed.
Peeling Garlic with a Shaking Jar
It’s easy to peel garlic cloves, so putting them in a jar and shaking them is just unnecessary. While this might work occasionally, it often leaves them partially peeled. A more reliable method is to use the flat side of a knife to crush the cloves before peeling.
Rinsing Cooked Pasta
If you rinse pasta after cooking, you’re only going to remove the starch that helps sauce stick to it, leading to a less flavorful pasta dish. It’s similar to the disappointing olive oil hack; just cook pasta in the traditional way, and you’ll avoid ruining meals and upsetting any Italians.
Storing Tomatoes in the Refrigerator
If you store your tomatoes in the refrigerator like cooking hacks recommend, they’ll lose their flavor and become mealy. Martha Stewart explains that they thrive best at room temperature, and cold environments only degrade their texture and taste, making them less appealing. Just keep them on the counter instead.
Using Olive Oil in Pasta Water
People claim that adding olive oil to pasta water is supposed to prevent sticking, but it doesn’t work. The oil stays on the surface and doesn’t mix with the pasta. In fact, it can prevent the sauce from sticking to the pasta, resulting in less flavorful dishes.
Cutting Avocados in Advance
Another cooking hack that just doesn’t work is cutting avocados in advance to save time. In reality, this leads to browning and loss of flavor, oxidizing quickly and making it less appealing. It’s better to cut avocados just before using them to keep them fresh and vibrant for your dishes.
Using a Spoon to Peel Ginger
Online chefs often suggest using a spoon to peel ginger, but in reality, this is an incredibly tedious process which is usually ineffective. A vegetable peeler or a small knife works much better, allowing you to remove the skin more efficiently without losing too much of the ginger.
Separating Egg Yolks with a Plastic Bottle
The plastic bottle method of separating egg yolks can be unreliable and messy, tending to break yolks or fail to pick them up effectively. Using your hands or an egg separator is a more consistent and cleaner method to achieve perfectly separated yolks, so stop overcomplicating it.
Using Dental Floss to Cut Soft Foods
One of the more bizarre cooking hacks is to use dental floss to cut cakes. This is tricky to maneuver and won’t cut your cake evenly, and it could even leave a menthol aftertaste. A sharp, thin-bladed knife is a perfectly reliable tool for achieving clean, even slices.
Fresh Herbs in Ice Cubes
Apparently, freezing fresh herbs in ice cubes preserves them, but unsurprisingly, it actually just leaves a weird herby aftertaste in your ice cubes. The ice can also cause the herbs to become soggy and less aromatic, so it’s better to store herbs in the fridge or dry them for later use.
Refreshing Stale Bread with Water and Oven
If anyone advises you to refresh your stale bread by sprinkling it with water and baking it, be prepared for disappointment. This method is hit-or-miss and often leads to soggy results; just toast your stale bread and make croutons with it instead, which works reliably.
Boiling Potatoes with the Skin for Easy Peeling
Another social media cooking hack is to boil potatoes with their skin on, which supposedly makes them easier to peel. However, doing so is just messy and time-consuming. The skin doesn’t always slip off easily, and anyway–peeling potatoes before boiling is simpler and saves time.
Using Soda to Tenderize Meat
If you want to ruin meat, use soda to tenderize it, as the bizarre cooking hack claims. After completion, your meat will taste sweet, and the texture will be ruined. Just use natural tenderizers like vinegar or enzymatic fruit juices, which break down the fibers without altering the meat’s taste.
Microwaving Lemons for More Juice
You should never microwave lemons to extract more juice; that’s a cooking hack that doesn’t actually work. It will make your lemon too hot to squeeze, and the juice’s flavor will be ruined. Rolling the lemon on the counter before cutting is a safer and more effective alternative.
Baking Soda to Soften Beans
Influencer chefs sometimes claim that adding baking soda to beans while cooking will soften them faster. Don’t do this, and stop adding soda to random dishes. The beans will become mushy and lose their natural flavor; just soak the beans overnight and cook them slowly to achieve the perfect texture.
Using Bread to Absorb Odors in a Fridge
An old wive’s tale in the cooking world is to put bread in the fridge to absorb odors. It’s not effective, as bread quickly becomes stale, preventing it from trapping odors. Activated charcoal or baking soda is far more efficient at neutralizing unpleasant smells in your refrigerator.
Using a Wooden Spoon to Prevent Pot Boil-Over
According to the internet, placing a wooden spoon over a boiling pot prevents boil-over, but we wouldn’t advise this. Boil-overs can still happen, making a mess on your stovetop. Simply keep an eye on your pot and adjust the heat accordingly, and you can avoid this problem.
Cooking Bacon in Water
A perfect way to ruin bacon is to boil it in water. Apparently, this makes it crispy and less greasy, but in actuality, it results in unevenly cooked bacon and potential food poisoning. It’s really not worth it; cooking bacon in the oven or on a skillet provides a more consistent, crispy result, and it’s not difficult, either.