The endless cooking advice in magazines and hacks found online can be overwhelming to even the most seasoned home cooks. Should you be covering your leftover avocados in lemon juice to stop them browning and is it possible to make potato wedges using an apple corer? We debunk the most popular cooking hacks, tips and tricks that don’t actually work.
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Add salt to make water boil faster
Some advice suggests that adding salt to water will make it boil faster and cook your food quicker. It doesn’t quite work like that, though. Salted water has a higher boiling point, meaning it will take longer to boil. You should still season your pasta or potato water, just do it after it’s reached boiling point.
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Use a pen or a knife to open a bottle of wine
This isn’t a very safe way to open a bottle so we’d never suggest you try it. You’re most likely to either break the neck of the bottle (ending up with glass shards in your wine) or break apart the cork (resulting in bits of cork floating around in your wine). Either way, lay off the wine until you’ve got a corkscrew.
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Baking soda makes peeling eggs easier…
It’s a widely believed myth that adding baking soda to the water in which you’re cooking eggs will make them easier to peel later on. All it does is waste baking soda.
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… vinegar helps too
The egg peeling hack of adding vinegar to the cooking water is also a myth. Making sure you put your eggs in boiling water and then plunging them in cold water when ready should do the trick.
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Make grilled cheese sandwiches in a toaster
Not only is this a ridiculous idea, it’s also a fire hazard. Toasters aren’t meant to be used sideways, especially if there’s melted cheese dripping into the slots. There are many less dangerous ways of making a grilled cheese sandwich – put it in a frying pan, invest in a sandwich toaster or buy toaster bags. Choose a more sensible option, then give this grilled cheese sandwich recipe a go.
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Cut cherry tomatoes in half between two plates
Whoever came up with this amazing hack clearly never actually tried doing it. You won’t end up with halved tomatoes if you try cutting them while they’re squashed between two plates or lids. All you need is a good chopping board, a sharp knife and just a little patience.
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Use a pair of tongs to squeeze a lemon
A hack is supposed to make your life easier and help you do things more efficiently, but using tongs to squeeze a lemon certainly won’t achieve a better result. What’s more effective and quicker is using a juicer or your hands. What may be helpful is microwaving the citrus on high for around 20 seconds beforehand – it’ll soften the lemon and make it easier to squeeze.
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Add a potato to soak up excess salt in a broth
It’s widely believed that if you’ve over-seasoned your broth, adding a whole, peeled potato will soak up all the excess salt but in reality, it doesn’t work. Instead, add extra ingredients like rice, pulses or water to help balance it out.
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Shake garlic in a jar to remove the skin
Unless your garlic cloves have reached a very considerable level of dryness (which means you probably shouldn’t be using them anyway), this hack won’t work. The fresher the garlic, the juicier it is and the more the skin sticks to it. No amount of shaking will make it come off the clove.
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Soak onions before chopping to prevent you from crying
We’ve all shed a few tears while chopping onions but there’s not much you can do to stop it. A specific chemical irritant found in the juice of the onions stimulates the eyes’ lachrymal glands so no amount of rinsing will remedy that. Try using a really sharp knife to minimize the amount of juice squeezed out of the onion when it’s cut.
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Use chopsticks to make perfect hasselback potatoes
Using chopsticks to make hasselback potatoes would be a great idea if the potato was evenly thick all the way through. But chopsticks tend to move around, meaning that your cuts won’t be even: some will go through all the way and both ends will just get chopped off. You’re much better off cutting slowly and carefully with a sharp knife.
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Use ketchup bottles to dispense pancake batter
Using a squeezy bottle to dispense pancake batter could work if it’s got a large nozzle and wide neck but don’t even think of repurposing a ketchup bottle. No amount of scrubbing will rid the bottle of the taste of tomato sauce. It’s also very impractical for cleaning afterwards.
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A wooden spoon stops your pot from boiling over
It’s a popular hack but there’s no scientific explanation suggesting that putting a wooden spoon over a pan will stop its contents from boiling over. It may stop whatever you’re boiling going over for a split second, which might be enough time for you to take the pot off the heat or turn down the gas, but it won’t stop it from eventually spilling over.
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Use an old CD spindle to keep bagels fresh
If you still happen to have an old CD spindle around, don’t be so quick to store your lunchtime bagels on it. It might seem like the perfect vessel for transporting your bagels from A to B but the spindles aren’t airtight so the bread will be rock solid by noon.
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The hole in the pot handle doubles up as a spoon holder
Although it does look like a convenient spot to stick your wooden spoon or spatula, the hole in a pan handle is actually meant to be used for hanging it up. Not all utensils will fit the handle hole or will stand in the right angle so as not to drip on your stovetop.
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Blitz granulated sugar to make confectioners’ sugar
Unless you’ve got an industrial-grade mill, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to produce fine confectioners’ sugar from a bag of granulated sugar. Some food writers suggest using a spice grinder, which does work to an extent, but it will still have a negative impact on the final bake. Just pop to the shops and pick up some confectioners’ sugar.
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Rinse cooked pasta to stop it clumping together
All rinsing pasta will do is wash off the starch, meaning when the pasta is added to the sauce, the sauce won’t thicken as nicely and won’t stick to the individual pasta pieces. To prevent it from sticking together, cook it in a big enough pot, stir regularly and boil until al dente (firm).
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Potatoes are easier to peel when plunged in cold water
Blanching is a great technique for peeling tomatoes and peppers but it doesn’t work with potatoes. You’re much better off peeling the potatoes before boiling or, if making gnocchi, scooping the potato flesh out with a spoon.
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Store bread in the fridge to keep it fresh
Storing a loaf in the fridge does slow down the growth of mold, however, it also increases the rate at which the bread stales. Unless you’re planning on only eating your bread toasted, keeping your bread in the fridge won’t keep it soft for longer.
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Wash chicken before cooking to remove bacteria
Washing chicken is extremely dangerous and if you’re doing it, you should stop right now. Water won’t wash off any bacteria – the meat will be made safe for consumption when it cooks. Washing chicken in your kitchen sink only spreads the bacteria further and causes cross-contamination.
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Scoop out seeds to make chili peppers less hot
It’s actually the white membrane of chili peppers which makes them hot. The seeds only seem like the hottest part of the chili due to their proximity to the membrane. The seeds themselves have little to no capsaicin (the component that gives peppers their heat). It’s when the membrane is cut and the capsaicin escapes with the juice and comes into contact with the seeds, that they’ll feel like they’re hot.
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Cover butter with a warm bowl or glass to soften it
Got a cold stick of butter you’ve forgotten to bring up to room temperature before baking? This popular hack says you should heat a mug, glass or small bowl in the microwave, then use it to cover the butter. Supposedly, the butter will soften after a few minutes. In reality, the inside of the butter block will still be fridge-cold while the corners will have melted completely. You’ll get better results using a box grater to grate the butter.
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Add oil to boiling water to prevent pasta from sticking
Pasta has a tendency to stick together due to its starchiness. While adding oil to the cooking water can help remedy it, oil never fully mixes with water so it’ll only work for the bits of pasta floating at the top. It also means that any sauce will slide right off when you mix it in.
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Lemon juice saves avocados from browning
It’s inevitable that avocados turn brown as soon as their flesh is exposed to oxygen. A popular hack suggests brushing the avocado with lemon juice to prevent that from happening – it’s widely believed that the citric acid creates a protective layer and slows oxidation. In reality, the avocado will brown just as quickly.
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Make an omelet in a sandwich press
Think you can make thin, crêpe-like omelets in a sandwich press? Unfortunately, you’ll just end up with a kitchen counter and a sandwich press in need of a serious deep clean and no omelet. Just stick to a frying pan.
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Make potato wedges with an apple corer
Cutting potato wedges with an apple corer seems like a great idea in theory but not so much in practice. Firstly, the flesh of an apple is much softer than that of a potato so you would need an incredibly sharp apple corer. Secondly, if it was sharp enough to go through a potato, it would be an accident just waiting to happen.
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Use an empty bottle to separate egg yolks
We’re all for recycling and repurposing things but this might not be the right way of going about it. It’s suggested you can use an empty plastic bottle and its suction power to separate egg yolks from egg whites. However, it’s quite fiddly and it’s much easier to just use your hands or the eggshells to separate the two.
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