41 Useful Kitchen Secrets

Each experienced hostess must know about these tips, as they can greatly simplify her life. It is worth adding them to your favorites!

1. Pour a tablespoon of vinegar in the water where rice is cooked – rice will be pure white and crumbly.
2. If you add a little milk to cream, it will not curdle in the gravy.
3. Having chopped cabbage for the filling, pour boiling water on it first, and then put it in cold water for a minute. Squeeze it well and fry in a pan. The cabbage will not lose color and will not turn brown.
4. A pinch of salt added to coffee before the end of cooking gives the drink a special taste and fragrance.
5. 2 lumps of sugar, previously dissolved in a small amount of vinegar, can replace white wine in a sauce.
6. Rice will turn white and crumbly if you put it in boiling salted water, add a few drops of lemon juice, or citric acid diluted in water. Do not cover the dish in which rice is cooked.
7. To protect an opened jar of tomato paste from mold, put a little dry mustard on the cover.
8. To preserve the taste, fragrance and color of fresh berries while cooking jelly, do not boil the juice squeezed from berries. Boil only water with pressed berries and add sugar and starch in the resulting syrup. Pour the juice into the finished jelly when it is taken away from heat.
9. Beets are cooked for a long time – 3-3.5 hours. However, you can cook them for just an hour, then remove them from heat and put under running cold water for 10 minutes. The beets are ready.
10. You can quickly and easily replace mayonnaise with sour cream, adding a mashed boiled egg yolk and a teaspoon of mustard.
11. Potted plants can be watered with chilled water that remains after boiling potatoes or pasta. The plants will like the nutrients contained in it.
12. If you cannot find a splinter, glue a piece of adhesive tape on the place where you have it, and then tear it away with a jerk – the splinter will come out.
13. To remove stains of fruits and vegetables from your hands, rub them with raw peeled potatoes. Vinegar will also be helpful.
14. If the cooked cake got stuck to the baking sheet or the baking dish, you need to hold the baking sheet over steam or wrap it for a few minutes with a damp towel.
15. Cooked vegetables should be removed from the broth immediately after cooking. Otherwise, they will absorb water and lose their flavor.
16. Wrap the stem of a banana fruit with a cling film, and it will last for 5 days longer.
17. For the cut onion not to dry up and not to get oxidized, you need to put it on a saucer with a thin layer of salt. Put it there with the cut side down.
18. If the food has burnt in a pot, you can place it on a wet cloth for 15 minutes. Then the burnt food will be washed off quickly and easily.
19. If you have salted the soup excessively, put a little rice or slices of peeled potatoes wrapped in a gauze bag there. Warm the soup for 5-10 minutes. And then remove the gauze bag. Its contents will absorb the excess salt.
20. To get liver fried soft, you need to sprinkle it with a small amount of sugar before frying.
21. For the omelet to turn lush, you need to add sour fatty cream instead of milk. And beat it very well.
22. How to make stuffing out of a piece of meat if there is no grinder. Take a frozen piece of meat and just rub it on a grater, then thaw it and remove the excess water.
23. Empty bottles of ketchup can be used for dividing pancake dough into portions.
24. If you keep a lemon in hot water for 5-6 minutes, you will squeeze more juice out of it.
25. The foods that are steamed will be cooked faster if you salt the water in which the pan stands.
26. It is easier to mince lightly frozen meat with a meat grinder.
27. Nice soft bread will be easily cut without mashing it if you heat the knife.
28. For the fat to flow from duck or goose and the peel to be thin and crispy, it is necessary to make small incisions in the skin, but not deep, so as not to damage the meat.
29. If you add a little baking powder into the egg whites before whipping, the meringue and decorations based on it will turn more voluminous.
30. For the glaze to be flat and beautifully glistening, you need to cover the cake or cupcake with a thin layer of jam.
31. Sprinkle cake sheets with a syrup when they are hot. If the baked dish has cooled down, you need to heat the syrup again.
32. If you put a small piece of butter or cheese into a piece of meat chops, fish or chicken that contain spices or herbs and bake it all, you can get an incredibly delicious dish, melting in the mouth.
33. The cut pie will be kept for a longer period if you put it into a container with a piece of an apple.
34. Potatoes will be boiled faster if you fill the pan with boiling water, let them boil and put a spoonful of butter in the pan. Fat forms a film on the water, and potatoes cook under this film much faster.
35. If you want to whisk egg whites, keep them in cold first. After this, egg whites will be whisked much faster.
36. For the yeast dough to grow quickly, take all the products needed to cook it out of the refrigerator in advance. They must be at room temperature.
37. Milk for mashed potatoes should be warmed a little. If you pour cold milk, mashed potatoes will turn gray. And for the dish to be not too nutritious and have a delicate flavor, milk can be diluted with the hot potato broth.
38. When you cook vegetables, they should be salted only at the very end of cooking. The fact is that salt makes vegetables firmer, which increases their cooking time.
39. To quickly remove the tomato skin, it is necessary to make cross-shaped cuts on both sides of vegetables, put them in boiling water or place them for 30 seconds in the microwave oven.
40. Keep the water in which pasta was cooked. It can be used to dilute a little sauce.

What can replace an egg while preparing dough?

You are on the point of cooking pancakes or muffins, but you have suddenly discovered that there are no eggs in the refrigerator, and you either do not want or find it too late to go to the store. You may also be contraindicated eggs, but you still want to taste pastries. It is possible to prepare dough, substituting eggs for the following ingredients:

For unsweetened pastries:

• 1 egg = 2 tbsp of corn or potato starch
• 1 egg = 1 tbsp of milk powder + 1 tbsp of corn starch + 2 tbsp of water
• 1 egg = 2 tbsp of water + 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 egg = 2 tbsp of water + 1 tbsp of vegetable oil + 2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 egg = 2 tbsp of milk + 1/2 tbsp of lemon juice + 1/2 tbsp of baking soda
• 1 egg = 2 tbsp of milk + 1/4 tsp of baking powder

For sweet pastry:

• 1 egg = 1 tbsp of corn starch + 2 tbsp of water
• 1 egg = 1 banana, mashed into a puree