Home Cooks Reveal Their 22 Most Valuable Kitchen Tricks

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a day ago

It's wild how something as small as preheating your pan or salting your pasta water properly can make you feel like a chef. I recently fell down a rabbit hole on r/Cooking subreddit, where people were sharing the tiny habits that seriously upgraded their food after Reddit user Sand4sale asked: "What's something small you started doing that improved your cooking?" Some of these tips are genius-level, and I'd never even heard of them before. Here are the tricks you'll want to steal immediately:
"Whoever said to rehydrate your garlic powder recently changed my damn life. I will add it to whatever liquid is going in, milk for meatballs, for example, while I get the rest of my mise en place together. I can smell the garlic and taste it much more, now."
"Growing up, my mom was a 'medium heat is high heat' type. Out on my own, I've realized high heat is not to be feared and has a lot better results. Getting some brown on hamburger and some color on veggies makes stuff taste way better than accidentally braising stuff on low heat for ages."
—Rowen6741
"Distributing the total amount of salt you're going to use in a dish between every ingredient/sauce makes a whole lot of difference. Best examples are salting the pasta water AND the sauce appropriately, or if you're going to use tomatoes in a sandwich/burger, you need to salt the tomatoes too, etc."
"Reading actual cooking books that are not just recipes but general tips/theoretical knowledge about cooking. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is the perfect example.
"I always salt and pepper my mayo and salt my tomatoes on sandwiches. I get so many compliments whenever I make people sandwiches, and I think that's the only addition that really sets it apart."
—AudrinaRosee
"I feel like getting good knives isn't talked about enough. This was such a game-changer for me. I was good at cooking and loved it, but then some friends gave me a Wüsthof, and it was like the gods rained down on me. I realized how terrible my knives were and how hard it actually made cooking. Now I have a whole collection of amazing knives. It really makes a huge difference."
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"Most important: stop moving the food around when searing, browning, etc."
—BigDisarray
"Warming up the dishes before plating. This is such an underrated move. It makes the whole meal feel fancier and keeps everything hot, like it actually matters. It's giving 'I care about the details' energy."
"Learn how to make sauces and gravy. You can hide a lot of imperfections with the cooking if you have a great gravy to add flavor."
"If I'm cooking a dish from another culture, say Pad Thai, I'll translate it into Thai on Google before looking online for recipes. It helps filter out less-authentic recipes and gets me more tried and true recipes."
"Prep as much ahead of time so I don't rush through the cooking phase!"
"I'll watch tutorials for 4–5 different versions of a dish I want to cook, then decide which one seems the most intuitive to me."
"Dry brining to tenderize meat was a big changer for me."
—DisposableJosie
"I always add two quick shakes of finely ground cayenne pepper to my pasta water. It dissolves and doesn't give any heat at all, plus most of it gets drained off with the water. But it adds a subtle depth of flavor to everything from fancy fresh pasta to Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese noodles."
"I learned it from a roommate in college. We lived on cheap dollar store pasta, and if you've ever gotten that weird cardboard-y, stale 'boxed' taste from inexpensive pasta, the cayenne completely eliminates it."—AusTxCrickette
"The magic of a tiny amount of water. A tablespoon in your scrambled eggs... a splash as a quick, no-effort deglazer for everything... as steam for a pan of hot dogs that are almost done."
"Something that helped me cook more consistently is to do prep in small steps over the course of the day. If I need to peel and chop carrots or onions, I'll do it between meetings and toss them in the fridge. When it's time to cook, it's all good to go, which is a totally different thing than working all day and then prepping and cooking."
—pagalvin
"Paying better attention to my spices. Using quality sources, replacing them frequently, and toasting/blooming them as much as possible. Fresh, vibrant spices with all their volatile oils in play really make food sing!"
"Browning ground beef, actually browning it… not turning it gray. Press the whole pan of ground meat flat, let it crust like a smash burger, flip once crusted, and then start chopping up the meat with a spatula."
"Finishing your dishes with a bit of acid (like vinegar or lemon juice) really elevates the flavors!"
"Making toasted breadcrumbs to top things. Just makes it have a better texture and feels more complete and fancy. Especially on pasta, fish, chicken, and veggies. Super fast and easy to make."
—LilacHrizon
"Finally buying a kitchen thermometer and using it."
"Let meat sit on the counter for at least half an hour before cooking so it doesn't go in the pan cold (tempering). Since meat is a muscle, tempering can keep it from contracting in the pan. It cooks more evenly and comes out juicier."
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