Right now, cooking seems to be all about air fryers, TikTok, and cooking videos. Which is fine.
However, we’re getting so caught up in all of this and trying to keep up with recipes suggested by algorithms, and obsessing over newfangled contraptions, that we’re missing the tried-and-true gems. The kind of gems only grandmothers and other members of a more practical generation know, who didn’t have sous vide machines at their beck and call but made do just fine with a trusty cast iron.
I’ve been collecting these everyday cooking tricks for years. Some have been passed down to me by my own mother, others I’ve discovered at 11 PM on the internet, trying to rescue some horrible mistake.
Some of them have been labeled as wacky by my own teenagers. Some have been frowned upon by my own husband, who insists salt belongs in a shaker, thank you, and only there.
But they’re all legit tips I use all the time as a mom, wife, and everyday home cook. Here are 24 everyday cooking hacks you wish you’d have known sooner.
1. SALT YOUR PASTA WATER UNTIL IT TASTES LIKE THE SEA
Salt your pasta water aggressively. Seriously, it should be saltier than the ocean.
Your husband may ask “Is that too much?” Mine has asked this at least once per boil for 15 of our 17 years of marriage despite having witnessed me cook pasta thousands of times. He’ll stop asking once he realizes that properly salting your pasta is crucial to its flavor.
Salt penetrates the pasta, seasons it throughout, and even changes the way it cooks. And, despite popular belief, salting pasta water will NOT make the meal too salty.
Trust me. Underseasoned pasta water leads to underseasoned pasta.
2. SAVE A CUP OF PASTA WATER BEFORE YOU DRAIN
When you’re boiling pasta, skim off a cup of the starchy water before you drain the pot. This is great to add to a basic tomato sauce to help the sauce adhere to your pasta, resulting in a creamier, silkier texture.
I always have a coffee mug sitting by my stove as a reminder to do this because there are still times I forget. For a decade I never once saved pasta water and suffered suboptimal pasta as a result.
3. REST YOUR MEAT BEFORE YOU CUT IT
Allow meat to rest after cooking. The proteins relax during the five-to-ten-minute resting period and the juices redistribute within the meat.
If you cut into it too soon after cooking, all of the delicious juices will flow out on your cutting board. Rested meat is juicier and requires zero additional work on your part.
4. PUT A WOODEN SPOON ACROSS THE BOILING POT
This is a grandma-approved, tried-and-true, totally-not-scientific cooking tip that I learned from my mother and have been using ever since. When the spoon lays across your pot, bubbles pop as they reach it.
Why? Because a dry wooden spoon breaks the surface tension of the bubble and thus causes them to pop.
You have a few precious seconds to get to the pot and turn down the flame before the bubbles rise up past the spoon. My teenagers are tough to impress, but they were impressed by this trick.
5. USE COLD BUTTER FOR FLAKY PIE CRUST
The secret to good pie is cold butter. Really.
That’s it. Cold.
Butter.
Keep your butter cold. Warm, malleable butter leads to super-smooth pie crust. Smooth pie crust is mealy pie crust. Cubed, cold butter will lead to little air pockets within the dough. Those pockets will trap steam in the oven. Steam-filled pockets yield flaky pie crust. Some folks will say to use frozen butter and grate it directly into the dough. That’s fine, but I’ve never done that. It’s worked fine with just straight-out-of-the-fridge butter. Then again, I’ve made pie crust a total of about four times in my life. Your mileage may vary.
6. ADD A PINCH OF BAKING SODA TO TOMATO SAUCE
Tomato sauce made with canned tomatoes can be pretty darn acidic. Rather than adding sugar, which can work well, but isn’t my preference, add a teeny, tiny pinch of baking soda. Like, 1/8 tsp teeny tiny. You’ll see it bubble up a bit as it hits the simmering tomatoes. That’s normal. Add it, stir, taste. Voila, less acidic. This trick saved a batch of Sunday sauce the other day. My husband had a double-helping and didn’t speak during dinner. High praise indeed.
7. TOAST YOUR SPICES IN A DRY PAN FIRST
Before adding whole or ground spices, such as chili powder, cumin, and coriander, warm them up in a small amount of oil or a dry pan for 30 seconds. This releases the volatile oils in spices and makes them more flavorful. Bonus: You may be surprised how many of the spices in your cabinet aren’t completely spent yet. My spice collection dates back to 2022 at the earliest. Shake them on a pan over medium heat, requiring no oil necessary, and sniff. If you get a whiff of anything, those volatile oils are still lurking, waiting to be released. Use those spices. If nothing happens? Trash them with a clear conscience and stop by Aldi for more.
8. CRACK EGGS ON A FLAT SURFACE, NOT THE BOWL EDGE
Old-school home cooks know to crack your eggs on a flat surface, not on the edge of a bowl. It takes some re-training, and only about a week, but it’s worth it. You can actually see the difference: An egg cracked on a flat surface cracks evenly. One cracked on a rougher surface, like the edge of a bowl, has a more jagged crack. Those little jagged bits lead to tiny flakes of eggshell in your bowl. Trust me, I’ve done both ways on purpose. You’ll never do it on purpose again.
My teenagers, however, still insist on being bowl-edge crackers. I pick my battles.
9. SHARPEN YOUR KNIFE WITH THE BOTTOM OF A CERAMIC MUG
The ring around the bottom of the base of most ceramic cups is unglazed and provides a helpful rough surface for quickly re-sharpening knives. Run your blade over the ring, using a low angle with the mug, a few times on each side and enjoy your improved sharpness.
My mom showed me this trick ages ago and I’m so glad she did. My collection of knives is large and varied but universally mediocre. Whenever my knives start to make cooking dinner more of a chore than it needs to be I pull out a coffee mug and whet away.
This method isn’t a replacement for a more thorough sharpening session but it’s handy to know and saves me from pulling out a honing tool every time.
10. KEEP BUTTER ON THE COUNTER IN A BUTTER CROCK
Fresh-tasting butter will keep in a butter crock on the counter for up to 30 days. There’s a small amount of water in the bottom of the container which seals out air. Refresh the water every few days. This method of storage predates refrigerators, so you can be assured of its efficacy.
I’ve been using a butter crock for 3 years now. Butter stays perfectly spreadable so you can skip standing it on the counter to soften or microwaving it, which never achieves satisfactory results. Cold butter hacked across warm toast is an unnecessary travail and with a crock there’s no reason for anyone to ever suffer through it again.
11. FREEZE LEFTOVER TOMATO PASTE IN TABLESPOON PORTIONS
Recipes call for 1-2 tablespoons of tomato paste. What are you supposed to do with the other half of the can?
Next time you open a can of paste, drop tablespoonsfuls onto a sheet pan lined with parchment and pop the pan in the freezer. Later, pop the hardened balls into a ziploc freezer bag and pull out just one each time you need it.
Easy-peasy.
I’ve wasted about forty cans of tomato paste in my lifetime before I came up with a workable system. Smug city.
12. PUT ONIONS IN THE FREEZER FOR 15 MINUTES BEFORE CUTTING
Cutting an onion causes cellular walls to break and release gas. The gas makes us cry.
Putting onions in the freezer doesn’t stop this phenomenon from happening but does slow down the gas release because of the chill. Freezing doesn’t affect the flavour or texture of onions but can make a huge difference to the degree of tears caused by cutting them up.
Especially helpful for contact lens wearers like myself.
I was in my late 30s before I learned this little gem and have been kicking myself for wasting precious tears on onions for all of those years.
13. ADD A BREAD HEEL TO YOUR BROWN SUGAR TO KEEP IT SOFT
If you’ve ever pulled up the lid of brown sugar only to find a rock-hard block instead of soft, fluffy sugar you’ll understand this tip. Brown sugar hardens when it loses moisture.
Rather than resorting to scraping sugar out of said rock at 7 in the morning when you need some for your cookies, toss a slice of bread in the container and the moisture from the bread will transfer to the sugar and keep it nice and soft indefinitely, replacing the bread slice every couple days.
My husband claims microwaving brown sugar works just as well, but I feel smug about keeping my brown sugar perfectly moistened. So you’re going to have to ignore his practicality.
14. USE A RUBBER BAND FOR SLIPPERY JAR LIDS
You know those jars that no matter how hard you try, the lid just won’t budge? Rather than resorting to hot water or a dish towel, try slipping a thick rubber band around the lid.
The extra traction helps tremendously in gaining a better grip.
My husband considers himself the Jar Man around here, though he has been thoroughly outshone by rubber bands, but I stand by rubber bands’ stellar track record. They also usually exist in every junk drawer already so are free.
15. DEGLAZE THE PAN — THOSE BROWN BITS ARE THE BEST PART
Fond is the French word used to describe the deliciously tasty and very flavorful browned or nearly scorched remnants of food left at the bottom of a pan after sautéing vegetables or searing meat. Deglazing a pan is as simple as adding wine, broth, or even water to a pan after meat is removed and scraping up all that yummy browned stuff with a wooden spoon.
Voila! An incredible topping or pan sauce took 90 seconds and you get to pat yourself on the back for being an amazing chef.
16. STORE FRESH HERBS LIKE FLOWERS
The next time you buy a beautiful, aromatic, expensive bunch of cilantro and realize that you’ll use one tablespoon and waste the rest…don’t you dare. Put that $3 cilantro stem end down in a glass with an inch of water and pop it with a plastic bag loosely draped over the top into your refrigerator.
Cilantro and parsley will stay fresh for two to three weeks with this method. Basil is best stored in a glass of water on your counter at room temp.
This is an old wives’ tale that was commonly practiced before plastic clamshell containers were invented. Cilantro stays alive and kicking with this method, but my hubris allows basil to die a tragic, aromatic death on my counter because I can’t be bothered to add this herb to my rotation.
17. USE THE WOODEN SKEWER TEST FOR CAKES
Rather than purchase a probe thermometer to test for cake doneness, use an old fashioned toothpick test. Remove cake from the oven, plunge a wooden pick in the center of your cake and remove.
If the pick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached your cake is done. Wet batter = bake longer.
Super dry pick = maybe baked a minute too long. You can always find a small box of wooden picks for $2, which will also come in handy for my daughter’s craft projects and cheese skewers at parties.
They live in my baking drawer and get used often.
18. SEASON IN LAYERS, NOT JUST AT THE END
Seasoning food as it cooks and then finishing it with butter is part of what separates average food from amazing food. Adding salt and other seasonings at various points throughout cooking – on your sauteing onions, your protein, your sauce, etc., and not just at the end – builds up layers of flavor.
When food is seasoned only at the end, the salt just sits on top of the dish instead of permeating all of it.
The old-school chefs were trained to season as they cooked and did so instinctively. I’ve adopted this habit, along with finishing many savory items with a little butter.
19. PUT A DAMP PAPER TOWEL OVER LEFTOVER DISHES BEFORE REHEATING
This trick came into being long before anyone thought to sell microwave-safe lids. It keeps pasta from becoming gluey and helps rice, saucy entrees, etc. to reconstitute instead of drying out.
I’ve been doing this for so long that I’m shocked when I get a bowl of leftovers back from the nuke that doesn’t have a dried-out ring of food around the sides, meaning it was foolishly uncovered during reheating.
I tell my kids this trick, but they’ll do what they want. Teenagers.
20. SQUEEZE LEMON OVER CUT FRUIT TO PREVENT BROWNING
This is another pre-modern tip that’s still super-useful. The acid will keep apples, bananas, avocados and other brownable items from discoloring for hours without making them taste like lemon.
My kids find it amusing when I do this – they think it’s funny to watch their mother squeeze lemon over a bowl of bananas.
21. USE A POTATO TO FIX OVER-SALTED SOUP
When a soup or other liquid-based recipe has too much salt, peel a raw potato and add it whole. Allow the soup to simmer with the potato for 15 minutes; the potato will absorb some of the salt and make the soup more palatable.
Remove the potato and proceed to serve.
The potato trick has saved at least three iterations of my oversalted chicken soup, and that’s just this year. And I oversalt food often enough, especially if I’m feeling rushed.
22. LET GARLIC REST AFTER MINCING
Garlic is another case where understanding the science makes the tip easier to remember. When you crush or chop garlic cells, they release an enzyme (alliinase) that produces a sulfur-containing compound (allicin) responsible for the distinctive aroma and flavor of garlic.
That chemical process takes place over about 10 minutes.
Bottom line: Garlic tastes more flavorful the longer you allow it to rest after chopping. So now I know why I’ve been mincing the garlic before anything else whenever I cook.
It’s to allow it to rest.
23. KEEP A PARMESAN RIND IN THE FREEZER
The rind of Parmesan, or any good-quality hard cheese, is delicious to cook with. Add it to soups or stews or simmer it in tomato sauces.
It will lend a piquant richness to anything you add it to. It won’t necessarily melt away; think of it as an aromatic seasoning.
Old-school Italian chefs were too thrifty to throw away cheese rinds, so why should we? Save them in a freezer bag.
24. ADD BUTTER AT THE VERY END
Have you ever wondered what makes restaurant-tasting food taste, well, restaurant-y? Chances are one of those things is finishing with a knob of cold butter.
To do this, take the pan of risotto or pan sauce or sautéed vegetables off the heat and stir in a pat of cold butter. This will lend a sheen to the food and mellow the overall flavor.
My teenagers describe it thusly: It’s like those fancy restaurants add butter to everything. We call it “adding a little butter at the end”; the French have a term for this technique, too: “monter au beurre.” Either way, you’ll be able to describe it when someone asks why your food tastes so darned good.
In the scheme of things, that’s a lot of tips and tricks, but they’re all things that have been around forever. It’s amazing how many of our grandmothers’ ways of doing things still work.
But some tricks from Grandma’s day stuck around because they’re awesome. And because professional chefs use them.
And because you already have everything you need to use them. Not all tips and tricks from Grandma’s day are worth resurrecting, as some are outdated only because better options have arisen, but some tricks from another era exist for another reason: lack of better options.
We’ve collected some grandma-approved, chef-endorsed tips and tricks, including saving your pasta water, wielding the mighty rubber band, and never throwing away a parmesan rind again, that you should incorporate into your regular cooking rotation as soon as humanly possible. Pick two or three that sound interesting, implement them into your cooking.
Of course, no one will be the wiser as to why your food is so tasty—it’ll just be a mystery. So, when asked about the sudden improvement in your cooking, we suggest you credit your improved culinary prowess to nothing more than cooking more often.
Save your secrets.