Improve your kitchen skills

We have collated below some top kitchen tips to make you more efficient and productive in the kitchen. Some of the tips are very simple but could save you hours and make life so much easier for you.

• Kitchen Tip 1 – Fresh biscuits – Did you know that if you keep a piece of blotting paper at the bottom of the container, it will keep biscuits fresher for a longer time by absorbing any excess moisture?

• Kitchen Tip 2 – Hard lemons – If you need to squeeze a lemon or lime and it is a little too hard, put it in warm water for 5-10 minutes to make it easier to squeeze!

• Kitchen Tip 3 – Leftover wine – If you have some leftover wine at the end of an evening, why not freeze it in ice cube trays for easy addition to soups and sauces in the future!

• Kitchen Tip 4 – Container smells –  When storing empty airtight containers, throw in a pinch of salt to keep them from getting stinky.

• Kitchen Tip 5 – Stained containers – If you store food in plastic containers that never look the same afterwards then here is a quick tip. You can spray plastic containers with a little oil to avoid staining. Tomato based foods, chilli and curries are the worst offenders.

• Kitchen Tip 6 – Bamboo skewers – Like cooking kebabs? Soak bamboo skewers for 10-15 minutes in cold water before threading meat or vegetables to avoid the skewers burning in the oven

• Kitchen Tip 7 – Chopping boards and odours. Chopping boards do absorb odours from the likes of garlic and onion, so unless you want everything you chop tasting of them, keep a second board to hand that you use for everything else!

• Kitchen Tip 8 – Rice in the salt pot – If you’re fed up of banging the salt pot trying to get the salt out then there is a simple solution. Put some rice in the pot as well to help separate the salt. This makes it easier for the salt to be dispensed.

• Kitchen Tip 9 – Sticky drawers – Have you got a kitchen draw that’s a bit rickety? To help old wooden drawers that don’t have runners to open and close more smoothly, rub a candle on the tracks and your problems solved!

• Kitchen Tip 10 – Letting glasses and cups dry – If you’re like me, you’ll want to let time dry your glasses rather that having to do them by hand yourself. Many people will place glasses face down on work surfaces if they run out of draining board space. This is a bad mistake as the air inside the glass will go stale and when you move the glass and smell it, it will smell like a wet dog! If you do run out of space on your draining board, at least put a thick tea towel down first then put your glasses on there afterwards, the glasses will get some breathing space then.

• Kitchen Tip 11 –  Make your oven sparkle! –  Want an easy way to make your oven racks & shelves spark again?  The simple solution is to place the racks and shelves in the sink or in the bath if the sink is too small and soak them in the water. Then sprinkle in a good amount of automatic washing powder and leave them for a few hours. After a few hours have passed, rinse the water off of the racks and shelves & wipe away the grime as simple as putting a knife through butter.You’ll be amazed at how shiny they look and it will look like you spent hours scrubbing them clean.

• Kitchen Tip 12 –  Easy cheese grating – If you want to ensure that your block of cheese grates easily over the cheese grater then spray the grater first with a little cooking spray and the cheese will glide over it. This will also help stop your knuckles getting grated too!

• Kitchen Tip 13 –  BBQ fire lighters – If the sun ever comes back out then you can use this cool BBQ tip. Put all your old teabags in a glass container instead of throwing them away. Add some cooking oil to the container and let them soak. You now have excellent fire starters for your next BBQ.

• Kitchen Tip 14 –  Triangular kitchen layout – Plan your kitchen appliances in a triangular layout i.e. Cooker Sink Fridge. Keeping all of the above within 2 metres walking distance of each other. Its a good idea to place the oven at mid body level (or above) to avoid bending down too far.

• Kitchen Tip 15 –  Baby oil that kitchen – Use baby oil to buff up stainless steel. It always makes it streak free & new looking.

• Kitchen Tip 16 –  Lemon that fridge – Put half a lemon in the fridge to make it smell nice all the time! And use it to clean the microwave and surfaces.

• Kitchen Tip 17 –  Stubborn caps – To open stubborn caps and lids on kitchen items take a bottle opener and place end under the cap and slowly pry upward until you hear the air release and then open.

• Kitchen Tip 18 –  Stain remover – Remove stains on counter tops with lemons. Start by squeezing some lemon juice on the stain and scrubbing with a cloth. If that doesn’t work sprinkle with table salt and scrub gently.

• Kitchen Tip 19 –  Clean kitchen work surfaces – To keep kitchen surfaces looking like new just clean them with a little soapy water then dry off with clean towel and polish with some glass cleaner. works on kitchen tiles and sinks depending obviously on the kind of finish to the units.

• Kitchen Tip 20 –  Out of Brillo pads? – All out of Brillo pads? Stuck for something to get the burn off of the bottom of the saucepan or the grease stuck to the bbq grill? Then take the netting off of the onions and use it as a scrubber- not only is it environmentally friendly but its a brilliant scrubber!

• Kitchen Tip 21 –  Clean as you go! – Clean up as you go it keeps your kitchen clear and clean rather than spending hours doing it all at once!

• Kitchen Tip 22 –  Keep knifes sharp – Keep kitchen knives sharp as they need less effort in use and it should ensure less accidents. Apparently you can also sharpen knifes on the bottom of mugs!

• Kitchen Tip 23 –  Sink unblocker – If the sink gets blocked and the water doesn’t drain or drains slowly pour a bottle of white vinegar into the sink along with a good dose of bicarbonate of soda.

• Kitchen Tip 24 –  Steam mopping – Get a steam mop for mopping kitchen floors. It takes half the amount of time and the results are twice as good!

• Kitchen Tip 25 –  Milton teaspoons – Dissolve one Milton Tablet in hot water and add tea stained tablespoons soak for a while and all the tea stains will come off leaving teaspoons as good as new without the dangers of using bleach.

• Kitchen Tip 26 –  Freezer shortcuts – Keep handy shortcuts in the freezer. Our favourites are frozen mashed potato and a selection of pre-chopped herbs and spices available from the freezer section of most supermarkets. Having chopped chilli ginger and garlic in the freezer at all times means you always have a great basis for a curry without all the fiddly preparation.

• Kitchen Tip 27 –  Baked on grease – To remove baked on grease and food from the oven, simply cover the stains with bicarbonate of soda and leave overnight. Wipe clean the next day – stops a lot of the scrubbing otherwise needed!

• Kitchen Tip 28 –  Remove spots with vinegar – Stainless-steel saucepans can sometimes develop white cloudy spots on the surface. These are mineral deposits left after boiling water particularly hard tap water. Clean the pan with a little vinegar and warm water and the spots will easily wash away!

• Kitchen Tip 29 –  Tea lights – A small citronella tea light burning in the kitchen not only keeps flying insects away but also gets rid of cooking smells.

• Kitchen Tip 30 –  Coins in freezer bag – Fill a freezer bag full of water and add a few pennies in it to keep flys away. The light refractions from the water confuse the fly and it will come nowhere near you!

• Kitchen Tip 31 –  Smelly fingers – Get rid of the smell of onions and garlic after chopping them by wetting your fingers and hands and then rub them on some stainless steel. You can use the kitchen sink but a cold kettle or an kitchen implement such as a ladle will do. I didn’t believe it at first but it works a treat!

• Kitchen Tip 32 –  Peg fresh – Got a few spare pegs hanging around? Why not use some pegs to keep packets of crisps or cereals fresh by using them to seal the pack.

• Kitchen Tip 33 –  Clean smell free fridge – Clean your fridge with bicaronate of soda – it does all the work of bleach but leaves no smell!

• Kitchen Tip 34 –  Frozen Wax – Get unwanted candle wax of items by placing them in the freezer – the ‘frozen’ wax will then break off easily.

• Kitchen Tip 35 –  Easy clean oven – Always line the bottom of your gas oven with foil. This will then catch any spillages, dirt and grease and will half the cleaning time!

• Kitchen Tip 36 –  Peg it – During the Winter months your pegs may not see the light of day. If you want to put them to good use then you can use then to seal packets of cheese or anything else that claims to have a resealable mechanism that sometimes needs a little more sealing assistance:-) You might want to sterilize the pegs first though!

• Kitchen Tip 37 –  Tight Jars – If you are struggling to open a tightly sealed glass jar or bottle, put on a pair of rubber gloves to help you get more of a grip. If that fails, a gentle tap around the edge of the lid on a hard service helps to losen the lid by breaking the air tight seal.

• Kitchen Tip 38 –  Flower Power – Keep some small artificial flowers in your kitchen window and spray them lightly with a fragrance disinfectant to ward of all those lingering kitchen smells.

• Kitchen Tip 39 –  Perfect Bisto Gravy – Ever made gravy from Bisto gravy graduals and keep getting lumps in your gravy? The simple solution is to let the water in the kettle to cool down for 5 mins then make your gravy. Stir the slightly cooler water with the gravy graduals for about 20 seconds and you’ll have lump free gravy. Don’t just read it, try it!

• Kitchen Tip 40 –  Pots & Pots! – If you have just had mashed potatoes for dinner, always wash the pan, masher and sieve last. If you don’t then all your other pots, pans and plates will look washed but when they are dried you’ll see fragments of dried potato on everything and you’ll have to wash them all again!

• Kitchen Tip 41 –  Scrub with Salt – To clean a greasy pan, sprinkle salt in it before washing. The salt absorbs much of the grease.

• Kitchen Tip 42 –  Non Stick Syrup – If you like to bake a lot then this time will be very useful for you. When pouring syrup or oil into your mixtures, use a measuring cup that has just been rinsed out in hot water. The contents will pour our of the cup really easily and not stick.

• Kitchen Tip 43 –  Sour Pans – Never heard this one before but I have been told that when making sour dishes that you should not use non stick pans. The reason is that coating on the pan will be removed faster? Never mind the pans, what about your stomach lining:-) Alternatively you can put them in a microwave for a few seconds to warm them up. Whatever floats your boat really.

• Kitchen Tip 44 – Mustard Finger – Not sure if this is an old wife’s tale or not but if you burn your finger then you can put mustard straight onto it to bring out the pain. I’m not sure if this is a cure or just bringing out the pain quicker so that it lasts longer?

• Kitchen Tip 45 – Apple Absorbers – Did you know that apples absorb odours? The also make other fruit ripped quicker if place in the same pot as the apples give off something called Ethylene gas (flamable!) or for the scientists amongst you (C2H4 or H2C=CH2). Apparently it’s also a plant hormone, I wonder if the effects are transferable:-)

• Kitchen Tip 46 – Chicken Leftovers – If you don’t like wasting food then you probably boil the the remaining chicken carcase in water to get all the meat off of it. But, if you let the chicken cool in the broth that is left then the meat will fall off easily and the flavour in the chicken will be twice as strong.

• Kitchen Tip 47 – Perfect Eggs – When boiling eggs for your breakfast, place some salt in the water, bring it to the boil then put your eggs in there. The salt will prevent the eggs from cracking and you won’t have to content with fluffy white water!

• Kitchen Tip 48 – Sweet Smelling Kitchen – If you want to get rid of those pungent kitchen smells after you have finished cooking, simply put some orange peels and cinammon in saucepan and bring to the boil. The pleasant smells given off with remove the unpleasant ones and fill your room with a nice aroma.

• Kitchen Tip 49 – Easy Peel Garlic – To get the skin off a garlic clove, place it in a microwave for 10 seconds and the skin will peel straight off. You have to turn the microwave on though. Just placing the garlic in a microwave for 10 seconds won’t work:-)

• Kitchen Tip 50 – Coffee Cup Stains – If your coffee cups have turned browner than the coffee itself then there is a very simple solution. Place some bicarbonate of soda and water into the cups and leave them for the morning. When you come back to them, give them a quick wash and the coffee stains will be gone!

• Kitchen Tip 51 – Separated Noodles – To prevent noodles from sticking together on your plate, once they are ready to be served, drain the water from the pain away from them and rinse them quickly in cold water.

• Kitchen Tip 52 – Fresh Egg Check – To test the freshness of an egg, get a pan if salted water and place the egg into it. If the egg sinks, it is fresh. If the egg floats, you might not want to eat it:-)

• Kitchen Tip 53 – Electric beater – You may think you’re pretty good at beating/whisking and don’t feel the need to buy an electric whisker, but did you know that you need to be able whisk ~150 times a minute to keep up with it!

• Kitchen Tip 54 – Aging Eggs – Did you know that eggs placed in a fridge will age slower than if kept on a kitchen worktop? Some say that eggs will last up to 7 times longer if kept in a fridge! Probably best to look at the tip above though if your eggs have been sitting around for a long time!

• Kitchen Tip 55 – Frozen Chicken Prep – If you plan your meals ahead then the chances are that you are going to have some frozen chicken in the freezer. But, did you know that it’s loads easier to skin or cut chicken into pieces when it is slightly frozen? No? Well it is. Give it a go. Be warned though that you might freeze your fingers a little though.

• Kitchen Tip 56 – Separating Eggs – Some recipes require you to separate eggs, and we all know how tedious that can be! The simple solution is to break open all of your eggs into a big bowl and the scoop out the yolks with your clean hands afterwards.

• Kitchen Tip 57 – Perfect Marmite on Toast – If you want to stop the Marmite ripping your toast apart when spreading it then the simple solution is to spread the Marmite on the toast first then put the butter on afterwards. The Marmite sticks well to the toast and the butter then skims straight over it with ease. Give it a go!

• Kitchen Tip 58 – Spaghetti Lighter – Use a stick of spaghetti to light the wick of a candle so that you don’t burn your fingers trying to get the match low enough to light the wick

• Kitchen Tip 59 – Circular Reheating – When reheating food in a microwave, leave a circular space in the middle and the food will heat up more evenly

• Kitchen Tip 60 – Perfectly Round Fried Eggs – Want to cook a perfectly shaped round fried egg? Simply cut an onion in half then cut a 10mm section of onion from one end and then take one of the circles that comes from the onion. Place some oil in a frying pan, heat it up then put the onion circle in the frying pan then put the egg into the circle and fry for a little while to get a perfectly cooked round fried egg.

• Kitchen Tip 61 – Spring Onion Growing – Buy spring onions with roots, place them in an inch of water in a jar, and they will continue to grow.

• Kitchen Tip 62 – Streak Free Windows – To get streak free windows use vinegar and newspaper. It works a treat!

• Kitchen Tip 63 – Kitchen Pictures – To keep wall paint and plaster from chipping in the kitchen when hanging pictures, place a bit of tape on the wall where you’ll hammer in the nail.

• Kitchen Tip 64 – Grating Butter – We have all taken a block of butter out of the fringe with the intent on using it but the butter is that hard, not even a hammer leaves an impression! So, if you still want to use this butter then the easy solution is to grate it with a cheese grater! Just grate off the amount you need and then use it in your backing, mashed potatoes or even on your toast!

Submit your own kitchen tips

Do you have some kitchens tips that save loads of time or improve things around the kitchen? If so, let us know below and we’ll post them on here as well! Let us know your name and where you come from and we’ll credit you at the end of each tip!

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