13. USE A SCALE FOR BAKING
There are two reasons to use a precise scale when baking: accuracy and efficiency.
Using volumetric cup measures is extremely inaccurate for compressible foods like flour. Depending on your scooping or sifting method, a cup of flour can weight anywhere between four and six ounces. That's a difference of 50 percent! With a scale, on the other hand, you know that your cup of flour is exactly the same time after time, giving you better, more consistent results. On Serious Eats, our standard cup conversion is five ounces of all-purpose flour per cup.
A scale will also save you clean up! Rather than using different cups to measure out every ingredient, just place a bowl on your scale, and measure directly into the work bowl as you go. For instance, when making a pizza dough, I know I can add 1 kilogram of flour, 700 grams of water, 25 grams of salt, and 10 grams of yeast and have a dough that will behave exactly as I expect it to, all with only a single bowl to clean.
14. THE MICROPLANE IS YOUR FRIEND
Microplane graters are great for taking zest off of citrus fruit. They're also great for grating ginger. They're great for grating garlic (I haven't owned a garlic press in years). They're great for creating a blanket of grated cheese over your pasta or pizza. They're great for grating whole nutmeg. They're just great. You can be great too, but you'll need a microplane to get there.
15. MAKE YOUR VINAGRETTES IN SQUEEZE BOTTLES
How do I ensure that I get enough salads in my diet? By always having some great dressing on hand in a ready-to-dress squeeze bottle in the fridge door. The easiest way to do this is to write the recipe directly on the side of a squeeze bottle, drawing lines for each ingredients. Whenever I run out, I don't even have to pull out my measuring spoons or cups.
For instance, to make my Soy-Balsamic Vinaigrette, I add some garlic, chopped shallot, dijon mustard, and a pinch of salt and pepper to the bottom of the bottle, then fill the canola oil to line one, the extra virgin olive oil to line two, the balsamic to line three, the sherry vinegar to line four, and soy sauce to the top. Put the lid on, shake it up, and we're ready to get dressed.
16. BUY DELI CONTAINERS WITH MATCHING LIDS
I used to have storage anxiety. Every time I opened up my tupperware cabinet, I knew I'd be faced with a baffling array of containers in all shapes and sizes, none of which would have a matching lid. But no more. These days, I order inexpensive packages of plastic deli-style containers in three different sizes (half pint, pint, and quart) to take care of 90 percent of my storage needs. It's easy to see what's inside them, they're flexible, which makes them great makeshift pourers and funnels, they stack super-efficiently, they're dishwasher safe and reusable, they have tight-fitting tops, and best of all, provided you stick with one brand, they all use the exact same lid.
I go with Reditainer Deli Food Containers with Lids, which cost under 50¢ apiece.
17. TASTE MEATLOAF, MEATBALL, AND SAUSAGE MIXTURES BEFORE YOU SHAPE THEM
[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]
There might be worse things than spending the time to make a full-blown meatloaf only to discover that it doesn't have enough salt in it, but I can't think of any off hand.
Here's the trick: when making meatloaf, sausage, or meatballs, take a small chunk of your mixture and fry it in a skillet (or even faster, microwave it for 10 to 15 seconds) and taste. Adjust seasoning levels in the mixture accordingly.
18. PARTIALLY FREEZE MEAT BEFORE CUTTING
[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Slicing meat to grind or cook in a stir-fry can be tricky even with a sharp knife. To make it easier, place the meat in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes to stiffen it up.
19. KEEP YOUR KNIVES SHARP
Serious Eats Sweets Site Editor Carrie says that sharp knives are her jam. Having sharp knives is not only safer (your knife is less likely to slip off a vegetable and into your finger), but it just makes cooking so much more pleasurable when you can fly through your slicing, dicing, and chopping tasks.
For most home cooks, sharpening should be done once or twice a year. If you're up for the task, you can get yourself some stones and do it yourself, though most folks will opt to take their knives to a professional. Whatever you do, don't use those awful electric grinding machines which will strip off far more metal than is necessary, wearing your knife down and shortening its useful lifespan.
Even with a sharp knife, you'll want to hone the blade by stroking it across a steel to align any microscopic dings and bends before each use.
20. SAVE YOUR PARMESAN RINDS
Save your Parmesan rinds (or any hard cheese rind) after you finish off the cheese and store it in a sealed bag in the freezer. It can be used to add intense flavor to broths, soups, and stews by adding it to the simmering liquid for 20 to 30 minutes, like in this 30-Minute Pasta and Bean Soup.
21. USE MOZZARELLA OR FETA LIQUID AS THE BASE FOR PASTA SAUCE
Here's one from Serious Eats Overlord Ed:
I discovered a great kitchen shortcut the other night on the Vineyard: using the water some feta cheese comes in as the base of a cheesy sauce for pasta. You pour the water in from the container into the same pot you used to make the pasta while it's still hot, put in little pieces of cheese (I used feta and goat), and presto, you've got a winner of a pasta sauce. Adding a few raw in-season cherry tomato halves and/or some fresh corn kernels shaved off the cob to the cheese sauce and you've got something seriously delicious.
22. STORE GREENS AND HERBS WITH A DAMP PAPER TOWEL
Don't you hate it when you open up the vegetable drawer and spot that plastic produce bag at the bottom that's filled with green slime that used to be herbs? You can extend the lifespan of washed herbs and greens by several days by rolling them up in damp paper towels and placing them in zipper-lock bags with the seals left slightly open.
The paper towels will even give you a built-in freshness indicator. At the first hint of decay, you'll see darker spots of liquid forming on the paper towels. This is a good sign that you should use up your herbs and greens within a day or two.
For chopped or picked herbs, store them in a small deli container with a folded up damp paper towel on top of them.
23. DON'T BE AFRAID OF SALT, BUT DON'T FORGET THE ACID
Oopsie. [Photograph: Jiri Hera/Shutterstock]
We all know that restaurant food tastes great because chefs season things with salt at every stage of the process. You should be doing this at home too!
But here's another secret: balancing acid is just as important as getting salt levels right when it comes to making things delicious. A squeeze of lemon juice in your sautéed vegetables will brighten them up (try them in mushrooms with a dash of soy sauce and you'll have the mushroomiest-tasting mushrooms you've ever tasted). A dash of vinegar can alter your soup or stew from heavy and leaden to fresh and flavorful. I keep several different types of acid on hand at all times—lemons, limes, white vinegar, red wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, and rice wine vinegar for starters—and use them judiciously when the occasion calls for it.
24. USE EGG SHELLS TO REMOVE EGG SHELLS
The empty half of an egg shell is the best tool to extract stubborn bits of cracked shells that have ended up in the bowl. As Niki says, "They're like magnets!"
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