Genius Kitchen Hacks You Wish You’d Known Sooner

Give your dishwasher, or your hands, a break next time by eliminating all those measuring tools. How? Measure your ingredients by weight instead of volume using a kitchen scale. You’ll only have a single bowl to wash!

For a much easier cleanup (and getting to use more of what you shred!), give your cheese grater a quick spritz of cooking spray first.

If cutting onions makes your eyes water, try chilling them first. If you stick them in the fridge or freezer for a few minutes before you start chopping, it might save you some tears. Chilling slows the release of irritating enzymes.

You can also doctor up a box cake to make it taste homemade. When looking at the directions, add one more egg than it calls for, replace water with milk, and then replace the oil with melted butter and double the amount.

If your tomato sauce has gotten too acidic, you don’t need to throw it out and start over. Peel a whole carrot and drop it into the sauce. Let the whole carrot simmer for a while, and then remove before serving. The carrot will balance the acidity with a subtle sweetness

Similarly, you can fix a soup that has gotten too salty, too. This time, you’ll want to slice an apple into wedges. Throw a few wedges into the soup and let it simmer for ten minutes or so. Remove the wedges before serving.

To help your salad last longer, add a dry paper towel to the bag with the lettuce leaves. It will help absorb extra moisture in the bag and keep it off of the lettuce. Replace the paper towel every day or so.

The ideal temperature for proofing bread varies depending on what kind of bread you are making – but if your kitchen is too cold or drafty, it won’t work very well for any of them. Use your oven to create a consistent environment. Leave the oven off, and place the dough on the middle rack. Then, put a baking dish of hot water on the bottom rack and shut the oven door.

We like to use a fork to get uniform slices without worrying about my fingers. Just stick the fork into the tomato, and slice between the tines.