Food Hacks

[Kromm]

I'll start. 

Eating Takis (actually right now the Doritos Takis competitor, Dinamita) with chopsticks. 

Yes I know it sounds ridiculous, but I despise getting that red dust everywhere on my hands, face, countless napkins, sink water handles, etc. And I'm very good with chopsticks. 

For the record, next time I buy them I may try this with crunchy cheetos/cheese doodles, especially with the flamin' hot versions. 

Don't mock me!  (heh) 

 

Your food hacks? 

[biakbiak]

I use chopsticks in the kitchen for a lot of cooking tasks but I have never eaten a takis (or Cheetos for that matter) because I am not much of a snacker but chopsticks are so very useful! 

Using a fine mesh strainer to pick thyme and other herbs is a real game changer!

[larapu2000]

Not really a food hack, more of a technique.

Use your fingers to separate egg yolks and whites.  Not a water bottle.  Not the shell.  Use your soft fingers instead of hard edges that can break the yolks.  I got that from Sara Moulton, circa 2000.

[Spunkygal]

On 5/6/2021 at 10:20 AM, larapu2000 said:

Not really a food hack, more of a technique.

Use your fingers to separate egg yolks and whites.  Not a water bottle.  Not the shell.  Use your soft fingers instead of hard edges that can break the yolks.  I got that from Sara Moulton, circa 2000.

Yes, I copied that from my mom! Hands are our best tools!

[Nicmar]

On 5/1/2021 at 11:39 AM, Kromm said:

I'll start. 

Eating Takis (actually right now the Doritos Takis competitor, Dinamita) with chopsticks. 

Yes I know it sounds ridiculous, but I despise getting that red dust everywhere on my hands, face, countless napkins, sink water handles, etc. And I'm very good with chopsticks. 

For the record, next time I buy them I may try this with crunchy cheetos/cheese doodles, especially with the flamin' hot versions. 

Don't mock me!  (heh) 

 

Your food hacks? 

I pour Cheetos on a plate and eat it with a fork. I too hate Cheeto dust on my fingers. 😐

[Gramto6]

On 10/21/2021 at 7:34 AM, Nicmar said:

I pour Cheetos on a plate and eat it with a fork. I too hate Cheeto dust on my fingers. 😐

LOL I pour Cheetos in a small bowl and use the pointy end of a flosser to stab them so I can keep my hands clean.

[annzeepark914]

These Cheeto-eating techniques remind me of the Seinfeld episode in which someone started a "fad" of eating Snickers with a knife & fork. But I have to admit--getting all that cheesy, sticky powder on my hands *is* annoying 😖

[Bastet]

My cat would kill me if I employed any of those techniques; she loves getting to lick the cheese dust off my fingers.

[MargeGunderson]

My dearly departed cat love to eat Cheetos. Usually she would eat the whole thing but sometimes she would just lick all of the cheese off. 

[Mondrianyone]

A hack that actually works!

On 3/1 (more than a week ago) we did the grocery pickups, which included a bunch of avocados. Out of eight, two of them were somewhat far along, so I gave them to my husband to eat pretty much right away. I told him I was doing an experiment with the other six. I'd been sent an email hack (I forget from where) saying that avocados will keep for a crazy long time if you store them in the fridge in a decanter of cold water (my decanter was just a pitcher). He's always giving me a hard time about letting them go to get rotten before I use them. So he'd been forewarned and wasn't to nag me if the experiment didn't work. Because . . . science.

Anyway, we just made guacamole, and all the avocados were perfect. The hack worked better than I could've expected! You have to be brave to try it, 'cause that's a lot of green, in both senses, but I'm here to swear that this is a real thing.

You're welcome.  🥑

[Mondrianyone]

Update on the Avocado Project: There are two from the original batch of eight still floating in the fridge, and the poke test tells me they're in great shape. This makes eleven days, which is practically a miracle. It's hard to believe that this harebrained idea really works. I can't decide whether to eat them or leave them to see how much longer they'll last.  🥑🥑

[chessiegal]

5 hours ago, Mondrianyone said:

I can't decide whether to eat them or leave them to see how much longer they'll last.  🥑🥑

I'd use one and keep the other to see how long they last.

[Mondrianyone]

Yep, I think one will be giving its life for lunch today and the other will continue to float for a while.

[larapu2000]

On 3/12/2022 at 10:03 AM, Mondrianyone said:

Yep, I think one will be giving its life for lunch today and the other will continue to float for a while.

I truly appreciate your scientific approach, and your non-influencer status to give us the most accurate results!!  This is crazy awesome.  I am queen of the rotten avocadoes.  So much so that I have gotten to a point where I just buy them the day of or before because I don't trust myself, lol.

[Mondrianyone]

The final verdict is that this system will keep avocados in close-to-perfect condition for two whole weeks. It's wonderful.

But no trying to swipe my crown as queen of the rotten avocados. I'll fight you for that.  I've killed far too many of them to give up so easily.

[TattleTeeny]

I just read this:

Quote

"The FDA does not recommend this practice," an FDA spokesperson tells Well+Good. "The main concern is with the possibility that any residual human pathogens—like Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp.—that may be residing on the avocado surface, may potentially multiply during the storage when submerged in water." 

But is this even a big deal if you wash the avocados first?

Whoops -- ETA:

Quote

In addition to that initial concern (Listeria! Salmonella!), the FDA spokesperson also notes that even giving the 'cado a good scrub when you're ready to chow down won't necessarily get rid of the harmful bacteria. "Research performed by FDA scientists has shown that Listeria monocytogenes has the potential to infiltrate and internalize into the pulp of avocados when submerged in refrigerated dump tanks within 15 days during refrigerated storage. In this case, even surface disinfecting the avocado skin prior to slicing would not be able to remove the contamination," the FDA says.

https://www.wellandgood.com/storing-avocados-in-water/

Damn it! I am sorry if I wrecked the fun -- I was elated to learn of this!

Edited May 19, 2022 by TattleTeeny

[Mondrianyone]

I'm deeply offended at having my refrigerator referred to as a "dump tank."

(A) I use them before 15 days. (B) Here I am, after doing three batches of them, healthy as a horse. Or maybe a burro. But if you're concerned, don't try it.

[TattleTeeny]

I still may! This just seems like a concern that could apply to a lot to stuff — and I bet some kind of authorities could find a similar possible scenario for just about anting we do in kitchens to make our lives easier.

Edited May 19, 2022 by TattleTeeny

[Boston]

I just made some chili.  It is WAAAAYYY too hot.  I only added chipotle peppers (thinking it would be just a smokey taste - wrong).  I added a dollop of sour cream in it.  but it could still blow your head off (tastes good though).  Does anyone know how to fix this?

[chessiegal]

3 minutes ago, Boston said:

I just made some chili.  It is WAAAAYYY too hot.  I only added chipotle peppers (thinking it would be just a smokey taste - wrong).  I added a dollop of sour cream in it.  but it could still blow your head off (tastes good though).  Does anyone know how to fix this?

Add potatoes.

[Boston]

15 minutes ago, chessiegal said:

Add potatoes.

Thank you.  I usually add potatoes if something is too salty.  Thanks.

[Blergh]

Cantaloupes: Thumping or shaking them to check for ripeness is largely  a futile exercise.

However, my late father taught me the trick that's had a 90+% success rate down the decades: pick it up and sniff the stem part- if that stem smells like a fresh,ripe cantaloupe, the fruit inside will also be that way. BUT if you can't smell anything, leave it be because it's almost always underripe.

[JustHereForFood]

52 minutes ago, Blergh said:

Cantaloupes: Thumping or shaking them to check for ripeness is largely  a futile exercise.

However, my late father taught me the trick that's had a 90+% success rate down the decades: pick it up and sniff the stem part- if that stem smells like a fresh,ripe cantaloupe, the fruit inside will also be that way. BUT if you can't smell anything, leave it be because it's almost always underripe.

I always smell them too, but didn't know it was supposed to be near the stem.

[chessiegal]

I've seen someone say smell the stem on tv. Jacques Pepin maybe? And I think it was press the stem area and smell.

[scriggle]

The smell test works for pineapples too.

[Gramto6]

On 7/3/2022 at 2:44 PM, scriggle said:

The smell test works for pineapples too.

If you can slip off a leaf easily off a pineapple it is usually ready too.

[Mondrianyone]

Okay, back to my perpetual obsession with keeping avocados fresh for an unnatural amount of time.

More than two years ago, I see, I posted about putting them in a pitcher of cold water in the fridge to keep them from rotting. It worked like a dream. And then someone posted that I was risking disease pathogens by doing this. I kept doing it for a while longer--because I'm stubborn and also never got sick as a result. I only stopped when I started getting annoyed at how much refrigerator space this hack was taking up.

Then I recently got an email from ATK about a different way to preserve them, so of course I tried it. The catch is that you have to have a vacuum sealer--which I do. You scrub the outsides of the avocados really well, dry them thoroughly, halve and pit them, then vacuum-seal them. I put two halves of each avocado into one vac bag and stuck them in the fridge. I think I sealed a total of seven. I bought them exactly two weeks ago, and it took me several days after purchase to seal them. Today we made guacamole with three of them, and they were all perfect. The advantage of the clear bags is that you can check on them as time passes and see if they're browning, which they weren't.

So unless somebody bursts my bubble by posting that you can catch mogo-on-the-gagogo (our household fictitious disease) from this practice, I'll keep doing it. I might even do it anyway.

[annzeepark914]

Well, if I read in the paper that someone has kicked the bucket due to an onset of mogo-on-the-gagogo, I'll know it was due to a germy avocado 😸. Actually, your system sounds interesting.

[chessiegal]

Vacuum sealing seems like a good solution to keeping avocadoes fresh to me. The enemy is oxygen. Vacuum sealing removes the oxygen as long as the seal holds.

[Mondrianyone]

11 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Well, if I read in the paper that someone has kicked the bucket due to an onset of mogo-on-the-gagogo, I'll know it was due to a germy avocado 😸. Actually, your system sounds interesting.

If anybody catches mogo-on-the-gagogo from anything, I'll pass out from the shock of it!

Also, please don't call it my system. I'm trying to avoid legal liability for this. Address all complaints and lawsuits to America's Test Kitchen. 🙉

[annzeepark914]

1 hour ago, Mondrianyone said:

If anybody catches mogo-on-the-gagogo from anything, I'll pass out from the shock of it!

Also, please don't call it my system. I'm trying to avoid legal liability for this. Address all complaints and lawsuits to America's Test Kitchen. 🙉

No worries! I really just wanted to use mogo-on-the-gagogo in a sentence 😏