25 Cooking Tips And Tricks That Every Home Cook Needs To Know

Cooking is an incredibly fun and rewarding activity that anyone can learn. With the internet, you have access to an endless supply of tips and tricks to help you along your journey. We’ve made a list of 25 things every home cook should know. Learn how to improve your cooking skills and techniques with these tips!

1. Put salt in your spaghetti water. People claim that salt helps your water boil. This is actually not the case. You won’t be using enough salt to affect your cooking at all. What is the real reason for adding salt to your pasta water? Well, in Culinary class, my Chef would always say “Salt everything!” and he meant it! Which included, salting any water we put into a pot. The reason why it's a good idea to salt your pasta water is to season your pasta! That pasta is soaking up all that water, without salt your pasta is going to taste bland. It's recommended to have 1-2 tablespoons of salt per every 4-5 quarts of water when making pasta. If you want to kick it up a notch and add more flavor to your pasta, try adding some peppercorns, onions, fresh herbs, and/or other seasonings to your pasta water!

2. Learn how to peel hard-boiled eggs easier. Making hard-boiled eggs is pretty easy, but for many people, it's the peeling part that really stumps them. What is the best method to use in order to get your hard-boiled eggs to peel easier? Start with room-temperature eggs. Most people take their eggs right out of the fridge and pop them into boiling water. Unfortunately, cold eggs will crack in hot water. That extra-hot shock to the egg’s shell is going to cause the inside membrane to fuse with the shell making it harder to peel that egg. It won’t take long to bring your eggs to room temperature. All you’ll have to do is take them out of the fridge before you get the pot of water ready. After placing your eggs on the counter, you can continue to fill up your pot with water and put it on the stove to start heating it up. Once your pot of water is boiling, your eggs should be just about room-temperature.

3. Salt liberally. You’ve probably seen this mentioned in a recipe before “Liberally season with salt” which just simply means, “Use more salt than you normally would.” The question I’m sure some of you have is, why add so much salt to my food? Well, salt is helping to enhance the flavor of your food by enhancing the sweetness and covering up any bitterness. Salt makes everything taste better!

4. Know your proteins’ ideal cooking temperatures. Imagine you are cooking some chicken that a recipe says will only take about 20 minutes in the oven. You pull it out and cut into it, but it's not cooked all the way on the inside! We’ve all been there, even me. The thickness of your chicken can cause your cooking times to be longer than what is directed in your recipe. The easiest way to fix this problem is to buy a meat thermometer! You’ll want to either memorize or print out a chart for protein cooking temperatures. No more cutting into raw meat because you’ll know exactly when your protein is finished cooking or if it needs a few more minutes in the oven!

5. Finish with butter. After cooking up a great meal, topping it off with some butter will get everyone in the house excited for dinner! That creamy butter is going to melt and mix with all your spices and flavors, which will send some amazing aromas wafting through your home. For certain dishes, finishing with butter can do other things! With sauces, adding butter will give your sauce a shine. Adding butter on top of meat or veggies can help retain juices making for more flavorful and juicer food. Next time you cook up a juicy steak, try adding some butter on top after cooking!

6. Sear meat on your stovetop first, then finish it in the oven. This is actually an essential step for making some of the best-flavored meat dishes! Searing your meat caramelizes the natural sugar and creates a delicious brown crust on the outside, which really boosts the flavor! Finish cooking in the oven and make sure to let your meat rest before cutting into it.

7. Store potatoes with an apple to prevent them from sprouting. As easy as that! Place an apple into a bag of potatoes when you store them. This will extend the life of your potatoes and prevent them from sprouting for a bit longer. You might not want to eat that apple later on, because apples can absorb odors from potatoes.

8. Store your garlic with onions to keep rodents at bay. This is a nifty little trick to keep pests away from your pantry, and produce! Onions naturally help keep bugs away, and the strong odor of garlic helps to keep rodents away! Two natural pest repellers, because their scents are too overwhelming! I don’t blame them, onions are my least favorite thing to work with but I do love eating them in my favorite dishes!

9. Chill raw meat before cutting. Here’s a good way to make cutting raw meat easier for you! Place your raw meat in the freezer for between 30 minutes to an hour. This will firm up your meat and make it easier to cut. Especially great for chicken, in my experience because otherwise, it's so squishy and sometimes slippery to cut.

10. Room-temperature butter makes better cakes. Recipes, especially when baking, will call for room-temperature or “softened” butter. When butter is at room temperature, it’s able to hold air, making it easier to cream. This causes your batters to be creamy rather than liquidy, which you would get with melted butter. Creamy batter will make a light and fluffy dessert, whereas a liquidy batter will create a dense, brownie-like texture. So remember to read your recipe and pull out butter when you need it!

11. Make sure to read the entire recipe first. Speaking of reading the entire recipe first, that is exactly what we are talking about next! Reading your recipe before starting a dish will help make sure you are fully prepared. Within the recipe, it will note how each ingredient should be prepared, what equipment you might need, and what techniques you’ll be using. I’ve done this before, fresh after moving, and was all ready to use a recipe when I realized it called for a blender and I didn’t have it unpacked yet! It happens to all of us. Without reading the recipe you won’t know if you need to have room-temperature eggs or butter. Some recipes call for items and equipment that not everyone has the luxury to own. Some people don’t have a meat tenderizer, a zester, a mixer, a crockpot, or an air fryer. It's good to know if you are capable or prepared for a recipe you are planning to use.

12. Know how to quickly soften your cream cheese. There are a few ways to soften your cream cheese when you need it. You can soften cream cheese by removing it from the packaging, placing it into a small bowl, and microwaving in 30-second increments until softened. Another way that people seem to prefer is to get a bowl of warm water and place your sealed package of cream cheese into the bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes and flip, and let sit again for another 5 minutes.

13. Always add a little lemon juice to your avocado bowl. Yes! Please do this! The citrus method. It's just a simple way to help keep your avocado from turning brown too quickly. When air touches the surface of your avocado it will start to turn brown. The juice from the lemon creates a barrier between the avocado and the air keeping it fresher for longer. Add ½ a teaspoon per avocado!

14. When baking chocolate chip cookies, use dark brown sugar. Swapping out your white sugar with brown sugar won’t change the sweetness of your cookie but it will give you a chewier cookie texture. Making your cookies this way, you’ll be in cookie heaven from now on.

15. Place your eggs in water to test their freshness. Did you know that you can test your eggs to tell if they are still good or not? Place your eggs in a glass of water. If your eggs sink to the bottom, they are still good to eat! If your eggs float to the top, throw them away! No more questioning your eggs are still good, for those of you who don’t eat them very quickly. You can just test them and feel more at ease!

16. Always wash your rice. You might have heard this a lot and might have even seen Tiktoks about it. The biggest reason to wash your rice is to wash away any leftover starch. That extra starch left on your rice will greatly affect the dish you’re making. Starch can make your rice sticky and gooey, not exactly the texture you want. Remember to always wash your rice!

17. Cook your herbs in a loose bundle. This is known as a “Bouquet Garni” which is the French term for a Garnished Bouquet. Everything sounds better in French! Bundling up your herbs and throwing them into the pot while you’re cooking can enhance the flavor of your meal. This makes it easier to remove if you don’t plan to keep the herbs in your food. I personally don’t like to eat Rosemary, but I still like the flavor. So I’ll keep a bundle of Rosemary in the pan while I cook chicken and remove the herb bundle after. This method works great for making stocks, soups, sauces, or anything with liquid which includes the leftover oil or butter in a pan like when you pan-fry protein and veggies.

18. Marinate meat in resealable plastic bags. Marinating your meat will add more flavor to it. This can be a messy process but I’ve found that plastic bags that seal up, especially double-zipper bags, are a quick and easy way to keep your clean-up to a minimum. If you happen to be environmentally conscious, you can also buy washable bags that go right into the dishwasher! As long as you have a good way to deal with the leftover liquid inside. Those of us using disposable bags can remove our meat, seal the liquid back up in the bag and toss it out! Using bags to marinate meat can ensure the meat can soak in the liquid using less marinade and produces less food waste.

19. Use cooking spray when measuring sticky substances. I’m sure you’ve noticed when measuring sticky substances like honey, shortening, or peanut butter that they tend to stick to the measuring cup. A quick hack for this is to spray the measuring cup with cooking oil to help the substance slide out easier. This way you also waste less of your ingredient and make sure it all makes it into the bowl. Cleanup will be easier as well because your measuring cup won’t be full of sticky honey! I like to use this method when making cupcakes and muffins!

20. Add milk to scrambled eggs. For creamy and fluffy eggs, add a little bit of milk to your egg mixture before cooking it up! This is my favorite way to make scrambled eggs. We won’t talk about the fact that I’m one of those weird people who puts ketchup on their eggs sometimes (Don’t knock it till you try it!)

21. Give your homemade tomato sauce some Italian restaurant flair. Sugar cuts out the acidic taste in your tomato sauce and helps balance out the flavors. This may even seem like something Americans would do; however, this is an Italian thing! Most Americans don’t even know this hack. I would suggest adding one teaspoon at a time and make sure to taste as you go!

22. If a recipe calls for butter, use salted butter. Unless it specifically calls for unsalted butter or you have dietary restrictions on salt, use salted butter! Salted butter will add the balanced flavor you’d be looking for, unlike unsalted butter. You also won’t be stuck adding a ton of salt to bring out your flavors. My default butter is always salted. Personally, I use Kerrygold butter, an Irish butter from grass-fed cows. Another one I tend to use when I can is Cabot butter because I grew up using that where I was raised, in Vermont. I’ve only used Kerrygold butter since moving south to North Carolina and Florida, where my friends insisted I try it out. (I was also introduced to Duke's mayonnaise while living in North Carolina which I will also need to blog about at some point!)

23. Roast your vegetables to get more flavor out of them. What happens when you roast your vegetables? Magic. Not only do you get a delicious taste but roasting will provide minimal nutrient loss and it's easy to do! Roasting will bring out all the natural sugars in your vegetables and help to provide a deeper flavor. If you learn how to caramelize your vegetables, you will have even more flavor and sweetness! A quick and easy way to do this is to cut up your selected vegetables, toss them in your favorite cooking oil and dump them onto a sheet pan. Roast them in a preheated oven at 400° for about 35 minutes.

24. When making grilled cheese, use this trick. Something new to try if you haven't already! Buttering the inside of your bread will add more flavor to the inside of your grilled cheese. Now as for the mayo, you’ll want to put this on the outside of your grilled cheese and this will give you a beautiful golden brown color along with an amazing crunch. Slap that into a buttery pan and you’ll have a brand new experience with grilled cheese. It might be your new favorite way to prepare your grilled cheese from now on! This is my go-to every time.

25. Know which salt to use. We are going to talk about three different salts and what they are best used for. With further research, you can find more ways to use these salts and all the benefits of each of them, but this is just a quick rundown for you. Kosher salt has wider and coarser grains. This salt has a more intense taste and is best used for seasoning meats and vegetables before or after. Pink Himalayan salt is on the healthier side of salt. Pink salt, as it's also known, has less sodium but higher calcium, potassium, magnesium, and iron. This salt is best in sauces and marinades. Sea Salt is less processed than table salt, making it another healthier option. This salt is best sprinkled on desserts or chocolate.

Congratulations if you already know all the helpful kitchen tips and tricks I just shared! There’s nothing like having the confidence to create a delicious meal with ease. But if you’re still in the learning process, don’t worry! There are plenty more kitchen hacks and tricks to learn. Keep an eye on my blog for more useful advice. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, I’m sure you’ll find something interesting to try out in the kitchen. Bon Appetit!