Over the years, I’ve run into a few things that weren’t immediately-obvious to me.
One of the big ones was eating pomegranates by opening them underwater. For those not familiar, pomegranates have a lot of red seeds and white husk between them:
Cutting a pomegranate or even opening a pomegranate tends to burst at least some seeds. The seeds are sticky and stain and tend to spray juice when pierced.
However, if you just cut through the outer hull of the fruit, then open it by hand underwater in a bowl of water, any juice that would have sprayed out is just grabbed by the water. Even better, the (inedible) white husk floats, so it self-separates instead of sticking to everything.
Today, I decided to try eating a watermelon with a spoon. In the past, that’s tended to also make things spray, so I tried a grapefruit spoon, one with serrations that runs down the side. And that works great – the spoon is like a knife, can go more-cleanly through the watermelon than a regular spoon, and still lets you scoop up the watermelon.
Any other neat tips that might be unorthodox or that people might not have tried or know about?
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If you put grapes in the freezer they won’t completely freeze. Their frozen texture is like a slushie and they’re perfect for the summer.
You can sprinkle instant coffee over foods, like you do with salt and pepper, to make them slightly bitter. It goes great with sweet things based on milk or fruits.
We all know the spork existed, and I’ve speculated for years that a spife must also exist
I’m glad to know I was right all along
What about a spornife?
Using scissors to cut crumbly buns or croissants, or a pizza
Cutting pizza with scissors is weird.
There’s some sort of scissors for cooking, cutting chicken and stuff, that has a name that I forget. “Cooking shears”?
kagis
Kitchen shears.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kitchen+shears
I don’t use them, but they are a thing.
Watermelon rinds and citrus peels are perfectly edible and tasty once candied, so don’t waste them. If you’re into booze, dump the citrus peels into vodka, wait a month, then mix the vodka half-and-half with syrup. (I know that this is technically not a food eating trick, but still - waste not, want not.)
You can also bake an entire lemon, peel, pith and all and it comes out sweet and tender. Wrap it tightly in foil so none of the juice escapes then bake until the whole thing is soft. It cooks well on the side of a BBQ too. Goes well with ice-cream.
I can do things with hotdogs that could possibly help in a hotdog eating competition. But that’s not what I usually use it for.
‘Fry’ mushrooms in a bit of water before adding oil. They wil turn beautifully golden brown.
Got this one from Adam Ragusea
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OPJmJdStvwIFirst off, that’s not frying - it’s “sweating” or “steaming.” Braising is similar, but is normally reserved for meat.
Second, not all mushrooms take well to this. Some you want to cook off the extra water by dry roasting them on the skillet/pan.
If you enjoy eating snack foods with lots of food dye powder (mmmm hot Cheetos), but hate the fact that it stains your fingers, eat them with chopsticks. No mess on your fingers.
If you struggle with your sandwich/burger innards sliding out of the bread/bun when you take a bite, wrap the innards in lettuce like a taco; place in between the bread/buns with the bottom of the “taco” away from the side you’re eating. The lettuce should help keep the sandwich/burger from falling out of the bun.
I eat most things with chopsticks, so it’s a no-brainer to extend that to snack foods.
The chopsticks one was a game changer for me. Helps with mindful eating/portion control, too (until you get good enough with the chopsticks, anyway).
Opening a banana from the bottom up, it’s so much easier.
And the “bottom” is actually the top because banana grow “up”
Banana bottoms, what’s on a Monkeys mind…
The whole kiwi is edible
Even the beak and feathers?
Even when they say to eat an Aussie instead?
Well, nearly all. The hard disc bit at the one end isn’t really.
I personally don’t like the texture of kiwi skins. Even thinking about it is giving me the ick.
Get one that uses the right skin products, duh!
I’m very responsive to onions. If my SO isn’t around, I’ll use either my motorcycle helmet or swim goggles to cut one up.
I understand that water reacts with it too – that is, the gas that it releases reacts with the water in your eye, so if it reacts somewhere else, that’d be better. I’ve seen a recommendation to cut it under water. That seems like too much trouble for me, but I at some point in the past, I did start quickly rinsing the onion after the first cut so that there’s water on the onion and knife and cutting board, and it does seem to significantly reduce the impact; it’s never really been a problem since then.
kagis
https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/59688/why-does-cutting-onions-cause-tears
Propanethial-S-oxide is the major cause of the flavor and aroma of onion. However, it is a volatile compound i.e. vaporizes very quickly.
when propanethial-S-oxide comes in contact with cornea, a small amount of it reacts with water to form sulfuric acid. This sulfuric acid is the cause of itching and irritation in eyes due to onion.
Looking elsewhere, I also see a couple recommendations to chill the onion in a refrigerator prior to cutting it, and several webpages saying that it worked well for them.
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/how-to-cut-onions-without-crying
I left the onion in the refrigerator for 24 hours and then peeled and chopped it like usual. No tears! No burning! I cut the entire onion without needing to grab a tissue. While I felt a slight irritation in my eyes towards the very end, overall it was painless. I was surprised this method worked so well since onions aren’t a produce item that generally need to be refrigerated. However, if it helps prevent blubbering, I’m all for it.
I’m not sure what’s going on here. I saw one page that said that it makes the gas coming off the onion cooler, so it drops away from your eyes. Not sure if that’s the actual mechanism, and I’ve never done it myself.
Some people may plan ahead well enough to be able to refrigerate their onions in advance of needing to chop them; I’m not really that organized, myself.
Yeah, the water thing just doesn’t work. You dice onion on a cutting board, not in a sink.
The other tricks take more effort than grabbing my helmet.
I usually cut them near a window, with a fan blowing towards me. It’s not perfect, but anything to have less of the gas reach your face helps.
No window near the kitchen.
Tuck a damp towel into your collar.
The scent molecules are polar and will stick to the water molecules in the towel.
Then I have a damp towel to deal with and a damp shirt.
Cut of the top of the pomegranate to see where the white “walls” between the five sections are, then cut through the skin vertically along those walls. The fruit can now be pulled apart easily into five sections that are much easier to handle so you can strip the arils from the pith gently without breaking them.
Eating green salads with chopsticks is a game-changer.
The best way to eat grapefruit is not with a spoon: rather, cut it into wedges across the segments then stick the whole wedge in your mouth and pull the flesh out from between the tough interstitial fibers with your teeth.
Is it illegal to eat the interstitial fibers of grapefruits? I just can them into rough slices with a knife and shove those wholesale into my mouth. 😅
While not a food eating trick, chopsticks are also great when you’re deep-frying food - they allow you to firmly hold it for flipping, without piercing it or spooning oil.
Also great for whisking if you don’t have or can’t find a real whisk.
I use the spoon method for pomegranates.
For watermelon, I like to slice it in a grid with a knife before using a spoon to eat it. Then I don’t need a special spoon with serrations.
Some will call this blasphemous - If you want to eat spaghetti without having to slurp up noodles and get the sides of your mouth and potentially your shirt stained, use a fork and spoon. Slice the spaghetti buy crisscrossing it, scoop into the spoon, then put it in your mouth. Probably only do this at home and not at a dinner party.
Simply break it into little pieces before cooking it. Bonus points if you do it in front of an Italian.
Or learn to twist the spaghetti with your fork against the spoon. It took me all of about ten minutes to learn that.
I don’t use a spoon, but I do twist it on the plate or bowl to get a “ball” of spaghetti (or linguini or angel hair).
That works as well, but it’s harder to direct in my experience. The fork+spoon method of twirling just works best for me.
Well, when I’m in Canada. Here I eat noodles with chopsticks.
I break spaghetti in half before cooking
