“The Difference Is Insane”: People Reveal Their Best Cooking Hacks

That dish you make all the time from scratch that you've never measured anything for? Figure it out, write it down. We go through phases where we just don't care for our favorite foods as much, and don't make it for a few years. A decade later when you suddenly crave it, you want to be able to make it again. And when you die, your kids or grandkids will love having the recipe.

Asking chocolate cake of brownies? Add a touch of cinnamon. People will taste it but not recognize it. (My experience). It amps up the flavor.

Parmesan rind in your tomato sauces, stews, etc. It gives a little flavor boost. Anchovy paste cooked in with your aromatics is fantastic it gets nutty and delicious.

Took a cooking class with a chef who worked for the US Olympic team at the Bejing games. His instructions for pasta:

Salt the hell out of the pasta water. It should taste like seawater. The pasta will absorb some of that salt and taste amazing. Don’t bother with oil in the pot, the oil will float on top and not touch the pasta anyway.

Reserve a splash of pasta water for the sauce. It helps thicken it. But since it’s super salty, plan the salt in the sauce accordingly.

Don’t oil the pasta. You want the sauce to stick to the pasta and it’ll slide right off if you use oil. Select a good quality olive oil for a finishing touch. Good quality olive oil will taste grassy and peppery in the back of your throat.

Use salted butter in chocolate chip cookie recipes. Game changer!

Add food coloring to your food, or turmeric, to make people not want to eat your food when they see it in the fridge.

Unless you're my grandma, who saw a bright orangey yellow gloppy tuna salad in the fridge and went "Time to scoop this with my bare hand onto my baloney sandwich."

Don't be like grandma.

When making cakes, always sift the flour before mixing to make your cakes softer and smoother.

To make grilled chicken more tender and delicious, marinate the meat in salt water for about 30 minutes before grilling.

Use a meat thermometer. That stuff is expensive and you want it cooked just right.

Don’t rinse your raw meat! It’s actually a really good way to spray bacteria all over the place!

There’s a reason genuine San Marzano tomatoes are triple the cost of other canned tomatoes.

If you’re making quality sauce, buy them and don’t second guess it.

Cut fresh garlic cloves lengthways if you're going to fry them. They are so much more resilient to burning than cross-cut. Agitate heaps, of course. Works with chilli and ginger, too. Thanks, Bali! The best 3 things you taught me 

If you’re baking and want something to be really tender but stable (like a cake), try reverse creaming. Instead of creaming your butter and sugar and then adding in ingredients, add your softened butter (or shortening or what have you), to your flour mixture first. Essentially, it limits the development of the gluten which is what can make baked goods tough. It’s a good way to closely mimic store-bought mixes while still being home made. 

Okay, brace yourselves for the ultimate flavor bomb: add a dash of fish sauce to your spaghetti sauce. I know, I know, it sounds wild, but trust me, it's the secret umami weapon that'll have everyone asking for your recipe.

To lessen saltiness in a dish, I add potatoes, especially on broths/soup.

Add pancake mix to your omelet to make them fluffier. That's what IHOP does!

When making beef gravy, add some instant coffee, regular or decaf. It gives you a darker, richer look and taste.

Don't cook while hungry

A bit of cream cheese in spaghetti sauce cuts the acidity and reduces the chance of heartburn.

Maybe it's well known, but for me discovering adding brown sugar to carrots and parsnips was a game changer