7 Culinary Hacks & Kitchen Tips

Christmas is just around the corner, and many cooks like to use apples for the festive dinner. One well-known trick for coring and seeding the halved fruit is to use a melon baller. Of course, that doesn’t mean all cooks have one at the ready when they need it. What they’re more likely to have is a sturdy, rounded metal ½-teaspoon measure, which works beautifully.

Some recipes call for just a small amount of liquor or wine. Rather than buying large bottles of a specialty alcohol or uncorking a whole bottle of wine for these occasions, try keeping small bottles on hand. For hard alcohol, try the nip-size bottles sold by the register. They usually contain 50 ml, about 3½ tablespoons each. For wine, solve the problem by keeping four-packs of miniature bottles of red and white wine in your pantry.

The sharp thorns at the tops of artichoke leaves can make this fancy vegetable hard to eat. Remove the thorns quickly and easily by holding the artichoke upside down (by the stem) and passing it quickly through the flame of a gas burner. The sharp points of the thorns will burn off almost instantly.

In the test kitchen, we remove the pit from a halved avocado by inserting a knife into the pit and twisting the base of the fruit to release it. But what’s the best way to remove the speared pit from the knife without causing injury to yourself?
A. One way is to place your thumb and forefinger on either side of where the top of the pit meets the blade, as if giving the blade a pinch. With a little downward pressure from your fingers, the pit falls right off.
B. A firm tap of the pit against the cutting board also works—the pit splits right in two. Problem solved.
Well, although my favorite way of pitting an avocado calls for inserting a chef’s knife into the stone of the halved fruit, you can also try a waiter’s corkscrew instead. The tool securely (and safely) hooks into the pit and it can then be easily pulled out.

Here’s an easy way to separate strips of bacon stuck together in a shrink-wrapped package.
1. Roll the package lengthwise into a cylinder, then flatten it out again.
2. Open the package and remove the desired number of strips, which are now less tightly packed.

Seasoning a whole chicken or turkey under the skin using your fingers can be tricky, since it’s hard to distribute the salt evenly without tearing the skin. Here’s a long-handled solution: try an iced-tea spoon, which also works to loosen the skin first.
1. Pry the skin from the bird with an iced-tea spoon.
2. Place salt on the spoon and reach under the skin to distribute it evenly.

If you find yourself out of kitchen twine to truss a chicken but you’ve recently been celebrating with some bubbly, try grabbing a leftover champagne cage for the job instead. Insert the legs in the cage, twist the wire to tighten, and the chicken is ready for roasting. (Note: The metal will get hot in the oven, so use caution when removing the cage.)