50 very useful kitchen tips

You know all those useful kitchen tips that older people are so eager to share with the younger generation? These little tips and tricks might be called "kitchen hacks" these days, but they're still good old fashioned bits of wisdom. As with any grandmother's tales, secrets and advice, your experience may vary. Some of these pearls have survived several generations - and judging by the feedback from grandmothers, they really work.

1. To remove bad odor from your hands after chopping onions or garlic, simply rub them with a stainless steel spoon. The steel should absorb the odor.

2. Raw coffee beans can also absorb the bad odor on your hands. '''

3. If you over-salt your soup, put a peeled potato in it. It will absorb the excess salt.

4. When boiling eggs, throw a pinch of salt into the water to prevent them from cracking.

5. Don't put citrus or tomatoes in the refrigerator. Low temperatures degrade the flavor and aroma of these finicky foods.

6. To clean cast iron cookware, you should not use detergents. Just scrub it with salt and a clean, dry paper towel.

7. Will milk curdle if you boil it? Turns out it doesn't, after all. Boiled milk is perfectly safe to drink.

8. To clean the heating element of an electric kettle from scale, boil vinegar and water in it in a 1:1 ratio, and then pour it out.

9. To prevent empty hermetically sealed containers from getting an unpleasant odor during storage, pour a pinch of salt into each one.

10. If your sauce accidentally burns, transfer it to a clean pot and cook on.
Add a little sugar, being careful not to over-sweeten the sauce. The sugar will take away the burning smell.

11. Has the rice burned? Place a piece of white bread on top of the rice for 5-10 minutes to remove the burnt flavor. When you serve the rice, don't scrape the burnt rice off the bottom of the pan.

12. Before slicing chili peppers, oil your hands with vegetable oil: this way the hot pepper oil will not be absorbed into the skin.

13. If you doubt the freshness of the eggs, pour about 10 cm of water into a container and dip them in. Fresh eggs will remain lying on the bottom. If only one end of the egg rises, they should be used first. Eggs that have floated up are no longer fresh.

14. To get rid of ants in the kitchen, find the crevice or hole through which they climb and smear it with petroleum jelly. The ants will not be able to crawl through it. If, on the other hand, they crawl in under the door, draw a line there with chalk. The insects will not be able to cross it.

15. If you are going to make popcorn, soak the kernels in water for 10 minutes. Drain the kernels and cook the popcorn as usual. This way the popcorn will cook faster, be fluffier, and have fewer unopened kernels.

16. Do not store bananas with other fruits or in the same bunch. Separate the bunch, and keep bananas separate from each other. Bananas give off gas, which helps the fruit (and other bananas) ripen quickly. Separately, they will stay fresh longer.

17. To keep potatoes from growing in the bag, put an apple in there.

18. Leftover wine can be frozen in an ice mold and then added to soups and sauces.

19. To clean all the grooves and corners in a vase or pitcher, fill it with water and drop in 2 Alka-Seltzer tablets. The bubbles will do all the work for you.

20. Cooled water after boiling potatoes or pasta can be watered room flowers. The nutrients in it will please your plants.

21. When you clean your aquarium, do not pour out the water, but use it to water your houseplants. Fish droppings contain nitrogen and phosphorus, making the water a great fertilizer.

22. When thawing meat, pour a small amount of vinegar over it. Not only will it make the meat more tender, but it will also help defrost it faster.

23. The substance that makes us cry over onions is found in the bottom of the bulb. Cut it with a cone, so that the wide part of the cone covers the root part of the bulb.

24. If you remove the top layer of the bulb along with the husk, this will also reduce the amount of tears shed.

25. Toothpaste is great for cleaning silver.

26. Baking soda is not as good at picking up odors in the refrigerator and freezer as its manufacturers assure you it is. Activated charcoal does a much better job.

27. But baking soda is a good cleaning agent. If you use it together with vinegar, you can clean your drains with it and clean your stove and sink.

28. Favorite advice of thousands of grandmothers: if you cut your finger when you cut vegetables, wait until the blood stops and cover the cut with colorless nail polish. This will protect the wound from getting juice in it, and it won't fall into the spaghetti sauce like a bandage.

29. Still no unanimous decision has been made as to what to put in a bag of brown sugar to keep it from hardening: an apple slice, a piece of bread, and a ceramic shard have all been used.

30. Can't find a splinter? Put a piece of duct tape over the splinter and then tear it off with a jerk - the splinter will come out.

31. If you burn yourself, put mustard on the burned area. Leave it on for a while - it will reduce the pain and prevent blistering.

32. If an aluminum pot is tarnished, boil some apple peel in it. The pot will sparkle and the house will smell delicious.

33. To keep cookies from getting stale longer, our resourceful grandmothers put a piece of tissue paper in the bottom of the cookie jar.

34. If the salt is stale from moisture, throw some rice in there. It will absorb the excess moisture.

35. To remove vegetable and fruit stains from your hands, rub them with a raw peeled potato. Vinegar also helps.

36. To keep iceberg lettuce fresh longer, wrap it in a clean, dry paper towel, put it in a tightly sealed bag and store it in the refrigerator.

37. If the bread has started to go stale, simply place a slice of celery in the bread bag - this will bring back its fresh flavor and softness.

38. Keep a potted aloe plant in your kitchen. This plant is invaluable for cuts and burns. Break off a leaf and scrape the gel-like sap from the break.
39. If a soup, sauce or roast turns out too greasy, drop an ice cube into the pot. The ice will attract the fat and you can pick it up.

40. To reuse vegetable oil and not taste what was cooked on it earlier, warm a 0.5 cm thick piece of ginger in the oil. It will remove extraneous tastes and odors.

41. If the milk sours faster than it runs out, add a pinch of salt to the carton as soon as you open it. This will keep it from souring longer.

42. Chilled boiled water will freeze faster. This comes in handy if you need ice urgently.

43. Tea or coffee stains on porcelain can be removed with a paste-like mixture of baking soda, lemon juice and tartar. Rub it on the stains and they will easily come off.

44. If a glass is stuck in another glass, it is impossible to get it out. Put ice in the inner glass and dip the outer glass in warm water. Under the influence of heat, the glass will expand and the cold glass will shrink, and they can be easily separated.

45. If a splinter got under the nail, hold your finger in a glass of milk with a piece of bread - they say it pulls out the splinters.

46. Have you ever had grandpa give you a cola for a sore tummy? Turns out it's a really effective remedy. Sugar and soda can relieve some tummy ailments, but they can also aggravate others.

47. It is said that if you put salted lard on a boil, it will "draw the poison" out of it.

48. To make wooden drawers (without guides) slide out well, rub the grooves with a candle.

49. Apply a cotton swab soaked in vinegar to a fresh bruise, and the bruise will not appear, and the bruise itself will pass faster.

50. If you drink cranberry juice and eat blueberries regularly, it will help you avoid urinary tract infections.