Stupid Food Tricks

I have been making hard-boiled eggs every week now for the last month, and my wife has on two occasions taken uncooked eggs to work, so she asked me how to tell which ones are hard-boiled. I took out a raw egg and a hard-boiled one, put them on the counter, and spun both of them -- the hard-boiled egg will spin and the raw egg won't. Now she knows.

I learned that one from Alton on an ICA episode.

Anyone else have any stupid food tricks?

k.

A dead egg (rotton) will float in water, were as a good one will stay on the bottom.

You can stand on a flat of eggs if the all positioned correctly.

That would be a trick.

Another food tip/trick that I have done is putting half an avocado in a container with some red onion (see the Chow tip below). The onion keeps the avocado from browning, and I think mine was still green after 10+ days. But to be honest, I eat 3-4 avocados a week and I hardly ever need to preserve one half of an avocado.

http://www.chow.com/food-news/55278/how-to-prevent-an-avocado-from-browning/

k.

I have to try the one with the avocado and onion; we go through a case of avocados a day at work but there's always that half haha.

I'm sure most people know most of these but here's a few:

-bananas ripen faster in enclosed bags (they say brown paper bags work best). Bananas emmit traces of ethylene gas which they use as a stimulator for ripening. When it's trapped inside the bag, ripening accelerates due to the higher concentration of ethylene (also works with apples, given you place apples in the same bag with bananas)

-boiling/steaming potatoes with the skin on makes for better mashed potatoes; the skin prevents direct contact with the water which can shift the molecular structure of the starch when cooking. Gritty for russets, dense and sticky for red bliss and yukon

-On that note, russets make for the best mashed potatoes

-bad cranberries don't bounce

-you can freeze kaffir lime leaves and fresh bay leaves and to keep them for months

I can think of anything else at the moment :fanning:

These aren't really tricks as in something that will get you a free drink, more like generic kitchen/food tips.

- Get rid of the annoying glue traces that price tags sometimes leave behind by mixing baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and water into a paste and gently rubbing it over the sticky mess. This paste also eases itching when applied to mosquito bites.

- You can peel a boiled potato quickly by (while still hot) putting it in icy water for a moment, scoring the skin and then twisting it off with your hands.

- Rubbing lemon on your hands and then washing them removes the smell of garlic and fish.

- Red cabbage juice is a natural ph indicator, meaning it will change color depending on the acidity of the fluid. When acidic it will be red, but by mixing in small amounts of an alkaline agent it will turn to purple, then blue, then green and then yellow. Learned this after I made scrambled eggs in the same pan where I just had made a red cabbage stir fry and my eggs turned light green...

- Ginger is needed only a little in most recipes. I usually buy it in bulk, cut into suitable sized pieces and freeze them. You can do the same for bananas to be used in smoothies.

A baking soda paste also helps bee/wasp stings and fire ant bites.

Meat tenderizer (the powder, not the mallet!) for portugese man o'war stings (although really hot water applied for about 15 minutes is supposed to be better.)

birdeye said:

- Red cabbage juice is a natural ph indicator, meaning it will change color depending on the acidity of the fluid. When acidic it will be red, but by mixing in small amounts of an alkaline agent it will turn to purple, then blue, then green and then yellow. Learned this after I made scrambled eggs in the same pan where I just had made a red cabbage stir fry and my eggs turned light green...

Click to expand...

So that's the secret to making green eggs and ham.

You do not like them.
SO you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may I say.

Sam!
If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.

Say!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat!
And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good so good you see!

So I will eat them in a box.
And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house.
And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there.
Say! I will eat them ANYWHERE!

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

Burl Source said:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

Click to expand...

Don't know whether to thank you for that or slap you around a bit. Watched the classic film "My Name is Bruce" last week, and have had The Legend of Guan Di as an ear worm ever since. Now I'm alternating between "Guan Di" and "Green Eggs and Ham." :whistling: