Food prep is a key element of cooking. The better prepared you are, the better your final outcome is likely to be. Prep doesn’t have to be hard or annoying! Today I’m going to share 5 kitchen hacks that make food prep a breeze.
Place A Towel Under Your Cutting Board
A knife is a dangerous tool if not handled properly. If when handled correctly, accidents happen. For example, a shifting cutting board could cause you to slip and cut yourself. Fortunately, there is a simple solution!
If your cutting board is moving while you cut, simply place a towel or rag underneath the board. Make sure the towel is spread out as flat as possible so the cutting board will sit flush. The rougher surface of the towel should provide more resistance to movement than the smooth countertop.
Use A Muffin Pan To Hold Spices You Are Cooking With
Some recipes call for a lot of spices. Unfortunately, a growing trend in recipes is to throw the kitchen sink into recipes when it comes to spices. Having a dozen spice jars on your countertop while cooking can throw a wrench into your mise en place.
An easy fix for this issue is to place the spices you need for a recipe into a muffin pan! These pans usually come with six or twelve slots, so you should have plenty of room for most recipes. You only have to dirty one dish instead of several bowls, and you save space. Cleanup is easy as well.
Use A Sieve For Juicing Limes And Lemons
Lemon and lime juice are great for adding acidity to a dish. It’s key for brightening up boring recipes. While the juice is a welcome addition, the seeds are not!
To stop those seeds in their tracks, use a sieve to strain the juice into your dish. Simply hold the sieve over the dish and juice the lemon into it. Easy peasy!
Freeze Leftover Wine For Cooking
I love cooking with wine. It adds amazing depth and flavor to certain dishes. I will drink it occasionally with the right dinner, but not very often. This has led to me wasting a lot of wine over the years.
This next kitchen hack changed the game for me. Simply freeze leftover wine to save for future use. Being a wine newbie, I had no idea that it would stay good after freezing. As a bonus, if you use an ice tray you get perfect portion sizes for cooking!
Grate Frozen Butter For Baking
If you do a lot of baking, you’ve probably come across a recipe that calls for softened butter. They say baking is a science, and if the recipe says softened it means softened, not melted. Softening butter can be a hassle, especially if you’ve got a bunch of other things going on.
For this kitchen hack, simply freeze your butter ahead of time. When you need softened butter, retrieve the frozen butter from the freezer and grate the amount you need. The small bits of butter will quickly soften at room temperature. No need to microwave!
I hope these simple kitchen hacks help your prep work. Good luck!
