Over the years, I’ve run into a few things that weren’t immediately-obvious to me.
One of the big ones was eating pomegranates by opening them underwater. For those not familiar, pomegranates have a lot of red seeds and white husk between them:
Cutting a pomegranate or even opening a pomegranate tends to burst at least some seeds. The seeds are sticky and stain and tend to spray juice when pierced.
However, if you just cut through the outer hull of the fruit, then open it by hand underwater in a bowl of water, any juice that would have sprayed out is just grabbed by the water. Even better, the (inedible) white husk floats, so it self-separates instead of sticking to everything.
Today, I decided to try eating a watermelon with a spoon. In the past, that’s tended to also make things spray, so I tried a grapefruit spoon, one with serrations that runs down the side. And that works great – the spoon is like a knife, can go more-cleanly through the watermelon than a regular spoon, and still lets you scoop up the watermelon.
Any other neat tips that might be unorthodox or that people might not have tried or know about?
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If you put grapes in the freezer they won’t completely freeze. Their frozen texture is like a slushie and they’re perfect for the summer.
You can sprinkle instant coffee over foods, like you do with salt and pepper, to make them slightly bitter. It goes great with sweet things based on milk or fruits.
Ooh, I love that coffee trick. It’s so good in cakes so it makes sense that it would work in other foods.
plus one to frozen grapes. there are a few other things like this but I can’t remember them atm. We used to put pb&j in the fridge or something and it maked it good.
Whoa I never thought of the coffee thing. I gotta try that!
Can you expand on “bitter?”
Like, coffee flavor
The texture of frozen grapes makes me cringe. It’s not “like a slushie” it’s like a slushie that’s been put back in the freezer for a day and has all kinda clumped together in a mass that you now have to chew.
Opening a banana from the bottom up, it’s so much easier.
Banana bottoms, what’s on a Monkeys mind…
And the “bottom” is actually the top because banana grow “up”
…Why?
You can just pinch it open instead of using more force trying to snap open the other part.
If you’re having to apply any significant force to open the banana I’d say it’s much less than optimally ripe.
Some folks prefer slightly green bananas. Either way, I’ve converted to opening from the bottom, and find it generally less messy.
…yuck.
If you enjoy eating snack foods with lots of food dye powder (mmmm hot Cheetos), but hate the fact that it stains your fingers, eat them with chopsticks. No mess on your fingers.
If you struggle with your sandwich/burger innards sliding out of the bread/bun when you take a bite, wrap the innards in lettuce like a taco; place in between the bread/buns with the bottom of the “taco” away from the side you’re eating. The lettuce should help keep the sandwich/burger from falling out of the bun.
The chopsticks one was a game changer for me. Helps with mindful eating/portion control, too (until you get good enough with the chopsticks, anyway).
I eat most things with chopsticks, so it’s a no-brainer to extend that to snack foods.
If your burger comes wrapped in paper you should only open one end and peel the paper back as you eat. No mess. Same for souvlaki.
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The whole kiwi is edible
Even the beak and feathers?
Even when they say to eat an Aussie instead?
no just the furry bit between the legs.
I personally don’t like the texture of kiwi skins. Even thinking about it is giving me the ick.
Get one that uses the right skin products, duh!
Well, nearly all. The hard disc bit at the one end isn’t really.
Not only that, but if you don’t want to eat the skin, just cut it in half and eat it with a spoon
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I just cook them in butter, which contains a bunch of water, and skip the oil. Although, I’m sure a little braising or sweating and oil would work better for some dishes.
First off, that’s not frying - it’s “sweating” or “steaming.” Braising is similar, but is normally reserved for meat.
Second, not all mushrooms take well to this. Some you want to cook off the extra water by dry roasting them on the skillet/pan.
When you serve tacos, put an extra tortilla on the bottom of the plate. It’ll catch anything that falls off the tacos and now you have one more taco.
i always think about that when im staring at my plate full of fallen ingredients. i never remember when i have my next taco
We all know the spork existed, and I’ve speculated for years that a spife must also exist
I’m glad to know I was right all along
What about a spornife?
Knork knork
Fork fork fork, soup is eaten with a…
I’m very responsive to onions. If my SO isn’t around, I’ll use either my motorcycle helmet or swim goggles to cut one up.
I understand that water reacts with it too – that is, the gas that it releases reacts with the water in your eye, so if it reacts somewhere else, that’d be better. I’ve seen a recommendation to cut it under water. That seems like too much trouble for me, but I at some point in the past, I did start quickly rinsing the onion after the first cut so that there’s water on the onion and knife and cutting board, and it does seem to significantly reduce the impact; it’s never really been a problem since then.
kagis
https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/59688/why-does-cutting-onions-cause-tears
Propanethial-S-oxide is the major cause of the flavor and aroma of onion. However, it is a volatile compound i.e. vaporizes very quickly.
when propanethial-S-oxide comes in contact with cornea, a small amount of it reacts with water to form sulfuric acid. This sulfuric acid is the cause of itching and irritation in eyes due to onion.
Looking elsewhere, I also see a couple recommendations to chill the onion in a refrigerator prior to cutting it, and several webpages saying that it worked well for them.
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/how-to-cut-onions-without-crying
I left the onion in the refrigerator for 24 hours and then peeled and chopped it like usual. No tears! No burning! I cut the entire onion without needing to grab a tissue. While I felt a slight irritation in my eyes towards the very end, overall it was painless. I was surprised this method worked so well since onions aren’t a produce item that generally need to be refrigerated. However, if it helps prevent blubbering, I’m all for it.
I’m not sure what’s going on here. I saw one page that said that it makes the gas coming off the onion cooler, so it drops away from your eyes. Not sure if that’s the actual mechanism, and I’ve never done it myself.
Some people may plan ahead well enough to be able to refrigerate their onions in advance of needing to chop them; I’m not really that organized, myself.
Yeah, the water thing just doesn’t work. You dice onion on a cutting board, not in a sink.
The other tricks take more effort than grabbing my helmet.
I usually cut them near a window, with a fan blowing towards me. It’s not perfect, but anything to have less of the gas reach your face helps.
No window near the kitchen.
boy I wish I could describe this method of chopping where you cut it in half and then basically use the root to hold it together while you chop but just did an internet search and could not find the method im talking about and its kinda hard to describe.
what i found works for easy chunks is cut the stem part but leave the roots part. with the root part planted on the cutting board cut it into sections like you would a blooming onion(dont cut all the way down). turn on its side and then slice it into those discs but instead ittl fall into diced pieces
You mean something like this?
yes. this is it. I find it is less tearful.
that sounds like it.
I always keep my onions in the refrigerator and never have issues cutting them.
Tuck a damp towel into your collar.
The scent molecules are polar and will stick to the water molecules in the towel.
Then I have a damp towel to deal with and a damp shirt.
Put a dry towel under the damp one if you must
Hmm, onions used to bother me a lot but I haven’t really thought about it in years. Apparently using a sharp knife makes a difference. At some point I got a nice knife set that I have been keeping sharp, and my onion issue disappeared but I didn’t realize until you reminded me.
I keep mine at a 15 degree edge.
It won’t do that if you keep them in the fridge. I actually stopped doing it because the tears are the closest I come to feeling anymore.
Sadly I’m more susceptible to onions. I’ve tried all these tricks and none of them work well enough to make a difference.
If you hold some water in your mouth while cutting, it helps a lot. I don’t know why 🤷♂️
Cut of the top of the pomegranate to see where the white “walls” between the five sections are, then cut through the skin vertically along those walls. The fruit can now be pulled apart easily into five sections that are much easier to handle so you can strip the arils from the pith gently without breaking them.
Eating green salads with chopsticks is a game-changer.
The best way to eat grapefruit is not with a spoon: rather, cut it into wedges across the segments then stick the whole wedge in your mouth and pull the flesh out from between the tough interstitial fibers with your teeth.
While not a food eating trick, chopsticks are also great when you’re deep-frying food - they allow you to firmly hold it for flipping, without piercing it or spooning oil.
Also great for whisking if you don’t have or can’t find a real whisk.
Is it illegal to eat the interstitial fibers of grapefruits? I just can them into rough slices with a knife and shove those wholesale into my mouth. 😅
Watermelon rinds and citrus peels are perfectly edible and tasty once candied, so don’t waste them. If you’re into booze, dump the citrus peels into vodka, wait a month, then mix the vodka half-and-half with syrup. (I know that this is technically not a food eating trick, but still - waste not, want not.)
You can also bake an entire lemon, peel, pith and all and it comes out sweet and tender. Wrap it tightly in foil so none of the juice escapes then bake until the whole thing is soft. It cooks well on the side of a BBQ too. Goes well with ice-cream.
Fuck, that sounds too amazing to not try. Thanks for the idea! I’ll try it the next Sunday, as I’m planning pork knuckles for lunch. (I’d try it today but I’m preparing Zebu hump so it doesn’t combo that well.)
Watermelon rind preserves and pickles are a staple in my family. One of my cousins grows them, so we all learned about making the most of them.
And they’re easy. Preserves in particular are just sugar, a few slices of lemon, and heat. That’s it, if you want the simplest version.
And they’re so yummy on a nice biscuit
Watermelon pickles: next on my “to do” list! (I’m imagining that they taste like cucumber pickles, but with a different texture.)
The preserve also looks like a great thing to try.
Alton brown Brown Has a recipe that’s similar to the way we do our pickled rinds.
The difference is in the spices. We do ours with black peppercorns, whole clove, and a cinnamon stick.
Honestly, you can pretty much use any spices you want, and it’ll be good. I’ve had them with coriander, caraway, hot peppers, all kinds of stuff.
The texture is crisp, at least for the first while; they do soften up towards the end of their life if you forget about them. The flavor of the rind itself is very mild, even milder than a cucumber.
Also, Alton calls for 1 inch cubes. That’s a good size overall, but if you want it smaller for making into a relish after they’ve sat a few days, starting with half or quarter inch cubes gets more of the flavor to the interior of the rind, if that’s something you’d want.
I’ve also seen them sliced into spears, similar to cuke pickle spears. Works really well with barbecue (pit smoked kind), roasted fowl, and stuff like livermush sandwiches, though that last one is mostly a me thing lol
The relish is as good as chowchow on most anything you’d use that on. You just mince up the cubes, and there should be enough juice in them to make a nice relish without anything added. If not, a tablespoon out of the brine in the jar will get you there. I’ve been known to mince up a little onion, usually a Vidalia or other sweet onion, and mix that in too, but not every time.
this makes so much sense. I mean you can do it with water to but it won’t be able to stew as long.
I think that you answered the wrong comment, but… who cares?
Stew eating trick: with a bowl and enough bread, spoon is fluff.
mine shows me responding to the rind in alcohol one? oh oh scratch that. I did not mean stew as in the meal. I meant stew as in the process. like let that stew. so I meant in alcohol you can leave the rind in for I think forever but if you do it with water its only good to flavor it for the day.
Ah, now I got what you meant! My bad.
I guess that you could use the rinds to flavour some water, too. There are a few problems though - as you said it would be short-lived, and the taste would be subtler (essential oils dissolve better in alcohol), and you’d probably need to heat the water up (so it isn’t a simple “dump it there and forget about it”).
It may not work as well as I think. with citrus and melon usually it is the fruit. I was thinking of that and after you mentioned the rind with alcohol I was think I should just always drop them in my water pitcher for the day.
I can do things with hotdogs that could possibly help in a hotdog eating competition. But that’s not what I usually use it for.
Go on…
If you want to learn how to use chopsticks, get a couple of friends together and order some really nice Chinese food. Serve it in bowls or on plates on a small table with you and your friends gathered around with a pair of chopsticks each.
The rules of the game are simple:
- you can only eat what you can get to your mouth using chopsticks.
- you can steal food off someone else’s chopsticks with your own.
You will quickly learn how to use the chopsticks!
Using scissors to cut crumbly buns or croissants, or a pizza
Cutting pizza with scissors is weird.
There’s some sort of scissors for cooking, cutting chicken and stuff, that has a name that I forget. “Cooking shears”?
kagis
Kitchen shears.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=kitchen+shears
I don’t use them, but they are a thing.
Kitchen shears are amazingly useful! Very precise.
Also: bacon, chives, green onions, parsley, other herbs. If you have a decent pair of kitchen shears, you can even break down a whole chicken in no time. Kitchen shears are my preferred method of spatchcocking a chicken for roasting.
Using the backs of spoons to apply spreads like jams or peanut butter is better than using a knife.
Cutting cherry tomatoes (olives, grapes) in half: lay your free hand over the top of a few on a cutting board and use a SHARP knife (or good serrated) to cut horizontally between your palm and the cutting board. I have seen some people use a plastic lid to do the same if you’re timid (it really is safe since the surface area of your hand is flat and won’t cut you easily)
On the pomegranate note, I cut in half (across the segments) and hold over a large bowl and gently spank the end with a spoon to tap out the seeds. ( I’d rather save all the juice with them).
The spoon method for pomegranates was a game changer for me. Beforehand I loved the taste of them but rarely ate them because they were such a pain in the ass. Now I eat them whenever they’re available.
