7 Culinary Arts Life Hacks You Can't Live Without

The culinary arts are an endless smorgasbord of ideas and inspiration, dating back to 1796’s American Cookery, our nation’s first cookbook. That book had scrumptious recipes for Indian Slapjack and Hoe Cake, but it also had some little clever tricks for the sly chef of post-Revolutionary War America. Instead of yeast, for example, the author recommends pearlash (a lye-based chemical) as a primitive version of baking powder. Can’t afford expensive English oats? Use good ol’ cornmeal from Native American maize. For more than 200 years culinarians have adapted terrific life hacks, and here are (at least) seven more to put to use in culinary school or to try at home!

1. Ice, Ice Baby

Part of the magic of kitchen science is the clash of hot and cold. Use cold to your advantage with these chillingly creative life hacks any good student of culinary arts should know: 

• Drop ice cubes into soups, stews or casseroles to make the fat congeal in the chilled spots, then scoop out the fat for a healthier recipe
• Ladle ice cream or other cold treats into muffin tins and return them to the freezer. No scooping, and easy portion control for parties
• Cake out of the oven? Into the freezer, before frosting, to keep it moist!

2. From Waste to Waist

Nearly every quality culinary program includes coursework named something like Procurement and Food Service Cost Control. Converting supposed kitchen waste into usable stock is a great skill to have when pennies need a pinch: 

• Freeze any liquid leftovers—stock with fresh herbs, wine, vegetable or fruit juice—into ice-cube trays, then pop the frozen chunks into recipes as needed for taste
• Save corn husks—Wrap any grill item in corn husks for a convenient delivery system from grill to plate

3. Egg-cellent

Make your cooking eggstra special with these eggciting life hacks (we know, we know—enough with the cheep puns, but somebody egged us on and we didn’t want to seem chicken):

• Peel a boiled egg with your breath:
  • Tap both ends and clear away around a half-inch of shell, then hold the egg in one hand against your lips, use your other hand to catch, and blow; the egg will scoot right out.
• Fresh egg or foul?
  • A fresh egg sinks to the bottom of a water bowl and will come to rest on its side; a not-so-fresh but still-edible egg will sink and stand up like a tiny, bloated deep-sea diver; a bad egg will float like a torpedo aiming for your digestive tract—throw it out!

4. Liquid Tricks

Even well-trained kitchen culinary artists sometimes have to deal with less-than-perfect stock, such as mediocre wine. Try these liquid life hacks: 

• For wines that have a sulfur-like odor or taste, drop a pre-1983 penny in; those earlier pennies have plenty of copper, which reacts with the sulfur and neutralizes it—poof, no more sulfur smell or taste.
• For wine that needs a boost, chill it, add fruit to make sangria, or save it for spicy foods (they kill unpleasant flavors and blandness in wine).
• Decant wine in one minute—Pour the red wine into a blender; it aerates it as well as an hour of watching it just sit there, taunting you.

5. Fruits of Your Labor

If you like fruit, these life hacks will definitely apeel to you. Orange you glad you read this far?

• Eat a kiwi
  • Cut in half, use a spoon and treat the skin like a disposable bowl; no peeling required.
• Drinks
  • Use frozen fruit instead of ice cubes in wine (grapes work well), or water (lime, lemon, or just about any fruit) and even soda (try a strawberry).
• Eat an orange
  • Slice a thin layer off both ends; cut a line through the rind from top cut to bottom cut, then pull apart into a long, ribbon-like strip of nicely seated slices, waiting to be selected.

6. Victory over Vegetables

Guacamole makes great use of the avocado, but keeping it from turning brown is a challenge. Try these tricks: 

• Preserve guacamole’s color by giving leftovers a light cooking oil spray to prevent air getting to it; you can also cover it in a thin layer of water to keep oxygen away
• Husk corn—Microwave four minutes an ear; using potholders and a cleaver, cleave steamed ends, turn the cobs upright, and gently pull the husks; the cobs drop out, silk-free!
• Cherry tomatoes—Clean and trap them between two plastic lids; carefully slice between the lids to cut all the tomatoes at once

Ecpi #Culinary school sooooo excited. .. pic.twitter.com/5ffahbRJIM

— Lakisha Lilly (@lakisha_lilly) August 4, 2015

7. Enroll in Culinary School

Okay, that was really 16 life hacks, and here's our last: Attend ECPI University’s Culinary Institute of Virginia and, in 15 months, graduate with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Culinary Arts, and chase your passion in kitchens great and small. Contact ECPI today to learn how professional training is the ultimate culinary life hack. It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

DISCLAIMER – ECPI University makes no claim, warranty or guarantee as to actual employability or earning potential to current, past or future students or graduates of any educational program we offer. The ECPI University website is published for informational purposes only. Every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information contained on the ECPI.edu domain; however, no warranty of accuracy is made. No contractual rights, either expressed or implied, are created by its content.

For more information about ECPI University or any of our programs click here: http://www.ecpi.edu/ or http://ow.ly/Ca1ya.