11 Cooking Hacks That Are Total BS

Don't waste your time on these.

Zoë Burnett / BuzzFeed

Every year, we try a TON of cooking hacks. And while sometimes they work perfectly, other times, they just don't work at all.

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So here are 11 cooking hacks that totally missed the mark for us.

1. THE FAIL: Lemon juice and cooking spray don't really prevent avocados from browning.

Marie Telling / BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

It seems like everyone has their own special trick for preventing avocados from browning, so we decided to test three of the most popular: one rubbed with lemon juice, one coated is cooking spray, and one coated in cooking spray and placed in a Ziploc bag. Sadly, when compared to a control avocado with nothing done to it, the only hack that ~kinda~ worked was the cooking spray and Ziploc bag combo, and even that didn't look much better.🥑

2. THE FAIL: Placing a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water doesn't really prevent it from boiling over.

Melissa Harrison/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

While testing this hack with both a pot of boiling water and milk, the spoon only temporarily prevented the liquid from boiling over before overflowing — so it may give you a few more minutes to react, but it doesn't actually prevent it from boiling over. 🥛

3. THE FAIL: Turns out you actually can use soda instead of eggs and oil in boxed cake mix, but it will NOT taste good.

Melissa Harrison/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

One hack floating around Pinterest says you can use soda instead of eggs and oil in boxed cake recipes — while this did result in something that looked like a cake, it certainly wasn't good. It was gummy, overly sweet, and just not what we wanted it to be. 🎂

Check out six Pinterest cooking hacks that were actually successful here.

4. THE FAIL: Using a pen to "push" a cork through a wine bottle instead of using a corkscrew does NOT work (unless you have superhuman strength).

Taylor Miller/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

Some pro winos claim you can push a cork through a wine bottle with nothing more than a pen, but for us, this didn't work. After 20 minutes of pushing, the cork didn't budge! Maybe if you're ridiculously strong you can make this work, but for the normal folks like us, it probably won't do anything. 🍷

See five other wine-opening hacks we tried here.

5. THE FAIL: Boiling potatoes and dropping them in ice water won't make the skin magically peel off.

Marie Telling/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

This hack claimed you can boil potatoes with the skin on, drop them in an ice bath, and be able to peel the skin right off. While it sounded pretty cool, it certainly didn't work for us. The skin was still stuck to the potato, and the hassle of peeling wet, cold potatoes was not something we want to ever do again.🥔

Check out 10 more holiday cooking hacks we tested here.

6. THE FAIL: Placing frozen food on a magical aluminum tray doesn't make it defrost way faster.

Taylor Miller/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

Apparently the metal material of this tray draws the cold right outta frozen foods and makes them defrost faster — but sadly, we did not experience any magical defrosting powers. After two hours, the frozen food we placed on the tray was still frozen, and it seemed like the tray made no difference at all. ❄️

Check out six more lazy kitchen gadgets we tested here.

7. THE FAIL: Adding sparkling wine to scrambled eggs might make them fluffier, but they'll taste like garbage.

Hannah Loewentheil/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

As part of our never ending search for perfect scrambled eggs, we decided to test a rather interesting hack that claimed sparkling wine is the secret ingredient for fluffy scrambled eggs. While it DID make them a tad bit fluffier, the strong wine flavor was NOT worth it. Eggs + Prosecco might equal fluffy eggs, but it also gives them a disgusting flavor. 🍳

Check out seven more "miracle" flavor hacks we tried here.

8. THE FAIL: "Magic Cake" (a six-ingredient cake that somehow bakes into three distinct layers) turned out to be not-so-magical.

Hannah Loewentheil/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

This "miracle" Pinterest recipe is one of those recipes that seems way too good to be true. With just a few ingredients and hardly any effort, this cake supposedly bakes into three distinct layers all on its own — however, when we tested it, this cake didn't have any defined layers except for a gooey, soggy bottom (however, apparently you're supposed to let this cake cool completely before cutting it, and we certainly did not do this, so it could have been a user error). 🍰

Check out seven more "miracle" Pinterest recipes we tested here.

9. THE FAIL: Miracle two-minute microwaved English muffins turned out to be anything BUT a legit English muffin.

Michelle Rennex/BuzzFeed

What went wrong?

After coming across a too-good-to-be-true microwaved english muffing recipe on Pinterest, we had to try it (and as a bonus, it was paleo, vegan, and gluten-free). Sadly, this english muffin came out more like a hockey puck and tasted nothing like the classic. 🍞

Check out five more microwaved breakfast recipes we tested here.

10. THE FAIL: Despite what many people say, adding baking soda to water did not make peeling hard-boiled eggs any easier.

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What went wrong?

After testing several eggs of varying age (because some people state that older eggs are easier to peel), we found no real difference between the eggs that were cooked in water with baking soda, and ones without. However, what did help was adding one tablespoons of vinegar for every four cups of water. 🥚

Check out all of the other tricks we tested for making peeling hard-boiled eggs easier here.

11. THE FAIL: Making a pizza in the microwave sounds MUCH better than it really is.

BuzzFeed/Michelle Rennex

What went wrong?

This microwave pizza includes a homemade crust recipe, and THAT was the problem. It turned out soggy, gross, and tasted like paste. One and a half minutes was just not long enough to cook the dough. Mug cakes might be delicious, but mug pizza is NOT. 🍕

See five other microwaved meals we tested here.

But hey, we learned.

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What are some cooking hacks you thought would work, but didn't? Let us know in the comments below!