We asked the BuzzFeed Community to tell us what cooking tips and hacks they absolutely swear by. Here are the amazing results.
1. "Before grating semi-soft cheeses — such as fontina and fresh mozzarella — freeze it for about 30 minutes. This hardens it up, making it easier to grate."
2. "I always reheat my pizza on the stove. Starting with a cold pan, place a slice or two so they are flat, cover them with a lid, and turn the heat up to medium. Wait 5–8 minutes and the cheese will be melted and the bottom will be crispy."
3. "Save leftover bacon grease and sauté your onions with it, or just substitute the bacon grease for butter when cooking dishes that could use a little more ping."
4. "For grilled cheese, before you toast the bread, put salad dressing on it. The [popular] hack was mayo, but salad dressing is just better-tasting mayo. Put a light spread on it and it changes everything!"
5. "When cooking white rice on the stove, substitute chicken broth for water. Orange juice is a yummy substitute, too."
6. "Using a dry mix of ranch dressing as seasoning makes food taste a lot better. I don't care for ranch dressing, to be honest, but I use this as breadings for fried foods (great with chicken of course), on burgers, in taco meat, in some pre-seasoned pasta sides, and in chicken and pasta bakes. To be fair, it is just a spice mix, but it's more convenient this way."
7. "Toast your spices in a pan with oil until they get fragrant before adding your meat and veggies, especially when the recipe calls for a lot of warm, rich spices! Just keep a close eye on it so that it doesn't burn."
8. "When making brownies or chocolate cake (whether it’s a mix or from scratch), replace however much water the recipe calls for with strong coffee. It doesn’t make things taste like coffee — it just enhances the chocolate."
9. "If you want over-easy eggs but the whites on top are still raw, put a cover on the pan and wait for 30 seconds. The steam will cook the whites on top of the eggs, and as long as you don’t leave the lid on for too long, the yolks will still be nice and runny."
10. "Deglaze a pan that meat was cooked in with wine, and add some butter for a quick sauce."
11. "Roast unripe bananas in the oven at 400 degrees to convert its starches into sugar. This makes them a whole lot sweeter and better tasting."
12. "If you start baking something spur of the moment and it calls for softened butter, you can just smash the cold butter between two sheets of wax paper and pound it with a rolling pin. The flattened butter will be soft and malleable, and perfect for creaming with sugar."
13. "Never cook with cheap wine — if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it."
14. "Use brown butter instead of regular butter in baked goods and savory dishes! It adds a whole other level of flavor to almost anything that requires a good amount of butter."
15. "If you’re adding pasta to a soup, cook it separately until it's done, then let it sit in the pasta water for an hour (or until it roughly doubles in size). This will prevent the pasta from sucking up all of your broth and making the soup too thick."
16. "When flavoring something with citrus, instead of using the juice, rub the zest in with sugar (or salt for savory) until the sugar becomes fragrant. This releases the oils from the peel."
17. "Add instant coffee to bolognese sauce (especially if it's from the jar) to bring out a richer flavor."
18. "Making your own vanilla extract is sooooooo much cheaper than buying it. Buy 10 vanilla beans, put them in a 750 ml bottle of cheap vodka, and let it sit for at least two months. Done."
19. And "Put fresh avocados in the oven and let them bake for 10 minutes to make them ripen faster."
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.