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 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!
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.
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.
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.)
The whole kiwi is edible
Even the beak and feathers?
Using scissors to cut crumbly buns or croissants, or a pizza
Cutting pizza with scissors is weird.
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.
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.
Opening a banana from the bottom up, it’s so much easier.
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’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.
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
Knork knork
What about a spornife?
