Our grandmothers and mothers gathered useful cooking tips for years to pass on to the next generation. However, in the age of the internet, more and more lifehacks are available, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find your way through such a huge diversity of tricks and tips. But are kitchen myths really that good and effective?
HIincredible.club decided to try them out and find out firsthand how effective they are. Judge for yourself the results of our experiments.
Myth #1: Mixing vinegar and baking soda makes dough fluffier
To disprove this myth, we didn’t make a cake, we only remembered the chemistry lessons. So, for baking soda to act like a baking powder, it needs an acidic environment. But for some reason, the housewives of the past decided to add vinegar (perhaps because it was always at hand). As a result of the reaction, carbon dioxide is released, which supposedly should make the dough more spongy. The problem is that the carbon dioxide evaporates before it enters the mass.
Ideally, the baking soda should be mixed with the dry ingredients and the acid with the other liquids, then both parts should be mixed quickly for baking. It would only be better to use sour cream or lemon juice as an acid. Or just buy baking powder. Therefore, this method is best left in the past.
Conclusion: does not work.
Myth #2: Placing hard-boiled eggs in cold water helps to remove the shell.
Boiling an egg so that its shell is easy to remove is an art. It’s not enough to just dip the eggs in cold water.
Chef Kenji López-Alt has cooked thousands of eggs over the past few years to find the perfect cooking technique. He advises submerging the eggs in boiling water, not cold, as we are used to. We pay attention to this: eggs were effectively cleaned much better when dipped in boiling water. But you have to be careful: the shell on the eggs can simply crack because of the temperature difference.
Here are some more secrets:
The fresher the egg, the more difficult it will be to remove its shell. Place the hard-boiled eggs in ice water for at least 15 minutes and rinse them under a stream of cold water. So that the eggs do not break, try steaming them. Kenji assures that this is the ideal way to cook them.
Conclusion: works, but respecting other rules.
Myth #3: Boiling a saline solution in a pot makes it easier to clean
Old cookbooks advise housewives to clean burnt pans as follows: pour water and salt into them and bring to a boil. Unfortunately, this advice did not alleviate the fate of our unfortunate pan: the burnt background remained the same. Furthermore, this salt mixture is harmful to stainless steel.
There is a much more effective and easier way: soak the pan in warm water, leave it there all night, and in the morning it will be much easier to clean it, no matter how badly it has been burned.
Conclusion: does not work.
Myth #4: Cleaning your dishes and hands with a vinegar or lemon solution eliminates the fishy smell
It’s hard to get rid of the fishy smell, and sometimes even detergents don’t help. The good old-fashioned advice works perfectly: rinse the surfaces under running water and then clean them with lemon juice. A mild vinegar solution also helps with this problem.
Conclusion: it works.
Myth #5: Storing cheese wrapped in paper towels prevents it from drying out
When cheese is purchased, it is usually wrapped in plastic wrap, and many people store it that way. But they say that blotting paper is much better for storing different products, including cheese.
We wrap a piece in plastic wrap and the other in absorbent paper and leave them in the fridge for 3 days. The result surprised us: cheese wrapped in absorbent paper dried out a lot, while cheese wrapped in plastic remained fresh.
Perhaps the best advice is to eat the cheese as soon as possible to prevent it from starting to deteriorate.🇧🇷
Conclusion: does not work.
Myth #6: Dipping a knife in cold water will keep you from crying while cutting onions
There are always a lot of problems with the onion: either it falls apart while you’re cutting it, or it makes you cry your eyes out. It is advisable to cut the onion with a wet knife, periodically wetting it.
The advice generally works, but it all depends on how “bad” the onion is and how sensitive your eyes are: it was difficult for us to resist and not shed a tear, despite all the measures taken. Also, wetting a knife every two seconds isn’t exactly comfortable.
Conclusion: in general it works.
Myth #7: Leaving potatoes for a few minutes in ice water makes the skin come off easily
When the potatoes are boiled and drained, they are left to cool well, and only then are their skins removed. But doing this is no fun: it comes off poorly and sticks to your fingers.
To facilitate the procedure, there is the following method: boiled potatoes are immersed in ice water for a few minutes, and then peeled. And it works well: the potatoes cool quickly, and thanks to the water, the skin is cleaned without any problems. Only there are some “buts”: the vegetable turns out to be slightly watery, and not all cooks like it that way. Although we didn’t notice a huge difference in its appearance or taste. Maybe we just don’t know how to cook?
Conclusion: it works.
Myth #8: Putting drinks in a container of ice sprinkled with salt makes them freeze faster
Here basic physics works: when you add salt, the ice melts a little, but its temperature drops. This mixture is really capable of cooling a hot drink in a matter of minutes: our juice was almost frozen in about 5 minutes.
Conclusion: it works.
Myth #9: Blanching onions in boiling water prevents them from getting a burnt taste
Few people like the spicy taste of onions in dishes. It is possible to “deactivate” it in the following way: after cutting them, place them in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them like that for 1-2 minutes and then remove them from the water. THEs onions really stop being hotwe have proven this.
Conclusion: it works.
Some tips for cutting onions
Sometimes the skin gets stuck on the onion very tightly. In order not to waste time and not even remove it with a knife, just remove the top layer along with the peel. We tried it, it really works.
Do not cut the “tail” of the onion: it is very comfortable to hold while cutting. And then you can just throw it away.
Myth #10: Storing avocados with an onion prevents them from turning brown.
We couldn’t ignore this advice, editorial’s love awesome.club by avocados is very strong. Many people know that if half an avocado is left in the fridge for even a day, it starts to turn dark quickly. To avoid this, some cooks recommend storing the avocado along with a slice of onion.
We tried this simple method and what we found 3 days later was that the onion didn’t help the avocado look at all. Also, half of it got a slight onion flavor, which almost nobody likes. Most likely it hasn’t darkened due to the package being tightly closed, and this storage method is highly recommended.
Conclusion: does not work.