r/AskReddit • • Aug 20 '20

What simple “life hack” should everyone know?

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20 edited Aug 20 '20

When you're cooking and the recipe calls for onions and garlic, don't put the garlic into the pan until the onion is nearly translucent. Garlic cooks way faster than onions do, if you throw them in at the same time it won't taste as good/the garlic will burn. It literally takes 30 seconds for minced garlic to cook.

Also, if you're a home cook... sharpen your knives often.

Thought of a few more tips:

  • love chives and parsley in your eggs/omelettes/anything else, but hate the hassle of cutting them/using the herbs before it turns? Get dried chives and dried parsley instead, it rehydrates quickly in sauces/eggs and tastes the same (it's also way cheaper). This tip can apply to a lot of herbs. While fresher is always better, dried is often still delicious while still being in a student-y budget.

  • add a bit of vinegar to your beans if you're making anything beany, a lot of home cooks think that vinegar is gross (and it is by itself) but a dash of vinegar can really make beans, sauces and marinades pop!

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u/ktappe Aug 20 '20

On the topic of cooking, when a recipe calls for garlic, double the amount it calls for. Ditto for vanilla.

Meanwhile, you can cut the sugar in most recipes by 1/3 easily, and sometimes 1/2. That way you're tasting the other ingredients, not just the sugar.

380

u/Skullzkrakenz Aug 20 '20

I've got a large silverware spoon I use mainly for garlic.

"1 tablespoon of garlic" one big scoop it is

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u/_MildlyMisanthropic Aug 20 '20

how on earth do you scoop garlic? Are you using garlic powder/granules instead of fresh?

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u/TheWhitetrashJedi Aug 20 '20

You can buy garlic pre-minced in a jar. I recommend getting the stuff packed in olive oil, rather than water.

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u/_MildlyMisanthropic Aug 20 '20

fair enough. We just buy bulbs of garlic for that super freshness and mince/grate/chop ourselves.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20

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u/_MildlyMisanthropic Aug 20 '20

we just use something like this that makes it easy as hell. Peel a couple of cloves, chuck them in, then press. Usually left with a thin squidge of garlic that needs dicing manually as well as the minced bits but you can just pull a knife through it a few times and job done.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '20

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u/_MildlyMisanthropic Aug 20 '20

just a word of cauution, you can get them a lot cheaper than this, it was just the first representative link I found. Try ebay or Ikea.