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 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.
I bet watermelon will be similar but haven’t tried it yet
Ooh, I love that coffee trick. It’s so good in cakes so it makes sense that it would work in other foods.
Can you expand on “bitter?”
Like, coffee flavor
Opening a banana from the bottom up, it’s so much easier.
Banana bottoms, what’s on a Monkeys mind…
And the “bottom” is actually the top because banana grow “up”
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.)
Watermelon rind preserves and pickles are a staple in my family. One of my cousins grows them, so we all learned about making the most of them.
And they’re easy. Preserves in particular are just sugar, a few slices of lemon, and heat. That’s it, if you want the simplest version.
And they’re so yummy on a nice biscuit
Watermelon pickles: next on my “to do” list! (I’m imagining that they taste like cucumber pickles, but with a different texture.)
The preserve also looks like a great thing to try.
Alton brown Brown Has a recipe that’s similar to the way we do our pickled rinds.
The difference is in the spices. We do ours with black peppercorns, whole clove, and a cinnamon stick.
Honestly, you can pretty much use any spices you want, and it’ll be good. I’ve had them with coriander, caraway, hot peppers, all kinds of stuff.
The texture is crisp, at least for the first while; they do soften up towards the end of their life if you forget about them. The flavor of the rind itself is very mild, even milder than a cucumber.
Also, Alton calls for 1 inch cubes. That’s a good size overall, but if you want it smaller for making into a relish after they’ve sat a few days, starting with half or quarter inch cubes gets more of the flavor to the interior of the rind, if that’s something you’d want.
I’ve also seen them sliced into spears, similar to cuke pickle spears. Works really well with barbecue (pit smoked kind), roasted fowl, and stuff like livermush sandwiches, though that last one is mostly a me thing lol
The relish is as good as chowchow on most anything you’d use that on. You just mince up the cubes, and there should be enough juice in them to make a nice relish without anything added. If not, a tablespoon out of the brine in the jar will get you there. I’ve been known to mince up a little onion, usually a Vidalia or other sweet onion, and mix that in too, but not every time.
this makes so much sense. I mean you can do it with water to but it won’t be able to stew as long.
I think that you answered the wrong comment, but… who cares?
Stew eating trick: with a bowl and enough bread, spoon is fluff.
mine shows me responding to the rind in alcohol one? oh oh scratch that. I did not mean stew as in the meal. I meant stew as in the process. like let that stew. so I meant in alcohol you can leave the rind in for I think forever but if you do it with water its only good to flavor it for the day.
Ah, now I got what you meant! My bad.
I guess that you could use the rinds to flavour some water, too. There are a few problems though - as you said it would be short-lived, and the taste would be subtler (essential oils dissolve better in alcohol), and you’d probably need to heat the water up (so it isn’t a simple “dump it there and forget about it”).
It may not work as well as I think. with citrus and melon usually it is the fruit. I was thinking of that and after you mentioned the rind with alcohol I was think I should just always drop them in my water pitcher for the day.
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 always think about that when im staring at my plate full of fallen ingredients. i never remember when i have my next taco
‘Fry’ mushrooms in a bit of water before adding oil. They wil turn beautifully golden brown.
Got this one from Adam Ragusea
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OPJmJdStvwII just cook them in butter, which contains a bunch of water, and skip the oil. Although, I’m sure a little braising or sweating and oil would work better for some dishes.
I can do things with hotdogs that could possibly help in a hotdog eating competition. But that’s not what I usually use it for.
Cut of the top of the pomegranate to see where the white “walls” between the five sections are, then cut through the skin vertically along those walls. The fruit can now be pulled apart easily into five sections that are much easier to handle so you can strip the arils from the pith gently without breaking them.
Eating green salads with chopsticks is a game-changer.
The best way to eat grapefruit is not with a spoon: rather, cut it into wedges across the segments then stick the whole wedge in your mouth and pull the flesh out from between the tough interstitial fibers with your teeth.
While not a food eating trick, chopsticks are also great when you’re deep-frying food - they allow you to firmly hold it for flipping, without piercing it or spooning oil.
Also great for whisking if you don’t have or can’t find a real whisk.
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!
Cutting cherry tomatoes (olives, grapes) in half: lay your free hand over the top of a few on a cutting board and use a SHARP knife (or good serrated) to cut horizontally between your palm and the cutting board. I have seen some people use a plastic lid to do the same if you’re timid (it really is safe since the surface area of your hand is flat and won’t cut you easily)
On the pomegranate note, I cut in half (across the segments) and hold over a large bowl and gently spank the end with a spoon to tap out the seeds. ( I’d rather save all the juice with them).
The spoon method for pomegranates was a game changer for me. Beforehand I loved the taste of them but rarely ate them because they were such a pain in the ass. Now I eat them whenever they’re available.
Some will call this blasphemous - If you want to eat spaghetti without having to slurp up noodles and get the sides of your mouth and potentially your shirt stained, use a fork and spoon. Slice the spaghetti buy crisscrossing it, scoop into the spoon, then put it in your mouth. Probably only do this at home and not at a dinner party.
Or learn to twist the spaghetti with your fork against the spoon. It took me all of about ten minutes to learn that.
I don’t use a spoon, but I do twist it on the plate or bowl to get a “ball” of spaghetti (or linguini or angel hair).
That works as well, but it’s harder to direct in my experience. The fork+spoon method of twirling just works best for me.
Well, when I’m in Canada. Here I eat noodles with chopsticks.
I just use a different pasta. spirals are my go to.
I break spaghetti in half before cooking
I use the spoon method for pomegranates.
For watermelon, I like to slice it in a grid with a knife before using a spoon to eat it. Then I don’t need a special spoon with serrations.
Not really a hack, but I rather eat with a spoon than a fork. Obviously this applies only to eating at home and I avoid it when dining out.
Bite the top off a Cadbury’s Crème Egg and then slurp out the delicious “yolk” with your tongue.
