Cooking, or even just being able to navigate a kitchen, isn’t an instinct that we’re all born with. Some people are cooking meals when they’re little kids while others struggle to perfect a peanut butter and jelly as full-grown adults. If you’re the latter, odds are you’re always seeking some tips and tricks to make life in the kitchen a little bit easier — and today, we have some good ones for you.

Household Hacker is sharing with us 10 simple, brilliant hacks that are going to fix some of our most annoying kitchen problems. Your life is about to get a whole lot easier.

Here are a few of our favorites tricks:

1. Peeling a Hard Boiled Egg

Few things are as tedious as peeling every little piece of a broken eggshell of a hard boiled egg. They’re delicious, protein-packed snacks, but the effort it takes to eat one can sometimes be aggravating.

Well, here’s a quick tip that will save you so much time and cleanup!

Start by peeling the both ends of your egg, peel more away from the bottom and a smaller amount from the top. Next, put the smaller hole to your mouth and forcibly blow into the egg. Make sure you have your hand ready on the other side because the egg is about to come shooting out of its shell.

It might look a little weird, but this is such a cool, easy hack.

2. Test Baking Powder/Soda

Most recipes for baked goodies you’ll come across will require baking soda or powder, and they’re pretty essential ingredients. But if you’re using soda/powder that’s expired, it’s useless in your recipe – it could even ruin it.

The tricky thing is, these boxes are almost never labeled with an expiration date, so it’s tough to tell if you’re using perfectly good baking powder/soda or if it expired weeks ago.

Here’s a quick way to find out! For baking soda, take 1/4 tsp. of the powder and drop it into 2 tsp. vinegar; if it bubbles, you’re good to go. For baking powder, mix 1 tsp. into a half cup of hot water’ again, if it reacts with fizzing, it’s good to use.

3. Cook Bacon Like the Pros

We love bacon as much as the next person, but MAKING bacon isn’t just hard, it’s often painful. Avoid getting grease burns while still enjoying your deliciously crispy bacon with this clever method.

In restaurants and diners, the way to make bacon is actually to bake it in the oven. Guess what? You can follow in their footsteps and make perfectly cooked bacon without any of the pain or hassle.

Just put a baking rack on a baking sheet (consider lining the sheet with some foil to catch dripping grease) and lay out as many pieces as you can on the rack. Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on how you like your bacon, and enjoy everyone’s favorite breakfast meat.

 

What do you think of these kitchen hacks? Do you have any tips that make cooking so much easier? Make sure to share your thoughts and watch the video below for all 10 genius tricks!