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Useful facts or tips that everyone should know

If you only have one knife it better be a good one! Ideally a quality Japanese style serrated cooks knife, although it’ll cost you over £50.

The most important thing is it needs to be really sharp & the better quality blade will keep it’s edge for longer.

I’ve “slummed it” with a half decent Ikea breadknife when cooking elsewhere, which worked better than cheapo kitchen knives.

There is no substitute for knife skill. If you lack that practice until you get better.

Just to pitch in elsewhere l always add spare cold coffee to meat based gravy or sauces (including Spag Bol). Restaurant trick that ramps up the flavour.
 
I do not get this “one knife” thing. On fairly quick succession in a family home, one could chop an onion, slice raw meat, cut a baguette and then a sponge cake. Maybe the idea of washing the knife in between each task (in both logistical directions e.g. cut some other bit of meat then someone wants another slice of cake) just seems peculiarly inefficient vs having 3 or 4 knives.

So my tip is probably don’t assume a “one size fits all” tip is really a tip. Wait, there’s irony in that!!!
 
Here are some:
  1. If you spill something on a carpet, kitchen roll (towel, paper) absorbs the spillage. Advice about Vanish and vinegar and bicarb and baby wipes presents an inferior solution to kitchen roll which absorbs & is then transferred to the bin
  2. If you drive a manual car and stall it in the wrong gear, learn to be in the correct gear. There are only 2 or 3 choices at a time - it can be mastered.
  3. A tablecloth is harder to clean than a bare table. Try and spill ketchup on each and work out which is quicker and easier
  4. If talking to your small children, get your head down to their level, else they’ll hear a voice but see a knee
  5. If faced with a DIY or repair challenge, google it cos chances are someone’s solved it already
  6. Read instructions — in many cases the mysteries of how things work have been written up by the manufacturer
  7. Don’t pin up paper on walls or noticeboards with a pin in the middle - it looks great in cartoons but the paper will fold in itself and hide the writing
 
I agree with 1 knife thing - just find a big flat blade sharp enough to slice tomatoe and away you go :)
 
JensenHealey said:
Look at the box of cling film in the kitchen drawer. Notice how, at each end, there is a push-in tab. Push them in and your cling film roll is MUCH easier to use.

Several friends of mine have learned this from me, seems no one looks at the box!
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And tinfoil.
 
With a bit of practice, you can use a lighter to open a beer bottle, or indeed anything with the right edge, like a spoon.

 
Yomanze said:
With a bit of practice, you can use a lighter to open a beer bottle, or indeed anything with the right edge, like a spoon.

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Opening beer with a lighter, stick or flat stone is something Canukistani youth master long before high-school graduation.
 
I used to have a bike pedal that could open bottles. It was a happy discovery somewhere in Wales when we were otherwise stuck.
 
Eggy bread - use a very low heat so it sets rather than cooks for better effect. Spread thinly with Marmite before cutting into robot shapes.
 
Squeeze a teabag inside the edge of a cup using the spoon rather than taking out a saturated teabag and dripping tea all over the worktop, floor, outside of bin, etc.
 
Ibbots said:
Eggy bread - use a very low heat so it sets rather than cooks for better effect. Spread thinly with Marmite before cutting into robot shapes.
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Rather than eggy bread, I wonder what it would taste like to just make an omelette with a piece of bread dropped into the raw egg, and then cooked?
 
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