1. Slice cheese…
Held taught, a length of unscented dental floss is useful for slicing through soft cheeses without mess, or for cutting sponge or whisked cakes into neat pieces. Wrapped around the edge of a sponge or whisked cake, you can even use it to slice a cake into layers.
2. Open a jar…
Can’t open that pesky jar? Wrap an elastic band around the lid – it will provide grip and you’ll whip the lid right off.
3. Degrease in a jiffy…
Greasy stew or soup? Drop in a couple of ice cubes and you’ll soon see the fat solidify into globules, which you can easily scoop off.
4. Keep your chopping board in place…
If your chopping board is prone to moving, lay some wet kitchen paper underneath it to hold it in place.
5. Tell your greaseproof from you baking parchment…
Lost the box and can’t tell whether your roll is greaseproof paper or baking parchment? It’s not always easy to feel the differences so here’s how: hold a little of it under running water. Greaseproof paper will absorb the water and get wet; baking parchment will repel the liquid like water off a duck’s back.
Looking for more kitchen hacks and inspirational ideas? Why not book on to a cookery class at the GHI Cookery School in Soho, London. View courses here.
All of the above have been Tried & Tested by the Good Housekeeping cookery team. For all of our tested recipes, visit our food pages.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
