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Saturday 2 December 2023 Dublin: 2°C
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Open thread: What are your best cooking tips?

Tell us yours and we’ll tell you ours.

WE’RE ON A mission to make your life as easy as possible. Yes, really.

As one of the places you are likely to spend a lot of time – whether you like it or not – is the kitchen, we’ve rounded up a couple of tips designed to make things easier in there.

We know we don’t know everything* so we’re putting a call out to you too – what are your best tips to help in the kitchen? Let us know in the comments below.

*Even if we like to think we do.

While we’ve mentioned a number of kitchen hacks here that save time or make difficult chores easier (we’re looking at you tiny cherry tomatoes), there’s a lot to be said for having the right tools for the job.

Most of us are not going to be gourmet chefs (we know, shocking) but there are some handy hints from chefs that you can incorporate into your day to day cooking life to make food preparation easier.

That’s not a knife, this is a knife

YouTube YouTube

First things first, it pays to have a good sharp knife to hand. You don’t have to spend a lot of money on knives, but you do need to sharpen them regularly. This will make an untold difference in your food preparation – allowing you to chop more quickly and eventually (with lots of practice) be like this guy -

YouTube YouTube

Watch those fingers

As you can see in these clips, the positioning of the chef’s fingers is vital to the whole operation.

They tuck their fingertips behind their knuckles, lining the knife up beside the knuckles, so that in theory, no matter how fast they chop they’re never going to lose a fingertip.

YouTube YouTube

To get you started here’s a handy tutorial on how to peel and finely chop an onion.

Real Simple / YouTube

Remember, it’s all about practice, so take as much time as you need when learning these skills – speed will come when you’ve mastered the movements.

What are your best tips to help in the kitchen? Let us know in the comments below.

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