30 Priceless Cooking Tips That Were Passed Down To People By Their Parents, Grandparents, And Great-Grandparents

My grandma would save butter wrappers in the fridge and use the leftover butter on them for greasing dishes when she baked. I can’t help but stockpile wrappers, it’s really so handy.

Mustard powder in your Mac and cheese is a game changer.

A tablespoon of cocoa powder creates boldens the flavor profile of chili (I know it sounds crazy, but our chili recipe is delicious.

Don’t hollow out a bread bowl; shove the inner bread down to create a thicker bottom. This will prevent leaks and sogginess.

Use a little more butter and a little more cheese than the recipe says.

Putting a little fish sauce into a stew or sauce that needs umami. It's basically liquid anchovies.

My Uncle Arthur's tip is "clean while you cook!", and he will not let you forget it, either.
Not really sure if its a tip but my Papa Searcy used to microwave bacon on old newspapers...it was always delicious! In hindsight it's probably bad for you and you should never do it. I have weird memories of the smell of newspaper and bacon.

Better Than Bouillon Veggie is a million times better than any other veg stock.

Adding sour cream to scrambled eggs instead of milk will make them insanely fluffy.

Save all scraps for stocks. Almost anything can be made into soup.

Add a pinch of nutmeg to anything with dairy in it, you can't taste the nutmeg but it makes the dairy richer and taste better.

Cook them onions - cook them onions loooong n slow. Then add tomato, cook that tomato, cook that tomato looooooong and slow.

Sprinkle sea salt on cookies right before or right after baking. The extra salt brings out the flavors more and helps balance out the sweetness.

A dollop of sour cream in mashed potatoes.

Bacon always comes out better if you cook it in an oven, and it’s important to put the bacon in before turning the oven on; preheating the oven will make the bacon stick to the cookie sheet

I put homemade stock into ice cube trays to freeze then store in bags. 1 cube = 1.5 Oz liquid or so.

Want to make icing delicious? A pinch of salt. It cuts the pure sugar and makes it dangerously good.

A TBSP of ground coffee in brownies really kick it up a notch. The more quality the beans the better.

You're probably using too much flour in your yeast dough. Many recipes say it should not be sticky. On the contrary, you want it a little yucky and sticky before you let it rest. That's how you get yummy fluffy stuff that doesn't dry out within hours.

Also, to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, you don't use flour. You use vegetable oil

Keep in mind I’m from a very Midwestern Scandinavian family. Cream of mushroom soup is kind of a universal solution for improving any dish.