Over 25 years of quick tips

Cook’s Illustrated Magazine has been helping people understand the whys of cooking since 1993. Ever since the publication first appeared, a column called “Quick Tips” has been showcasing readers’ tips for the ultimate kitchen hacks. Daniel Souza, Editor-in-chief of Cook’s Ilustrated, sat down with The Splendid Table’s Sally Swift to talk about the history these reader-provided tips.

In case you ever wondered, the fine folks at Cook’s do test all of these tips in-house before unleashing them on the world. Says Souza, “If they do work, we publish them along with an original pen and ink illustration and credit the reader. It’s a really fun part of the Cook’s Illustrated community.”

Souza recounts some of his favorite tips. One that he has used frequently for parties is filling your washing machine with ice and using it to chill beverages. Once your party is over, just run the drain cycle and the water is conveniently disposed of. Swift likes some of the creative uses for salad spinners. You can use your salad spinner to remove excess liquid from cooked chickpeas and collect the resulting aquafaba to use in recipes.

Seeing this interview inspired me to pull out some of my bound annuals from Cook’s Illustrated. I skimmed several issues’ worth of Quick Tips and was amazed by how many were great ideas that I used often – and several that I had forgotten about. A few of my favorites include placing a piece of bread next to the skillet when making French toast (to catch any drips of batter), using large coffee filters to hold pie weights when blind baking, using a tortilla press to flatten chicken breasts, and placing baking pans on the door of the dishwasher before spraying so that any extra spray is easily cleaned the next time you do dishes, and storing silicon baking mats in paper towel tubes (shown above). What are your favorite Cook’s Illustrated Quick Tips?