Cleaning Tips
Keep a small, easily washable (glass or stainless steel) bowl on your counter for cuttings and peelings. This will save many trips to the compost pile or wastebasket.
If you have a yard, starting a compost pile can be as simple as reserving a corner of your garden for scraps. Check with your city’s sanitation department for tips and regulations.
Wash your dishes as you go while preparing a meal. This keeps cleanup from being overwhelming when you are done and provides you more space to work.
Never let wooden handled knives (or other wooden utensils) soak in water. Wash and dry them quickly. Soaking swells the wood and can warp and separate it from the metal. Scrub wooden cutting boards well after each use, and then wipe them dry. Leaving water on them can lead to cracking. Every month or two, rub your wooden cutting boards and utensils with mineral oil or butcher block oil, leave them overnight, and wipe any excess off in the morning.
Storage Tips
Do not store milk in the refrigerator door. It stays colder if it’s kept on a refrigerator shelf.
Don’t let eggs, milk, produce, or other perishables touch the walls of your refrigerator — they may freeze.
Dried spices and herbs keep best in a cool dark place. Exposure to excessive light or moisture diminishes the flavor.
Store garlic on the pantry shelf or in a small clay pot made expressly for this purpose. Don’t keep it in the refrigerator, as it will dry out.
Line the bottom of fruit and vegetable bins in your refrigerator with paper towels. This will cut down on excess moisture.
Rinse berries, grapes, and mushrooms just before you use them. Rinsing them ahead of time can make them mushy and prone to rot quickly.
Cheese keeps well when stored alongside a paper towel in an airtight container (the paper towel will absorb moisture, which is what bacteria thrive on), or wrapped in specially made cheese paper.
Keep butter covered with a sheet of plastic wrap or in an enclosed butter keeper.
When storing chopped onions in the refrigerator, always use a container with a tight seal to prevent the onion odor from permeating your entire refrigerator.
Common Sense Safety Tips
Food safety
Not sure if it’s still good? When in doubt, throw it out!
Cook food to a minimum safe internal temperature:
- Ground meats: 165° F
- Beef, pork, veal & lamb: 145° F and allow to rest for 3 minutes
- Poultry (chicken, turkey, duck, goose): 165° F
- Ham, fresh (uncooked): 145° F and allow to rest for 3 minutes
- Ham, fully cooked (to reheat): 140° F
- Eggs: 160° F
- Fish & shellfish: 145° F
- Leftovers: 165° F
- Casseroles: 165° F
- Source: United States Department of Agriculture Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart
Wash your hands before you start any work in the kitchen.
Wash your hands and utensils thoroughly after handling meat. Put the utensils into the dishwasher to sanitize them.
“Washing” food like fruits or vegetables means rinse only! Don’t use soap.
The safest way to defrost or marinate meat is in the refrigerator, not on the countertop. Meat defrosts more quickly if you place it, tightly wrapped in a zipper-lock plastic bag, into a bowl of cold water in the refrigerator.
Store foods at the proper temperature. Make sure that your refrigerator is at or below 40 degrees, and that the freezer is at or below 0 degrees.
Always remove the “vein” (which is actually the intestine) from shrimp (see technique).
Keep a separate cutting board for meat (including poultry, fish, and eggs). Put the cutting board into the dishwasher after each use, or wash it thoroughly with soap and very hot water. You can also wash it with a chlorine bleach solution (2 tablespoons of bleach per quart of water) or a vinegar solution (50 percent white vinegar, 50 percent water). Store these solutions in labeled bottles.
Wipe down counters with the diluted bleach or vinegar solution. This will kill most bacteria if you let it sit for a while before wiping it away. Be careful not to use vinegar on marble countertops; the acid in vinegar will etch the marble and dull the surface.
Put your dishwashing sponge and sponge holder into the dishwasher once a week and soak them regularly in the diluted bleach or vinegar solution.
Wash kitchen towels regularly in hot water.
Fire safety
Never leave the house while the stove, oven, microwave, or any electric cooking devices (such as an Instant Pot, air fryer, or griddle) are on.
Do not store oil or matches above or near the stove or oven.
Turn dish handles and spoons away from the edge of the stove.
Don’t overheat oil — it will catch fire. Don’t douse an oil fire with water! Use a fire extinguisher, and call the fire department immediately if it doesn’t go completely out within a few seconds.
Keep a fire extinguisher in your kitchen but away from the stove. Know how to use it, and test/recharge it regularly.
Knife safety
Keep knife handles and blades away from the edge of countertops.
Keep knives sharp. Dull knives can slip and cause you to cut yourself.
Other Kitchen Tips
For more flavor, crush dried or fresh herbs between your fingers before adding them to a dish.
When steaming vegetables, steam them only until they are crisp-tender and then plunge them immediately into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. This locks in the bright color and fresh flavor.
Thoroughly rinse all leafy greens, such as spinach or cilantro — they can trap dirt and grit. A “salad spinner” is a good device for this purpose (OXO makes a great one).
Grill or bake chicken with the skin on, then remove the skin when it’s done cooking. The chicken will be juicier and more flavorful, with little added fat.
To save a piece of hard cheese that has begun to grow mold, cut off a 1/2-inch slice of the cheese on all sides. However, discard soft cheeses when they’re moldy because mold tends to penetrate throughout them.
You don’t need as much salt or seasoning in hot food as you do in cold food.
Warm dishes and platters that will be used for hot food by putting them in the oven on the lowest setting. Warm dishes help to keep the food warm while it’s being served.