26 Kitchen Tips: Timeless Wisdom Collection

These kitchen tips are a collection I’ve gathered from a variety of vintage books, cookbooks and magazines from the 1940’s and 1950’s. Many of them are from women who would send in their tips to share with each other, they were quite resourceful back in the day!

1. To keep cheese from getting hard, cut off enough for immediate use and spread the remaining portion with a thin film of butter or margarine. Put it in a cool place. This keeps out the air and prevents the cheese from drying out.
2. To rid your ham of the rind: Slit the rind lengthwise on the underside before placing it in the roasting pan. As the ham bakes, the rind will pull away and can be removed easily without lifting the ham.
3. To thin a small portion of peanut butter, use orange juice. It makes it spread much easier and adds taste appeal.
4. A corner cut from an envelope and pierced at the point makes a good funnel for filling salt and pepper shakers.
5. Sprinkle pantry shelves, window sills, and door sills with a mixture of red pepper and sage to rid them of ants.
6. For a novel sandwich spread, try mixing caraway seed or celery seed in cottage cheese. Add salt and enough cream to make the mixture spread easily.
7. To clean and freshen wooden chopping blocks, counter or rolling pins, sprinkle table salt on these surfaces when they are wet and scrub dry.
8. Bread crusts are ideal for cleaning the meat grinder; then add to the meat dish for flavor and food.
9. Give your children a surprise in their popcorn balls the next time you make them. Take a lollipop and shape the popcorn around the top. Helps keep children from having those sticky hands which give Mother those wash day blues.
10. As you use from a breakfast food box, cut the sides down and fold over to fit the contents, putting a rubber band around the top. This will keep remaining breakfast food fresher and conserve cupboard space.
11. A smooth shiny egg shell is a sign of old age. Fresh eggs have a chalky rough shell (also see How To Tell If An Egg Is Fresh).
12. When in doubt about an egg, make this test: add 2 tsps. salt to a cup of water and put the egg in it. A fresh egg will sink, a doubtful egg will float.
13. Lemons will stay fresh longer if you store them in a bowl of cold water in the fridge. They’ll keep up to 3 months this way.
14. To keep a recipe book or card clean while you’re cooking, place it under an upside-down pie plate. The curved bottom also magnifies the print.
15. Leftover beef stew can be blenderized to a puree and used as a base for Scotch broth and other soups.
16. A little salt sprinkled in the frying pan will keep fat or lard from splattering.
17. Getting the catsup out of the bottle: insert a drinking straw, push it to the bottom of the bottle, and then remove. Enough air will be admitted to start an even flow.
18. Separate hamburger patties bound for the freezer with the wax paper liners from old cereal boxes, cut to size. Nice and thick, they peel off the frozen patties without ripping.
19. Warm Brazil nuts in the oven before cracking them.
20. Make an economical gelatin dessert at a fraction the cost by combining canned fruit syrup, unflavored gelatin powder and a little coloring.
21. For a quick, refreshing dessert: stir 1 cup dairy sour cream into a pound of seedless green grapes. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
22. Stuffing poultry is a snap if you put the dressing into a well-greased cheesecloth bag before packing it into the cavity. You’ll get every smidge out.
23. To prevent your cream pitcher from dripping on the clean tablecloth, put a bit of butter, margarine or an unflavored fat on the tip of the spout.
24. To prevent you from losing your place in the cookbook, place a trouser hanger that has been painted to match your kitchen in the place you are using. Then hang the book from the hanger, and the directions won’t get lost nor will the cookbook get soiled.
25. If there is too much canning juice to serve with the food, pour it into a separate pan and cook it down. Then heat the canned food briefly in this liquid and season to taste. Boiling the juice down enriches the flavor and preserves nutrient qualities that would otherwise be wasted.
26. To make peeling hard-cooked eggs easier, butter your thumbs.

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