Ask HN: What kitchen/cooking hacks that have been really effective for you?

Use the side of a large knife to mash whole garlic cloves. The skin will easily separate and the clove will be ready to cook or chop.

Uncooked corn cobs snap easily in half. There is no need to get out a knife, which is a huge pain and does a lot of collateral damage to the corn. Just break it in two with your bare hands before cooking.

Potatoes are a staple food that you can nearly live on with nothing else. Keeping easy to cook versions of them on hand that you can add a little something to makes it easy to throw together a fresh, healthy meal.

Easy to cook versions include various forms of frozen potatoes, like hash browns and potatoes O'Brien, plus fresh ones that need little prep, like new potatoes or other varieties that basically need to be washed, but not peeled.

Hash browns plus potatoes O'Brien plus an egg or something is a way to have non boring potatoes with a bit of veggies and protein. New potatoes plus frozen chicken plus butter and spices can be baked together for a simple, no hassle meal.

When you feel and chop aromatic items like onions, garlic it peppers, run the wastes through the disposal. It help kill stuff growing in the disposal.

Your disposal blades can be sharpened by putting a mixture of cold water and ice through it. Be careful to not overload it with too much ice at one time.

If you use coconut oil, it can be kept in a liquid state by storing on a warm spot on the counter. If your fridge is next to a counter, the heat coming off the back can help create a warm spot.

I have been told, but not tried it: If you want a butter like spread and don't want margarine, you can store olive oil in the fridge to get it to firm up and make it spreadable.

If you have only ever had canned pineapple and you think it is gross, try actual fresh pineapple. You may finally understand the appeal. If you live on the West Coast, whole fresh pineapple is typically available at a reasonable price most if the year.

If you have a George Foreman grill, a nice meal to grill on it is a small steak, a thick slab of yam and a thick slab of fresh pineapple. You can also grill some onion with it if you like.

When you make spaghetti, don't bother to try to figure out how much noodles you need. Just make the entire thing of noodles. Cold leftover noodles with Parmesan cheese and some apple slices is yummy. Or you can fry the noodles up with an egg.

If you like homemade pizza but you don't make it often and are sick of throwing out gross, moldy mozzarella that never got used, use Parmesan instead of mozzarella for your pizza. It keeps better.

Pizza can be a source of veggies. Fresh chopped pineapple, onion and green or red peppers goes great with a little pepperoni.

Rinse grapes as soon as you get them home and pull them off the stem. They will keep for up to a week without getting all gross and mushy.

Celery can be kept fresh by standing it in a glass of ice water in the fridge.

Do not store apples and potatoes together. They rot faster if you do.

If you like bananas, get a banana hook to hang them from. It really makes a difference in how well they keep.

Cooking for one? Freeze small steaks in ones and twos in ziploc bags. Thaw them in minutes in a bowl of warm water in the sink.

You can ask your butcher to cut a thick London broil into very thin breakfast steaks. They will cook super fast and make it a breeze to throw together a light meal.

Use plastic bags or containers to keep vegetables fresh in the fridge. Things like carrots dry out in no time in a fridge but stay usable for weeks if you simply keep them in a plastic bag. I've thrown away vegetables for years before figuring this out.

Have a meal plan and make a list before you go shopping.

Don't go shopping when you are hungry.

It's OK to regularly cook and eat the same meals.

Dried pasta is as good as fresh pasta.

You don't need much in the way of equipment, one sharp knife, one pairing knife and one serrated knife will cover most things.

Dried herbs don't last long, especially if you leave them exposed to light.

Don't put bread in the fridge, it ruins the taste. This also applies to fruit and veg although what you do will depend on your climate.

- chopping (onions):

- - Cut with a big, sharp knife, use your knuckles for alignment so you don't cut yourself.

- - Cut one direction, but don't worry about retaining the shape for the next cross-cut. Roughly align the stick-shapes after the first cut (spread out in to a longer line if too much to handle) and do the 2nd cut. It's not so bothersome if some onion pieces are not perfectly square, for things to cook evenly only the thinnest dimension matters and this is way faster than doing things carefully.

- cut tomatoes slightly off-center and you only have to remove 1 green spot (actually just not through the "poles", still through the center)

- sharpening a knife without a tool: use the underside edge of a cup or plate, it is usually not coated and works fine for sharpening.

- rather than cutting everything beforehand, I'm not afraid to take e.g. the onions out of the pan to fry the next vegetable and than mix it back to together at the end. (if you need to clean the pan, de-glaze it with a sup of water)

- don't be afraid to add water when things get to dry!

- use enough fat, makes everything taste better (especially important for vegan stuff)

- rescue boring improvised sauces by adding: ginger, chili, cilantro, soy-sauce

- make pasta sauce less thin by pouring in a bit of the pasta-water

- tomato sauce: cheat with tomato paste if you don't want to boil/simmer it down for very long.

- avocados: Take out the kernel by hitting it with the knife (like laying an axe to rest in a block of wood) and twisting (but don't hit too hard or it will become hard to get it off the knife). Use the biggest, roundest spoon you can find for peeling.