5 Food Hacks Everyone Should Know

(But Most Don’t)

Ashburn, VA: Here are 5 food hacks restaurant and bakery owners don’t want you to know. This is because if enough people find out, bakeries and restaurants could lose millions.

1. Bakeries & Box Mix

My wife works for a company that provides food supplies to local restaurants and bakeries in [geoip-full-state]. Generic box cookie, cake, and brownie mix are a few of her best sellers. I know for a fact that some of the most popular bakeries in [geoip-full-state] use box mix. They just spice it up a bit and sell millions of dollars worth of baked goods. Here are some tips my wife and I have discovered from some famous bakeries.

How to Easily Make “Upscale” Brownies?

Buy Duncan Hines Chewy Fudge brownie mix. Follow the directions on the back of the box but substitute the water with milk and the vegetable oil with coconut oil. You now have the recipe for one of the best-selling, most expensive fudge brownies in [geoip-full-state].

How to Effortlessly Make Award-Winning Chocolate Chip Cookies

Follow the recipe on the back of the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag to the T. However, use Kerrygold salted butter and add some Heath Bits O’ Brickel Toffee Bits to taste. The nutty toffee adds an amazing flavor, and nobody will be able to figure it out. You now have the recipe for one of the most award-winning chocolate chip cookies in [geoip-full-state].

2. Simple Trick for Restaurant Quality Vegetables

This tip is so easy, it’s criminal. There is a high-end restaurant in one of our big cities that makes mouth-watering vegetables. I am not a fan of veggies but… 

This Restaurant Had Me Asking For 
Second & Third Helpings of Brussel Sprouts.

Long story short, my wife and I learned the key to making great vegetables is easy. You need to roast them. You can season them up a bit if you want; however, all you need is salt, pepper, and olive oil. If you are cooking more than one veggie at the same time, the key is to make sure you use vegetables that have similar cooking times. Otherwise, you will end up with unevenly cooked vegetables. Here is a general guide:

Cooking Times for Roasting Vegetables at 425°F

• Root vegetables (beets, potatoes, carrots): 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how small you cut them.
• Winter squash (butternut squash, acorn squash): 20 to 60 minutes, depending on how small you cut them.
• Crucifers (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts): 15 to 25 minutes.
• Soft vegetables (zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers): 10 to 20 minutes.
• Thin vegetables (asparagus, green beans): 10 to 20 minutes.
• Onions: 30 to 45 minutes, depending on how crispy you like them.
• Tomatoes: 15 to 20 minutes.

3. Why You Should Brown Your Butter

My friend is an accomplished chef. My friend had me taste a dish with regular butter versus a dish with brown butter. After I tasted the difference in the dish with brown butter…

I Wanted To Get Up & Slap Him 
For Not Telling Me About This Sooner

Brown butter gives your food this deep, nutty, unique flavor that takes your food to an entirely different universe. Yet, few people take the time to brown their butter. Here is a short video on how to brown butter.

Note: The video says do not use salted butter but from experience, I disagree. You can use salted or unsalted butter. It comes down to what you prefer. 

4. Pepper & Your Private Parts

My wife makes some of the best salsa in Ashburn. However, she had a problem. After cutting jalapeños, she would wash her hands yet still end up burning her privates when she used the bathroom. Much like when my wife has an upset stomach…..

The Pepper On Her Privates Situation
Would Exterminate Any Hopes I Had of Getting Lucky

I had to do something. I told my chef buddy about it and he had a game-changing suggestion. After she’s done cutting hot peppers, she needs to rub oil (canola or vegetable) on her hands, then wash with dish soap. The spicy chemical in the peppers (capsaicin) binds with the oil, then the dish soap removes the oil from her hands. Pass this tip on to your significant other ASAP.

5. The Best Seasoned Salt 99.7% People Don’t
Know About

My sister was hosting a brunch for our family. However, in the middle of making the brunch, she ran out of salt and did not have time to go to the store. Her husband is a successful BBQ competitor. Prior to his recent competition, he tested a little-known BBQ rub called Bald Buck for smoked chicken. When he first tested the rub, he used too much and it made the chicken salty. However,  the flavor was promising. On his second test, he used the right amount and she said….

The Flavor of That Chicken Was Orgasmic….

…and since then, her husband won two competitions using this little-known BBQ rub. Since she did not have salt and did not have time to go to the store, her husband suggested she use the Bald Buck rub as a make-shift seasoned salt for her food. She did not want to do it but she had no choice. She used the rub as the salt for her eggs and her hashbrowns. Things could not have gone any better. Our family went nuts over the eggs and hashbrowns. “I made this huge brunch with a couple of fancy dishes and who would have thought eggs and hashbrowns would be the stars of the show,” she said. Our family said it was the best they’d ever had and we kept trying to figure out why it tasted so good. 

After she finally told me the secret, I did some research on Bald Buck rub. I found a few youtube videos on it; however, this one seemed to be the most popular.

I bought some Bald Buck to see what the fuss was about and damn, it’s delicious. I put it on everything like roasted vegetables, eggs, meat, potatoes, in my bloody mary, etc. It’s my go-to seasoned salt. I always get compliments when I put it on my food, and nobody knows about my secret. I don’t think the makers of this rub intended it to be used this way, but oh well, the stuff is delicious, and they should consider making it a seasoned salt, in my opinion. 

Learn More About Bald Buck Here