25 Diner Tricks That Will BLOW YOUR MIND & Make Cooking for One Easier

You're throwing out half a loaf of bread every week, half a bag of celery, and the pasta water you boiled for twenty minutes. That's not what happens when you cook for one. It's what happens when nobody showed you the tricks. A diner can't afford to throw anything out, so we had a trick for everything. Here are twenty-five of them: where bread really belongs, bringing a stale loaf back to life, celery that stays crisp for weeks, why you can wash your mushrooms, parsley kept like flowers, what to do with moldy cheese and what has to go, how many days your lunch meat and leftovers keep, leftover pizza in a skillet, softening brown sugar, pasta with a quarter of the water, saving the pasta water, salting your beans, toasting in a dry pan, the quarter sheet pan, halving a recipe without a calculator, tortillas, garlic, the diner shaker, clean as you go, kitchen scissors, pressing a sandwich, the arithmetic, lemon zest, and the container that should never go in your microwave. SOURCES FOR THE FACTS IN THIS VIDEO Bread stales faster in the refrigerator; freezing bread wrapped in foil for up to a month; reheating a frozen loaf at 450°F: America's Test Kitchen, Don't Refrigerate Baked Goods Reviving stale bread with water, foil and a 300°F oven: America's Test Kitchen, How to Revive Stale Bread Celery wrapped in foil stays fresh up to several weeks: America's Test Kitchen Washing mushrooms, water absorbed by white and cremini vs. gilled mushrooms: America's Test Kitchen, How to Wash Mushrooms Mold on hard cheese and firm vegetables (1-inch rule), foods to discard, don't sniff mold, cleaning after moldy food: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Molds on Food Refrigerator storage times for lunch meat, bacon, hot dogs and leftovers at 40°F or below: FoodSafety.gov Reheating pizza in a skillet with water and a lid: America's Test Kitchen Cold-start pasta in 1 quart of water, 75 percent less water, starchy pasta water: America's Test Kitchen, Start Pasta in Cold Water Brining dried beans in salt water: America's Test Kitchen, How to Brine Beans Microwave containers, covering, stirring, standing time and 165°F for leftovers: Clemson Cooperative Extension; University of Illinois Extension The prices in #23 are examples. Use your own numbers. Ruby is the voice of this channel: a composite short-order cook, narrated with AI. The cooking is real; the person is a character. Nothing in this video is medical, dietary or financial advice. Food safety guidance comes from the sources named above. Take care of yourself. I'll see you on the line. #kitchen #bread #leftovers #diner #cooking