Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer – Food Storage Hacks

Happy Tuesday TKW Family!  It’s time for Tuesday’s Tip with me and today I’m going to share with you some of my best Food Storage Hacks. If you’re like me half the battle of cooking is either trying to get stuff made ahead of time – or even prepped and either you find your items has turned or it’s not quite ripened enough.  I mean have you ever bit into an unripened peach?  *GAG!*  Or you want a thick juicy slice of tomato and when you go to grab it you end up sticking your finger all the way through it as it’s rotted.  Blech!

So I decided to jot down a few of my best kept kitchen storage hacks that have saved me time, money and helped me out numerous times!

Keeping cut potatoes white

Cover shredded or diced potatoes with cold water before cooking to prevent the spuds from turning that gross grayish/brown caused by the release of a starch that makes them oxidize.

Storing Sweet Potatoes

Keep sweet potatoes in a cool, dry place. No fridge time for these sweeties, whose high sugar content will make them spoil a little faster than regular potatoes (within about 10 to 14 days)

Slow down tomato rotting

Store tomatoes stem end down to keep them from spoiling as quickly. This prevents air from entering and moisture from exiting the scar where the tomato once attached to the vine. Storing them at room temperature rather than in the fridge also makes them last longer.

Brown Bagged Mushrooms

Keep mushrooms out of the crisper and in a brown paper bag after opening the original packaging

Keep your bananas fresher longer

Keep bananas fresher, longer by wrapping the end of the bunch with plastic wrap. Better yet, separate each banana. The plastic wrap blocks ethylene gases from releasing out of the stem, consequently ripening the fruit too fast.

Apples + Onion’s = BFFs!

If you store them together, the apples should keep the potatoes from sprouting. Onions and potatoes, on the other hand, should not be stored together or they will both spoil faster.

Ripen your fruit faster

Be a total magician and morph a banana from green to yellow or a peach from crunchy to juicy all with the help of a paper bag. When fruit is tossed into the bag, concentrated ethylene gas helps it ripen faster.

Prevent your fruit from browning

You’ve probably heard that a little squeeze of lemon juice can keep apple slices from looking unappetizing. A mixture of one part honey to two parts water works much the same to keep fruit from browning. The citric acid and vitamin C in lemon juice as well as a peptide in honey slows down the oxidation process that causes discoloring.