On cooking shows, television chefs have dozens of tiny bowls and ramekins that they use to store perfectly measured ingredients they'll need for their recipes. Instead of buying stacks of them for your own home, just grab a muffin tin: you'll get the same effect and only have one dish to clean when you're finished.


This tip comes to us from America's Test Kitchen, and is only one in an article full of kitchen tips that can help you repurpose a few items you already own to get more use from them. This tip was particularly interesting because most people have a few muffin tins in their home already, and unless you're making muffins specifically, they're probably sitting in a cabinet. Using them to hold your measured ingredients means you're not scrambling for something right when you need it, or trying to measure something when you should be stirring something else.

If you're worried about the muffin tins getting dirty or you're measuring ingredients that are difficult to scoop back out with a spoon when you need them, use paper liners that you can pop out of the tin when you're ready for each ingredient. How do you organize your ingredients before you start cooking? Share your tips in the comments below.


5 Kitchen Tools that Moonlight as Other Things | America's Test Kitchen

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