Need a little help in the kitchen? While we can't offer you another set of hands or extra counterspace, how about the next best?

Whether you're a masterful home cook or a newbie, we guarantee you'll want to adopt more than a few of our cooking tips. We offer kitchen tactics for improving how you prep, cook, and store food as well as ways to make your kitchen appliances and gadgets work harder for you. Tie your apron, roll up your sleeves, and let's go!

01: How to Prevent Food From Sticking

Love the sear of a stainless skillet but prefer to skip the scrubbing after the peppers meld to the bottom midway through cooking? A little more oil should help, but don't just pour it over the top of the food or you'll end up with a greasy, soggy mess.

Heated oil on a hot pan creates a slick, nonstick surface, guaranteeing a surefire sauté. Do it this way in three easy steps.

Step 1. Use a metal spatula to loosen the vegetables or meat, and then push them to one side of the skillet.

Step 2. Tilt the pan so the empty area is over the heat.

Step 3. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons oil to the empty area and let it get hot before moving the food back.

02: Reviving Crystallized Honey

Ever go to your pantry to find your bear-shaped bottle contains a solid unwieldy mass of crystallized honey? Don't throw it away! Honey never goes bad, but it does crystalize in humid conditions.

To bring honey back to a luscious, drizzly state: Place the container in a bowl of hot water until the honey is smooth and runny (5 to 10 minutes). Alternatively, remove the lid and microwave the jar in 30-second intervals, checking after each.

To prevent crystals from forming again: Store the honey in a cool, dry place (not the refrigerator) and avoid introducing moisture. That is, no double-dipping once your spoon hits your tea.

03: Cutting Rolly-Polly Vegetables Safely

To keep your fingers safe from nicks, use this technique on round, wobbly vegetables like potatoes, squash, and beets.

Step 1. With a sharp knife and a cutting board, cut a thin slice along the length of the vegetable to create a flat side.

Step 2. Turn the veggie cut-side down on the cutting board (ensuring it's stable and won't roll away) and slice as desired, stopping when the veggie becomes unsteady and difficult to grip.

Step 3. Turn the veggie so the broad, flat side from which you made the last cut is facedown on the cutting board, and then continue to slice as desired.

04: How to Make Simple Syrup

Want to sweeten your lemonade or iced tea? Instead of reaching for the sugar bowl, you'll get a better result—no sandy granules at the bottom of the glass—if you mix up a batch of simple syrup. Here's how.

Step 1. Combine equal parts water and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the sugar has completely dissolved (3 to 5 minutes).

Step 2. Let it cool and then add to beverages as needed.

Use 1½ teaspoons of simple syrup for every teaspoon of sugar you would usually use and store the syrup in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. We told you it was simple!

05: Keeping Crudités Fresh

Use this strategy to keep cut-up produce crisp and bright for up to 12 hours, because there's nothing inviting about a platter of limp broccoli florets and dried-out carrot sticks.

The trick: Cover everything with a layer of damp paper towels, and then wrap the platter in plastic wrap and refrigerate until the start of the party (aka crunch time).

06: How to Grill Corn

It's hard to beat the smoky-sweet flavor of fresh corn cooked on a grill. Here's how to do it to perfection.

Step 1. Pull the husks back from the corn, but leave them attached at the stem. Remove and discard the silks.

Step 2. Pull the husks back up around the corn. Soak the ears in a roasting pan or large bowl full of water for 15 minutes. (This prevents the husks from burning.)

Step 3. Grill corn over medium heat, turning often, until the kernels are tender and husks are lightly charred, 8 to 10 minutes.

07: Trimming Green Beans in a Snap

Sitting with a bushel of fresh green beans and carefully pinching the ends off each one can be quite relaxing if you're sitting on a porch swing on a lazy afternoon. But if you have a cluttered countertop and 15 minutes until dinner, try this instead.

Step 1. Line up the beans so the stems all face one direction. (The beans' tough, knobby ends need to go, but the other ends—the skinny, tapered tips—are tender and perfectly fine to eat.)

Step 2. Scoot a handful against your palm so they're even, and then use a chef's knife to cut off the knobby ends with one slice.

08: Making Stronger Iced Coffee and Tea

All too often, iced brews concocted at home are weak and watery—a total buzzkill. That's because simply mixing your regular coffee or tea with ice dilutes its intensity. But it's easy to give your icy beverage more muscle: Make it double-strength.

For iced coffee: Use ¼ cup ground beans for every cup of water.

For iced tea: Use 2 tea bags for every cup of water.

Now you can chill, pour over ice, and get your day off the ground right with an iced beverage that stands up to the heat.

09: Mastering Whipped Cream

Getting soft peaks—and not going too far (oops, butter!)—is easy if you adopt these three tips for making whipped cream.

Start with the right ingredients. For fluffy, stable whipped cream, use cartons labeled "heavy cream," "whipping cream," or "heavy whipping cream." (Save the light cream for coffee.) For sweetness, add 2 tablespoons granulated sugar per cup of cream before beating.

Watch carefully. In a chilled bowl with an electric mixer on high, beat chilled cream and sugar until the beaters leave visible lines when drawn across the cream. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and continue to beat until soft peaks form. (When you hold up the beaters, the cream should stand up, and then flop over.)

If you overwhip, don't panic. Add a splash of fresh, unwhipped cream to the curdled lumps and fold it in with a rubber spatula. Repeat as needed until the mixture smooths out.

10: A Cleaner Way to Crack an Egg

When you tap a fresh egg on the edge of a bowl, you don't break just the shell. The thin membrane surrounding the white and the yolk also ruptures, allowing tiny shell shards to mix with the liquid and add an unwelcome crunch to your finished dish (worst omelet ingredient ever).

Instead, crack the egg on a flat surface, like a counter, to create one clean break. That way, the membrane stays intact, meaning no shell in your scramble. Here's the technique.

Step 1. Hold the egg in one hand and tap it firmly on a hard surface.

Step 2. Check the break: You should see an indentation and one side-to-side crack, like an equator.

Step 3. Place your thumbs on either side of the crack and gently pull the shell apart. Any shards will stick to the membrane, not fall into the bowl.

11: Taking Your Oven's Temperature

Ovens lie. Yours may say 180 °C but your last batch of brownies was squishy even though you followed the baking time. What gives? After a while, ovens may lose accuracy, running up to 4 °C off the set temperature. To test yours, follow these steps.

Step 1. Place an oven-safe thermometer on the middle rack and heat the oven to 150 °C.

Step 2. When the oven indicates it has reached that temperature, check the thermometer.

If it reads 140 °C, you know to regularly set the temperature 4 °C higher. When you get tired of doing the math, seek a permanent fix by calling a repairman recommended by the manufacturer.

12: How to Chop Garlic

Love cooking with garlic but hate struggling with sticky, paper-thin peels? With these three steps—trim, crush, chop—you can prep a clove in no time.

Step 1. Use the tip of a chef's knife to slice off the hard root of each clove. (This makes the skin peel away more easily.)

Step 2. Place a clove under the flat side of the knife, with the blade facing away from you. Press the heel of your palm or your fist down on the knife until you feel the clove give way. Slip off and discard the skin.

Step 3. Gather the peeled cloves, hold your knife by the handle, and place your other, nondominant hand on top of the blade. Rock the knife up and down through the cloves (with the tip staying on the cutting board). Chop until the garlic is the size you want.

13: Removing Salmon Bones

Before salmon fillets make it into the supermarket seafood case, a fishmonger has taken out the backbone and the ribs. But they don't always catch the thin, soft pin bones that "float" in the flesh. Here's a quick way to remove them at home.

Step 1. Run your index finger along the center seam of the fillet, going against the grain. If there are any pin bones, you'll feel them protruding at about ½-inch intervals.

Step 2. With clean tweezers, grasp the tip of the bone and tug, pulling at a slight angle instead of up and out. (Pin bones grow slanted toward the fish's head.) Repeat as necessary.

14: Create Prettier Slaws (Chop-Chop)

Sure, your food processor is a whiz at grating vegetables…into short, stubby pieces. The next time you pull it out to make a slaw or a salad, try this.

Step 1. Cut carrots, broccoli, or apples into pieces the same width as the feed tube (about 4 to 5 inches, usually).

Step 2. Instead of feeding them into the tube vertically, stack them on their sides to create slender, elegant strands.

15: Multitasking Sheet Pans

Baking sheets measuring 9 by 13 inches—also called "quarter-sheet pans" or "small jelly-roll pans"—are handy for roasting foods with different cooking times since two sheets fit side-by-side in an oven. Look at what else they're great for.

Corralling recipe ingredients: Want someone else to start dinner? Gather meat, vegetables, and other perishables the recipe calls for on a baking sheet in the refrigerator to make it easy on your kitchen assistant.

Catching drips in the oven: To hold the oozy overflow of mini potpies, baked pastas, French onion soup, and fruit crisps, cook them on a baking sheet. You'll keep the oven floor clean and leave space on the oven rack for the rest of the meal.

Making deep-dish pizza: You don't need a special pan to cook a great Detroit-style pie. Lightly oil a baking sheet (sides, too), press the dough into the bottom and up the sides, and then pile on your favorite toppings.

Freezing cookie dough: A baking sheet's shallow depth makes it ideal for freezing drop dough or berries. Just slide the pan directly on top of your ice cream cartons or other level surface. When firm, transfer the items to a container.

16: How to Season a Cast Iron Pan

The cast iron skillet is an affordable classic that belongs in every kitchen. Cast iron distributes heat evenly and holds heat, so it's great for searing and frying. Its naturally nonstick surface—the product of "seasoning," a method used to seal and smooth the iron—makes it a good choice for delicate items, like breaded cutlets. Some pans come pre-seasoned. If yours isn't or if you have a pan that needs re-seasoning, here's how to easily get it into shape.

Step 1. Wash the pan with hot, soapy water and a stiff brush, and then rinse and dry thoroughly. Use a folded paper towel to apply a thin, even coating of vegetable oil to the pan, inside and out.

Step 2. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom oven rack to catch drips, and then set the pan on the top rack at 180 °C for 1 hour.

Step 3. After an hour, leave the pan in the oven while they both cool down.

17: How to Clean a Seasoned Cast Iron Pan

When it comes to cleaning a seasoned cast iron skillet, it's important to remember to not use soap or scouring powder, which will destroy the nonstick coating. Do this instead.

Step 1. Sprinkle the pan with kosher salt and scrub it with a paper towel.

Step 2. Rinse the pan clean under hot water.

Step 3. Dry the pan immediately and thoroughly with paper towels, then apply a thin, even coating of vegetable oil.

If you keep your cookware stacked, place a paper towel in the pan to protect its surface.

18: Prepping Hearty Greens

Hearty greens like kale, chard, mustard greens, and collards make delicious sautés and are a tasty addition to soups, but first you have to remove their tough stems. Instead of cutting them out with a knife, simply "zip" the leaves off.

Step 1. With one hand, hold a leaf at the bottom by the thickest part of the stem.

Step 2. With the other hand, gently pinch the leaf with your index finger and thumb and pull it up and off along the stem.

19: How to Soften Brown Sugar

Midway through the banana bread recipe, you realize that your brown sugar is one rock-hard mass. Read on to find out how to salvage your block.

The tip: Place the block of sugar in a bowl, sprinkle with a teaspoon of water, cover with a damp paper towel, and microwave in 30-second intervals (checking between each) until soft. It may take several minutes.

To keep a new package fresh, place the entire bag of brown sugar in an airtight container or resealable freezer bag, and store at room temperature.

20: Cutting Up a Pineapple

Supermarkets often charge twice as much for sliced pineapple as they do for the same amount of whole fruit. Here's an easy way to handle this prickly job yourself.

Step 1. With a serrated or chef's knife, cut off the top of the pineapple and a thick slice from the bottom.

Step 2. Stand the pineapple upright and, working from top to bottom, cut off the skin in strips, following the shape of the fruit. Use a small paring knife to remove any remaining eyes.

Step 3. Cut the pineapple lengthwise into wedges, and then cut out the piece of core from each wedge.

Step 4. Slice or cut the pieces into chunks as desired.

Cut-up pineapple will keep for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

21: Easy Homemade Bread Crumbs

Use leftover bread to make your own bread crumbs. It's a great way to use up the heels of old loaves and other stale bits, and then transform them to bread cutlets, make meatballs, or add crunch to casseroles.

Step 1. Stow bread pieces in a large plastic bag in the freezer.

Step 2. When the bag is full, cut the bread into large chunks and pulse them in a food processor until you have fine crumbs.

Step 3. Toast the crumbs on a rimmed baking sheet in a 180 °C oven, tossing once, until dry (4 to 6 minutes).

Store crumbs in the freezer for up to 6 months.

22: Storing Leftover Tomato Paste

Most recipes that call for tomato paste—like pasta sauce, chili, and pesto—use only a couple of tablespoons. If your paste comes in a tube, leftovers aren't a problem; but if it's in a can, don't toss the remainder or let it dry out in the refrigerator. Do this instead.

Step 1. Spoon tablespoon-sized portions of tomato paste in an ice-cube tray and place it in the freezer.

Step 2. Once solid, transfer the cubes to a plastic freezer bag.

Use your frozen cubes of tomato paste directly in recipes; no need to thaw.

23: Slicing Brownies and Bars Neatly Every Time

For perfect squares or rectangles, a spatula just won't cut it. Follow this easy step-by-step technique to guarantee brownies and bars that look as good as they taste. The secret ingredient: parchment paper.

Step 1. Before baking, prepare the baking pan by using a pastry brush to coat the bottom and sides with softened butter.

Step 2. Line the pan with a sheet of parchment leaving an overhang on 2 sides, press down so it sticks, and then brush it with more butter. Line with a second sheet of parchment perpendicular to the first (also with an overhang) and brush it with butter.

Step 3. Add batter to the pan, bake, and let cool as directed. Then, gripping the paper overhangs, lift the brownies or bars out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board.

Step 4. Using a large serrated knife, cut into squares or rectangles as desired, and then lift them off the parchment.

24: Keeping Baked Goods Fresh

Most holiday cookies, bars, and bites last for up to a week in a tightly sealed container, but what if you're planning to give them as a gift in a basic box? Try this to maintain freshness until you drop them off to the lucky recipient.

The trick: Wrap the entire present in plastic wrap or, if size allows, slip it into a resealable plastic bag. Protected from the drying air, your sweet offerings will stay moist and chewy for days.

25: Softening Butter Quickly

Forget to take the sticks out of the refrigerator in advance? Here are two ways to speed the process along when you need room-temperature butter in a hurry.

Fast: Cut the sticks into pieces and set out on a counter. In 10 to 15 minutes, you'll be good to go.

Faster: Microwave the pieces on low in 20-second intervals, checking in between. The butter is ready when it's malleable but not mushy.

26: Freezing and Toasting Nuts

From storing to cooking, here's how to make the most of these tasty little gems.

Freeze shelled nuts. To preserve their natural oils, which can turn rancid at room temperature, stow each type of shelled nut separately in the freezer in an airtight, dated container. After a year, it's time to toss them.

Roast nuts. Roasting gives nuts more flavor. (Don't be tempted to skip this step in a recipe—the little time it takes has a delicious payoff.) Simply spread them on a rimmed baking sheet and cook in a 180 °C oven, tossing occasionally, until they're fragrant and their interiors are golden (5 to 10 minutes). Break a nut in half to check.

Roasted nuts last 2 to 3 weeks, and are best stored in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. If you need to store them longer, freeze them.

27: A Crisp Crust Every Time

There's no better way to ruin a perfectly good pie than with a soggy, underdone crust. For foolproof crusts—top and bottom, follow our lead.

Position your pie on the lowest rack, where most ovens tend to concentrate heat. As the heat rises, it will crisp the bottom crust before cooking the exposed top crust.

Use a transparent Pyrex pie plate. A quick peek shows you when the underside is golden (not pale and doughy looking), guaranteeing a rich, flaky dessert.

28: How to Take a Turkey's Temperature

Using an instant-read thermometer is the best way to ensure a moist, juicy turkey. But where do you put it? The most important thing to remember: Never place the probe too close to the bone or you'll get an inaccurate reading. "Bones conduct heat at a different rate than meat and can range in temperature, depending on where they are in the bird," says Simon Quellen Field, the author of Culinary Reactions: The Everyday Chemistry of Cooking ($17, amazon.com).

The trick: Slide the thermometer into the thigh horizontally, just until it touches the bone, and then pull it out slightly. Once it registers 75 °C in the thigh—the slowest-cooking part of the bird—dinner's ready.

29: Breading Without the Mess

Coating ingredients in flour, egg, and bread crumbs is the surest path to an extra-crispy crust, but it can turn your hands into a sticky, clumpy disaster. Follow this neat technique to solve that problem.

Step 1. Arrange your ingredients from left to right in this order: the food you want to bread (in this case, chicken tenders), flour, beaten egg, and bread crumbs.

Step 2. Using your left ("dry") hand, turn the chicken in the flour to coat both sides, and then drop it into the bowl of egg.

Step 3. Using your right ("wet") hand, lift the chicken from the egg, shake off the excess, and then drop it into the bread crumbs.

Step 4. Using your left ("dry") hand, turn the chicken in the bread crumbs to coat both sides. Tap off excess bread crumbs, and then transfer to a clean plate.

Repeat with the remaining chicken.

30: Choosing Shrimp - Fresh vs. Frozen

Here's a fishmonger's secret: The shiny, plump shrimp on ice at the seafood counter are actually less fresh than those in bags in the freezer case. The reason? To preserve them during shipping, almost all shrimp are frozen soon after they're harvested. With the exception of most American Gulf and Georgia varieties, the majority of "fresh" shrimp are actually frozen shrimp that have been thawed. Once defrosted, shrimp are good for only 2 days.

The tip: Buy frozen shrimp and thaw them yourself just before cooking by running them under cold water for several minutes in a colander or strainer.