We know that cooking is tricky, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a gourmet chef to get it right. Fear the kitchen no longer and impress your friends with these seven essential cooking hacks everyone should know:

Remove corn from the cob without the mess

Use a bundt pan to slice corn off the cob. Balance corn in the middle and scrape the knife downward into the pan. If you don’t have a bundt pan, place a smaller bowl upside down inside of a large bowl. Not only does this stabilize the corn cob to make cutting easier for you, but the large bowl will catch all the kernels so they don’t fly all over the countertop.

Don’t let leftover herbs go to waste

You only needed a tablespoon of rosemary, but of course you had to buy more than that. Rather than leaving the leftover herbs in your refrigerator only to forget about them until they go bad, freeze those extra herbs in oil to preserve them and maintain their potency. Simply fill a section or two of an ice cube try with your leftover herbs and drizzle enough oil to cover them up. Not only will these frozen cubes keep your herbs from going bad, but next time all you have to do is add the cube to the sauté pan and the usual one tablespoon of oil a recipe calls for is already there.

Create more flavor in your rice-based dishes

Cooking rice is easy (one part rice to two parts liquid), but no one said the liquid you have to cook rice with is water. Cook your rice in broth or beer to add more flavor to a dish. The rice soaks up both the flavor and the liquid and in the case of beer, the alcohol will cook off and the rice will be even fluffier.

Don’t run out to the store to make buttermilk pancakes

Not many people need an entire carton of buttermilk, but when a recipe calls for a cup of it, you often have to risk the remaining buttermilk going bad if you don’t use it. Instead of making a special trip to the store, make your own buttermilk with regular milk + lemon or vinegar (cider or white work equally well).  Use one tablespoon of lemon or vinegar per cup of milk, then stir and set aside until it begins to slightly curdle. This is not a true replacement for buttermilk, but it works just find in baking dishes.

Distribute butter evenly in pastry dough

Making your own pastry dough can be tricky, especially when it comes to incorporating the butter. Often the recipe calls for very cold (and therefore hard) butter that is difficult to “cut-in.” Instead of laboring over the crisscrossing knife method, freeze the butter and grate it into pastry dough, then stir for even distribution.

Get the most juice

It always seems like there’s some juice remaining when you juice lemons or limes by hand. Get more juice out of lemons and limes by microwaving them for 15-20 seconds in the peel first, and then roll the lemon on the countertop hard enough so it distorts the shape, but not enough so the peel breaks. This small zap up heat plus rolling helps break down the citrus membranes so the juice is released more easily.

Perfect bacon

Instead of frying bacon in a pan, which requires you to flip the pieces and risk splattering hot grease everywhere, use you waffle maker. Not only will the waffle maker trap the spitting grease, but also it will evenly cook the bacon on both sides. Bonus: the leftover bacon grease will flavor your waffles for the ultimate breakfast experience.

What other cooking hacks can you share? Leave a comment below.