Cheap Tricks

All you need are fresh beans and cheap booze to make an ultra-flavorful extract at a fraction of the cost.

However you look at boxed cake mix—a desperate measure for desperate times or a jumping-off point for an infinite number of delicious desserts—here are our best strategies to make it taste better than you ever imagined.

This jarred brine is basically liquid gold.

So you can make even the cheapest vinegar taste fancy.

If you’re trying to make the impossible, possible.

From smashed potato chips on salad to Cheez-It crumbs on pasta.

You most likely have everything you need in your pantry.

The low-effort route to golden outsides and buttery, molten centers.

It's the shortcut that's auntie-approved

Hit pause on that movie night menu plan and read this first.

Instant pudding mix is the key to no-cook pastry cream and no-weep whipped cream.

And it's inspired by Marcella Hazan.

Like life, canned soup is what you make it.

Say it with us: salt! fat! acid! heat!