Kitchen Hacks

15 Reasons a Pair of Chopsticks Is an Extremely Essential Tool

by:
August 26, 2015

Chopsticks 

If you don't currently have any chopsticks rolling around in your silverware drawer, you should a) order Chinese food tonight and begin your collection, or b) head to the closest Asian grocery store and scoop up a couple pairs of wooden or metal chopsticks. Then take them home and wonder why it took you so long to add them to your arsenal.

Chopsticks are one of those tools that come in handy nearly every day. Here are 15 ways we use them:

  • No hair-tie? Loop up your ponytail and secure with chopsticks.
  • Use one as a slicing guide—like in this recipe for a Hasselback Potato Skillet Bake—so that you don't slice all the way through the potato.
  • All out of skewers, but the grill's already heating up? Spear your kebabs (or your corndogs) with chopsticks.
  • A chopstick makes a good stand-in for a swizzle stick in cocktails.
  • Or anytime you need to stir something deep, like the coffee-water slurry in a French press or Aeropress.
  • Use them as you would tongs or tweezers—like when you need to grab a slice of hot toast, pull a vegetable or piece of pasta from hot water, flip things in oil, or stir-fry noodles. (Bonus: Dominique Ansel does this!)
  • You could use your fingers to poke at your focaccia dough... or you could use a chopstick and keep your rings on. 
  • No need to buy a cake tester: Use a chopstick to know if your baked goods are done.
  • And you can swirl one through your batter for a marbled effect.
  • Or prop up festive pennant flags in a finished cake or pie, using the chopsticks as the "poles."
  • The same rule applies to droopy plants: Stick chopsticks in their pots to give the plants' arms something to pull itself up on.
  • Or use them in your garden as plant markers.
  • Use them to make your home smell nice! We haven't tried it yet, but we think wooden chopsticks could replace skewers as the reeds in a diffuser.
  • That dusty corner of your ceiling? That one? You can reach it by throwing a dishtowel or dust rag over a chopstick—that is, by giving yourself a dusting-arm extension.
  • If you figure out how to make chopsticks into an impromptu pasta drying rack, tell us! We're certain it could work.

What's the best use for chopsticks that you've found? Share your ways in the comments.

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6 Comments

kimikoftokyo September 27, 2015
I use them to cook but I can totally going to use them for a diffuser stick! They also help make great scrambled eggs.
 
Marsha G. August 30, 2015
Don't forget your own ingenious tip about pitting cherries with one and a glass bottle.
 
Miss H. August 26, 2015
eating hot cheetos! no more orange powder fingers!
 
702551 August 26, 2015
"If you figure out how to make chopsticks into an impromptu pasta drying rack, tell us! We're certain it could work."

Sure, it would work, but I don't see the point of using chopsticks; they're too short and leave little space for pasta.

Just use a broom handle.
 
ParkerNolita August 26, 2015
Also quickly clean bottles or any other narrow-necked jar. Cram a piece of paper towel in the jar, use chopstick to swizzle around then pull out the paper towel. Works particularly well for my Chemex.
 
Niknud August 26, 2015
I use them to get english muffins or waffle quarters (always freeze your leftover waffles) out of the toaster. Probably shouldn't use metal ones to do this.....