Two Kitchen Tricks for Better Baking and Cooking

A stick of butter grated while nearly frozen mixes into flour quickly and evenly, which is handy for biscuits, scones, and muffins. Grated butter also melts faster than a pat, so it's a good trick for topping toast, vegetables, or a baked potato when the butter is too cold to spread.

Before shaping a full meatloaf, a batch of meatballs, or sausage, frying or microwaving a small test chunk and tasting it first makes it easy to adjust the seasoning before committing the whole batch.