We’ve all been using it in cooking, baking, and to keep food warm for longer. But did you know that the good aluminum foil can be used in different ways for so many other reasons? Let’s find out how else can you use these foil sheets to save time, effort, and money.
6 Ways You Can Use Aluminum Foil
- Use it to soften up lumpy brown sugar – Ready to bake a cake and find that the brown sugar has turned into a big solid lump? Why waste time trying to crush it up? You can use a sheet of aluminum foil to wrap up the sugar lump, place it in the oven at 300 degrees for just about 5 minutes and voila! There’s your brown sugar all soft and moist to use in any dessert you like.
- Shine your silverware to brand new – Silverware looks the best only when it’s sparkling clean and shiny. Restoring its shine can be a bit of a cumbersome effort at times. Not anymore! Take a baking dish and line it at the base with a sheet of aluminum foil. Place your silverware over the sheet and sprinkle 2 teaspoons of salt and baking soda each over it. Now, pour hot water over to soak the silverware in. Keep it soaked for 5 minutes; remove, and rinse. It’d be as good as brand new!
- Clean up messy iron pans – Cast iron pans are the most difficult to clean, especially after grilling or roasting, because they become all greasy and messy. Make a small ball-shape out of an aluminum foil sheet and easily scrub off all food crusts, oil, and grease from cast iron pans.
- Sharpen your scissors – This is a perpetual problem in the kitchen. Our scissors never seem to be sharp enough to use when needed! Due to regular use, they tend to lose their sharpness and become almost unusable. Now you can sharpen them up with tin foil. Fold up a sheet into half 3 times. Now take your scissors and make several cuts in the foil. You’d notice the scissors just got sharper!
- Make your own piping bag – If you love cake frosting, you don’t need to buy a piping bag anymore. Just make your very own disposable aluminum foil piping bag. It’s simple and cost-effective too.
- Grow seeds indoors – Most of us love to grow indoor plants and all they need is at least some amount of natural light. You can now increase the amount of light entering the room by lining up the container where you place the seed with foil. Aluminum being a natural light reflector will reflect the sunlight and heat on the seeds and boost their growth indoors.
Top Benefits of Packaging Your Food With Aluminum Foil
We told you about some of the unusual uses of aluminum foil sheets in the section above. Let’s now learn about why using tin foil to wrap up your food may actually be better for you.
- Helps prevent odor – Imagine placing leftover chicken or fish in the fridge from last night’s party? The next day when you open the fridge, you’re greeted by an intolerable bad odor (and it’s not always necessary that the meat has gone bad). Instead, try wrapping it up in foil sheet and then place it in a container. Also, make sure you tightly pinch the foil to the sides of the container so that there are no air gaps.
- Best for reheating – Another advantage of wrapping up food (especially leftovers) in tin foil is that you can reheat your food in the oven while it being foil-wrapped. Aluminum foil can easily withstand extremely high temperatures so it’s perfect to store food that needs to be reheated for future use.
- Extends longevity of food – Try wrapping the food in plastic and you’d easily know the difference. The food would go bad sooner than it would if wrapped in aluminum foil sheet. This is because the latter prevents entry of all foreign elements – moisture, bacteria, gases – so it helps extend the longevity of the food stored within. Best thing to use if you’re going to store food in the fridge for a whole week. You can use it for your home as well as for restaurant food supply packing and storage.
- Easy carrier for picnics and camping –When it comes to outdoor trips, convenience in carrying food is what we’re looking for. And nothing better than aluminum foil. It uses less space – you don’t need to carry huge boxes to store sandwiches – just wrap them up tightly in foil paper and you’re done! You can actually double-wrap it too with an extra layer of sheet to prevent it from being torn.
- Can mold into infinite shapes – This is the best thing about tin foil. It can be easily molded into a number of shapes to package possibly anything – from a small bowl to a glass.
- Recyclable – Aluminum is 100% recyclable too! Even more reason to use it for preserving food, protecting it from germs and bacteria, and reduce wastage.
- Keeps food warm or cold for longer – Aluminum is a poor insulator, meaning that it blocks passage of heat through it. Therefore, tin foil is effective in keeping the food warm and even cold for longer periods. It blocks oxygen and air, thereby preventing heat from passing on to cold or frozen food. This is how you can maintain the exact temperature of the food by packaging it in aluminum foil sheets.
Summing Up
Aluminum foil has tons of advantages and varied uses as seen in this post. What started as a simple packaging paper can now be used for multiple other reasons. What’s more, its recyclable quality makes it environment-friendly too. And, it’s lightweight, handy, convenient to use, and easy on the pocket too. So if you haven’t already, it’s time to stock up your kitchen cabinet with a roll or two the next time you go grocery-shopping.