Use An Unassuming Kitchen Item To Chop Multiple Hard-Boiled Eggs At Once

A perfectly cooked hard-boiled egg is one of the first things many folks learn how to make in the kitchen. Just a few minutes in boiling water, and voila: you've got a satisfying snack that never fails to please. Those soft white ovals with a rich yellow center can be elevated in several ways, but it usually requires a fair amount of chopping.

Thankfully, some handy tricks help with the prep work — like the water hack that makes peeling hard-boiled eggs a breeze. Instead of watching them slip around under your knife when cutting them up, make the whole ordeal easier — and much faster — by employing a commercial kitchen technique that uses a cooling rack to chop hard-boiled eggs.

All you need is a bowl and a run-of-the-mill metal cooling rack you probably use more often to let your chocolate chip cookies rest when they come out of the oven. After the eggs are cooked and peeled, set the rack over the bowl. Then simply push the egg through the square holes of the rack. You can chop up multiple hard-boiled eggs in a matter of seconds using this technique, saving you the frustration of trying to get them to sit still on a cutting board so you can chop them by hand. Once you've experienced this hack firsthand, it will have you looking at your cooling rack in a whole new light.

If saving time in the kitchen is a priority, there are plenty of other uses for a cooling rack that function the same way as the hard-boiled egg trick. Need some bananas mashed up for your next banana bread? Push overripe bananas through a cooling rack, and the work is done. It is also an easy way to mash avocados for guac; cube soft, room-temperature cheeses if you're making a cheese sauce; and dice thin watermelon slices when making a fruity purée.

Using a cooling rack to chop hard-boiled eggs and other foods also makes clean-up straightforward. Most foods will effortlessly rinse off the rack when done, and those that don't only need a quick once-over with a kitchen sponge to remove any last bits of debris. This rudimentary device keeps your prep efforts and clean-up simple for a less work, more play kind of kitchen hack that affords you more time to enjoy your dish once it is completed.