Let's be real—sometimes the best cooking tips aren't the ones buried in a gourmet cookbook or taught in a fancy culinary school. They're the simple, practical nuggets of wisdom you pick up from years of cooking (and the occasional kitchen mishap). These 17 tips might not be deep enough for a whole article each, but together, they can seriously up your kitchen game. From salting your tomatoes to embracing the convenience of store-bought pasta, these are the little tricks that make a big difference. So, dive in, give them a try, and watch your cooking skills soar with minimal effort.

1. Always salt the tomatoes you put on a sandwich or burger. Don’t question me, just do it.
   
2. Your modern diet gets you plenty of iodine, so you have no need to buy iodized salt. This is a great tip because iodine tastes weird and metallic and I prefer my food not to taste weird and metallic.
3. When you sprinkle seasoning on your food, the higher you hold your hand over the plate the better. More distance makes better dispersion, and you’re less likely to get clumps of salt and spices on your food.
4. The best salt for general kitchen use is coarse salt because it is easier to pinch in your fingers without it spilling and because it is less “salty” per teaspoon, giving you greater control over your recipe’s salt content.
5. Most sandwiches have a more satisfying mouthfeel after they’ve been compressed a little. This is why even at home, it’s often a great idea to tightly wrap your sandwich, deli style.
6. If you don’t currently own and frequently use a kitchen thermometer, you need to stop reading this article and go buy one right now.
7. Weight is a more effective measurement than size, and using a thermometer is more effective than using a timer.
8. Next time you garnish a meal with fresh herbs, roll them up in your hands and slap them. This will bruise them and cause them to release their aromas into the air, making them more intense and floral.
9. I would rather have five fresh, whole spices than fifty old, bulk, pre-ground spices.
10. It is never too late to learn something new. If you’ve considered going to culinary school, start by identifying something specifically that you’re interested in (like barbecue, sugar sculpting, French cuisine, etc), then look for a class to teach you specifically that skill.
11. Get in the habit of laying out all the ingredients for a recipe before you start cooking. This will save you a lot of pain and headache, and will also make your cooking session go faster.
12. The secret to incredible cooking isn’t an incredible recipe. It’s knowing how to perform the utter basics of cooking incredibly well.
13. Store-bought pasta is, in many ways, just as good as hand-made pasta.
14. In the kitchen, few things are as important as consistency. If you can’t make the same recipe taste the same every time, take a step back and consider what you need to change.
15. You can cook many parts of your meal ahead of time. It can be super useful to blanch vegetables, salt meat, and bake some cookies the night before so that on the day of your event you just have to worry about your steaks.
16. Hoarding recipes is usually pointless. As a general rule, the more you share the more you receive.
17. A popular topping for pizzas in the very streets of Italy is cut up hot dogs and french fries. If they’re happy doing such strange things to a pizza, go ahead and enjoy your slice with some pineapple. Personally, I'm much more impressed by the quality of your crust than the creativity of your toppings anyway.

And there you have it! Seventeen straightforward but game-changing tips. The next time you slice some tomatoes for a sandwich, salad or pizza. Give them some salt and let me know how it goes!