It can be annoying when your pot keeps boiling over, leaving your kitchen in a mess – and people are only just realising this simple trick in the kitchen to stop it
There’s nothing more annoying than when you’re hungry and cooking up a storm, only for the water in your pot to boil over, creating utter chaos in your kitchen.
This usually happens because as water or any other liquid boils, the heat pushes air out, forming bubbles. These can rapidly accumulate, with foods like pasta making it harder for the bubbles to burst. They expand, pile up, and then overflow.
A wooden spoon can be a saviour, and lowering the heat helps too. Using a wider pot also gives the bubbles room to spread and burst rather than spill over. But, if you’re after a nifty trick to keep your meal from being ruined, this clever hack is pure brilliance.
A viral video posted on Today Years Old on X (formerly Twitter) – a page known for revealing tips that many have never encountered – shows a chef drizzling olive oil onto a paper towel and wiping it around the edges of his metal pan.
The solution worked like magic. Intrigued, one man decided to test it out himself. He took some kitchen roll, dabbed a bit of olive oil on it, and smeared it around the top of his bubbling pot. To his amazement, the hack was a success.
One asked: “Why is this the first time I’ve seen this?” Another exclaimed: “You’ve got to be kidding me. School taught me nothing and I took HomeEc!” While a third chimed in: “I’ve learned so many cleaning hacks via the internet.”
“This works,” confirmed someone who had given the trick a go. “Good to know,” added another commenter.
Some sceptics weren’t buying into the hack, with comments such as: “Just lower the heat? Don’t waste oil…” and “Or just turn it down a little,” while another remarked: “Olive oil is expensive AF, use the wooden spoon.”
Others suggested: “Turn it down and keep an eye on it,” and “I’m not wasting the purest and most expensive olive oil in the country to do that. I’ll just use a wooden spoon.”
Another added: “People will do anything except learn to actually cook and turn the temp down a little.”
What are your thoughts on this trick? Drop us a comment.
