15 awesome uses for aluminum foil
- by Anna Sattler on Sep 11th 2007 11:00AM
- Filed under in the kitchen, staying green, cleaning
When I was growing up, my parents reused and recycled almost everything. All items were used until they were falling apart. My dad would wrap his sandwiches in wax paper until the paper was in tatters before he would use another piece. Plastic wasn't used much either in the house. Since we had every size Mason and Ball jar ever made for canning purposes and making jelly and jam, they were great for storing leftover food. If anything got stored on a plate, then aluminum foil was used to cover the plate. Nothing ever went to waste in our dirt poor household. The motto passed down to my 7 siblings and I was "waste not, want not!!"
I still use aluminum foil for almost everything. It is strong, durable, and efficient. It comes in all kinds of sizes now, not like when I was a kid and you had to tear off a tiny piece for a tiny item. Best of all, when it wears out, I just throw it in the recycling bin with the aluminum cans. I like it so much that I thought I would compile a list and share with you all the things to do with this handy item besides keeping food warm, so please join me after the break.
- When my scissors get dull, I layer about 7 pieces of foil and cut through them, and the scissors are sharp once again.
- I often forget to take my gold wedding ring and my silver cross ring off my fingers when I am doing dishes or grubbing around the house, so I put them in aluminum foil and put in some salt solution and leave it overnight. The next morning they look like new.
- Sometimes I go on a baking streak, and I find my brown sugar has gotten hard. To soften the sugar, I wrap it in foil and bake it in a 300 degree oven for 5 minutes. To keep it soft, I leave it wrapped in the foil and enclose in a labeled ziploc bag.
- Ball up some foil and use it to clean the gunk off your grill. It cleans just as well as a wire scrub brush.
- Makes great gift wrapping paper in a pinch and can be decorated as you wish.
- I use foil to clean the baked on gunk off my pots and pans. It works just as well as a steel wool scrub pad.
- Wrap your hardware and doorknobs in foil so that they don't get dripped on when you are painting.
- Half way through the baking process, take a length of foil and wrap around the edge of your pie, securing with a metal paper clip. This will prevent your crust from browning too much.
- Roll a double thickness of heavy duty foil into a cone shape, snip off the end, and use as a pouring funnel.
- Use it as a temporary piping bag or pastry bag by rolling it into a double thickness and leaving just a tiny hole at the pointed end. Fold down the top of the cone so nothing oozes out or twist the top closed.
- Put a length of foil on your oven rack to catch spills. Many pizzas have instructions that tell you to bake the pizza on the rack, but what a mess that can make. Putting the pizza on cooking sprayed foil will save a big mess.
- Since I love grilled vegetables, especially mushrooms, I top them with some butter and whatever herb or spice I am in the mood for, wrap them in a foil packet and give them to my husband to put on the grill with the steaks.
- To prevent stuck on food in my baking pans and cookie sheets, I will line them with foil. It cuts down on cleaning time and leaves my pans looking just as good as they did when they went into the oven. Rinse off the sheets if they are not to disastrous and save them for another baking session, or rinse them off and put them in your recycling bin.
- To prevent static electricity in your clothing, throw a small crumpled up ball of foil into your dryer.
- For clothing items that can't take direct heat, such as rayon, silk, and wool, you can get the wrinkles out by placing a piece of foil on your ironing board. Put the garment over the foil, and pass 3 inches above the garment several times with the iron, holding down the steam button the entire time. The wet heat from the foil with rid the garment of wrinkles.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
9-12-2007 @ 6:49AM
bill baker said...
If you are into archery, you can also cut a piece of aluminum foil to about 2" wide x 4" long, crumple it lightly then smooth it out again. Just below the fletching on the arrow, using elmers white glue, wrap the arrow shaft with the gluey foil and let dry. then if you lose your arrow, the light reflecting from the faceted bit of foil will help you find it again.
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9-12-2007 @ 7:25AM
Bill G said...
Tinfoil is also very good at keeping the secret radio waves from the Government out of my head. It works on most of the voices too! When you do not have enough to cover your body, or do not know exactly ho to fold it to best keep out the Zornac micro burst waves, just chew on some. It really helps!
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9-12-2007 @ 7:31AM
Debie said...
some great ideas..but wrapping paper might be a bit of a stretch.
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9-12-2007 @ 7:57AM
R Looser said...
thanks
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9-12-2007 @ 8:04AM
Nowcome said...
Sounds great, that Al foil is so handy. Do you know of any toxicity studies conducted on Al by the major corporations. I think not.
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9-12-2007 @ 8:27AM
shere1111 said...
At our cottage, I found I had left my curlers at home. I used aluminum foil instead. I took a piece of foil the length of my hair. I cut the foil into 3-4 inch wide strips. I parted mt hair into narrow sections and folded the foil around my dampened hair. Then I loosely rolled the folded foil around my finger. In the morning my hair looked great! Much easier for sleeping too, although my husband jokingly complained of signals from outer space all night.
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9-12-2007 @ 8:39AM
shere said...
At our cottage, I found I had left my curlers at home. I used aluminum foil instead. I took a piece of foil the length of my hair. I cut the foil into 3-4 inch wide strips. I parted mt hair into narrow sections and folded the foil around my dampened hair. Then I loosely rolled the folded foil around my finger. In the morning my hair looked great! Much easier for sleeping too, although my husband jokingly complained of signals from outer space all night.
Reply
9-12-2007 @ 8:40AM
shere said...
At our cottage, I found I had left my curlers at home. I used aluminum foil instead. I took a piece of foil the length of my hair. I cut the foil into 3-4 inch wide strips. I parted mt hair into narrow sections and folded the foil around my dampened hair. Then I loosely rolled the folded foil around my finger. In the morning my hair looked great! Much easier for sleeping too, although my husband jokingly complained of signals from outer space all night.
Reply
9-12-2007 @ 8:46AM
Nowcome said...
Sounds great, that Al foil is so handy. Do you know of any toxicity studies conducted on Al by the major corporations. I think not.
Reply
9-12-2007 @ 9:05AM
Lis said...
If you lost your pipe you can use foil to mold one and smoke your fave smokeabuls in it. Just remember to poke some holes in the bowl...
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9-12-2007 @ 9:06AM
Teresa said...
Wrapping paper is a great idea. I use it alot. You can take a toothpick or other pointy item and write notes or draw decorative designs on the foil for the receipient. When I feel extremely crafty I can even design a foil ribbon to go with it.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:13AM
betsy said...
don't forget about using foil on your rabbit ears
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9-12-2007 @ 9:13AM
betsy said...
don't forget about using foil on your rabbit ears
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9-12-2007 @ 9:28AM
rrisi said...
great ideas, but using aluminum foil to cook food with can cause aluminum contamination to the food and this is linked to ALzeimers disease.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:32AM
Auberda said...
You would add a great deal of credibility to your column if you would learn English grammar, proof read your work, and correct the errors before publishing it. Case in point: last sentence of first paragraph >> misuse of word "I". There are other errors; but, they were so distracting that I didn't read the entire article.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:34AM
Lesa said...
We use it down here in the south for window tinting. (Personally, I only use it on the bedroom windows in the back of the house so that I don't embarass my neighbors.) It's great for blocking out any unwanted sunlight if you are trying to sleep during the day, or for keeping the heat out of the house during the really hot summer months.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:34AM
Auberda said...
You would add a great deal of credibility to your column if you would learn English grammar, proof read your work, and correct the errors before publishing it. Case in point: last sentence of first paragraph >> misuse of word "I". There are other errors; but, they were so distracting that I didn't read the entire article.
Reply
9-12-2007 @ 9:35AM
geoff groedner said...
In addition to creating a barrier from Zornac micro burst waves, foil, shaped into a jockstrap can be used for extra protection during both a Zornac micro meteor shower and molten, ice block fog from the planet Mongo.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:39AM
Handyman said...
It's great to repair stripped out screwholes in wood. When a screw has worked loose so many times that the wood will no longer hold it tight, stuff the hole in the wood with a piece of aluminum foil. Then just rescrew the original screw in the hole. The foil gets forced out into the wood and holds just as good as new. You can also make a lockwasher out of foil. Twist a strip into a small round strip and wrap it around the bolt threads. Tighten the nut down as tight as possible until the foil is squeezed into the unevenness of the metal surfaces.
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9-12-2007 @ 9:43AM
A said...
Aluminum causes plaques on the brain that have been associated with Alzheimer's. I never let my family cook, store food with or eat with aluminum. I also never use aluminum based deodorants. It is a soft metal and oxidizes immediately (although it has a reputation for not rusting). I bet none of you see a problem with heating plastics in your microwave either...
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