Have You Been Using Your Colander Incorrectly? TikTok Thinks So

There are a lot of complicated kitchen gadgets out there, but even the most easily-flustered of amateur chefs likely wouldn't consider your standard colander to be one of them. It serves a very defined purpose: food stays in, water flows through it and goes out. You almost have to go out of your way to use a colander improperly, really.

Just because you aren't using a colander wrong, however, doesn't mean you are using it to its full potential. In order to explore the full possibilities of a colander, we naturally turn to the social media platform that's blown our minds and changed how we see things in our kitchen again and again: TikTok.

In response to a prompt about random life-hacks that have worked their way into our everyday routines, home hacks influencer Shannon Doherty (aka @AtHomeWithShannon) showcased a deviously simple way to efficiently use a colander while cooking pasta that you've probably never dreamed of trying.

As it turns out, your boiling pasta doesn't pass through the colander. Instead, the colander goes in the pot, and whatever liquid you want to strain off is then dumped directly into your sink. It's definitely a bit counterintuitive, but @AtHomeWithShannon's home demo shows that it definitely works as long as you place it properly and hold on tight.

So what's the advantage? Well, it'll save you from having to go through the trouble of putting the solid food you're cooking back into the pot if it sits in your colander. If you're making pasta with sauce (a pretty frequent colander use-case), it'll make your life a little bit easier.

Is this kitchen hack revolutionary? No, not really. But if you're worried about the potential loss of pasta during the pot to colander transfer or vice versa, cutting out that transitional period wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Just make sure you use a colander and a pot that relatively mirror each other in size, though, otherwise all bets may be off.