Keep Ingredients Submerged In Liquid With A Paper Towel Hack

Keeping chopped fruit, veggies, and other ingredients submerged in water, thin syrup, or brining liquid can be a challenge. Those ingredients often want to float, especially at the start when they have yet to absorb any of the liquid. While there are weights and springs made to alleviate this problem, if you don't have any on hand, you might be wondering what to do. 

One possibility is to turn to a restaurant hack that has been shared on Joshua Weissman's YouTube channel. In the hack, a paper towel is soaked in the liquid and laid on top to create a barrier so that ingredients cannot float up to the open air.

Restaurants depend on efficiency and effectiveness to keep their kitchens running smoothly, so you can be sure that this hack will work as promised in a pinch. After all, cooks and chefs wouldn't rely on something that doesn't actually get the job done — they would simply find a different way.

Using a paper towel to keep foods submerged in liquid is quick and easy. All you have to do is fold the paper towel and press it into the jar or other container. You'll want to do this gently, allowing the liquid to soak through and create a shallow layer on top. The sides of the paper towel should remain dry and may even stick out of the jar — just fold them down a bit to put the lid on, but don't submerge the whole paper towel. This will create surface tension that will keep the ingredients from rising out of the liquid.

Likewise, if you are running low on paper towels, coffee filters could also work for this hack. The shape is ideal for placing into a jar as you won't have to fold it or encounter any issues with liquid seeping through a gap in the sides. It is a good idea to double or triple up on filters due to their thinness.

One caveat to this hack is that while it can be used with brining liquids, you probably won't want to use paper towels as a substitute for weights or springs in fermentation. Not only will the paper break down over the time that it takes to ferment, but paper products could potentially interfere with the fermentation process.

Restaurants wouldn't use this hack if it would make you sick. At the same time, it's probably not a good idea to do it regularly due to the formaldehyde that is present in paper towels, according to the CDC. As with another restaurant hack that uses plastic wrap for steaming veggies in the microwave that involves direct contact, it gets the job done and won't cause acute illness. But repeated exposure probably isn't the best idea.

If you find yourself constantly needing something to keep your ingredients submerged, then it might be a good idea to invest in some food-grade weights. Or you can always use cabbage leaf instead — assuming the ingredients you're trying to submerge aren't anything that would suffer from soaking with a bit of cabbage, of course. However the paper towel hack is an easy fix for the time being, or if you're traveling somewhere and forgot to bring your weights.