How to Open an Oxo (stock) Cube

Intro: How to Open an Oxo (stock) Cube

Here is a quick few tips on opening an Oxo stock cube.

People opening an Oxo cube is one of the most painful things to watch in the kitchen. They open it then crumble it between their fingers, resulting a poorly crumbled stock cube in the food and messy fingers!

Here are a few simple steps to make it easier and more satisfying, with less mess.

Oxo stock cubes are used to flavour BBQ marinades, sauces, casseroles, stews, gravy, pies and more. They contain wheatflour (for thickening), salt, yeast extract, cornflour (for thickening), colouring, flavour enhancers (monosodium glutamate.... YUM!), beef fat, flavouring, dried beef bonestock, sugar, onion and pepper extract)

This instructable was brought about to a) practice macro photography (which was not wholly successful) and to b) show you a neat trick I use in the kitchen to save time.

STEP 1: Pull Out the Tabs

STEP 2: Squash It!

Squish it with the palm of your hand or the side of a knife. Then break up the last bits between your thumb and fingers.

Comment by MikB:
"I squeeze on diagonally opposing corners to start the crumbling process (in each of 4 directions), because crushing on the flat faces can split the foil. Once it's more ball shaped, it flattens out into an OXO flavoured pillow."

STEP 3: Rip It!

Tear along one of the edges.

STEP 4: Pour It!

Up-end it into your pan!

Pictures taken with a Samsung PL60 compact camera.

Comments

[EileenN9]

...hah! You clearly haven't had the Oxo cubes I've been getting the last few years!
Yes, your instructions are spot on for the OLD type Oxo cubes - always did htis. But the ercent ones (now in an 'x' shape are pertty much indestructable - which is why I thought to try your blog!
I've broken fingernails, briuised fingetips - even taken my meat tenderizer mallet to them (bad idea - they ricochet!) and they shoor out of my mortar and pestle like angry missiles!
The only way I've found that is relatively safe and mnot TOO messy is in my smoothie blender! I'm old school - no posh kitchen blenders and stuff - all by hand and never needed anything else before.
But I decided to make soup. So I looked and no stock pots in (much easier!) so Oxos it was.
And that's how I ended up cleaning the kitchen......🤣🤣

[Capt.Cassandra]

That's fantastically sensible! Now I feel silly for crumbling the little X in my fingers.

[klixtopher]

Cool.  Nice technique.  Next time I have to open a soup stock cube I'll do this.  It'll probably be a while though, since we just buy the same brand in easy to open pouches ;)

[Goodhart]

Do they come in a low salt version?   Around here (in the USA) such things are normally hypertensive restricted foods because of the his Sodium content.

[MikB]

... and I thought was the only one that did this. I squeeze on diagonally opposing corners to start the crumbling process (in each of 4 directions), because crushing on the flat faces can split the foil. Once it's more ball shaped, it flattens out into an OXO flavoured pillow.

[Jayefuu]

Good idea! I added it to step 2.

[PKM]

But how do you only use half a stock cube when cooking your studenty food-for-one and trying to avoid death by sodium overdose? Good macros BTW, especially step 3.

[Jayefuu]

Ha ha. I always eat with my housemates so always cook for 5. BUT... with this method of opening it's EASIER to use only half a cube. Once you've poured out what you need, the rest is still in an almost whole bag rather than a shredded foil wrapper so you can just fold over one end to save for later.

[lemonie]

Well, the squash (cf garlic) differs from the crumble, I must say that this looks a bit like gardening, but I wouldn't expect to germinate seeds in this... L

[Jayefuu]

He he. I find it quicker. Because it's already crumbled you don't have to fumble the wrapper off the cube where it's stuck in places. Just rip an end open and dump it in the pan! (the stock powder not the end)

[lemonie]

It's a good idea, and I've seen people do it with crisps too. L

[Kiteman]

The photography is good - you picked a difficult subject (shiny surfaces and low contrast between object and background make focussing hard), but carried it off. Well done.

[Jayefuu]

Ahhh. My compact camera did well then! That would be why it kept refusing to autofocus. I really need to read a photography book or two. What would have been a better background to pick then? I thought a wooden chopping board was suitable since it was a cooking related ible. Being new to photography (about 2 months) I didn't give any though to contrast. Thanks for the comment and praise!

[Kiteman]

A lot of auto focus systems look at contrasty patterns to work out focus.

If I am trying to focus on a difficult subject, I sometimes hold an easy target next to it, focus on that (half-pressing the trigger), remove the easy object, point at the desired object and finish pressing the trigger.

In the case of my papercraft projects, that often simply means focussing on the cutting mat beside the target, because my cutting mat is green with white squares on it.

[Jayefuu]

Ahh! That's exactly the way I got around it! You know what they say about minds that think alike? (Very similar to what they say about Frosties)

[roadieflip]

SMART!!! I'm fed up with getting stock cube all over my hands when making dinner... Another tip is to use a vegetable oxo cube as well as salt when cooking rice or pasta, and it gives it a much better flavour, raver! (and yes, flavour is spelled correctly.)

[Jayefuu]

Thanks! I'll try out the veggie ones next time I cook pasta/rice. We tend to only use them when we run out of beef ones at the moment. Cheers for the comment. Please rate :)

[=SMART=]

Never seen this technique before ! It looks like this was how they were supposed to be opened. Good work, ill show my mum :)

[Jayefuu]

Let me know what Smart Mummy says.

[=SMART=]

She said that was a much easier way, lots less mess. And said thank you :P