This Is the Best Reason to Save Your Champagne Corks

Photo: Claire Lower

For some reason, I have a Moon Pie-branded tin that is absolutely stuffed with old wine corks I’ve collected over the years. I don’t know what I’m saving them for; all they do is remind me that I’ve spent a fair amount of money of mid-priced wine, yet I cannot let them go. (It might be tempting to think that I’m saving them for some sort of wine mom art project, but that’s not it either; I don’t even own a glue gun.)

But, thanks to TikTok, I have found a reason to justify a small portion of my cork-saving habit: I can use my corks to protect my delicate little fingers.

In this video, TikTok user Andrew of @abouttoeat shared a trick he learned while filming the show Worth It: Instead of using a kitchen towel or pot holder to grab the hot, metal lid of a sauce pan or stock pot, he wedges a sparkling wine cork under the handle. The cork acts as an insulator, allowing Andrew to lift the lid without burning his fingers.

I tested this little hack with a few different corks—as I mentioned, I have plenty—and found that Champagne and sparkling wine corks did work much better than standard, straight-edged corks. Non-sparkling corks were just too thin, and didn’t wedge well or stay put under the handle. (They just slid and rolled around, which made lifting the lid without touching it quite challenging.)

According to the comments, this little hack is nothing new, especially in the former USSR, where it has been used by countless Balkan grandmothers for generations. According to even more comments, this is stupid and “they should just make the handle out of cork,” but that sounds annoying to clean, and like something that is out of Andrew’s control. But until that’s sorted out, we’ll have to resort to corks. (Thank goodness I saved so many.)