Two years ago, I combined flour and water and waited. This was the initial act of faith that has spawned countless loaves of bread and an incredibly complex and varied relationship between a girl and her sourdough starter. A relationship that has survived summer heat and winter chill, stretches...
Citrus season is an exciting time for those of us living in temperate zones. In fact, I know some who would argue that citrus is the only good thing about winter (I would retort that eggnog is another, but that's quite a different matter). In our house, it's a happy time of marmalade,...
After our Building A Better Pantry series on dairy products, I thought it fitting to expound upon the cheese plate. Even if you don't care to make cheese of your own, I'm sure most of you still enjoy eating it, and, let's face it, cheese made by passionate professionals is just hard to beat....
Included in the 1936 edition of the Joy of Cooking, and basically unaltered since, hamburgers are perhaps the easiest and most-loved grilling fare in America. With the rise of boutique burger chains from coast to coast, it seems like a good time to remember that the...
There are approximately 53 pie recipes in the Joy of Cooking, the vast majority of which call for flaky pastry dough. You could go through life only making pies with crumb crusts, and that would be a tasty existence indeed, but there are some pies where a crumb crust simply will not do...
As a somewhat seasoned baker, I can look back on the past five years and say with great certainty that my Achilles heel, my physical albatross, has been pie dough. Many an attempt at pie-making has been thwarted by shrunken, greasy crusts. I have done my reading. I have practiced. I have been...
Of all the types of recipes out there, baking recipes can be the most cryptic.
After all, how often do you see phrases like, "Have ready 1/4 cup mirepoix in brunoise" in your standard cookbook. Or perhaps, "Have ready one chicken en crapaudine..." It's just not gonna happen. For better or...
Griddle, make-shift wok, fryer, high-volume egg poacher, sauce pan, braising pan, roasting pan, blunt-trauma weapon, shield against small-caliber munitions… regardless of what is thrown at you in the kitchen—whether its breakfast for 10 or an assailant’s roundhouse kick—the large sauté is ready...
Many food professionals would have you, the home cook, believe that the culinary tricks they perform and the dishes they create in the kitchen are difficult. And it is true that some dishes are more suited to a professional kitchen than a home kitchen, but really what a chef has that...
