CookShelfWhen I was learning to cook, a friend showed me how to snap asparagus spears to remove the tough ends and keep only the tender parts. I dutifully did this tedious prep until I read an article that said it was a waste of…
When I was a fresh-faced college graduate 30 years ago, I was far from an accomplished cook. In fact, I was terrible. This was a shortcoming I was determined to overcome, because I really liked eating and did not have…
Time may mend a broken heart, but it's not going to fix a broken emulsion. However, there are other ways to bring your sauce back together if it separates, as Chowhound's Nikita Ephanov explains. If it's been a while…
In a quest for perfection, people can fall down some interesting rabbit holes. They will go to lengths that makes the average person scratch their head in puzzlement. This is true of nearly any human endeavor, and…
Cacio e pepe can be a tricky dish to master. Do it right, and you are rewarded with a silky sauce for your pasta. Do it wrong, and you end up with clumps of rubbery cheese swimming in oil instead. There are many recipes…
My social media feed has been nonstop Thanksgiving prep the past couple of days. Our gathering will be smaller than usual, so I'm throwing out the rulebook (with one exception: there will be mashed potatoes), going with…
Even people who don't usually bake may reach into the cupboard and dust off a pie pan during the holiday season. Making a pie can be stressful if you don't regularly bake, but Food and Wine's Ann Taylor Pittman offers…
Brown paper bags have been associated with food for decades. Before the rise of plastic bags, almost every supermarket and corner store used brown paper bags in the checkout lane. Is it just me or does everyone love the…
If you have watched The Great British Bake Off or The Great American Baking Show, you know the dreaded words that a baker never wants to hear: you have a soggy bottom. To avoid this fate and ensure a crisp pastry crust…
Gardeners know this scenario all too well: one day you are admiring the massive quantities of vegetables ripening on the vine, and the next day you are cursing the massive quantities of vegetables ripening on the vine.…
One of our Members recently emailed us a question that has likely been pondered by bakers ever since the kitchen scale was invented: just how much does a cup of flour weigh? While I have extolled the virtues of weighing…
Coconut can be a divisive ingredient - maybe not as much as cilantro/coriander, but polarizing nonetheless. As someone who adores coconut, I don't mind the haters. It just means there is more of that rich, coconutty…
