Food news antipasto

Along the lines of “how many licks does it take to get the center of a Tootsie Pop”, researchers at MIT asked another of food’s most prominent questions: what’s the best way to twist apart an Oreo? “I was personally motivated by a desire to solve a challenge that had puzzled me as a child: how to open an Oreo and get crème evenly arranged on both wafers?” Crystal Owens, one of the authors, said in an interview last year with Vice. 

Finding the right cookware can be a challenge as various materials, shapes, colors, and sizes all play a role in what the pan is most suited to do. Two items that discerning cooks often gravitate to are Dutch ovens and brasiers. Tasting Table looks into the similarities and difference between these two types of pans, giving us advice on which style of cooking matches best with each.

America’s Test Kitchen hosts some of the most popular educational culinary programs on the air today, and the accompanying cookbooks are highly popular with our Members and the general public. However, even an institution as vaunted as ATK can have its struggles as is apparent by the recent announcement that the company was laying off 23 employees. The cuts included the entire staff of ATK Kids along with workers in the books and marketing areas. Just a couple of months ago, Marquee Brands acquired ATK, assuring employees that nothing was going to change.

Food is important during Ramadan, which runs this year from March 22 to April 21. The holy month involves abstaining from food during the daylight hours and then coming together over it to break the fast after sunset. Since food plays such a prominent role in this religious observance, food blogger Anisa Karolia decided to dedicate her first cookbook to it. Called The Ramadan Cookbook, the book features recipes for Suhoor (the small meal eaten just before sunrise), Iftar (the meal that breaks the fast after sunset), and more.

City, Full City, Italian, single-origin, washed, natural – these terms and more can appear on a bag of coffee. But what do all of these words actually mean to your morning cup of brew? Ever Meister, who has spent 20 years of writing and teaching about coffee, is here to explain it all to us. Spoiler alert: you don’t have to use espresso roast to make espresso.