What’s the most important invention in the history of food?

October 11, 2012 by
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The Guardian  recently reported that the Fellows of the Royal Society posted its list of the 20 most important food inventions. The list is below, but as equally as much fun are the comments that the Guardian received disagreeing with the list. You can see them here.  Refrigeration Pasteurization/sterilization Canning The oven Irrigation Threshing machine/Combine harvester Baking Selective breeding/Strains Grinding/Milling… read more

Caramelizing onions in just 15 minutes

October 10, 2012 by
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Kenji Alt over at Serious Eats writes an always-intriguing science food blog - and we pay special attention when he has cooking tips. His latest is how to caramelize onions in just 15 minutes - without adding either sugar or baking soda. We encourage you to watch the video, which demonstrates that the keys are good stirring and temperature regulation.… read more

Why were we so confused about authentic Chinese food?

October 9, 2012 by
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David Chan on the Menuism blog has an illuminating article on how American Chinese food came to be - and why it took us so long to appreciate diverse and authentic Chinese food. It turns out to be a combination of geographical and political factors. Chinese immigration began with the California gold rush and virtually all the travelers came from… read more

Quick food tips plus Affogato

October 5, 2012 by
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Gourmet Live has compiled ten top food tips from Twitter. Surprisingly, Twitter is a good place to find food tips. As Gourmet points out, "at 140 characters, the information has to be straight to the point and concise." And this list even includes one of the shortest recipes known - Affogato. Here are our five favorites, check out the complete… read more

The best containers for storing food in the freezer

October 3, 2012 by
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The easiest way to store food in the freezer is often to grab a freezer storage bag. But those bags have two drawbacks - they're expensive and it's easy to reach for one and discover an empty box. The Kitchn has some alternatives that are either reusable and/or less expensive. However, if you do want to use a freezer bag,… read more

Cleaning broken glass out of a dishwasher

October 1, 2012 by
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Ever had a glass break in a dishwasher? Thanks to Real Simple  (via the Kitchn), here's an easy way to solve the problem - use a potato. "Start by grabbing a flashlight and turning off the lights in your kitchen. Shine the flashlight in the bottom of the dishwasher. Any pieces of glass will catch the light so you can… read more

What dark beer is preferable when called for in a recipe?

September 29, 2012 by
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On Friday, we discussed gingerbread made with ale, and that got us thinking: Does it make sense to use a dark beer like porter (e.g. Dark Russian) or stout (e.g. Guinness) in this recipe? And, if so, what is the difference? So it seemed like true serendipity that over at Serious Eats we found an article called "Beer Mythbusting: The… read more

Two tips: Storing cut avocados and substituting parsleys

September 9, 2012 by
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Here are two helpful tips for the kitchen. First up, what to do when you have leftover avocado. Avocados are double trouble - they're expensive to start with, and then are problematic to store as they brown so easily. The ideas of: a) keeping the pit in while storing, and b) sprinkling a little lemon juice over the cut portion… read more

A gastronome’s puzzle

September 8, 2012 by
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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has a new book just out Hugh's Three Good Things.  Hugh's premise is that there are combinations of three ingredients that create culinary magic.  And we will be indexing the book shortly so we will find out how well that works. The Guardian newspaper has revealed a puzzle that academics have been pondering for at least three decades.… read more

The absolutely best way to dry herbs

September 7, 2012 by
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About this time of year (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) gardens are beginning to show wear and tear. And that's especially sad for those who love just plucking fresh herbs when you need them -  or buying them in bunches at the markets - and dread having to use store-bought dried herbs that are drab and may be musty.… read more

Can you eat food dropped on the floor?

September 3, 2012 by
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One of our favorite apps comes from "Fooducate." The app, (available for both iPhones and Androids) , allows users to scan a product's bar code, immediately see nutrition information, and get suggestions for a healthier alternative. Each item is graded and clearly marked why it earned that grade.  It's free and easy to use, recommended by the Wall Street Journal,… read more

Ingredient substitution guide

September 2, 2012 by
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The Kitchn has a useful Quick Guide to Ingredient Substitutions for last-minute kitchen replacements or "if you're trying to modify a recipe out of dietary necessity (shifting it to be dairy or gluten-free, for example)." Find the best gluten-free flour substitute, or what to replace for cake flour, buttermilk, vinegar, bananas, and much more. And make sure you read the comments… read more

Are these inventions awesome or ridiculous?

August 28, 2012 by
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BuzzFeed has a fun article called "20 Odd Inventions That Might be Awesome." Not all of them concern food, (though food does seem to bring out the most creativity) but they're all amusing and do pose the question, "Do some people just have too much time on their hands?" Check out motorized ice cream cones, anti-theft lunch bags (they make… read more

Opening a stubborn jar – and keeping it open

August 26, 2012 by
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At America's Test Kitchen Feed they have a quick video with three different approaches on how to open a stubborn jar lid: Improve your grip by using a piece of plastic wrap, a rubber band, or wear a rubber glove Tapping the jar around the edge to release air pockets to break the vacuum Inverting the jar into warm water… read more

The coolest way ever to separate an egg

August 24, 2012 by
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Grub Street found a great video on how to separate an egg.  The video is in Chinese but it doesn't matter -- it's perfectly clear from the images what the woman is doing. Indeed, it adds a whole new layer of context to the expression "sucking an egg." So check it out and let's hear how you did. read more

Ignore the temperature dial on your oven

August 21, 2012 by
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In Brian Palmer's Slate article, "Ignore Your Oven Dial: You can't control the temperature of your oven very well, so stop worrying about it," Palmer gives a brief history of oven temperatures leading to the conclusion that "you'd be forgiven for thinking that 350 on the dial means 350 in the oven. You'd be wrong, though. When you set an… read more

How to tell if your knife is sharp – and how to sharpen it, if it isn’t

August 17, 2012 by
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The knife is, hands down, the most important tool in the kitchen (well, besides the cook, of course). And new knife technology seems to arrive frequently, whether it's Ginsu or Santoku knives from Japan, or new styles from Henckel. But all that technology (and price) won't do a lot of good if the knives aren't sharp.  The Kitchn had a… read more

Telling a host he’s about to poison you

August 16, 2012 by
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We're not sure that Ms. Manners ever dealt with the thorny etiquette question that Chow recently posed: Should You Tell Your Host That He's About to Poison You? Chow frames the question as follows: "Here's the situation: A couple you don't know very well invites you over for a Saturday afternoon get-together. One of your hosts is grilling his famous Yucatan… read more

5 things that are just plain wrong to do with food

August 14, 2012 by
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  John Cheese over at Cracked has an interesting article, "5 Simple Things that Every Bad Cook Does Wrong." While a bit irreverent in tone (my old-fashioned mother would have called his language "colorful"), he does drive home some good points that we should not only teach in the kitchen, but also remind ourselves about occasionally (especially the last two). In… read more

3 coffee tips plus how to clean a burr grinder

August 13, 2012 by
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  It's Monday, the Olympics are over, and it's time for (some of) us to get back to work. So we thought these coffee-related tips would be helpful. The first three are from the America's Test Kitchen Feed and concern Eliminating Early Morning Coffee Problems: Problem # 1: Your milk cools down your coffee Problem #2: You don't have any flavored… read more

Bottled tartar sauce taste test

August 10, 2012 by
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We always enjoy Serious Eats' taste tests and find them to be a great guide. As they point out in their Taste Test: Bottled Tartar Sauce, tartar sauce has both fans and serious haters: "There's no such thing as tartar sauce neutrality. When that nice lady at the clam shack asks you if you want tartar sauce, it's never "I… read more

Con-artist cooking

August 8, 2012 by
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Janice Harper over at Huff Post Food has a really fun article for people who don't like to cook - and, frankly, even for those of us who love to cook but just may not be up to the task at the moment. In her piece, "Con-Artist Cooking - How to Fake It If You Really Can't Make It, " she… read more

Join us in these 3 uproarious food moments

August 7, 2012 by
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Thanks to the SALT, we've been given a chance to view "Three Ways Lucille Ball Ruled When She Played With Food." If you haven't ever seen the wine-crushing brawl, the chocolate wrapping assembly line or - probably one of the funniest TV moments ever - the Vitameatavegamin ad, you really should take a few moments to view them. And, if you have… read more

Tricks to successfully reheating food

August 6, 2012 by
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The Huffington Post's Kitchen Daily has a timely article by Sarah Pinneo on "The 6 Mistakes You're Making Reheating That Food." As she writes, "Leftovers can be a boon -- two homemade meals for the effort of one. Or, if improperly handled, leftovers can be sad and unappealing. Some minor adjustment to your methods will pay off, turning that foil… read more

Storing spices: Some practical ideas

August 5, 2012 by
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Regardless of the kitchen, storing spices always seems to be a challenge. It can be so frustrating to buy a new jar of some rarely used spice and then find a barely opened one tucked in some corner - or unearth a jar of some enticing spice only to find it has no flavor left. The Kitchn proposes some answers… read more
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