Looking through a glass onion.

Sometimes dining is about pure familiarity. I think this is what people mean when they refer to “comfort food” – things we know well from long experience, possibly even childhood. “Comfort food” has always struck me as a ridiculous term – isn’t eating an inherently comforting experience? – but I have to admit that certain [...]

DIY bacon.

Getting that smokehouse flavor into house-cured bacon without smoking it, and how to braise a whole slab of bacon, on the Extras – Bacon Bacon Bacon page.

Romanesco.

Recently, on the way home from the office, we stopped at the market to pick up a few things and wait out the traffic. You know how it is – you walk into the store thinking you’re just going to pick up a box of pasta, and the next thing you know, you’ve been sidetracked [...]

It’s easy being cheesy.

One of the worst feelings from a cook’s standpoint is the realization that you’re missing an ingredient you were sure you had. It’s happened to us all – you go to prepare a mise en place and discover you left eggs off your shopping list, or could have sworn you had celery left over from [...]

Sardines.

A reader asks about trying canned sardines for the first time. Read about this meaty, rich fish on the Sardines page.

Just meat it.

A reader asks why his skirt steak and round roast weren’t tender like those pricier cuts of meat. Read about the anatomy of tougher cuts, and how to cook them, on the Tough Times page.

Erratum – FYI to Blog Subscribers

Hey y’all! This is just an erratum for subscribers. In my last post, Packers Packers Packers, the recipe for Beer cheddar soup contains an error. The recipe calls for 2 cups of stock or water. It should call for one cup. The correction already appears in the online edition but will not appear in the [...]