You Are Washing Your Pan Wrong. The Brown Bits You Scrub Away Are the Best Part.
Every professional kitchen has a name for it. Fond. It is the brown layer that clings to the pan after a good sear, and... read more >>
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Toasting Spices Is Not Optional. Here Is the Science Behind Why It Matters.
Most people who toast spices do it because a recipe told them to. The instruction travels without its explanation. What is happening inside the spice during those two minutes in...
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Canned Food Was Invented 50 Years Before the Can Opener. People Used Hammers and Chisels. Nobody Saw the Problem.
Canned food was invented to feed an army. The can opener was not invented until half a century later. For fifty years, the solution... read more >>
Pulpo a la Gallega
Galicia is Spain's rainy green northwestern corner, a land of Celtic heritage, dramatic coastline, and the finest octopus in the world pulled from the... read more >>
Olive Oil Has Been Produced for 8,000 Years. The Way It Is Sold Today Would Have Been Considered Fraud in Ancient Greece.
The ancient Greeks had laws governing olive oil quality so specific they named grades and punished adulteration as a civic crime. The bottle in... read more >>
Greek Salad (Horiatiki)
Outside Greece, what passes for Greek salad is often a pale imitation. Inside Greece, the real Horiatiki (village salad) arrives as a generous mound... read more >>
Gazpacho Andaluz
Long before smoothies and cold-pressed juices arrived to tell us vegetables could be drinks, Andalusia had gazpacho. This chilled raw tomato soup has cooled... read more >>
Souvlaki
Souvlaki is Greece grilled and eaten standing up. These short skewers of marinated pork or chicken char over charcoal in every street corner grill... read more >>
Chilli Peppers Did Not Exist in Asian Cooking Until 500 Years Ago. Now They Define It.
The heat that defines Thai, Korean, Indian, and Sichuan cooking arrived by ship from the Americas less than five centuries ago. Before that, Asian... read more >>
Baklava
Baklava is one of the ancient world's greatest achievements - layers of paper-thin phyllo pastry interleaved with chopped nuts and drenched in fragrant honey... read more >>
