Black Pepper Was Once Used as Currency. What That Tells You About How to Use It.
For most of recorded history, black pepper was not a condiment. It was a currency precious enough to pay ransoms with and powerful enough... read more >>
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The One Ingredient Every Pastry Chef Adds to Desserts That Home Cooks Never Think Of.
Professional pastry kitchens add salt to almost every sweet preparation. Not to make things taste salty, but because salt suppresses bitterness and makes sweetness more vivid. Most home bakers never...
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Coffee Was Banned in Three Continents at Different Points in History. The Reasons Were Always Political.
Mecca in 1511, London in 1675, Prussia in 1777. Each time, a different authority decided coffee had to be stopped. Each time, the official... read more >>
Gambas al Ajillo
Few dishes in the entire Spanish canon deliver as much impact per ingredient as Gambas al Ajillo - garlic prawns sizzling in olive oil... read more >>
The Potato Changed the Course of European History. Without It the Industrial Revolution Probably Does Not Happen.
A rough-skinned tuber from the Andes that Europeans spent two centuries refusing to eat ended up doubling populations, feeding armies, and supplying the factories... read more >>
Dolmades
Stuffed grape leaves are one of those dishes that exist across the entire Eastern Mediterranean - from Turkey to Lebanon to Greece - and... read more >>
Professional Kitchens Never Use Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Cooking. Here Is What They Use Instead.
The expensive bottle on your counter is the right call for dressings and finishing. For everything that goes in a hot pan, professional kitchens... read more >>
Paella Valenciana
Paella is Spain's most iconic export to the world's dinner tables, and the Valencians will be the first to tell you that most of... read more >>
The Pretzel Was Invented by a Monk as a Reward for Children Who Learned Their Prayers. The Shape Is the Hands.
The pretzel shape is not decoration. It is a pair of arms: a child's arms crossed in prayer, pressed into dough by a monk... read more >>
Spanakopita
Spanakopita is the dish that turns skeptics of both spinach and pastry into believers in a single bite. These crisp golden triangles or the... read more >>
