I’m not the first person to observe that Americans have a crazy, conflicted relationship to fat. We love it, and eat far more of it than probably just about any other country in the world. God knows we have the obesity epidemic to show for it. At the same time, we fear it mightily, speaking …
When cooks talk about “acidity”, what they mean is simply sourness. Scientifically, they are the same thing. The sour taste buds fire when an acid meets water and releases hydrogen ions in your mouth. End of chemistry class.
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Salt
Acid
Fat
Crunch
A Telling Failure
At least in America, acidity is a quality frequently missing from home-cooked meals, …
Ask a professional chef to taste and evaluate a dish, and odds are that if they think it needs something, that something will be salt, acid, fat, or crunch.
Read the Series
Salt
Acid
Fat
Crunch
A Telling Failure
Why? Because these are fundamental elements that make food pop. They aren’t going to turn undercooked eggplant into a silk purse, but if …
I’m kind of a freak about sharp knifes. When I cook in other folk’s kitchens I usually find their knives are as dull as a wiffle ball bat, and I can’t figure out how they stand it.
Few things make your life in the kitchen more enjoyable than truly sharp knives. They make your work faster, …
Allrecipes.com invited me to participate in their Thanksgiving webcast marathon last week. If you'd like to see the video, click on video below, wait for the player to switch from an 11 second clip to a long clip, then jump to 27 minutes in. Be patient, it takes a minute to start playing after you …
Twenty-five years ago, when I was first learning to cook, a dear friend gave me the Tassajara Bread Book and the Tassajara Cookbook. I read them and used them until they fell completely apart, and in the process learned a basic sense of comfort with baking, knife skills and improvisational cooking that has never …
This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to tour Pike Place Market with master food photographer Lou Manna, arranged by the Frantic Foodie herself, Keren Brown.
Lou is a great guy and quite a character. In fact, one of the first things he demonstrated was how he uses his personality to engage …
