Indholdsfortegnelse for May/June 2025 i Cook's Illustrated

I recently moved into a house where the prior tenants tracked their children’s growth with notches on a doorframe. I smiled when I saw it—there’s something sweet and timeless about the tradition—and it got me thinking about all the other ways we track the progression of our lives. There are obvious markers like birthdays, graduations, and weddings, but there are also softer milestones like friendships, romances, travel—and noodles. Stay with me for a minute on that last one because I bet some of you can relate. I was scanning the recipe collection in this issue, my first as editor in chief of Cook’s Illustrated, and felt this burst of joy when I got to the Cacio e Pepe (page 5) and Beef Chow Fun (page 9). Of course I was reacting…

Caesar dressing is scientifically delicious. When glutamaterich Parmesan cheese meets anchovies, which contain a meaty-tasting nucleotide called inosine monophosphate (IMP), the two ingredients create an intense synergy that delivers maximum umami. Garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard add piquancy, and citrus juice lifts the flavor. Raw egg yolks bring everything together with their lecithin, which unites the naturally standoffish watery components and fatty components in a creamy emulsion so that the dressing can evenly coat crisp romaine lettuce. But that bold, rich dressing can stand up to much more than leaf lettuce. The savor and slight pungence of broccoli, an increasingly popular alternative, is an obvious flavor-science match for the punchy dressing, and the crunch of the brassica makes the eating experience all the more dynamic. That said, a traditional Caesar…

In her classic The New Book of Middle Eastern Food (1985), cooking authority Claudia Roden reflects on the sanctity of bread in the Levant: “An invocation to God is murmured before kneading the dough, another before placing it in the oven. A hungry man will kiss a piece of bread given to him as alms,” she writes. It’s this deep reverence for bread that gave rise to fatteh, a dish that ensured that leftover pita bread would never be wasted. Rather, it would be celebrated. A possible descendant of the Arabic “fotat,” meaning “crumbs,” fatteh starts with ripping the pocketed bread into pieces and then frying or toasting it. (These days, it’s common to start with fresh pita.) Once the pita is crisp, it’s overlaid with warm poached meat, vegetables,…

There’s a haze of pork that hangs in the air over Ho Chi Minh City. It swirls up from roadside grills, where cooks shuffle marinated chops over the fire. As the meat drips fatty juices onto the coals, it sizzles and sends up intoxicating plumes that coax hungry patrons to their lunch before they can even see the food. This is thit nuong sa : thin pieces of pork (usually bone-in) that are soaked in sweetened fish sauce redolent with lemongrass, shallots, and garlic and grilled until they char and crisp. The chops are a popular element of com tam, the staple rice plate dished out by street vendors in and around the southern region’s largest city. These meals typically feature a mound of the splintered grains known as broken…

Tangy, vibrant rhubarb is often a dessert co-star (think strawberry rhubarb pie) but seldom the featured player. And yet, I believe these extravagantly crimson stalks deserve the principal role. A French pastry known as tarte fine seemed like the ideal vehicle to launch rhubarb to stardom. A tarte fine aux pommes is an exquisite yet simple dessert: a thin sheet of puff pastry skimmed with apple puree and topped with slim, meticulously arranged apple slices. The buttery pastry—flat and crisp under the fruit and slightly puffed at the edges—balances the sweet-tart, tender apples. I suspected that subbing bright, vivid rhubarb for the apples would result in a classic showbiz scenario: The understudy would outshine the established star. For ease, I used store-bought puff pastry. After rolling the rectangle flat, I…

BEST SUPERMARKET SWEET WHITE MISO HIKARI Saikyo Sweet Miso PRICE: $14.98 for 14.1 oz ($0.94 per oz) TYPE: Kome STYLE: Shiro (Saikyo) miso INGREDIENTS: Organic rice, water, organic soybeans, organic spirits (organic rice, salt, koji culture), salt, koji culture COMMENTS: Saikyo miso is a sweet variety of shiro miso that originated in Kyoto. The one we tasted had a “soft,” “smooth” texture and tasted “nutty” and “fruity.” We praised its “pleasantly sweet flavor” when it was whisked into dashi, as it reminded us of “sweet plums and peaches in the summer.” MARUMAN Mutenka Aka Miso PRICE: $10.39 for 26.5 oz ($0.40 per oz) TYPE: Kome STYLE: Aka miso INGREDIENTS: Soybean (non-GMO), rice, salt, water COMMENTS: This “toffeecolored” miso had a “buttery” and “fruity” aroma. The texture was “mostly smooth,” and…

Ramekins Though ramekins might not seem like essential kitchen equipment, they are surprisingly versatile. They’re perfect for serving nuts, dips, and small snacks as well as individually portioned custards, pies, and soufflés. We tested a variety of ramekins advertised as having a capacity of 6 to 7 fl uid ounces. Thick, heavy ceramic ramekins performed better than glass ramekins, baking both low-temperature and more sensitive higher-temperature recipes well. We also liked straight-sided ramekins, as they produced more uniform, attractive-looking baked goods than ramekins with sloped sides, and they were also easier to remove from a water bath with tongs. Ramekins with relatively wide openings were easy to fill but still compact enough that we could load six or eight into a large baking dish. Our favorite, the HIC Kitchen Souffle,…

Transport a Cake Slice in a Mini Cake Dome When Daniel Thompson of Laguna Niguel, Calif., needs to store or transport a single slice of cake, he creates a “mini cake dome” by placing the item in an upside-down food storage container. Squeeze Bottle Turned Twine Dispenser Ted Brown of Birmingham, Ala., came up with a clever way to manage his roll of kitchen twine: He stashes it in a squeeze bottle that he’s weighed down at the bottom with a small, clean rock, threading the twine through the bottle’s nozzle. This makes it easy to dispense the twine without getting it tangled. Marinate Tofu in Its Box Leigh Allen-Arredondo of Seattle, Wash., disliked having to dirty a zipper-lock bag when marinating tofu, and she didn’t have a reusable container…

Fried chicken. It’s universal comfort food, the laid-back centerpiece of social gatherings, and many a home cook’s pride and joy. In the archives of this magazine, you’ll find numerous recipes for the iconic poultry preparation. Each one charms with a wrinkly, crinkly, golden-brown coating; salty, peppery, chicken-y savor; and homespun vibes. But now I’ve gone back into the kitchen to reexamine every aspect of the all-American approach, and after weeks of frying, I’m throwing down my grease-stained apron with a recipe that, I’m proud to say, is our crispiest, crunchiest yet. In the guide that follows, I’ll walk you through the optimal ways to butcher, brine, and season the parts; explain my nifty double-dip coating that promises to deliver the absolute crunchiest chicken you’ve ever had (you can hear its…

Every bite of a grilled salmon fillet is dynamic. The char of the grill is the perfect foil for the fish’s richness, infusing the moist, flaky flesh and crackly-crisp skin with smoky complexity. Plus, grilling presents perks to the cook: The intense heat cooks the salmon speedily, and any fishy aroma stays outdoors and out of your kitchen. There’s just one problem: It’s not easy to get salmon off the grill in one piece. The fish tends to cling tenaciously to the grate—so it’s all too easy to end up with a pile of errant pink flakes rather than a beautifully grill-marked fillet. A Sticky Situation Food sticks to cooking grates (and pans, for that matter) when bonds form between sulfur-containing amino acids in the food’s proteins and the iron…