Innehållsförteckning för July/August 2022 från Cook's Illustrated

Buttery pie pastry can be a blank slate for upping your game. The neutral flavor lends itself to countless flavor adjustments, and you can get crafty with the edging and top crust design by stamping out attractive vents, weaving lattices, and crusting the surface in sugar. Read on to learn how easy it is to make a masterpiece. START WITH PERFECT PASTRY Our go-to dough is an all-butter formula with a mixing method that makes it tender, flaky, and easy to roll: “Waterproof ” a portion of the flour by processing it with butter to prevent it from absorbing water and forming gluten, and then process the remaining flour into that paste. Moisten it just enough with a measured amount of water, and fold in frozen grated butter for extra…

Ice cream cakes were part of my childhood birthday party experience, but my first memorable ones weren’t until I was in my 30s and working at a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Any time there was a staff birthday, I’d pick one up at Toscanini’s, a nearby scoop shop that makes (according to the New York Times) “the best ice cream in the world,” just before family meal. I’d inscribe “Happy Birthday” across the top in chocolate; add candles; and whisk it into the dining room, where the whole crew would sing loudly and off-key. Those few minutes of goofy joy became a special ritual for a serious bunch like us, who spent our shifts laser-focused on shaping perfect agnolotti and nailing the sear on scallops. And the flamboyance and alluring…

Most of us have a favorite mayonnaise and are loyal to a certain brand of ketchup, but mustard is different. Our refrigerator shelves are crowded with options, each of which adds something special to a sandwich or a potato salad. While it is traditional to use specific mustards for certain applications—Dijon in Caesar salad dressing, for example—you can have some fun experimenting. You might find that you love the pop of whole-grain mustard in a tuna salad or decide that you like the characteristic tang of yellow mustard on more than just hamburgers. The Many Styles of Mustard People have been crushing mustard seeds and combining them with liquid to form a potent paste—both for medicinal purposes and for use with food—for thousands of years, with the earliest recorded instances…

Summer’s most iconic sandwich—voluptuous tomato slices heaped between slices of toasted, mayo-slicked white bread—seems a straightforward, simple pleasure. But don’t let its modest appearance fool you. This juicy, drippy stack actually pulls off a delicate culinary balancing act: The bread offers crunch that contrasts with the tomato’s softness; the richness of the mayo complements the acidity of the fruit; and the brilliant red slices at the center of it all are at once juicy, sweet, tart, meaty, and savory. Achieving this tomato sandwich harmony is an effortless feat when you’ve got lush, toast-of-thefarmers’-market tomatoes. However, there’s no need to spend the whole summer holding out for those flawless fruits. At this time of the year, many tomato o varieties have sandwich potential—some just need a little boost to achieve that…

If you have a few vegetables in the fridge, a sack of besan (flour milled from skinned and split brown chickpeas) in the pantry, and a well-stocked spice cabinet, you’ve got everything you need to fry up a batch of pakoras, the crispy, savory, two-bite fritters that are treasured throughout the Indian subcontinent. Most vegetables fit neatly into the pakora template, offering loads of use-it-up flexibility: Chop or shred a mix of whatever vegetables you have on hand; season them liberally with fragrant spices and minced fresh chiles; add a little besan; and drizzle in water to create a scoopable batter. Deep-fry spoonfuls until the fritters develop a jumble of brown, spiky tendrils, and then serve them piping hot with assorted chutneys and milky cups of masala chai. It’s a…

Get the Most out of Your Hand Mixer Hand mixers are the perfect tool when you need to turn out small quantities of cake batter, billowy egg whites, or whipped cream (such as for our Ice Cream Cake [page 23]). Keep these tips in mind the next time you reach for yours. –L.L. USE A TALL BOWL WITH A NARROW BOTTOM. This shape corrals splatter and allows the beaters to make better contact with the contents of the bowl for more efficient mixing and aerating. If you’re whipping cream or egg whites, make sure that your bowl is big enough for the foam to expand. ALWAYS START SLOW. Whether you’re gently combining dry ingredients, blending a thick batter, or whipping egg whites, it’s important to slowly increase the speed so that your…

The Asociación Peruana de Avicultura (Peruvian Association of Poultry Farming) estimates that more than 155 million pollos a la brasa are consumed annually in Peru. Maestros polleros, or poultry masters, grillroast the extraordinarily popular birds on rotisseries that spin lazily over crackling wood fires (“brasa” means “ember”) to produce meat that’s encased in tawny, paper-thin skin and dripping with juices. Served with a pile of crispy french fries, a simple green salad, and an array of peppy ají (chile) sauces, the flavor-packed, satisfying dish has been central to the country’s dining scene for decades. It’s been given its own national holiday, Día del Pollo a la Brasa, on the third Sunday of every July. It all began in the 1940s when Swiss migrant Roger Schuler needed a way to rescue…

In late summer, when zucchini and tomatoes are bursting from their vines, I crave kousa mihshi, one of the great Middle Eastern stuffed vegetable traditions that’s long been treasured across the Levant, and one that I grew up preparing with my mother in our Lebanese American home. We’d hollow out the mildly bitter zucchini (“kousa mihshi” means “stuffed squash” in Arabic), fill it with a mixture of spiced rice and lamb, and slowly braise it in tomato sauce until the meat was succulent and the rice tender. A drizzle of olive oil and a spoonful of cooling yogurt completed the ensemble: a vibrant mix of flavors, textures, and temperatures that to me epitomizes all that is special about Lebanese cooking. In many households, these “delectable pockets of nourishment and care,”…

You can make decent blueberry pancakes by dropping a few handfuls of fruit into any old batter, griddling the rounds, and dousing the stack liberally with maple syrup. But pair sweet-tart, high-season fruit with a complexly flavored crumb that’s got plenty of cushiony fluff and lightly crisp edges, and your lazy summer breakfast takes on a whole new level of luxury. Those were the pancakes I had in mind as I got to work on a batter that would stand out against the vivid berries—not just capture them. The dry ingredients were predictable (all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt), as was the egg for structure and flavor. But the dairy was an obvious place to upgrade: Buttermilk instead of milk not only provided a bit of tang…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED RECOMMENDED RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS NOT RECOMMENDED VICTORINOX Swiss Army Fibrox Pro 8" Chef’s Knife MODEL: 5.2063.20-X4 PRICE: $37.90 BLADE: HANDLE: SHARPNESS: COMMENTS: This knife has been our favorite for nearly three decades, and for good reason. It arrives and stays quite sharp, so it effortlessly dispatches tasks big and small. It’s lightweight, and its rounded, rubbery handle is comfortable for hands of all sizes to grip. MERCER Culinary Renaissance 8-Inch Forged Chef’s Knife MODEL: M23510 PRICE: $31.30 BLADE: HANDLE: SHARPNESS: COMMENTS: This knife ran a close race with our winner. It’s sharp and fairly comfortable to grip, though its handle is a little slicker than we prefer. Some testers actually preferred this knife’s heavier weight, too, finding it “solid” and “authoritative” in their hands. VICTORINOX Swiss Classic 8"…

Turn These Flavor-Packed Staples into Shelf-Stable Seasoning Powders Your pantry and arsenal of everyday ingredients are full of savory powerhouses, some of them hiding in plain sight. Dried shiitakes, of course, are one such heavy hitter, and all you need to do is buzz them in a spice grinder to create a sprinkle-able seasoning. But capers, miso, and even scallions can be easily dehydrated and pulverized to create similarly potent powders, each with its own spectrum of flavors. Dry each according to the instructions below; process thoroughly in a spice grinder; and add to recipes before, during, or after cooking for an instant hit of depth and flavor. Store the powders in airtight t containers (clean spice jars work well) out of direct sunlight for up to one year. –S.D.…

Mini-Muffin Tins Mini-muffin tins are great when baking for children’s parties and any occasion where you want an assortment of small treats. While the profiles of regular and mini-muffin tins are the same, the number of cups they contain (12 and 24 cups, respectively) differs. We chose nine models and baked mini muffins and almond financiers in each; our favorite tins had several traits in common. First, they were made from steel, which retains and disperses heat well, and produced evenly browned baked goods. Second, the smaller, narrower shapes of their cups gave us perfectly proportioned muffins and cupcakes. Third, their wide rims made them easy to handle even when we were wearing oven mitts. Two models came out on top. Our winner, the Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Pro Nonstick Mini…