Innehållsförteckning för July/August 2023 från Cook's Illustrated

Sour is one of the five building blocks of taste. It’s what makes dishes bright, sharp, and refreshing. But despite its critical role in cooking, I find that it doesn’t get the same attention as salty, sweet, or even umami. That’s true in the scientific community as well. It was only in 2018 that a receptor for sour taste, OTOP1, was identified. And we are still at a loss as to why humans developed the ability to taste sour in the first place. One intriguing theory: Being able to taste acids may have allowed our ancestors to consume otherwise questionable calories. If past-prime food was sour it would indicate the presence of lactic acid bacteria, which produce acids that keep harmful microbes at bay. It would have meant the difference…

I’m not immune to the charms of kung pao chicken or mapo tofu, but when I’m scanning a Sichuan restaurant menu, gan bian si ji dou are my quarry. Unlike the crisp, steamed green beans I grew up on, these are chewy and deeply satisfying, cooked to the point that their crunch collapses into a meaty density. They’re coated not in a sauce but in a light savory stickiness that captures crumbles of fried pork and aromatics. The first step when making them is transforming the beans from crisp to concentrated—you have to dehydrate them a bit, which can be done in a variety of ways. Restaurant cooks typically deep-fry the beans, while home cooks often opt to dry fry (a technique in which the beans are tossed with little…

Melons, native to Africa, have been cultivated for thousands of years. The proof? Depictions of the fruit in Egyptian tomb paintings and seeds found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun. Scientists believe that the melons the ancient Egyptians domesticated likely tasted similar to today’s WATERMELON, deeply sweet, crisp, and gushing with juices. Seedless versions of the fruit are created by treating young plants with colchicine, a chemical that causes the plant to produce fruits with nonviable seeds that do not develop a fibrous black seed coat. Some say YELLOW WATERMELON is sweeter than the more common red- and pink-flesh varieties, featuring subtle honey notes. The HAMI melon is also known for its pleasant floral sweetness; it tastes like a crisper, more flavorful cantaloupe. PIEL DE SAPO’s name means “skin of…

A Cookbook Bookmark Carol Kristofik of Lower Burrell, Pa., found it challenging to flip between pages when she was using two recipes from the same book. So, she devised a bookmark: She glued a few ribbons to a slender piece of cardstock, then slid it into the spine of the book. Now she can use the ribbons to mark multiple recipes. Carry Fewer Platters to the Grill Alison Field of Atherton, Calif., discovered a way to streamline her grilling setup. Instead of bringing two separate platters outside—one holding raw meat and one for the cooked meat—she slides a plastic produce bag or a sheet of parchment paper over a platter and places the raw meat on top. Once the raw meat is on the grill, she can remove and discard…

One evening late last fall, I went for a walk after a rainy stretch of weather and happened upon a tantalizing scent in Harvard Square. It was part freshly baked bread and part heady vanilla, with a toasty edge of caramelized sugar. Nose up like a cartoon character, I followed the aroma into a glowing café called Zinneken’s where cooks busily turned out waffles for a packed house. The Liège waffle, the Belgian café’s specialty, was unlike any waffle I’d ever eaten: oblong with charmingly uneven edges like a raw hemline and deeply caramelized crenulations that gave way to a subtly layered and elastic interior. Small sugar nuggets strewn throughout the rich crumb provided crunch and enough sweetness that I immediately understood why these waffles are traditionally served plain—no syrup…

No matter what cuisines you cook from, you likely have at least one bottle of vinegar in your cabinet. Aside from staples such as oil, salt, and sugar, few other ingredients have such a ubiquitous presence. We want to help you understand the scientific journey behind how vinegar is made and used to pickle, preserve, season, braise, marinate, and dress foods across the globe. What Is Vinegar? The word vinegar is derived from the French word “vinaigre”; “vin” translates to wine and “aigre” translates to sour. Its first recorded use was by the Babylonians around 5000 BCE, as people discovered that wine gone “bad” actually yielded its own delicious and versatile product. While this wine may have been made from grapes, it may also have been made from many other…

Using Creamy Dressing? Dress the Bowl, Not Your Salad Even with the most deluxe add-ins, a bowl of greens is nothing without its dressing. But salads made with thick, creamy dressings can often be disappointing, with one mouthful drenched in dressing while the next bite has just a skim. The solution is a riff on a classic Caesar salad: Instead of placing the greens in the salad bowl and dolloping the dressing over them, spread the dressing around the bottom of the bowl first. (In a traditional Caesar salad, the dressing is even mixed right in the bowl.)That way, more of the salad will encounter the thick sauce from the get-go, and it won’t get trapped in pockets of leaves. And once you toss the salad, it will be easier…

Looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised that a burger packed with mushrooms would taste so meaty and juicy. Mushrooms are brimming with glutamates that complement the nucleotides in beef, creating a deeply umami taste. They’re also loaded with water. Even so, my first bite of a blended burger—made with a mix of minced white mushrooms and ground beef—was revelatory. The patty was hands-down the most succulent and tender I’ve ever encountered, filled with rich, savory juices. Further, it was just as meaty and satisfying as any 100 percent beef burger out there. It’s terrific news: Blended burgers are a way to eat less red meat without feeling like you’re making sacrifices. In fact, you’ll be doing a whole lot of good. Stretching beef with mushrooms—whether for the nutritional perks…

When I think of pappa al pomodoro, I think of my dad. He’s the reason I tried the dish in the first place, while I was a college student studying abroad in Florence, Italy. Dad had flown in to visit, and one night, after hours of exploring the city, the two of us sat down at a cozy trattoria in the Piazza Santa Croce. He spotted a dish on the menu starring two of his favorite foods—bread and tomatoes—and ordered it on a whim. I was skeptical of this choice. All semester long, I had relentlessly pursued a goal of eating as much fresh pasta as possible, and the humble bowl of ruddy porridge that arrived at our table was a marked departure from that diet. But at my dad’s…

One of the first dessert recipes I developed for Cook’s Illustrated, for the March/April 2016 issue, was posset, an old-time British treat that I hadn’t previously encountered, but which quickly became a favorite of mine—and of our readers. In the Middle Ages, posset was a milky medicinal drink, potable but not especially appealing. Today’s posset is something altogether different: a chilled dessert with an impossibly satiny texture, like the silkiest mousse or pudding, but easier to make since it contains only cream, sugar, and fresh lemon. Without egg yolks, flour, cornstarch, or gelatin to coax it into setting, its transformation into a velvety delight seems like magic. But really, it’s science. My recipe goes like this: Boil heavy cream, sugar, and lemon zest until it’s reduced to precisely 2 cups…

Veggie Burgers with Actual Veggies in Them The vegetarian section of the frozen food aisle is crowded with burgers and nuggets that look and taste like meat. If you want a veggie burger that actually tastes like beans, grains, or vegetables, what should you buy? We purchased 12 frozen veggie burgers in a huge variety of styles, from “California” to “super greens” and “mushroom risotto.” Some were more successful than others. As fans of falafel and chickpeas, we were optimistic about the two that were made from a base of chickpeas. But one was dense and pasty, while the other was dotted with unpleasantly dry, hard chickpeas. Veggie burgers made from beans and/or grains generally fared well, and two landed at the top of our rankings. With most of the…