The Art & Science of Home Cooking
You wouldn’t build a house on a faulty foundation. So, why build a pizza on a subpar crust? Think back to some great pizza you once ate, and I’ll bet the crust was a big reason why you liked it. A good crust is the cornerstone of a good pizza, and to build a good
It’s interesting how food can transport us to far away places. My host son Julius studied at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy where the curriculum required frequent field trips to the farms, vineyards and production facilities responsible for some of the country’s most iconic foods.
If you’re like me, nothing says ‘Sunday morning’ like a stack of hot pancakes, but if you’re still using a box mix, you have no idea what you’re missing. Nothing from a box can come close to the taste of pancakes made from scratch. Let me explain why.
I began drinking coffee sometime during the seventies; a period in American history which could easily be labelled as the dark ages. (And when I say dark, I’m not referring to the roast.) In those days, cafes were non-existent. Few outside of Seattle had ever heard of Starbucks, and the only place to go for a halfway decent cup was McDonald’s.
While writing a profile on lemons, I asked a group of food writers, “What’s the quintessential lemon dessert?” As one would imagine, all the classics were suggested–lemon bars, lemon meringue pie, lemon pound cake, etc. But it was a writer from the UK who got my attention with a suggestion of lemon posset. I had never heard of
Rarely will you find a “quick and easy” approach to cooking that produces better results than a slower, more complex method, but that’s just the case with freezer jam. The conventional method of jam making requires cooking fresh fruits with sugar and some pectin. The mixture is then placed into sterilized glass jars which are, in turn, placed into boiling
Mise en place (pronounced “MEEZ-on plahs”). Three little words that can make all the difference between success or failure in the kitchen. Roughly translated, it means “to put in place”. The most basic of all cooking basics
Although it’s most famously paired with pasta, pesto goes with just about everything; meat, fish, vegetables, rice…you name it. So every home cook should have it in his or her repertoire. It’s an easy sauce to make with just a few keys to success. The real beauty is that you can easily put your own signature