We roasted the same potatoes five ways. Here's what makes them crisp.
Raw, parboiled, roughed up, alkaline water and preheated fat: a side-by-side test of the steps in every roast potato recipe, and which ones matter.
Home Cooking MagazineOctober 28, 20269 stories · 7 topics
Notes from a home kitchen that keeps testing
A magazine about cooking well on an ordinary budget and schedule. Essays, recipes and kitchen experiments from four editors who cook dinner every night, too.
In brief
Five knife habits that actually save time on a weeknight
We timed ourselves prepping the same dinner before and after changing five habits. The two that saved the most time had nothing to do with fancy cuts.
From the test kitchen
VegetablesThe tomato salad that taught us when to salt
Salt a sliced tomato 20 minutes ahead and it makes its own dressing. We tested four timings to find the window, then built a late-summer salad around it.
Latest recipes and notes
Weeknight
Sheet-pan chicken thighs with a pan sauce from the drippings
Crisp-skinned chicken thighs, onions and lemons roasted on one tray, plus a five-minute pan sauce made from what's left behind. Dinner in 50 minutes.
Kitchen tests
How salty should pasta water be? We measured four pots.
Forget 'salty as the sea.' We cooked spaghetti at four salt levels, weighed everything and found the range that seasons pasta without ruining the sauce.
Weeknight
A 35-minute red lentil dal that tastes like it took all afternoon
Split red lentils, a pot of water and a two-minute tempering of spices in hot ghee. Why the tadka goes in last and why it matters so much.