Vegetables
The 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.
Home cooking, tested
The kitchen notebook, typed up and tested
The sort of margin notes a grandparent wrote next to a recipe card: use less salt, rest it longer, double the onions. Now with weights and a reason for every one.
Latest recipes and notes
A pantry map for 20-minute dinners
Twenty shelf-stable ingredients, sorted into bases, flavor and finish, and the six dinners they make between them. Plus how to restock without overbuying.
Sourdough discard crackers you'll make on purpose
A thin, crackly seeded cracker that uses a full cup of starter discard. Why a low oven matters, how thin to roll, and how to keep them crisp for weeks.
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.
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.
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.
Brown butter, and the eight places we now put it
How to brown butter without burning it, why it tastes the way it does, and where it earns its place: pasta, vegetables, cookies and cornbread.