About Sixth Burner
A magazine for cooks who want to know why
Sixth Burner is written by four home cooks who test every recipe in ordinary kitchens, on ordinary stoves, on the same evenings you cook. We publish the timings we got, not the ones we hoped for.
We started Sixth Burner because most recipes tell you what to do and almost none tell you why. Once you know that a dry potato surface browns and a wet one steams, you can roast anything. That kind of knowledge outlasts any single recipe.
Every recipe is cooked at least twice, by two different editors, before it is published. We weigh ingredients, probe ovens, and write down what went wrong. When a test changes our minds, we say so in the piece.
We cook on gas and induction, in small apartments and family kitchens, with one good knife and a few sheet pans. If a recipe needs special equipment we tell you up front, and we try hard to make it not need any.
We don't take payment for recipes, and we don't run sponsored techniques. The magazine is supported by readers who subscribe to the weekly newsletter and the printed seasonal issue.
- every recipe tested
- 2x
- recipes in the archive
- 412
- weekly newsletter readers
- 38k