Category Archives: Cooking

Here you’ll find everything about cooking that isn’t actually a recipe. Tips, techniques, gripes, whatever.

Food for Thought: Gastro Obscura Recreating Ancient Recipes

Gastro Obscura: Recreating Ancient Recipes. We are long time readers of the Gastro Obscura website devoted to arcane food cultures and history, and we noticed they have started offering virtual “experiences” in these times of less getting together in person. Recreating … Continue reading

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Grilling with the BlueStar Platinum range

My BlueStar Platinum range came with a “cartridge” which can drop in to replace two of the burners. It consists of a metal frame which can accommodate either a cast iron griddle or a broiler grate; the grate also has … Continue reading

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Baguette tricks and techniques from King Arthur Baking Education

We traveled to Norwich, VT a few weeks ago for the half-day “Beauty and the Baguette” class at the stste-of-the-art King Arthur Baking Education Center. We’ve taken a more intensive baguette class there in the past and mainly wanted to experience … Continue reading

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Fourth of July barbecue 2021

We celebrated our Fourth of July early this year to accommodate some out of town visitors. The highlight was sweet local corn grilled with a technique we’ll use from now on. The ears in their husks had the ends lopped … Continue reading

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Boozy Baking with Great Exbaketations

Last night we attended a Yelp event, Boozy Baking with Great Exbaketations. Cheyenne, the master baker, led us through the creation of a rich chocolate cake and then hit it hard with a simple syrup infused with booze of your … Continue reading

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We’re eating chemicals. Anybody got a problem with that?

We’ve recently discovered Sugar Free/Fat Free Jello 5-Minute Pudding. A box is 93 cents at our local Wal-Mart (there’s also a house brand, with identical ingredients, for 50 cents) and makes four half-cup servings. You mix it with milk: skim … Continue reading

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Best mayonnaise taste test: Hellman’s vs Duke’s vs Kewpie

Who doesn’t love mayonnaise? A happy marriage of oil and eggs with a kiss of acid, mayo moistens our sandwiches with a lubricious layer that tames the crustiest bread. It serves as a playground monitor when mixed into slaws and … Continue reading

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To cook a rabbit

Our freezer died the other day and, due to pandemic shortages, we had to buy a smaller one and defrost a number of items for immediate consumption. The package pictured above was one of those items. It was purchased from … Continue reading

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Making Croissants with King Arthur

Last weekend was packed with March Madness and SXSW, but when an email arrived announcing a last-minute opening in the Lofty Layers class at King Arthur Baking School everything else got pushed aside. The class had an unusual format: watch … Continue reading

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Best and worst online cooking and drinking classes

Like you, I have spent a lot of time in this past year eating and drinking with strangers through online classes and tastings. Maybe the best so far was Kenji’s Japanese soufflé pancake class which I attended with my daughter … Continue reading

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