Top five recipes of 2025 on Burnt My Fingers

Posted on September 21, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Montreal Vinegar Slaw

Montreal Vinegar Slaw from Top 5 recipes of 2025.

What do the top 5 recipes of 2025 (measured in web traffic) on Burnt My Fingers have in common? They’re all very simple, befitting our brand personality as a lazy guy who likes to enjoy good food without a lot of work. Also they’re all delicious.

#1. Halal Guys White Sauce. There are some highly creative copycat recipes for the sauce offered with chicken and rice at the NYC food truck (and now franchised locations). We discussed the (likely intentional) misdirection of these alleged duplicates here and conducted our own experiment here. Our recipe has held the #1 position for several years, making us think folks agree with us.

#2. David Chang Pickles. Want to make the cucumber pickles served with the legendary Momofuku pork buns? You got the recipe right here and you can chow down in just 10 minutes. The recipe was so simple it felt like cheating, so we added a bonus recipe for vinegar pickles, also from this cookbook.

#3 Montreal Vinegar Slaw. Our love of crunchy cabbage preparations only grows deeper as the years pass, and as residents of Saratoga Springs we also have a fondness for all things Montreal with this popular destination an easy three-hour drive on the Northway. This one is tarter than most to cut the fat on the brisket it’s usually served with.

#4 Original Joy of Cooking Buttermilk Pancakes. By far the most complex recipe in this list because you have to melt butter, separate eggs, and beat the egg whites to frothy peaks. But the results are well worth the struggle, especially if you add some New York Dark Amber Maple Syrup.

#5. Vincent’s Cole Slaw. This evergreen recipe held the #1 position for years. It copies the slaw served at a popular seafood restaurant when we were growing up in Dallas. Be sure to read through the 39 comments, including one from the grandson of the restaurant’s founder.

Just missing the cut is Melissa Clark’s Red Lentil Soup, allegedly the only recipe the NYT chef makes exactly the same way every time. But a close reading shows many opportunities for improvising: she tweaks it and so do we.

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Our five most popular non-recipe posts of 2025

Posted on September 13, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Best Mayonnaise Taste Test

Best mayonnaise taste test lineup.

Taste test! That is overwhelmingly the hook that gets readers engaged. Here are the most popular non-recipe posts on this blog in the past 12 months. Want more taste tests? Let us know what you’re curious about!

  1. Best mayonnaise taste test: Hellman’s vs Duke’s vs Kewpie. We don’t see Duke’s very often in the Northern Tundra but procured a supply for this taste test. The results will surprise/dismay/confirm depending on your oligeaneous proclivities.
  2. Toasted sesame oil: taste test. Sesame oil when toasted becomes a powerful flavoring component. We tested major brands giving full respect to Korean patriotic preferences for their own products. Results show more variability than you might expect, including a low rating for a brand from well loved store.
  3. Whatever happened to olive loaf? Apparently we are not the only folks asking this boomer question about that childhood standby with olive bits and a touch of extra acid mixed into bologna. Answer: it never went away and is still lurking at your deli counter.
  4. Taste test: Mirin and other Asian cooking wines. Of course Kikkoman is the universally available product but we were gratified by the interest in alternatives that are healthier and tastier with more natural ingredients. We added Chinese cooking wine to the mix to see if they are interchangeable. (They’re not.\
  5. Galbi vs Bulgogi… which Korean BBQ entree is better? This is the top level post in a discussion of Korean grilled meats. You can find the answer here and winning recipe here.

Just missing the cut was our Taste Test of ways to keep bean sprouts fresh. Also check out our comparisons of Kettle style potato chips, and this evergreen taste test of cranberry sauce. Enter “taste test” in the search box for even more!

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Recipe: Stovetop Clay Pot Rice

Posted on September 7, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Stovetop Clay Pot Rice

Stovetop Clay Pot Rice.

Stovetop Clay Pot Rice is cooked in a saucepan vs an actual clay pot. We did some experimenting with this excellent Woks of Life recipe so we could enjoy this autumn Hong Kong comfort dish with lots of prized crunchy bits and without scrubbing a burnt pot. Makes 2 servings.

Ingredients:
1 c jasmine or other long grain rice
1 c water
1 T neutral oil
½ piece Chinese bacon, sliced crosswise into bite size pieces*
1-2 links Chinese sweet sausage (lap cheong), sliced crosswise into bite size pieces*
1 link Chinese duck blood sausage, sliced crosswise into bite size pieces*
1 T light soy sauce
1 t dark soy sauce
1 T fish sauce
1 T flavored soy sauce (we used Lucky Boy) or a second T light soy
Generous pinch of white sugar
Generous pinch of ground white pepper
1-2 scallions, chopped

Method: pour a little peanut or other neutral oil in a 2 qt saucepan; tilt the pan so it fully coats the bottom of the pot. Gently (so as not to break the oil seal) pour in 1 c rice followed by 1 c water. Allow to soak for 1 hour.

Cover the pot and cook on medium until steam starts to appear at the edges of the lid. Remove from the heat, place the cured meats on top, replace cover and heat at a simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce by mixing soy sauces, fish sauce and sugar and white pepper in a small bowl.

Remove cover, stir in sauce ingredients, replace cover and heat at a simmer for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in scallions and serve your Stovetop Claypot Rice.

Claypot Rice Empty

Welcome to the clean plate/unburned saucepan club!

*These are the preserved charcuterie items you’re most likely to find at an Asian market. You can add other items to your preference, such as reconstituted dried mushrooms or a peeled hard boiled egg. (Or break an egg on the rice before serving, while it’s still hot.) This Serious Eats post, which makes clay pot cookery out to be a rather complex process, has ideas.

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Taste test: Kettle style potato chips

Posted on August 27, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Kettle Style Potato Chips

Kettle style potato chips for our taste test.

What’s the best kettle-style potato chip? Time for a taste test. According to food scientist Harold McGee, kettle-style potato chips are harder and crunchier than “regular” potato chips because they are cooked longer and at varying temperatures, allowing starches and water in the potato to interact. Kettle-style chips are cooked in batches that are added to hot oil; the temperature drops then gradually increases. Regular chips are fried at a higher, consistent temperature for a shorter time, so they come out crisp rather than crunchy.

The kettle-style potato chip was invented right here on the shores of Saratoga Lake. So naturally our test included Original Saratoga Chips against Sea Salt Chips from Kettle, the eponymous and maybe best known brand. For variety we added a couple of local house brands then threw in a bag of regular chips as a ringer. Tasters tasted blind, comparing chips from baggies that were labeled by letter, and rated the chips by preference. Votes were tablulated on a weighted scale: 1.0 for first choice, .75 for second choice, .5 for third choice, .25 for fourth choice, 0 for fifth choice.

Hannaford Kettle Chip

Hannaford Kettle Cooked Chips.

The winner: Hannaford Kettle Cooked Original Potato Chips. Hannaford is a supermarket chain headquartered in Maine with a strong produce game. Tasters liked these chips for their well balanced flavor, consistent size and texture and satisfying crunch. Still, this was a surprise to your correspondent who was put off by the fishy residue of canola oil (which may be a personal tic, much as some people think cilantro tastes like soap). Combined rating: 3.25.

Saratoga Chips

Original Saratoga Chips.

Second Place: Original Saratoga Chips with Himalayan Salt. George Crum certainly never heard of Himalayan salt when he was frying potatoes lakeside in the 1850s, but it’s a gimmick that neither adds nor detracts from the flavor and crunch of a classic kettle style potato chip. When these are tasted side by side with the Hannaford chips they are almost impossible to distinguish. Saratoga Chips lost by a single D vote for “not enough flavor” for a combined rating of 3.0.

PICS Kettle Chips

PICS Original Kettle Chips.

Third Place: PICS Original Kettle Chips from Market 32. Not a lot of love for our personal favorite of the batch, from a chain based in the Capital District formerly known as Price Chopper. Score probably would have been lower if tasters knew these are made with genetically modified potatoes and are imported from (gasp) Canada. A significant drop in preference from the top two with a combined score of 1.75.

PICS Original Chips

PICS Original Potato Chips.

Fourth Place: PICS Original Potato Chips from Market 32. Same Canadian frankenpotatoes as the PC kettle chips, but sliced thinner and fried with the consistent-temperature method. We thought they would be laughed off the picnic table, but they came in right behind their kettle-cooked brethren with a combined score of 1.5.

Kettle Brand Chips

Kettle Brand Kettle Chips.

Fifth Place: Sea Salt Kettle Brand Potato Chips. A disaster. Nobody rated them higher than third and most scored them dead last. The salt balance was off (not enough) and the chips lacked potato flavor. These were also hardest to find at retail, by the way, with less shelf space than other brands and several varieties out of stock. Quite a let down for what was once a category leader. Combined score: 0.5.

So there you have it. Unless you’re near a Hannaford, original Saratoga Chips are the way to go. Of course we’d say that anyway but now we have stats to back us up. We also think the vote may have been skewed slightly since the Hannaford Chips were in bag A, perhaps causing people to taste that chip first then rate others against it. Also, some forensic evidence as in our Chicago Style Hot Dog taste test: bags A and C (PICS Kettle Chips) had more chips missing than the other bags, suggesting people might have liked those flavors enough to double dip.

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Recipe: Yum Yum Edamame

Posted on August 18, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Yum Yum Edamame

Yum Yum Edamame with Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp.

I was making Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp and wanted to add a veggie element. Yum Yum Edamame was a huge hit. The startling contrast of lemon juice and sesame oil cuts through the richness of butter and garlic and would do well as a side with any grilled protein. I found the recipe here, attributing it to this cookbook (affiliate link). She uses it with sugar snap peas; I think it would work with snow peas as well. Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients:
1 lb shelled edamame
¼ c lemon juice
2 t toasted sesame oil
1 T toasted sesame seeds
Generous pinch pink Hawaiian salt, or Kosher salt, or a dash of soy sauce

Method: cook the edamame in boiling water for 2-3 minutes and drain. Combine with other ingredients. Serve Yum Yum Edamame as a side dish or pupu-style finger food.

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Recipe: Quick Pickled Tomato Slices

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Quick Pickled Tomato Slices

Quick Pickled Tomato Slices.

This summer we have been snacking on a variation of our Quick Pickled Onions. We always have a tub in the refrigerator and include them on just about every sandwich we make as well as green salads. The other night we had several left over slices of a beautiful ripe tomato we’d used in burgers. What would happen if we dunked the tomato slices in the pickling liquid and let them cure overnight? Answer: perfection!

Ingredients (because we have to start with pickled onions to get the pickling liquid):
1 red onion, peeled and sliced into thin rings
¾ c white vinegar
¾ water
1 t Kosher salt
1 t sugar
Tomato slices

Method: to make the pickled onions, combine water and vinegar in a 2 c  glass measuring cup; add salt and sugar and stir to dissolve. Heat this in a microwave to boiling or a bit below. Add the onions, pressing down with a spoon so all bits are submerged. Cool to room temperature on the counter; the onions will wilt and the liquid will turn a lovely red. Transfer to a storage container and refrigerate until needed.

To make the quick pickled tomato slices: add sliced ripe tomatoes to the pickling liquid and press down to fully submerge. Allow to cure a few hours or overnight. Result: tangy delicious picked tomato for your burger, salad or to eat out of hand.
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Recipe: Moroccan Carrot Chickpea Salad

Posted on August 9, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Moroccan Carrot Chickpea Salad

Moroccan Carrot Chickpea Salad with a few extra chickpeas.

We were introduced to Moroccan Carrot Chickpea Salad at a Quaker potluck, of all settings*. It has a little of this, little of that to make a very balanced tart/sweet/funky flavor profile and feel free to vary ingredients or proportions depending on what’s on hand. (We had some extra chickpeas so tossed those in.) Serves 8-12 as a side salad.

Ingredients:
1 t lemon zest (we used ½ t of Penzey’s Lemon Peel Powder)
3 T lemon juice
¼ c orange juice (ideally fresh squeezed)
1 ½ T honey
1 t Kosher salt
1 t ground cumin
½ t minced ginger (original recipe uses dry powdered ginger)
½ t ground cinnamon
¼ t ground coriander
¼ t ground cayenne
¼ t ground allspice
¼ c good olive oil
1 lb carrots, peeled and shredded
1 can (13.5 oz) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/3 c currants
½ c finely chopped mint, cilantro, shiso or other bitter herb
½ c slivered almonds, toasted
2 T shallots, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Method: add the first 11 ingredients to a serving bowl and allow a few minutes for the spices to bloom; add olive oil and mix. Add all other ingredients and toss with the dressing. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving. Moroccan Carrot Chickpea Salad will keep for several days in the fridge.

*Quakers have a reputation for simplicity and a no-nonsense approach to life, so the choices at a typical Quaker potluck are pretty basic and spices are used sparingly or not at all.

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Recipe: Orange Sesame Coffee Cake

Posted on August 5, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Orange Sesame Coffee Cake

Orange Sesame Coffee Cake.

Orange Sesame Coffee Cake is a variation of this recipe by San Francisco Chronicle’s Christian Reynoso, who says he likes to “develop a new all-day snacking cake every year”. Not too sweet, it hits the spot when you’re hungry for a little something. Makes one 9×5 inch coffee cake.

Ingredients:
2½ c all purpose flour
1 T baking powder
½ t Kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 c plus 1 T sugar
¾ c extra-virgin olive oil
5 T tahini
2 T orange liqueur, such as Triple Sec
3 T grated orange zest (we used the zest from an orange plus 1 T Penzey’s Orange Peel)
½ c orange juice, ideally fresh squeezed
1 T toasted sesame seeds

Method: preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat eggs with 1 c sugar till eggs are frothy and sugar is dissolved. Add olive oil, tahini*, orange liqueur, orange zest and orange juice and mix thoroughly. Fold in dry ingredients and mix until there are no dry spots of flour.

Cut two pieces of parchment paper to fit the bottom and sides of a 9×5 bread pan. Shape the parchment paper so there are no gaps then pour in the batter. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and 1 T sugar on top. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the top comes out not quite clean. Lift out of the pan using the parchment paper and cool on a rack; when completely cool remove from parchment paper and serve. Orange Sesame Coffee Cake will keep several days in an airtight container.

*If your tahini is hard and lumpy, blitz the liquid mixture in a blender to break it up.

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Recipe: Pineapple Curry

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Pineapple Curry with Duck

Pineapple Curry with Duck.

Pineapple Curry tastes exotic but it’s super easy to make with one of those fresh pineapples in markets these days. We used some leftover duck breasts from an earlier experiment, but pork or chicken or tofu would work as well. Makes 4 servings.

Ingredients:
1 lb protein: duck breast or boneless chicken or pork or tofu sliced into bite size pieces
1 can (13.5 oz) Chaokoh coconut milk or equivalent*
3 T Red Curry Paste (Mae Ploy or Maesri brands)**
1 c fressh pineapple, cut into 1 inch cubes
½ c cherry tomatoes
½ c bell peppers, cut into 1 inch squares (optional)
Generous handful fresh basil, chopped

Method: if using duck, score the skin then place skin side down in a nonstick skillet over very low heat. As fat renders, slowly increase the heat until it is finally hot enough to crisp the skin. Flip the breasts and cook another 2 minutes for rare/medium rare. Then proceed with the recipe. (Save the duck fat for another use.)

Spoon out 3 T thick coconut cream into a skillet and heat till it liquifies*; if using raw protein sauté gently till cooked through along with optional bell pepper. Add red curry paste and the remainder of the coconut milk and stir to combine. Add pineapple, cherry tomatoes and duck if using and heat through. Stir in fresh basil and serve over rice.

*Chaokoh coconut milk is widely used in Thai kitchens. It separates in the can into fat and liquid. If you use another brand which is all liquid you will need to start with a little oil for sautéing and you may also need to cook down the sauce before adding pineapple and tomatoes.

**Our go-to is Maesri but we were out and found Mae Ploy Red Curry Paste at our local Walmart, of all places. It is less dense than Maesri so if using the latter consider starting with 2 T then adding to taste. You want a flavor profile with just a bit of heat.

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Recipe: Saratoga Slaw

Posted on July 26, 2025 by Burnt My Fingers
Saratoga Slaw

Saratoga Slaw. A fellow taster detected thin slices of apple and I do think I see some in this serving, though it isn’t in the recipe.

The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Saratoga County held a 4-H fundraiser recently featuring Cornell chicken served with various sides including a thimbleful of slaw. Did you make the slaw here, we asked? Yes, everything is our recipe. A friendly AI produced the formula, which is a worthy vinegar-based mix. Saratoga Slaw deserves recognition as a regional food specialty, just like Saratoga Chips.

Ingredients:
6 c shredded cabbage
1 T Kosher salt for crisping cabbage (optional)
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
4 scallions, thinly sliced*
1/3 c apple cider vinegar
1-2 T honey
2 t Dijon mustard
1 t celery seed
½ t Kosher salt
¼ t ground black pepper
¼ c olive oil

Method: work 1 T Kosher salt into the cabbage and let it sit 60 minutes in a colander; rinse and squeeze out liquid. This step is optional but will produce crisper slaw, so no reason not to do it.

Whisk together all dressing ingredients except oil till the solids are dissolved. Add oil and whisk a bit more to emulsify. Pour the dressing over the cabbage, carrots and scallions* in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate at least two hours before serving alongside Cornell Chicken or other grilled meat.

*There were no scallions in our takeout order, possibly a decision made by the cooks since not everyone loves alliums like we do.

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