Most home cooks assume that “from scratch” is the culinary gold standard, but when it comes to pumpkin pie, the opposite is often true. If you try to bake a pie using a standard orange Jack-O’-Lantern (a “field pumpkin”), you are headed for disaster. These pumpkins are bred for carving, not eating, and their flesh … Read more
Many fruits and vegetables turn brown when cut or otherwise damaged. Among these are apples, potatoes, pears, bananas, avocados, peaches, eggplants, apricots, and mushrooms (not a fruit or vegeatable). This process, is called enzymatic browning. It occurs due to reactions between oxygen in the air and compounds in the exposed plant cells that cause an … Read more
There is an old kitchen legend that cooking wine was born in the Middle Ages to keep thirsty cooks from tippling on the job. While the history is fascinating, the modern reality is a bit more bitter—literally. If you’ve ever wondered why your homemade reduction tastes more like a copper penny than a French bistro, … Read more
There seems to be a lot of debate about the difference between molasses, treacle and a product called “golden syrup.” Apparently, this debate is not new but has been going on since the 1800s. Nobody today seems to really know the difference, but many claim there is one. Treacle can range from light to … Read more
When you want a milder onion taste, or you are finishing up a stir fry, do you use green onions or scallions? Certain vegetable naming conventions can be confusing and there is no better example than the difference between green onions, scallions, and green onions. And, to make it worse, the name shallot sounds a … Read more
Many home cooks ask why use kosher salt simply because they see professional chefs use it, but they end up ruining their food. The truth is that Kosher salt isn’t better; it’s just less salt per spoonful, and if you don’t know the math, your recipes will fail. So, don’t switch to kosher salt because … Read more