Although the stereotypical giant diner pancake has a smooth, evenly-browned color, I tend to prefer the abstract art of uneven browning on my pancakes. It’s all about your pan and your fat, so it’s choose-your-own-adventure time, pancake edition. Throw a knob of butter in the pan, swirl it around, and top it with pancake batter–you’ll get that uneven
Category: How-to
Make pie, not soup
It took some testing to get this peach and blackberry pie up to snuff–by which I mostly mean not fruit soup. Here are some of my lessons from along the way. Anyone who’s eaten a great peach knows the uncomfortably sticky but delightful feeling of peach juice running down your chin. It’s part of why
Homemade ricotta
On the eighth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Eight maids-a-milking, seven swans-a-swimming, six geese-a-laying Five golden rings Four calling birds, three French hens, two turtledoves, and a partridge in a pear tree. I spend so much time in the kitchen that I don’t usually stop and recognize the scientific marvels that
Butter: browned, clarified, and ghee
This one is for my dad, who makes fun of me for carrying McGee with me whenever I travel and then peppers me with food science questions that I need to look up (immediately) in my reference book of choice. My favorite from my trip home in August revolved around clarified butter and ghee, partly
Rendering leaf lard
I may be a butcher shop groupie. One of the butchers at a local restaurant made the mistake of mentioning that they get whole hogs delivered on Wednesday afternoon and then cut them up right there behind the counter. So I show up the next week and explain to the hostess that I neither want