Cook's Illustrated

For a few years now, my colleague Lan Lam and I have guest lectured at a Stanford University undergraduate science course. Our presentation started out as a basic lesson on the chemistry of the five tastes but has evolved into a class on how to get the most pleasure out of food. And here, for once, I’m not talking about recipes. We start by having the students taste samples that represent sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami. Sampling each in isolation helps cement them in our memory and enables us to then pick them out in complex dishes. Next, they do the jellybean experiment: Each student pinches their nose closed, places a jellybean in their mouth, chews for 30 seconds, and then guesses the bean’s flavor. Initially, the only answers we…

A Zero-Waste Way to Skim Broth A spoon is useful for skimming the scum from a simmering broth. However, the utensil tends to capture precious broth and flavorful fat along with the scum. Colleen Dulle of New Orleans, La., solves the problem by pouring each spoonful through a fine-mesh strainer. The scum remains in the strainer while the broth and fat drain back into the pot. Don’t Waste the Last of the Peanut Butter Jar When Lacey Parker of Westborough, Mass., is almost finished with a jar of peanut butter, she doesn’t throw the jar away. Rather, she mixes up a portion of overnight oats or a batch of peanut sauce directly in the jar. This allows her to use up the remaining product left in the jar; plus, it makes for easier…

“There’s an emotional response you get when eating this dish.”–Michael Solomonov, Israeli-born chef and restaurant owner If you’ve eaten much matzo ball soup, you know there’s a sacredness to it. The richness of the broth and the way it sits full-bodied on the spoon. How the matzo balls, saturated just enough to be plush but resilient, dole out the concentrated liquid they’ve absorbed with each bite. The meaty shreds of chicken and chunky vegetables, both reminders that this is cozy, nourishing home cooking. And the way, when you’re hunched over a bowlful, inhaling the savory steam, you can tell that someone fussed over this. That they distilled meat, vegetables, and aromatics down to this golden, schmaltz-anointed elixir; seasoned, formed, and poached the dumplings just so—and you are the beneficiary. It’s a visceral…

Whether a matzo ball should sink or float in its broth has always been the subject of lively debate, but it needn’t divide your guests. You can make the dumplings in this recipe either way simply by controlling how much time they spend in the cooking liquid. Matzo balls tend to float initially because dough made from matzo meal (cooked cracker crumbs) has a naturally loose structure with tiny pervasive pockets. In fact, the crumb of these matzo balls is so open that they will float whether or not you add baking powder or seltzer—leaveners that will open up their texture even more—and will do so for a good 30 minutes. If you like them buoyant and with a hint of tender chew at the center, fish them out at this…

Matzo balls weren’t always so spherical and fine-textured, or so widely made. They’re descendants of knödel, knobbly boiled dumplings that central and eastern European cooks cobbled together from whatever bread crumbs or potato they had on hand. And they were made only during Passover, from homemade or locally produced matzo that was cracked or otherwise unsuitable for the seder, so the size of the crumbs varied widely. Only when big matzo companies such as Manischewitz and Streit’s mass-produced the unleavened bread did an iconic dumpling develop. Their machinery made a consistent product that was available year-round. As a by-product, they produced their own matzo meal too. “Packaged matzo meal was an absolute gamechanger in terms of making it very easy to produce matzo ball soup,” said Jonathan D. Sarna, university professor and…

Rendering chicken skin and fat to produce schmaltz has been done for centuries. Though it can be purchased at many supermarkets, it’s well worth making your own. All you do is cook chopped skin and fat in a nonstick skillet very gently and slowly—it takes roughly an hour—and then strain it. The golden fat can be used for anything from enriching matzo balls to sautéing vegetables or frying potatoes. Plus, it rewards you with outrageously good chicken cracklings. Eat them by the handful, or chop and sprinkle them on soup, salads, or noodles, or anything that could use a crunchy, savory burst. SCHMALTZ AND CRACKLINGS MAKES ABOUT ½ CUP SCHMALTZ; ⅓ CUP CRACKLINGS TOTAL TIME: 55 MINUTES, PLUS 30 MINUTES COOLING One 4-pound chicken should yield ¾ to 1 cup of skin and fat.…