Cook's Illustrated

Sour is one of the five building blocks of taste. It’s what makes dishes bright, sharp, and refreshing. But despite its critical role in cooking, I find that it doesn’t get the same attention as salty, sweet, or even umami. That’s true in the scientific community as well. It was only in 2018 that a receptor for sour taste, OTOP1, was identified. And we are still at a loss as to why humans developed the ability to taste sour in the first place. One intriguing theory: Being able to taste acids may have allowed our ancestors to consume otherwise questionable calories. If past-prime food was sour it would indicate the presence of lactic acid bacteria, which produce acids that keep harmful microbes at bay. It would have meant the difference…

A Cookbook Bookmark Carol Kristofik of Lower Burrell, Pa., found it challenging to flip between pages when she was using two recipes from the same book. So, she devised a bookmark: She glued a few ribbons to a slender piece of cardstock, then slid it into the spine of the book. Now she can use the ribbons to mark multiple recipes. Carry Fewer Platters to the Grill Alison Field of Atherton, Calif., discovered a way to streamline her grilling setup. Instead of bringing two separate platters outside—one holding raw meat and one for the cooked meat—she slides a plastic produce bag or a sheet of parchment paper over a platter and places the raw meat on top. Once the raw meat is on the grill, she can remove and discard the bag and…

Looking back, I shouldn’t have been surprised that a burger packed with mushrooms would taste so meaty and juicy. Mushrooms are brimming with glutamates that complement the nucleotides in beef, creating a deeply umami taste. They’re also loaded with water. Even so, my first bite of a blended burger—made with a mix of minced white mushrooms and ground beef—was revelatory. The patty was hands-down the most succulent and tender I’ve ever encountered, filled with rich, savory juices. Further, it was just as meaty and satisfying as any 100 percent beef burger out there. It’s terrific news: Blended burgers are a way to eat less red meat without feeling like you’re making sacrifices. In fact, you’ll be doing a whole lot of good. Stretching beef with mushrooms—whether for the nutritional perks (lower…

I’m not immune to the charms of kung pao chicken or mapo tofu, but when I’m scanning a Sichuan restaurant menu, gan bian si ji dou are my quarry. Unlike the crisp, steamed green beans I grew up on, these are chewy and deeply satisfying, cooked to the point that their crunch collapses into a meaty density. They’re coated not in a sauce but in a light savory stickiness that captures crumbles of fried pork and aromatics. The first step when making them is transforming the beans from crisp to concentrated—you have to dehydrate them a bit, which can be done in a variety of ways. Restaurant cooks typically deep-fry the beans, while home cooks often opt to dry fry (a technique in which the beans are tossed with little or…

When I was a child, my father would host lymes on our rooftop every couple Friday nights. The vibe of these kickbacks was, by definition, low key, our house in Montego Bay filled with pulsating reggae music and the raucous laughter of my dad’s friends. But the food was a real production. There’d be a man frying festival, the aroma of sweetened cornmeal dough wafting through the air. Another would be seasoning pan chicken, and someone would be stationed up on the roof grilling foil-wrapped fish. Maybe because it was my job to shuttle the fish parcels from the kitchen up to the grill, I considered this the standout dish of the night: whole snapper rubbed with a fragrant spice paste; stuffed with chopped, highly seasoned callaloo and okra; and sealed…

When I think of pappa al pomodoro, I think of my dad. He’s the reason I tried the dish in the first place, while I was a college student studying abroad in Florence, Italy. Dad had flown in to visit, and one night, after hours of exploring the city, the two of us sat down at a cozy trattoria in the Piazza Santa Croce. He spotted a dish on the menu starring two of his favorite foods—bread and tomatoes—and ordered it on a whim. I was skeptical of this choice. All semester long, I had relentlessly pursued a goal of eating as much fresh pasta as possible, and the humble bowl of ruddy porridge that arrived at our table was a marked departure from that diet. But at my dad’s urging,…