Cook's Illustrated May/June 2021

When the world feels uncertain, I take great solace in knowing that there’s something on the horizon to look forward to. Like a freezer full of from-scratch provisions. This issue is packed with recipes that will stock you up and stoke a sense of optimism. How about a hunk of real-deal hot-smoked salmon? Inspired by the expertly smoked fish she cooked with in professional kitchens across Scotland, Deputy Food Editor Andrea Geary tested curing, drying, and smoking times to arrive at a version that’s deeply smoky and densely silky. Keeping portions in the freezer means that you can flake the fish into scrambled eggs or a green salad for dinner on a whim. Better yet, whip up her buttery, bright Hot-Smoked Salmon Kedgeree (page 9) at a moment’s notice. Associate Editor Steve…

Freeze Your Extra Smoothie When Tzipora Einbinder of Pikesville, Md., has extra smoothie, she doesn’t throw it out. Instead, she freezes it in an ice cube tray and uses the cubes in place of ice in future smoothies. Easy-Measure Flour and Sugar Terry Tidd of DeBary, Fla., bought extra tablespoons to store in her flour and sugar canisters, so they’re at the ready for measuring out small amounts. She also uses them as miniscoops for larger quantities. A Drying Rack for Produce Lisa Carter of Birmingham, Ala., has a nifty way to dry fruits and vegetables after she’s washed them. She puts them on a wire rack that she’s placed over one side of her sink. Smaller items such as berries go into a strainer set atop the rack. Repurposing Melted Chocolate If Mark Ficken of St.…

You’d never know it, but phờ gà started out playing second fiddle. It wasn’t until the Vietnamese government restricted beef slaughter in the 1930s that Hanoi cooks turned to chicken to make their brothy noodle soup. Of course, the poultry version was soon a triumphờ in its own right: clear; silky with gelatin; fragrant with spices and sweet-savory charred aromatics; and, above all, deeply, supremely chicken-y. Over time, street vendors and phờ shops throughout Vietnam dedicated themselves to its craft, seasoning the broth with fish sauce and submerging nests of slippery rice strands (banh phờ) in each bowl along with pulled chicken and shaved onion. Diners mounded herbs over the top, a veritable crown of freshness and vibrancy. Like the beef-based original, phờ gà became a quintessential breakfast for slurping down…

The earliest pasta dishes weren’t the perfectly sauced plates that are common today. Rather, they were humble, brothy soups made by resourceful home cooks who combined water and noodle scraps with dried legumes, stale bread, bits of meat, and whatever else was on hand. According to Danielle Callegari, a historian of Italian food at Dartmouth College, a family would make a batch and keep the pot warm on the stove, enhancing it with more odds and ends as the days passed. It was “a dish of convenience, unquestionably,” Callegari said. Pasta e fagioli and pasta e ceci are two examples of these soups, but I homed in on pasta e piselli, a less familiar style that trades the beans and chickpeas for peas. Like these other pasta and legume soups, the…

I cooked professionally in Scotland from 2000 to 2008, and I still miss the relationships I formed there, with friends, with coworkers, and with hot-smoked salmon. The last one might sound melodramatic, but that fish, produced by a smokehouse on the island of South Uist, was special: silky, tender, and well seasoned inside, with a smoky, lightly sweetened, and delicately chewy exterior providing subtle textural contrast. As the breakfast cook at a posh hotel, I flaked it into softly scrambled eggs. At another restaurant, I stirred it into buttery rice for a dish called kedgeree (see “Scottish-Style Kedgeree”). When I came back to the United States, however, my relationship with my favorite fish ended. Hot-smoked salmon is expensive here—about $10 for a 4-ounce vacuum-sealed piece—and I couldn’t justify the splurge. But…

Resourceful hunters, butchers, and cooks have been piecing together and preserving scraps of meat and fat as sausage for thousands of years. The process, which has roots in almost every cuisine around the world, came about as a simple and effective way to stretch valuable protein, and the transformation of those ingredients into a juicy, deeply seasoned product is pure culinary alchemy. These days, most sausage production is done by professionals who have the expertise and equipment to stuff, dry, smoke, and/or ferment the meat. But fresh bulk sausage is much simpler: It’s nothing more than salted, seasoned meat that you grind and vigorously mix, and anyone with a meat grinder or food processor, a solid grasp of the fundamentals, and a reliable formula can churn out a great batch. Once…