Packable Beach and Picnic Recipes
CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell.
ROSIE: I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show .
CHRISTINE: This episode is called: 'Packable Beach and Picnic Recipes.'
ROSIE: Hey there, this is Rosie. Earlier this week, we published an episode all about the gear you might want to consider to help you level up your beach experience. We talked about shades, chairs, coolers, and more. But we didn't talk about one super important thing: food!
Everyone has their own ideas for what makes a great beach snack. Some ice-cold fruit from the cooler? A delectable lunch of salads and dips? Or maybe just a bag of chips? Well, no matter your style, our friends over at New York Times Cooking have some ideas of ways to elevate your beach-snacking game.
And today, we're bringing you a conversation about just that with Tanya Sichynsky. Tanya is an editor at NYT Cooking who writes the weekly newsletter The Veggie, and she recently wrote a piece for The Times that included a bunch of great recipes for a beach day or picnic.
CAIRA: Tanya, welcome to the show.
TANYA: Hi, guys. Thanks so much for having me.
CHRISTINE: We're glad to have you.
ROSIE: Thanks for coming. Well, so obviously anyone can bring anything to a beach, a park, a picnic. We know that. What are your general rules, Tanya, for the kinds of recipes and foods you want to pack for a day at the beach, for a picnic?
TANYA: Obviously, this is all incredibly subjective, but if you're asking me — which you are — I'm going to tell you, it's trying to avoid really soggy food. You don't want something that's going to get real wet in a cooler or in a tote bag. So nothing super mayonnaise-y with soft bread, like that … to me, it's ripe for sogging. You want stuff that's really, I'll say packable and stackable. Whether you're working with a cooler or a big tote bag, you want stuff that will kind of Tetris into your vessel of choice and not get crushed. So if you're talking potato chips, you actually shouldn't decant your potato chips into a Ziploc bag if you can help it, because all the air in the bag will protect it. That kind of stuff. I think part of it is 'cooler versus tote bag' will tell me what kind of recipes I want to pack.
CHRISTINE: So, like, a tote bag, meaning you're not going to keep it cool.
TANYA: Well, I'm so glad you asked. I know that we want to talk about no-cooler recipes, but I will implore anybody, if they plan on being outside for a really long time, a great hack is just a water bottle. Put it in the freezer the night before and put it in the bag, because by the time you get to where you're going, the water will be semi-thawed, mostly thawed. You will have insulated the bag in some way by just packing a bunch of stuff into it, and it will keep some element of your meal cool. So if you're going with a couple people, just throw three frozen water bottles in there, and you'll stay hydrated, and your food will stay semi-cool.
CHRISTINE: Oh, I love that tip. And also, if someone's going to freeze a water bottle, remember to leave an inch —
TANYA: Always.
CHRISTINE: — at the top, right?
TANYA: Always.
CHRISTINE: That is not filled so that the water can expand in the freezer.
TANYA: Yes, it's multi-use in some ways.
CHRISTINE: There we go.
CAIRA: And just throw it in the trash when you're done.
TANYA: And just throw it in the trash. And also, a lot of beaches —
ROSIE: Recycle.
CAIRA: That's what I meant.
ROSIE: What are you, nuts?
CAIRA: Just don't throw it in the ocean. That was my point.
TANYA: No, there, exactly. We're recycling it. And then, really, for me, it's just, like, 'What am I not going to turn my nose up at if it's been outside for two hours?' We are not — at least, I'm not right now — talking about 'Is it adhering to the FDA standards of not outside for more than 90 minutes?' Look, we've all eaten weird stuff off a picnic table that we know that has been there for more than a few hours, more than the window. But won't you feel a little bit icky about eating? So that kind of brings me to the mayonnaise of it all, which is pretty shelf-stable. I don't worry about it too much, but if I'm doing, say, a chickpea salad or a pasta salad, maybe I will cut the mayonnaise down significantly and use more tahini or something like that, something that is okay at room temperature. It's essentially a nut butter. It's a seed butter. So if you're going to lug a peanut butter and jelly, and you feel cool about that, you probably would feel good about tahini or something like that in a chickpea salad.
CHRISTINE: I love that. I never think about swapping tahini for mayonnaise, but I should probably do that more often.
TANYA: We have over at New York Times Cooking a lot of salad recipes that are, like, chickpea-based salads that have some sort of configuration of tahini, mayonnaise, yogurt, more or less of each. And, really, it's completely … most of those recipes are really amenable, so you can just modify them to your tastes. If you're not really a mayonnaise person, you can do half-and-half yogurt/tahini, that rules. If you don't like tahini or you're allergic to sesame, mayonnaise/yogurt. If you are vegan, maybe you're using a combination of vegan mayonnaise or tahini. I've made vegan mayonnaise before, it's actually quite easy.
CHRISTINE: What is it? Just oil?
CAIRA: What is it? Yeah.
TANYA: You use aquafaba, which is all the stuff at the bottom of a can of chickpeas. Yeah. So let's say you're making a chickpea salad. You have regular mayonnaise that makes you feel icky. You don't want to use yogurt. You have tahini. And you obviously have the can of chickpeas, because you're putting it in the salad. You drain the aquafaba, which is the liquid at the bottom of the can. And with an immersion blender, which I'm sure there is a Wirecutter pick for.
CHRISTINE: Oh, we do have a pick.
TANYA: Oh yeah. It's just the juice and the chickpeas, white vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, some dry mustard, and then a really neutral oil, so we used a sunflower oil. And I'm telling you, it was like doing a magic trick when we did it. It immediately emulsifies. It tastes like mayonnaise.
CHRISTINE: And it sounds like the ingredients in vegan mayonnaise, at least that recipe, those are pretty shelf-stable. You could take those out for a day without them turning bad.
TANYA: Absolutely.
CHRISTINE: Right.
TANYA: Absolutely. And, again, if you have a little bit of a — I'm holding up a water bottle, for the folks at home — an insurance policy of semi-frozen water bottles, it will be cool enough, even if you did want to use regular mayonnaise, which tons of people will take to the beach, and it's never an issue.
CAIRA: I'm a salt-and-vinegar-chips girl for life. Is there a salty snack you like to take to the beach?
TANYA: Okay. I'm a sucker for BjornQorn.
CHRISTINE: Oh, you're telling me all of the things that my kids want to eat. You all should go out on a picnic together.
TANYA: I'm taking the kids to the beach.
ROSIE: What is BjornQorn?
CAIRA: Yeah, what are those?
ROSIE: And why do you like it?
TANYA: Okay, BjornQorn is vegan, cheesy popped popcorn. Very, very minimal ingredients. So if you are trying to cut down on super ultra-processed foods, this is a, I think, great alternative to something like a white-cheddar popcorn, Smartfood. So BjornQorn is made with nutritional yeast; nutritional yeast is dried, edible yeast. It usually comes in flakes. So good. I will make, frankly, a version at home of a BjornQorn. We have a recipe also on Cooking that is a vegan cheesy popcorn, same kind of combination of flavors. But, yeah, so BjornQorn. Okay, I always have hot dogs — from the editor of The Veggie.
ROSIE: You always have hot dogs.
TANYA: From the editor of The Veggie.
ROSIE: Can you say more about that?
TANYA: Yeah. Hebrew National, all-beef hot dogs, live and die by them. I love a hot dog, and I am taking hot dogs to the beach.
CHRISTINE: No.
TANYA: Yes. Hear me out. Okay, I did this last summer. So I will split-top a hot dog, so, like, butterfly it. I'll griddle it in my little cast iron skillet or on a griddle-top pan. I'll make two hot dogs a person, and then I will put the hot dogs and the buns in little aluminum foil roll-ups. You don't want to crush them. So I'll put them at the top of the bag with everything. If you will eat a ballpark hot dog some guy has been toting around through the stands of MetLife —
ROSIE: I mean, fair.
TANYA: — you will eat a beach hot dog.
CAIRA: But that's not the same.
TANYA: No, it is the same.
CAIRA: Because a ballpark hot dog is still hot. What are you eating? A cold hot dog on the beach?
TANYA: No, it is a —
CAIRA: You warm it up in the sun?
TANYA: It is room temperature. Sometimes it's still warm. Here's the kicker, though: Because I brought my frozen water bottle in the bag, I am bringing a topping, and the topping is pico de gallo.
CHRISTINE: Oh, this is … you're hitting my heart here. I think this sounds like a delicious beach meal.
TANYA: This is the perfect beach meal, and you've got the crunchy, crisp freshness of tomatoes and jalapeños, onions. Maybe you want to throw some scallions in there, definitely cilantro on top of the hot dog. Because you've butterflied the hot dog, it holds the pico de gallo in the hot dog. It's not going to just roll off.
ROSIE: She's beauty and she's grace.
TANYA: I made us put a recipe for this on New York Times Cooking. It is just a hot dog with pico de gallo, and the two tricks are the butterflying of the hot dog … I also put mayonnaise on the bun when I griddle them, so I will griddle the buns too. So also this helps with … if you're worried about your hot dog getting crushed, the outside might get a little crushed, but the inside, if you grill it on a cast iron skillet or a grill top, the inside of the bun will be a little bit harder, and it will protect the dog.
CAIRA: Oh, you protect those dogs.
ROSIE: Protect the dog.
CAIRA: Well, let's say someone's at the beach all day, and they're packing a lunch, but they don't have a cooler. It might get a little warm in here. So what are some lunch ideas that you'd recommend for that and just generally things that won't go bad in the sun?
TANYA: So I'm saying hot dog. I'm also saying Andy Baraghani has this extra-green pasta salad that I am obsessed with. It is my lunch today. It's downstairs, not in the fridge, just sitting at my desk.
CHRISTINE: What's in this?
TANYA: So you're using some short-cut pasta, whether it's rigatoni or a fusilli, but when I say 'short-cut,' I mean short tubes. You don't want a long noodle here. Snap peas, English peas, are the vegetables that are in here. And then the sauce is really, really easy to make, and it's made mostly of greens, so raw spinach, baby spinach or arugula, or a blend of both. And then basil, similar to how you would make a pesto, this is kind of … the sauce is really kind of like a looser pesto.
ROSIE: Tanya, I'm looking at your article on The Times about easy recipes to take outside this summer, and I see something called a ham and jam sandwich. Talk about it.
TANYA: Oh, absolutely. Okay, ham and jam sandwich, very straightforward. Similar to a French-style ham and butter sandwich that has been beefed up by the addition of some sort of fruit preserve, which is just a nice combination of flavors. It's really, really simple. If you are going to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or, I don't know, a turkey and cheese sandwich, the ham and jam sandwich is just like its kind of sexy, dignified cousin. It just feels like a fancy thing to eat at the beach, when really it's just, like, ham and cherry jam and some butter and a nice baguette.
ROSIE: Let's say people have taken our advice to heart, Kit's advice to heart, and gotten a great cooler. What recipes do you recommend if we're lugging a big old cooler to the beach?
TANYA: Yeah, I think this is where you're going crazy with the pasta salads and the dips. Any sort of dairy-based dips, a yogurt-based dip. We've got this great fresh ranch dip from Naz Deravian, which is really just like zhuzhed-up yogurt. So smart, great use of pantry seasonings, fresh chives. Ali Slagle also has a dill-pickled tzatziki, which is really fun. I don't know, I feel like pickles are so summery.
ROSIE: We are a big pickle family.
TANYA: Yeah, you got to get on the dill-pickled tzatziki train. It's just garlic, Greek yogurt, olive oil, finely chopped dill, and then a ton of grated pickles.
CAIRA: So I know we talked about the popcorn, which is always a good, healthy snack, but what are some other things that you love to bring to the beach that won't get soggy or crunched, but is also still healthy?
TANYA: Okay. Fruit feels like a cop-out answer, but I love a frozen grape.
CAIRA: Oh my God.
TANYA: So a Tupperware of frozen grapes, a little Baggie of frozen grapes. I'm popping them in the freezer. If you put a little lime juice, citric acid —
CAIRA: Citric acid is my go-to.
TANYA: — that is a really great —
CHRISTINE: Wait, you guys, stop. What is citric acid, and why are you putting it on your grapes?
TANYA: Okay, citric acid is a powder that looks just like granulated sugar, but it is a powder version of the naturally occurring acid that exists in citrus fruits. So it is a fine dusting powder that you could cover grapes with. This is what brings pucker to a Sour Patch Kid. So imagine frozen grapes tossed with a little citric acid, maybe a little bit of sugar.
ROSIE: Do you put sugar on yours too?
TANYA: Yes.
ROSIE: You just do sugar?
TANYA: Yeah. Okay.
CHRISTINE: Hardcore.
TANYA: So that is, like … and, I mean, the grapes are already sweet, so they don't really need any extra sugar. But yeah, toss those in citric acid. By the time you get to the beach, the grapes probably won't be frozen grapes anymore. If you are packing them in a cooler with ice, they might stay frozen. But if you're using them as the cooling element by just tossing them into a tote bag, they'll thaw by then. But they'll still be delicious, and they will hold some of their shape because they'd been frozen for most of the time. But that's a really, really easy, simple, healthy snack. I mean, again, fruit, okay. You didn't bring me on here to tell you to eat fruit, but that's a fun —
CAIRA: That's a fruit in a fun way.
CHRISTINE: That is delicious.
TANYA: That's fruit in a fun way.
ROSIE: Tanya Sichynsky, you are a legend. Thank you so much for being on our show.
TANYA: This was so fun.
ROSIE: This was really fun.
TANYA: This ruled.
ROSIE: Have fun at the beach, everybody.
TANYA: Thanks.
ROSIE: If you want to try out any of the recipes Tanya talked about today, you can find them in our show notes, or on the New York Times Cooking website. And if you want more of Tanya's recommendations, you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter The Veggie . That's it for us. Thanks for listening.
The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief.
CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell.
CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset.
ROSIE: And I'm Rosie Guerin. Thanks for listening.
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Life's Too Short for Bad Olive Oil
MICHAEL: ... HALT is the acronym for it, but heat, air, light, and time are the things that really degrade oil. ROSIE: Interesting. MICHAEL: So exposing it to the air, the light, and then the time obviously, the longer you wait, the more likely it's going to go rancid. So that's an easy way to remember like, "Oh, what should I be doing with this? How should I be storing this olive oil?" That's an easy way to remember it. CHRISTINE: Those just happen to be the same things that make us look old. Right? Heat, air, light, and time. MICHAEL: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I guess it applies to us, too. CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. ROSIE: I'm Rosie Guerin and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show . Today, we're talking about olive oils. CHRISTINE: Yes. I love olive oil. CAIRA: I love olive oil, too. CHRISTINE: It's one of my favorite fats. ROSIE: Especially in the summer, especially on some really fresh veg. CHRISTINE: Oh, yeah. ROSIE: On a super-ripe tomato. CAIRA: Or when you make your own homemade salad dressing. Yeah, that's good. ROSIE: I recently heard this hot take by a food journalist who said, "If you're going to splurge on anything at the grocery store, it should be oil or vinegar." And I subscribe to that. I like being adventurous with taste-testing different olive oils. CHRISTINE: That's interesting. I've never thought about the thing that I would spend the most on. I think about that with a wardrobe, like always shoes. Got to get the good shoes. But, yeah, I could see that. Olive oil, butter- ROSIE: I have a couple of items that... Yeah, butter. CHRISTINE: Yeah. These things that are the fats that you cook with. CAIRA: Yeah, I like the idea, but honestly, I'm just going to splurge on the protein every single time. I'd rather spend my money there, but I get it. CHRISTINE: Well, given it is prime tomato season, olive oil is the thing that you want in the summertime. We thought this would be a great time to talk about our olive oil review with our writer, Michael Sullivan, who has been on the show before. He's awesome. He is just a wealth of knowledge. He is going to come on with us today and talk about olive oils, the ones we've tasted, the ones we recommend, but also he's going to give us a real schooling on how to shop for olive oil. So if you're out there in the grocery store deciding what you're going to buy, I think you'll be able to walk away from this episode with a lot of really actionable tips on how to get a great bottle. ROSIE: Yeah, and it turns out one of the ways to identify good olive oil is to taste it, and we're going to do a little bit of that as well. CHRISTINE: That's right. ROSIE: So we're going to take a quick break, when we're back, we'll chat with Michael. CAIRA: Welcome back. With us now is Michael Sullivan. He's a senior staff writer on our kitchen team, and he's reviewed a ton of kitchen gear for Wirecutter. And he joined us last October actually to talk about kitchen gear that will last a lifetime or close to it. So for our review of olive oils, Michael researched over 40 oils and tested over a dozen, and he used to work at an olive oil store. So cool. CHRISTINE: Michael, welcome back. MICHAEL: Thank you for having me. ROSIE: Who better, but you? CHRISTINE: Yeah, absolutely. I'm really excited to talk about this with you today. Michael, just to lay a picture a little bit of what our tastings look like in our test kitchen, we have something around 10 staff writers and editors at this point, and I'm always intrigued when you're doing a tasting. It's like this very serious thing that's going on in the test kitchen. I see a group of people sitting around a table, they're quiet, they've got notes in front of them, there's little bowls or whatever you guys are eating. I always like to go in and peek in when nobody's in there. I'm going to admit it. Then I'll go in and look in the fridge and see what you guys are testing, and it's a wall of butter or yogurt- MICHAEL: Or yogurt. Yeah. Yeah. CHRISTINE: ... or whatever. Yeah. And so it's really fun and you guys do a lot of work and we're going to talk a little bit about that. But we thought it would be fun to start this episode by you testing our olive oil knowledge just to get a baseline of what we know. MICHAEL: Great. Okay. Yeah. So I came up with some true or false questions for you. Okay, first one, true or false, olive oil doesn't get better with age. ROSIE: True. CAIRA: True. CHRISTINE: I think that's true. MICHAEL: True. Yeah. True or false, Italy is among the biggest importers of olive oil? ROSIE: True. CAIRA: True. CHRISTINE: True. MICHAEL: True. Yeah. CAIRA: Oh my gosh, we know so much. MICHAEL: Yeah, that one, I feel like that was a tricky one. Okay. True or false, it's fine to store your olive oil near the stove with a pour spout. CHRISTINE: I want to say true. MICHAEL: Oh, it's mixed. CHRISTINE: I'm going to say true. MICHAEL: Okay. It's false. Yeah. You don't want to keep it near a heat source, so you want to keep it away from heat and you want a nice tight sealing lid on it. You don't want to keep it open to the air. CAIRA: So you're saying that bottle that's sitting right by the stove is not a good idea- MICHAEL: Probably not the best way. CAIRA: ... I've been doing my whole life? CHRISTINE: It makes a lot of sense because you just reach for it. CAIRA: You use it for everything. MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Okay, and last one, it's best to store olive oil in the fridge. ROSIE: False. CAIRA: False? MICHAEL: False. Yeah. CHRISTINE: Okay. I didn't answer that one, but- MICHAEL: Oh, sorry. Sorry. CHRISTINE: ... I'm just thinking of all the people I know who store their olive oil in the fridge. CAIRA: I've never heard of that. CHRISTINE: It might be- MICHAEL: It's a common thing. CHRISTINE: ... a hippie US coast thing. CAIRA: But doesn't it get congealed like coconut oil? CHRISTINE: Yeah, it does. MICHAEL: Which is why, yeah- CAIRA: Got it. MICHAEL: ... you don't want to do that. CHRISTINE: On the money. ROSIE: Well, I'd like to say I think we have some things to learn. Let's get into it. MICHAEL: Okay. CAIRA: Yeah. So Michael, first of all, can you tell us how you test olive oils? MICHAEL: Typically, for any of our taste tests, we're looking at what's available in national chain grocery stores because we want people to easily find them. And then we also took a stance and only tested bottles with a harvest date. So that's really the only guarantee that you know how fresh your oil is, if it has the harvest date on it. CAIRA: Will all bottles have a harvest date on them? MICHAEL: They will not. CAIRA: Okay. MICHAEL: So that will really help you narrow down the selection. ROSIE: And by harvest date, we mean the date that the olives- MICHAEL: That it was crushed. Yeah. Yeah. CHRISTINE: Like wine. MICHAEL: Well, like wine, a little different- ROSIE: Wine sits- MICHAEL: Yeah, wine sits for a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For olives, so you want to get them crushed and bottled as soon as possible. Yeah. CHRISTINE: Got it, got it. CAIRA: Is the harvest date different from the best buy date? MICHAEL: Yes. So the best buy date is arbitrary. So the harvest date will tell you when exactly those olives were crushed. If it's just a best buy date, you have absolutely no idea when that oil was put in that bottle. Right? It could be old oil, it could be new oil, it could be a mix of both. So that really tells you how fresh the oil is, and that's really the only way to know. I mean, there's a lot of other things that we'll talk about today, but, yeah, that's a big one. CAIRA: Got it. MICHAEL: We didn't include any flavored oils. We really wanted to just do plain olive oil, and then we looked for oils that would have a range of flavors that you could use them for various cooking applications. CHRISTINE: And what is the actual testing process when you are all in that room in the kitchen and you're tasting things together? MICHAEL: Yeah. Olive oil's a funny one. I mean, I should mention that we're not trained professional olive oil tasters. These testers trained for years isolating specific defects in the oil, and that's how they're grading it for the sensory part of it. CAIRA: Olive oil connoisseurs, basically? CHRISTINE: Sommeliers? MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah. CHRISTINE: Olive oil sommeliers? MICHAEL: And so we're not that. So we're tasting just based on flavor and the nuances of that. But we did follow the California Olive Oil Council's guidelines for tasting. So we use these little blue cups that are tulip-shaped and they're dark-colored so that you don't see the color of the oil because that's not an indication of quality. So it masks the color so you're not influenced by that. ROSIE: These look like mini sifters. CHRISTINE: Yeah, can you- MICHAEL: I know. Yeah, they look like little brandy... Yeah. CAIRA: When you have a really fancy whiskey. ROSIE: Little brandy. CAIRA: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. MICHAEL: But the tulip shape helps to focus the aroma when you're smelling it. So we use these when we test, which is this is what professional tasters would also use. And then we concealed all the brands as we always do with our taste tests. And then we're evaluating the smell, the fruitiness, the bitterness, the pungency, how peppery that kick you get in the back of your throat when you swallow, good indication of how fresh the oil is. CHRISTINE: So are you just sipping the oil? You're not dipping bread into it or something? MICHAEL: [inaudible 00:08:21] slurping it. CHRISTINE: Slurping it? MICHAEL: Yeah, because you want to move it across your palate and the oil... We also do test it with bread after we- CAIRA: After you've slurped it? MICHAEL: After we've slurped it. Yeah. We always go back and taste the oils again with bread. ROSIE: So much to my wife's chagrin, I love spending a lot of time in the olive oil section at the grocery store. I'm never quite sure what I should look for on a bottle. So can you walk us through what you should look for when you're going to grab a bottle of olive oil? MICHAEL: Sure. Yeah. I mean, it is very overwhelming when you're standing in the store and you're like, "Oh, my God, all these bottles." One of the easiest things you can do right away is avoid clear glass bottles. The UV rays will degrade the oil, and that's through photo oxidation. So it's HALT is the acronym for it, but heat, air, light, and time are the things that really degrade oil. So exposing it to the air, the light, and then the time, obviously, the longer you wait, the more likely it's going to go rancid. That's an easy way to remember like, "Oh, what should I be doing with this? How should I be storing this olive oil?" That's an easy way to remember it. CHRISTINE: Those just happen to be the same things that make us look old. Right? Heat, air, light, and time. MICHAEL: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I guess it applies to us too. So a clear bottle, you just don't know how that was stored, you don't know where it was stored, how long it's been exposed to light. So it's just you risk it being already oxidated by the time you open it. So that's an easy one to avoid. ROSIE: A dark bottle. MICHAEL: So you want a tin or a dark green bottle, dark glass. And then I think most people know to look for extra virgin olive oil, but I don't know that everyone really knows what that means. Actually, that should have been a true or false question, but- CAIRA: I would've gotten that one wrong. ROSIE: Yeah, I'd say [inaudible 00:10:09] talk about it. MICHAEL: So what it means is that the oil has been lab and taste-tested, like I was saying, those professional tasters, and they're making sure that it's free of any defects, and also it can't have any excessive heat applied to it during the extraction and the use of any solvents or chemicals to extract that oil are prohibited. So it's the highest grade. This comes with some caveats, and I think if you bear with me for a minute, I can dig into this for a minute. ROSIE: Love it. MICHAEL: So there's no national or international agreed upon standard for olive oils. So the USDA has their own guidelines, but they're voluntary for producers, which means it's not mandatory. So an oil that's coming in from another country that's coming into the United States, at the border, there's no one randomly checking it to make sure that it is indeed what it says on the label. That grade is what it is. Right? California has its own laws- ROSIE: Shocking. MICHAEL: Yes. So the California department of agriculture, CDFA, they have some pretty strict laws. Actually, they're slightly stricter than the USDA. The acidity level has to be lower for the oils that are extra virgin. They're randomly tested by the CDFA. So the producer of olive oil is going to have a random person come and show up, and they're going to test the oil to make sure that is indeed what it says it is. But California only makes something like 5% of the oil in the US, the rest is all imported. So it's a huge amount of oil that's coming in from elsewhere. So while their guidelines are really strict, it's not that much oil. ROSIE: So this is for olive oil that's made in California? MICHAEL: Yes. And specifically for producers that make 5,000 gallons of oil or more. ROSIE: Wow. Okay. MICHAEL: Yeah. Then when we're talking about oils in Europe, they have the IOC, the International Olive Council, and they are an intergovernmental organization and setting the guidelines for all these different countries in Europe. And all of the European Union countries are part of the IOC, but they are not enforcing the laws for the olive oil. That's up to each of the countries that is a member of the IOC. Right? And that's for all of the oils that are sold in Europe. So they're taste-tested and they're lab-tested. But because the US is not a member of the IOC, there's not really an incentive to make sure that the best oils are coming our way. ROSIE: So they can export the dregs? CHRISTINE: Yeah, they're sending us their junk? MICHAEL: Yeah. I mean, in theory, no, they should not be. Right? But- ROSIE: But they could- MICHAEL: ... how do we know? ROSIE: ... and how would we know? Yeah. MICHAEL: Right. Now I should mention, the FDA has done random testing, they did... About 10 years ago, they were in the DC area and they grabbed a bunch of bottles of oil from grocery stores and had them lab-tested, and they found that adulteration was low, meaning the oils were not cut with seed oils or other types of oil. They did not do a taste test. So the oils could still be labeled extra virgin, but not be extra virgin, because let's say when it got shipped over here, it was way too hot and it's spoiled on the way, but it still says extra virgin on the label. But then you bring it home and you use it and it's no longer what it says it is. It's a purity versus quality issue. The reason that you do a lab test and a taste test is because the lab test is picking up the acidity level, and then the taste test is picking up all the things you couldn't pick up in a lab like any defects, "Oh, it smells like dirty gym clothes," or, "It's briny," or, "it smells like it's waxy." They're picking up all the flaws that you wouldn't be able to determine in a test. So they're done in tandem for that reason. CHRISTINE: If you see extra virgin olive oil on the shelf, what you're saying is that it likely has been processed in a certain way with low heat, it's been lab tested, but you may not know the quality of that oil on the shelf that you're seeing in the supermarket. Right? MICHAEL: Right. Which is why I think tasting it is so important. And what's frustrating about that, people are like, "Well, what's the actionable advice? What do you do?" Tasting the oil to make sure that it's not rancid, and if it is, then you can take it back to the retailer and be like, "This is rancid," and they'll give you a refund or a store credit, because you really shouldn't be paying all that money. I mean, olive oil's expensive. So- ROSIE: It's expensive. Yeah. MICHAEL: ... you shouldn't be paying all that money if it's not what it says it is on the label. CHRISTINE: What is rancid oil? How would you describe the flavor of rancid oil? MICHAEL: So most often, to me, it smells like a box of Crayola crayons. It will smell waxy. It'll have just a stale nut smell to it and flavor. It could also be slightly fermented. It might have a briny or sour quality to it sometimes. But I find it, for me anyway, it's more often when I worked in an olive oil store, it was more that it had that waxy quality. And old oil will also cling to your mouth. It'll stick to the walls of your mouth and it's gross. But a fresh oil is actually quite clean, which is surprising, I think. I think most people will be like, "You're drinking fat," but actually when you swallow it, it is a very refreshing, clean, doesn't have that same effect when you taste it. ROSIE: We'll see about that when we taste test. MICHAEL: Yeah. CAIRA: When you're looking at the harvest date, is there a time period that you would recommend? What's the window? MICHAEL: So generally, in the Northern Hemisphere, it's the fall and winter harvest, and then the Southern Hemisphere, it'll be spring and summer. So you're looking for the previous harvest date from whatever time you're in. So if we're in July of 2025 right now, you're going to be looking for October, November of 2024. CAIRA: Got it. MICHAEL: If it's an oil from the Northern Hemisphere. Yeah. CAIRA: And if it goes beyond that, maybe it's from two seasons ago, is that too far back? MICHAEL: You want to use it up within two years of the harvest date is a good rule of thumb. And then once you open it, you want to try to use it up within two to three months. So I know big families can buy those big three-liter tins and they can use it up in two to three months, and that's great, but if you can't do that, don't be buying these giant bottles if you can't use it up within- CAIRA: No. Really? ROSIE: Well, because remember, olive oil does not get better with age. CAIRA: Yeah. I guess that's true. But even if you buy in bulk and you don't open them, it's still not great- MICHAEL: Well, as long as you're in that two-year window. Yeah. Yeah. But generally, buy smaller if you can't use it up within that window once you open it. CHRISTINE: So here's the big question. How much does country of origin matter? I feel like there's so much debate like, "Italy is the best," "Greece is the best," "Spanish is the best." I mean, does it break down like that or does it really even matter? MICHAEL: I don't like to discriminate based on a region. I really encourage people to try just all kinds of olive oil from all over and see what they like. It's like wine in a lot of ways. It doesn't age like wine, but there are so many nuances and flavors and there's so many cultivars of olives that can be made and they are in certain regions versus others. And so to limit yourself to one region I think is doing yourself a disservice. I think it's really fun. And because it's such a pantry staple, you're using olive oil, or at least I am, all the time, that it's really easy to just buy whatever and try different stuff and see what you like. And eventually you'll figure out like, "Oh, I really like this type of oil. I like it really bold, and grassy, and peppery," or maybe you like it more like fruity and a little more mellow with a subtle pepperiness. So by tasting a bunch of them, you'll discover what you like. The important thing, country aside, you really want to look for on the label, it should say, "Product of," whatever the country is, because that means that the olive oil is from that country. Right? If it says, "Imported from," or, "Packed in," that just means that the oil was bottled there. Right? And so you know how, earlier, the true or false question, Italy is one of the biggest importers, that's because they're also exporting it, but it's bottled in Italy, but it'll say, "Imported from Italy." But if you look on the back of the... It should say where the olives are actually from. It's not bad that the olives are from this other place, but I think it's a little bit of marketing saying... Yeah. Yeah. ROSIE: Is there any benefit of trying to assure that you're getting something that's, quote-unquote, single origin where all of the olives are from one place? Or what's your feeling about blends? Because I've seen olive oil from Portugal plus Italy or something like that. MICHAEL: Yeah. So blends is... It's important I think to just define what we're talking about. So you could have a blend of two oils from two different estates, but you could also have a blend of oils from literally all over the world that are five or six different countries. Those are often cheaper. We're talking about some of the big grocery store brands do this. They're combining oils from all over the world. And you just don't know how long those oils were sitting, where, when... I mean, that's why the harvest date is so important, especially when you have all these oils from all over. CHRISTINE: Well, now I feel like I have been doing a lot of things wrong with my olive oil. But just to recap, by and large, people should be looking for extra virgin olive oil. If they want the most flavorful, the most complex oil, they want to be looking for that harvest date, and it should be within two years. You want to consume it within two years of harvest. MICHAEL: Right. CHRISTINE: You want it to be a clear oil in a dark bottle or in a can. MICHAEL: Right. CAIRA: We're going to take a quick break, and then when we're back, we're going to talk through how you should be storing your olive oil, and we're going to do a taste test, plus we'll get some of Michael's best secrets for finding a great olive oil out in the wild. Be right back. CAIRA: Welcome back. We're here with Michael Sullivan and we're talking all about olive oil. And we've covered a lot of the basics for what you should be looking for when you're shopping in the aisles, but now we want to know, Michael, what you think most people are doing wrong when it comes to storing their olive oil at home. MICHAEL: Yeah. I think the most common issue is storing the olive oil right next to the stove, just because that heat... When you think about like, "Oh, we... For extra virgin, you don't want excessive heat applied to it during production, right? So then to just put it right next to the stove defeats that whole purpose and they worked so hard ideally to- ROSIE: For those of you at home, Michael is making meaningful eye contact with Christine and Caira. MICHAEL: No, no, that was not a [inaudible 00:20:38]. CHRISTINE: I am guilty as charged. CAIRA: Yeah, I do do that. CHRISTINE: I keep mine in a clear bottle with a spout next to the stove. Yes. CAIRA: Fine. I'll change, I guess. MICHAEL: But also you want try to avoid decanting the oil in a clear glass bottle or some carafe- CAIRA: Even if it's pretty? MICHAEL: I know, and I have a beautiful one that I found at an estate sale, and I'm just like, "I guess I just look at you. I don't know what I do with you." But, yeah, like we were saying, dark glass or tin is best, ideally a tight sealing lid. Avoid pour spouts. I mean, restaurants will have them in open, but think about how quickly they're going through that oil. It's not an issue. And it's best to store it in a dark cupboard or pantry away from heat and light. CAIRA: So not directly above your stove. MICHAEL: Mm-hmm. CAIRA: Got it. MICHAEL: Yeah. Yeah. CAIRA: And what about plastic? I mean, even one of the bottles that we recommend... MICHAEL: Graza. Yeah. CAIRA: The Graza, I see it in grocery stores all the time. MICHAEL: And Bertolli too. Yeah. CAIRA: It looks really cute, honestly, but it's in a green plastic bottle. What's the deal with that? MICHAEL: Yeah. So the experts that I spoke to, they overwhelmingly... That it should not be put in plastic, and I think that they're pointing to the fact that some plastics are semi-permeable, so then there's the risk of oxygen getting in. So they really say to stick to glass and tin. I think it's hard because so many of the reasonably priced oils in the grocery store, some of them are in plastic, and so we included them in our lineup because we just felt like we needed to include some of these reasonably-priced oils. I think just using them up quickly is probably best advice. CHRISTINE: Can we spend a beat talking about why you're not supposed to refrigerate your olive oil? I grew up with a bottle of olive oil in the refrigerator, I don't like how it gets chunky, but I would assume that keeping it in the refrigerator would extend the life of the olive oil and keep it from the heat that could accelerate it going rancid. So why not keep it in the refrigerator? MICHAEL: For one thing, it's impractical because then, yeah, like you're saying, you have this congealed oil, so when you go to use it, you're like, "Okay, now I'm waiting for this to thaw and come back to being liquid again. And some people will run it under hot water, which... Probably not a good idea. Also, taking it in and out of the fridge can create condensation, which some experts were saying that that's also obviously bad for it. So you just want to keep it in a cupboard at room temperature. The fridge thing, don't bother. There was also some misinformation circulating many years ago that was like if you put your olive oil in the fridge and it congeals or it solidifies, that's an indication of quality, and it's... No, it's not an indication of quality because each oil will have a different density and they're going to solidify different temperatures. And only a lab test and a taste test can determine the quality of the oil. CAIRA: What's the most surprising thing that you found during your testing? MICHAEL: I think when we made the decision to only include oils that have a harvest date, I thought there would be fewer than there actually were at the grocery store. And some of the big brands like Bertolli is one of them that I was actually really surprised by. CHRISTINE: Which is one of our picks. Right? MICHAEL: Which is one of our picks. Yeah. CHRISTINE: I mean, that's surprising to me. We tasted all these fancier oils... What I would consider more expensive, fancier oils, but Bertolli did well against these other oils. Right? MICHAEL: Yeah, it did, which was surprising. But it has that bold, peppery, really grassy flavor to it, which was appealing. CHRISTINE: So I want to know, if someone is in a grocery store and they don't have access to the oils that we recommend in our guide, they want to buy a nice oil, what are some tips for finding something good? MICHAEL: If you're in a grocery store, like Whole Foods or somewhere, you often want to look not at eye level. So above and below is where a lot of higher priced oils will be, or any product really for that matter. You'll notice if you go to Walmart or wherever, all the white label products are all eye level. That's called the strike zone, and it's all strategically placed for the consumer. So same applies to olive oil. You often find at the bottom, some more interesting oils, not the major brands that are at all the chains. CHRISTINE: That's why my toddlers are always picking the oils on the bottom- MICHAEL: Yes, they have champagne taste. But, yeah, that's a good thing. You can also look online too if you don't have a specialty food store. A lot of specialty food stores, if you have one in your area, will have maybe a better selection. If you live in an area where you don't have access to stores like that, you could go online and just do a little bit of research. A producer that's very transparent online and shares their lab results, wow, that's a pretty... They're not hiding anything. Right? So I think that's a good indication of a quality producer. CHRISTINE: What's one of your favorite mail order brands? Give us the inside scoop! MICHAEL: So one of my favorites is Fat Gold, and they're actually based in California. They're moderately priced. It's just reliably good, and it's so flavorful and robust, and it's one of my faves. And we'll actually be trying some today, so- CHRISTINE: Ooh, I'm very excited. CAIRA: Fat Gold. CAIRA: Okay. Michael, you brought some oils for us to try. MICHAEL: Yes. ROSIE: Let's do it. Let's taste test. Unfortunately, the process is to swirl, sniff, slurp, and then swallow, which is just horrifying. ROSIE: So this is number one? MICHAEL: Yes. This is number one. So, okay. So first, hold it in your hand... And there's a little lid for these sometimes or you could just use your hand. You just want like to swirl it in your hand and just sort of like warm the oil a little bit, just makes it easier to smell. And then- ROSIE: This is quite a picture. We are holding these little tulip glasses and swirling them with our palms over the tops. CHRISTINE: Ooh, it smells delicious. ROSIE: And then you knock your [inaudible 00:26:39]. CHRISTINE: You don't like the smell? I love the smell. I feel like I'm in Italy. ROSIE: Grassy? MICHAEL: Mm-hmm. Very grassy. Yeah. Yeah. ROSIE: It's hay…it's… CHRISTINE: All right. MICHAEL: Yeah. So when you slurp it, you just slurp it and slurp it across your... Be noisy. I know, it's a weird sensation- CHRISTINE: It's so peppery. MICHAEL: Yeah. CHRISTINE: Oh, my God, that's so peppery. ROSIE: We're losing Caira. CAIRA: You guys, I don't think I can do this two more times. ROSIE: I really did not like the experience of it in my mouth, just drinking oil. MICHAEL: Yeah. ROSIE: But the after of it, the way that the flavor diffuses on the palate and it really kicks you in the back of the throat. That's so nice. CAIRA: Yeah. It is very peppery. MICHAEL: Yeah, it's really fruity. And this isn't even the most- ROSIE: I'm getting green apple. MICHAEL: Yeah, green apple, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. ROSIE: So that's number one. This is olive oil number two. CAIRA: We're swirling, we're warming. ROSIE: Let's get the nose in there. CAIRA: Oh, wow. Yeah. CAIRA: I like this one better. It's not as grassy, dirt smelling. ROSIE: Like fruits. Like light fruit. Maybe a little herby. MICHAEL: Yeah, definitely getting herbs on this. Yeah. ROSIE: So swirl, sniff, slurp, swallow. CHRISTINE: I'm slurping. CAIRA: I didn't hear you. CAIRA: Go on. CHRISTINE: That was the... Okay. Okay, this one- MICHAEL: But this one's very bitter. CHRISTINE: Yeah, it's a little bit more bitter- CAIRA: I can handle this one. CHRISTINE: This one isn't doing anything for me. MICHAEL: Oh, really? Maybe because you already hit your- CHRISTINE: Maybe because it already hit me- MICHAEL: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. CHRISTINE: I don't feel any sensation afterwards. MICHAEL: Oh, really? Slurp it across your tongue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. ROSIE: Oh, my God. Because this is spicy on the tongue and in the back. MICHAEL: It's spicy. This is pepper spicy, like black pepper. ROSIE: Yeah. The other thing to say about this one is it's very thick. In terms of viscosity, it feels- MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah, it has a buttery quality to it. Yeah. CAIRA: But it's not clinging to my mouth- MICHAEL: No. CAIRA: ... feel like the last one was. MICHAEL: Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. ROSIE: Number one tasted more oily. MICHAEL: Yeah. Yeah. This has a buttery quality to it. Yeah. This is one of my favorites. CHRISTINE: This one is very mild to me. It tastes bitter and I feel a little bit of a burn. MICHAEL: Oh, interesting. Okay. CHRISTINE: But nothing like that first burn. That first burn was like, "Whoa- MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. CHRISTINE: Okay. This is number three. CAIRA: Okay. CHRISTINE: And- ROSIE: Cap it and warm it. CHRISTINE: ... we're swirling. We're warming, we're swirling. And I'm going to sniff. Whoa. That's almost like waxy to me. MICHAEL: Yeah. Remember what I was saying earlier? CHRISTINE: Is that a little essence of crayon? I think it's a red crayon. ROSIE: It's funky. MICHAEL: It really... Isn't it wild? It smells like wax and cardboard. Yeah. ROSIE: It smells old. Just like old. CAIRA: Is it safe to say this is the rancid one? ROSIE: I suspect so- MICHAEL: Yeah. ROSIE: Swirl, sniff, slurp and swallow, guys. Oh, it just coats your mouth. MICHAEL: I know. It's a different- ROSIE: I don't like that, Michael. MICHAEL: Different sensation. It's- ROSIE: I don't like it. CHRISTINE: It's like you just played an off note or something. It's like [inaudible 00:29:36]. MICHAEL: Yeah. It doesn't have that burn. It's flat, clings to your mouth. ROSIE: Michael, I don't like that at all. MICHAEL: That's been sitting in my window for a month with a loose lid on it in a clear glass jar. CHRISTINE: In preparation for this day? MICHAEL: In preparation for this day. CAIRA: I think this is what it would taste like if you just drank straight vegetable oil. MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah. It has that... It's lost all of its... Yeah. CHRISTINE: And the lingering flavor is just not pleasant. MICHAEL: Not pleasant. So number one was Fat Gold and it's their oil that's made from Arbequina olives, and the second one was also Fat Gold, but it is from Frantoio olives. And that was the bitter spicy one. I just got this shipment in, so I was like, "Oh, this will be fun." I think it's nice because some of the grocery store brands aren't going to have the type of olive, so I thought it would be interesting for you to try a specific type of olive cultivar. And then the last one was my little jar of gross oil- ROSIE: Clear jar. CHRISTINE: What are some of the... These are not picks. MICHAEL: No. Yeah. CHRISTINE: What are some of the picks that we have in our guide that you really love that you've been using since you did this guide? MICHAEL: Yes. Okay. So for one that's really fruity and buttery, that's really good with fish or a lighter salad dressing, maybe a salad dressing that has fruit in it. I really like the Bono Sicilia PGI Organic Sicilian olive oil. That one's really good. We all really like that one. It's not going to be as pungent and bold as some of the others. If you want something more bold, Bertolli is really... We tested the rich taste one. That's what they call it, the rich taste. So it's just the bold, peppery... There's a blend of a bunch of olives, but that's going to be the more grassy, bold one. But, yeah, those are the two extremes- CHRISTINE: Two ends of the spectrum. MICHAEL: Yeah. CHRISTINE: Okay. MICHAEL: And then also the Graza, that one's also going to be a little more bold and peppery. Yeah. CHRISTINE: Love it. CAIRA: Michael, what's the last thing you've recently bought that you've really loved? MICHAEL: So this is nerdy, but... So I do a lot of sewing, but I just bought these antique buttons. I'm laughing as I'm saying this. I sound like such a dork. But they're portraits of these very fabulous women. They're a 100 years old and they have little portraits, and one of the women is wearing a big jaunty hat. So anyway, I'm going to put them on a shirt that I'm going to make. CHRISTINE: I love it. CAIRA: Where did you find them? MICHAEL: The World Wide Web. ROSIE: WWW. MICHAEL: No, I got them on eBay. ROSIE: Michael, thanks so much for joining us. MICHAEL: Thank you so much. ROSIE: Another great episode with Michael Sullivan. CHRISTINE: I mean, when are we going to have him back again? He's so great. ROSIE: What an absolute delight. CAIRA: Yeah. He better not bring any more olive oil around me. ROSIE: Yeah. To be fair, we don't want to drink any more of his olive oil. CAIRA: No. CAIRA: Lovely man. ROSIE: Lovely man. CAIRA: Please don't ever make me do that, y'all. ROSIE: What are you all taking away from this episode? CHRISTINE: Well, I truly feel that I have now the olive oil walk of shame to do on this show where I need to admit that I've been keeping my olive oil in a clear bottle with a spout near the stove because it's super convenient and I guess I'm going to have to stop doing that when I get home- ROSIE: For shame. CHRISTINE: Yes, for shame. For shame. And I think because of the way I've been storing my oil, I will taste it when I get home to make sure it hasn't gone rancid. CAIRA: Wow. ROSIE: You're brave. CHRISTINE: Yeah. CAIRA: Yeah. I'm just going to assume that my olive oil is bad and I'm just going to buy a new one. No need to taste it. ROSIE: What are you going to get? CAIRA: I think I'm going to get the Bertolli because I've definitely seen that in every grocery store I've ever been to. So- ROSIE: Very accessible. CAIRA: ... I think I've decided that I'm not going to be an olive oil person. It's just I'm happy with whatever works and is cheap. ROSIE: I feel like this conversation validated the fact that I am an olive oil person and will continue to be. I'm taking away that extra virgin is king of the hill, that's what you look for, the designation you look for when you know you want to have something that is that real authentic olive taste. And then the other thing to look for on the bottle, harvest date. CHRISTINE: Yeah. ROSIE: Really trying to ensure that you see a harvest date and that it's within two years that you're consuming it from harvest date. CHRISTINE: And not to be confused with the best buy date. ROSIE: Not to be confused with the best buy date. CHRISTINE: And older is not better here. CHRISTINE: Older is not better. We're not aging like fine wine. CHRISTINE: No, no, no. ROSIE: If you want to find out more about Michael's reporting, you can check out our show notes and our website. That's it for us. Thanks so much for listening. CAIRA: Bye. CHRISTINE: Bye. The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel, engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. ROSIE: And I'm Rosie Guerin. CHRISTINE: Thanks for listening. BLOOPER MICHAEL: Yeah. If you're not used to trying it, the reaction was just people choking in public in the store and you're like, "Oh, my gosh. Are you okay?"
New York Times
17-07-2025
- New York Times
Packable Beach and Picnic Recipes
CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. ROSIE: I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show . CHRISTINE: This episode is called: 'Packable Beach and Picnic Recipes.' ROSIE: Hey there, this is Rosie. Earlier this week, we published an episode all about the gear you might want to consider to help you level up your beach experience. We talked about shades, chairs, coolers, and more. But we didn't talk about one super important thing: food! Everyone has their own ideas for what makes a great beach snack. Some ice-cold fruit from the cooler? A delectable lunch of salads and dips? Or maybe just a bag of chips? Well, no matter your style, our friends over at New York Times Cooking have some ideas of ways to elevate your beach-snacking game. And today, we're bringing you a conversation about just that with Tanya Sichynsky. Tanya is an editor at NYT Cooking who writes the weekly newsletter The Veggie, and she recently wrote a piece for The Times that included a bunch of great recipes for a beach day or picnic. CAIRA: Tanya, welcome to the show. TANYA: Hi, guys. Thanks so much for having me. CHRISTINE: We're glad to have you. ROSIE: Thanks for coming. Well, so obviously anyone can bring anything to a beach, a park, a picnic. We know that. What are your general rules, Tanya, for the kinds of recipes and foods you want to pack for a day at the beach, for a picnic? TANYA: Obviously, this is all incredibly subjective, but if you're asking me — which you are — I'm going to tell you, it's trying to avoid really soggy food. You don't want something that's going to get real wet in a cooler or in a tote bag. So nothing super mayonnaise-y with soft bread, like that … to me, it's ripe for sogging. You want stuff that's really, I'll say packable and stackable. Whether you're working with a cooler or a big tote bag, you want stuff that will kind of Tetris into your vessel of choice and not get crushed. So if you're talking potato chips, you actually shouldn't decant your potato chips into a Ziploc bag if you can help it, because all the air in the bag will protect it. That kind of stuff. I think part of it is 'cooler versus tote bag' will tell me what kind of recipes I want to pack. CHRISTINE: So, like, a tote bag, meaning you're not going to keep it cool. TANYA: Well, I'm so glad you asked. I know that we want to talk about no-cooler recipes, but I will implore anybody, if they plan on being outside for a really long time, a great hack is just a water bottle. Put it in the freezer the night before and put it in the bag, because by the time you get to where you're going, the water will be semi-thawed, mostly thawed. You will have insulated the bag in some way by just packing a bunch of stuff into it, and it will keep some element of your meal cool. So if you're going with a couple people, just throw three frozen water bottles in there, and you'll stay hydrated, and your food will stay semi-cool. CHRISTINE: Oh, I love that tip. And also, if someone's going to freeze a water bottle, remember to leave an inch — TANYA: Always. CHRISTINE: — at the top, right? TANYA: Always. CHRISTINE: That is not filled so that the water can expand in the freezer. TANYA: Yes, it's multi-use in some ways. CHRISTINE: There we go. CAIRA: And just throw it in the trash when you're done. TANYA: And just throw it in the trash. And also, a lot of beaches — ROSIE: Recycle. CAIRA: That's what I meant. ROSIE: What are you, nuts? CAIRA: Just don't throw it in the ocean. That was my point. TANYA: No, there, exactly. We're recycling it. And then, really, for me, it's just, like, 'What am I not going to turn my nose up at if it's been outside for two hours?' We are not — at least, I'm not right now — talking about 'Is it adhering to the FDA standards of not outside for more than 90 minutes?' Look, we've all eaten weird stuff off a picnic table that we know that has been there for more than a few hours, more than the window. But won't you feel a little bit icky about eating? So that kind of brings me to the mayonnaise of it all, which is pretty shelf-stable. I don't worry about it too much, but if I'm doing, say, a chickpea salad or a pasta salad, maybe I will cut the mayonnaise down significantly and use more tahini or something like that, something that is okay at room temperature. It's essentially a nut butter. It's a seed butter. So if you're going to lug a peanut butter and jelly, and you feel cool about that, you probably would feel good about tahini or something like that in a chickpea salad. CHRISTINE: I love that. I never think about swapping tahini for mayonnaise, but I should probably do that more often. TANYA: We have over at New York Times Cooking a lot of salad recipes that are, like, chickpea-based salads that have some sort of configuration of tahini, mayonnaise, yogurt, more or less of each. And, really, it's completely … most of those recipes are really amenable, so you can just modify them to your tastes. If you're not really a mayonnaise person, you can do half-and-half yogurt/tahini, that rules. If you don't like tahini or you're allergic to sesame, mayonnaise/yogurt. If you are vegan, maybe you're using a combination of vegan mayonnaise or tahini. I've made vegan mayonnaise before, it's actually quite easy. CHRISTINE: What is it? Just oil? CAIRA: What is it? Yeah. TANYA: You use aquafaba, which is all the stuff at the bottom of a can of chickpeas. Yeah. So let's say you're making a chickpea salad. You have regular mayonnaise that makes you feel icky. You don't want to use yogurt. You have tahini. And you obviously have the can of chickpeas, because you're putting it in the salad. You drain the aquafaba, which is the liquid at the bottom of the can. And with an immersion blender, which I'm sure there is a Wirecutter pick for. CHRISTINE: Oh, we do have a pick. TANYA: Oh yeah. It's just the juice and the chickpeas, white vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, some dry mustard, and then a really neutral oil, so we used a sunflower oil. And I'm telling you, it was like doing a magic trick when we did it. It immediately emulsifies. It tastes like mayonnaise. CHRISTINE: And it sounds like the ingredients in vegan mayonnaise, at least that recipe, those are pretty shelf-stable. You could take those out for a day without them turning bad. TANYA: Absolutely. CHRISTINE: Right. TANYA: Absolutely. And, again, if you have a little bit of a — I'm holding up a water bottle, for the folks at home — an insurance policy of semi-frozen water bottles, it will be cool enough, even if you did want to use regular mayonnaise, which tons of people will take to the beach, and it's never an issue. CAIRA: I'm a salt-and-vinegar-chips girl for life. Is there a salty snack you like to take to the beach? TANYA: Okay. I'm a sucker for BjornQorn. CHRISTINE: Oh, you're telling me all of the things that my kids want to eat. You all should go out on a picnic together. TANYA: I'm taking the kids to the beach. ROSIE: What is BjornQorn? CAIRA: Yeah, what are those? ROSIE: And why do you like it? TANYA: Okay, BjornQorn is vegan, cheesy popped popcorn. Very, very minimal ingredients. So if you are trying to cut down on super ultra-processed foods, this is a, I think, great alternative to something like a white-cheddar popcorn, Smartfood. So BjornQorn is made with nutritional yeast; nutritional yeast is dried, edible yeast. It usually comes in flakes. So good. I will make, frankly, a version at home of a BjornQorn. We have a recipe also on Cooking that is a vegan cheesy popcorn, same kind of combination of flavors. But, yeah, so BjornQorn. Okay, I always have hot dogs — from the editor of The Veggie. ROSIE: You always have hot dogs. TANYA: From the editor of The Veggie. ROSIE: Can you say more about that? TANYA: Yeah. Hebrew National, all-beef hot dogs, live and die by them. I love a hot dog, and I am taking hot dogs to the beach. CHRISTINE: No. TANYA: Yes. Hear me out. Okay, I did this last summer. So I will split-top a hot dog, so, like, butterfly it. I'll griddle it in my little cast iron skillet or on a griddle-top pan. I'll make two hot dogs a person, and then I will put the hot dogs and the buns in little aluminum foil roll-ups. You don't want to crush them. So I'll put them at the top of the bag with everything. If you will eat a ballpark hot dog some guy has been toting around through the stands of MetLife — ROSIE: I mean, fair. TANYA: — you will eat a beach hot dog. CAIRA: But that's not the same. TANYA: No, it is the same. CAIRA: Because a ballpark hot dog is still hot. What are you eating? A cold hot dog on the beach? TANYA: No, it is a — CAIRA: You warm it up in the sun? TANYA: It is room temperature. Sometimes it's still warm. Here's the kicker, though: Because I brought my frozen water bottle in the bag, I am bringing a topping, and the topping is pico de gallo. CHRISTINE: Oh, this is … you're hitting my heart here. I think this sounds like a delicious beach meal. TANYA: This is the perfect beach meal, and you've got the crunchy, crisp freshness of tomatoes and jalapeños, onions. Maybe you want to throw some scallions in there, definitely cilantro on top of the hot dog. Because you've butterflied the hot dog, it holds the pico de gallo in the hot dog. It's not going to just roll off. ROSIE: She's beauty and she's grace. TANYA: I made us put a recipe for this on New York Times Cooking. It is just a hot dog with pico de gallo, and the two tricks are the butterflying of the hot dog … I also put mayonnaise on the bun when I griddle them, so I will griddle the buns too. So also this helps with … if you're worried about your hot dog getting crushed, the outside might get a little crushed, but the inside, if you grill it on a cast iron skillet or a grill top, the inside of the bun will be a little bit harder, and it will protect the dog. CAIRA: Oh, you protect those dogs. ROSIE: Protect the dog. CAIRA: Well, let's say someone's at the beach all day, and they're packing a lunch, but they don't have a cooler. It might get a little warm in here. So what are some lunch ideas that you'd recommend for that and just generally things that won't go bad in the sun? TANYA: So I'm saying hot dog. I'm also saying Andy Baraghani has this extra-green pasta salad that I am obsessed with. It is my lunch today. It's downstairs, not in the fridge, just sitting at my desk. CHRISTINE: What's in this? TANYA: So you're using some short-cut pasta, whether it's rigatoni or a fusilli, but when I say 'short-cut,' I mean short tubes. You don't want a long noodle here. Snap peas, English peas, are the vegetables that are in here. And then the sauce is really, really easy to make, and it's made mostly of greens, so raw spinach, baby spinach or arugula, or a blend of both. And then basil, similar to how you would make a pesto, this is kind of … the sauce is really kind of like a looser pesto. ROSIE: Tanya, I'm looking at your article on The Times about easy recipes to take outside this summer, and I see something called a ham and jam sandwich. Talk about it. TANYA: Oh, absolutely. Okay, ham and jam sandwich, very straightforward. Similar to a French-style ham and butter sandwich that has been beefed up by the addition of some sort of fruit preserve, which is just a nice combination of flavors. It's really, really simple. If you are going to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or, I don't know, a turkey and cheese sandwich, the ham and jam sandwich is just like its kind of sexy, dignified cousin. It just feels like a fancy thing to eat at the beach, when really it's just, like, ham and cherry jam and some butter and a nice baguette. ROSIE: Let's say people have taken our advice to heart, Kit's advice to heart, and gotten a great cooler. What recipes do you recommend if we're lugging a big old cooler to the beach? TANYA: Yeah, I think this is where you're going crazy with the pasta salads and the dips. Any sort of dairy-based dips, a yogurt-based dip. We've got this great fresh ranch dip from Naz Deravian, which is really just like zhuzhed-up yogurt. So smart, great use of pantry seasonings, fresh chives. Ali Slagle also has a dill-pickled tzatziki, which is really fun. I don't know, I feel like pickles are so summery. ROSIE: We are a big pickle family. TANYA: Yeah, you got to get on the dill-pickled tzatziki train. It's just garlic, Greek yogurt, olive oil, finely chopped dill, and then a ton of grated pickles. CAIRA: So I know we talked about the popcorn, which is always a good, healthy snack, but what are some other things that you love to bring to the beach that won't get soggy or crunched, but is also still healthy? TANYA: Okay. Fruit feels like a cop-out answer, but I love a frozen grape. CAIRA: Oh my God. TANYA: So a Tupperware of frozen grapes, a little Baggie of frozen grapes. I'm popping them in the freezer. If you put a little lime juice, citric acid — CAIRA: Citric acid is my go-to. TANYA: — that is a really great — CHRISTINE: Wait, you guys, stop. What is citric acid, and why are you putting it on your grapes? TANYA: Okay, citric acid is a powder that looks just like granulated sugar, but it is a powder version of the naturally occurring acid that exists in citrus fruits. So it is a fine dusting powder that you could cover grapes with. This is what brings pucker to a Sour Patch Kid. So imagine frozen grapes tossed with a little citric acid, maybe a little bit of sugar. ROSIE: Do you put sugar on yours too? TANYA: Yes. ROSIE: You just do sugar? TANYA: Yeah. Okay. CHRISTINE: Hardcore. TANYA: So that is, like … and, I mean, the grapes are already sweet, so they don't really need any extra sugar. But yeah, toss those in citric acid. By the time you get to the beach, the grapes probably won't be frozen grapes anymore. If you are packing them in a cooler with ice, they might stay frozen. But if you're using them as the cooling element by just tossing them into a tote bag, they'll thaw by then. But they'll still be delicious, and they will hold some of their shape because they'd been frozen for most of the time. But that's a really, really easy, simple, healthy snack. I mean, again, fruit, okay. You didn't bring me on here to tell you to eat fruit, but that's a fun — CAIRA: That's a fruit in a fun way. CHRISTINE: That is delicious. TANYA: That's fruit in a fun way. ROSIE: Tanya Sichynsky, you are a legend. Thank you so much for being on our show. TANYA: This was so fun. ROSIE: This was really fun. TANYA: This ruled. ROSIE: Have fun at the beach, everybody. TANYA: Thanks. ROSIE: If you want to try out any of the recipes Tanya talked about today, you can find them in our show notes, or on the New York Times Cooking website. And if you want more of Tanya's recommendations, you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter The Veggie . That's it for us. Thanks for listening. The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. ROSIE: And I'm Rosie Guerin. Thanks for listening.
Eater
08-07-2025
- Eater
The Best Cucumber Recipes, According to Eater Staff
A summer without eating cucumbers would be a summer wasted. On a hot day, it's hard to find another ingredient that feels as refreshing and cooling as the mighty cucumber, which comes in so many varieties and — with its mild and watery flavor — can be a vehicle for even punchier pairings. You can use cucumbers for salads, of course, but it's also ideal in a chilled, fish sauce-kissed gazpacho and perfect in a spicy margarita. Here are all the recipes Eater staffers will be making with cucumber this summer. Kendra Vaculin, Bon Appétit Sure, tomatoes provide the more dominant flavor in this nuoc cham gazpacho I fell in love with two years ago. But the humble cucumber is still necessary to provide a clean-tasting balance for a dish that can often come across as one-note. The less traditional additions of sesame oil and fish sauce bring additional complexity. This summer-friendly, drinkable soup is an excellent vehicle for summer produce that isn't just another salad. — Missy Frederick, cities director Julia Moskin, NYT Cooking These Chinese smashed cucumbers with sesame oil and garlic are probably the most frequently made recipe-based dish in my household, thanks to the fact that they're super easy (I fast-forward a bit through some the steps and they turn out equally delicious), I tend to have all of the ingredients on hand, and I can make the case to myself that they're healthy and versatile enough to enjoy with every meal. I've been known to make a batch (four to six servings) and consume it all within 24 hours. They're spicy yet refreshing; incredibly simple, yet restaurant-quality complex in flavor. Truly the perfect snack for a hot day, since they're, quite literally, cool as a cucumber. — Hilary Pollack, senior editor Hetty McKinnon, NYT Cooking I started making this recipe while it was still cold outside, but it really comes into its own during the summer, when the idea of standing over a stove starts to feel as appealing as a pelvic exam. That said, you do stand over a stove here, but only to put a bag of frozen dumplings in a saute pan (I use Vanessa's vegetarian ones, but you can use whatever you want). Then you walk away. The dumplings take approximately five minutes to cook, which I find is plenty of time to smash some cucumbers (this is fun to do with a rolling pin) and stir up a sauce of peanut butter, rice vinegar, soy sauce, a garlic clove, and some chile oil. It's incredibly easy to make, and, thanks to its textures and robust flavor, even easier to keep eating until everything is all gone. — Rebecca Flint Marx, Home editor Rachel Perlmutter, The Kitchn In the summer in the South, there are few dishes more ubiquitous than cucumber salad. Growing up, we almost always had a container of the stuff in the fridge during the hot months, and for good reason — it's cooling and refreshing, just the kind of thing you want to eat when it's a billion degrees outside. You can tweak this recipe from the Kitchn to suit your tastes — add more or less sugar, try different types of vinegar, or add in other crunchy summer veg. The only hard and fast rule here is that you absolutely must salt the cucumbers and let them rest for 15 or 20 minutes, just until the excess water seeps out. Pat them dry, then toss in the dressing, and you'll have a salad that stays shockingly crunchy for days. And, if you really want to take things up a notch, stir a hefty dollop of mayo into the dressing as you're mixing it for a creamy-cool salad that you'll crave until fall arrives. — Amy McCarthy, reporter Erin O'Brien I love margaritas year round, but something about muddling a cucumber into everyone's favorite tequila cocktail feels perfect for summer — especially when you include jalapeño, too. I like my margaritas with a pinch of salt and extra lime, but this recipe from Erin O'Brien is easily adaptable. You can make it as spicy and sour as you'd like; the Cointreau and agave bring balance. A Tajín rim is necessary. — Kat Thompson, associate editor Dining In With Eater at Home Highlighting the people, products, and trends inspiring how we cook now Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
