Latest news with #Cook'sIllustrated
Eater
20-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Eater
The Best Zucchini Recipes, According to Eater Staff
Zucchini deserves respect: it's one of summer's most versatile ingredients. With cinnamon and cooking time, it tastes almost like an apple in cakes, sweet loafs, and alongside pork chops. It makes a great salad base when shaved long and served fresh. It's also just as at home on the grill as burgers and chicken wings, and wears a sear beautifully. Whether you prefer zucchini sweet or savory, these are the recipes that Eater staffers will be making this summer. Sasha Marx, Cook's Illustrated I'm a big fan of both wet- and dry-brining for meats, so I was intrigued by the idea of brining vegetables for additional flavor like they do in this Cook's Illustrated recipe. And I'm always looking for new things to throw on the grill during the summer. I tried out this recipe for a poolside gathering, and the delicious zucchini managed to upstage the steak we were grilling. The brining technique really does add an additional dimension, making the seasoning pervade the zucchini better, and the salsa verde adds a bright kick to the equation. — Missy Frederick, cities director Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen I've loved Smitten Kitchen's ultimate zucchini bread recipe since before I had kids, but it's become even more of a go-to recently. With two toddlers, I'm in the sneak-veggies-into-everything phase of my life, and this is truly the ideal vehicle. Deb's zucchini bread is as easy as it gets: It doesn't require a mixer or any zucchini wringing, and comes together in essentially one bowl. It's light and fluffy, and is definitely an appropriate breakfast food, even with its crispy sugar topping. Plus, it means I can offer my kids 'cake' and know that they're getting a little serving of greens along the way. — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief Hetty McKinnon, Tenderheart Hetty McKinnon's noodles come together lightning quick, with a simple sauce of sliced zucchini, za'atar, mint and cheese — or nutritional yeast if you want to make it vegan. It's the perfect recipe for when you're too hungry to start a big project and just want to make something boxed and instant, but realize you haven't had a vegetable in three days and really need to remedy that. — Jaya Saxena, correspondent Sarah Jampel, NYT Cooking This salad has become a reliable way to clear out the almost-overripe zucchini in my crisper every summer and is a total crowd pleaser for dinner parties (while secretly being very easy to pull together). You can even cook and marinate your browned zucchini a few hours before serving, letting them soak up more flavor in the fridge. To liven up the salad, shave some beautiful, fresh pieces of zucchini and Parmesan cheese with a vegetable peeler and don't limit yourself on the fresh herbs; almost everything will work here. To upgrade the salad further, roast your chickpeas with lots of herbes de Provence, paprika, and olive oil in an oven or air fryer for about 15 minutes to create crispy, flavorful chickpeas that add a layer of crunch that is reminiscent of croutons. — Emily Venezky, editorial associate Dorothy Kern, Crazy for CrustAlthough some people prefer zucchini breads and cakes where you 'can't even taste the zucchini!,' I actually love the subtle, vegetal bite an entire large zucchini brings to this coffee cake. Other perks of this recipe: the inviting scent of cinnamon wafting through your kitchen as the cake bakes, the plush crumb, and the general ease of pulling this all together in less than an hour. My only note about this recipe is that the crumb on the cake is less of a crumb and more of a brown sugar and butter syrup that seeps into the cake and creates delightful brown sugar swirls throughout. If you want a more traditional crumb, you'll definitely need to incorporate additional flour into the crumb mixture portion and use cold, rather than melted, butter. — Kat Thompson, associate editor, Eater at Home See More: Eater at Home Recipes What to Cook
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
This Photo Of "The Ultimate Tuna Melt" Has The Internet Seriously Divided, And It's Very Obvious Why
Ah, the tuna melt: Some love her, some hate her, and some (me) specifically go to a 24-hour diner that's had that same vinyl seating since the '80s just to order her. I will personally never forget (or forgive) Senator Mark Warner's atrocious take on one of my favorite sandwiches. Warm tinned fish with mayo and melted cheese will probably always be a controversial sandwich choice, but a recent post by Cook's Illustrated just reopened the decades-long debate with what they deem to be "the ultimate tuna melt." View this photo on Instagram The recipe for "Diner-Style Sheet-Pan Tuna Melts" comes from America's Test Kitchen (the parent publication of Cook's Illustrated) and calls for an entire head of iceberg lettuce that's "cut into 1-inch-thick slabs" and divided amongst four sandwiches. Let's just say commenters were a little skeptical about this approach. And, hey, I'll defend some crunchy iceberg on a sandwich or burger any day, but this? The roof of my mouth hurts just looking at it. More importantly: WHERE IS THE TUNA?! Respectfully, this is a lettuce sandwich. Some people are even calling it a "recession indicator." Chef and cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt even shared his own troll-y version of the now-infamous iceberg (tuna) melt with the caption, "How'd I do, @cooksillustrated?" But he did admit that the original sandwich "looks really good." View this photo on Instagram He's not the only one who thinks so. Chrissy Teigen also commented on the original post, saying that it "LOOKS BOMB." Okay, Chrissy. But over on the r/FoodieSnark subreddit, people were convinced the sandwich was rage bait. "I'm an iceberg girlie but this is ridiculous and a textural nightmare," the OP wrote. A few internet sleuths figured the recipe was likely inspired by Palace Diner, a small counter restaurant in Maine known for serving a thick slab of lettuce on their tuna melts, which receive rave reviews. Commenters seemed to notice the similarity, too. One former Palace Diner employee pointed out the big differences, though: the original has both less lettuce and more tuna. A "gigantic ice cream scoop of tuna," to be exact. Anywho, I sure won't be adding a 1-inch lettuce slab to my tuna melts anytime soon because, as one commenter points out, we've endured enough. Would you try this sandwich? Let us know in the comments! No shade to the "ultimate," but if a classic tuna melt is more your style, download the free Tasty app to save and cook our recipe (plus 7,500+ others!) — no subscription required.
Buzz Feed
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
This Photo Of "The Ultimate Tuna Melt" Has The Internet Seriously Divided, And It's Very Obvious Why
Ah, the tuna melt: Some love her, some hate her, and some (me) specifically go to a 24-hour diner that's had that same vinyl seating since the '80s just to order her. Giphy I will personally never forget (or forgive) Senator Mark Warner's atrocious take on one of my favorite sandwiches. Warm tinned fish with mayo and melted cheese will probably always be a controversial sandwich choice, but a recent post by Cook's Illustrated just reopened the decades-long debate with what they deem to be "the ultimate tuna melt." Why, yes, that is a massive wedge of iceberg lettuce atop a thin layer of tuna and cheese — thanks for asking! The recipe for "Diner-Style Sheet-Pan Tuna Melts" comes from America's Test Kitchen (the parent publication of Cook's Illustrated) and calls for an entire head of iceberg lettuce that's "cut into 1-inch-thick slabs" and divided amongst four sandwiches. Let's just say commenters were a little skeptical about this approach. Cook's Illustrated / Via And, hey, I'll defend some crunchy iceberg on a sandwich or burger any day, but this? The roof of my mouth hurts just looking at it. More importantly: WHERE IS THE TUNA?! Respectfully, this is a lettuce sandwich. Some people are even calling it a "recession indicator." Chef and cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt even shared his own troll-y version of the now-infamous iceberg (tuna) melt with the caption, "How'd I do, @cooksillustrated?" But he did admit that the original sandwich "looks really good." He's not the only one who thinks so. Chrissy Teigen also commented on the original post, saying that it "LOOKS BOMB." Okay, Chrissy. A few internet sleuths figured the recipe was likely inspired by Palace Diner, a small counter restaurant in Maine known for serving a thick slab of lettuce on their tuna melts, which receive rave reviews. Commenters seemed to notice the similarity, too. One former Palace Diner employee pointed out the big differences, though: the original has both less lettuce and more tuna. A "gigantic ice cream scoop of tuna," to be exact. No shade to the "ultimate," but if a classic tuna melt is more your style, download the free Tasty app to save and cook our recipe (plus 7,500+ others!) — no subscription required.
WIRED
13-04-2025
- General
- WIRED
If You Like to Get Nerdy in the Kitchen, Try Roasting a Chicken on a Stick
This simple gadget is a fun and inexpensive way to tinker. Photo-Illustration:; PoulTree If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. Learn more. I love thinking about chicken. Specifically, I like thinking about how to cook chicken well. I can trace a line from my Mom's famous sour cream chicken with chives and paprika, to Cook's Illustrated's 'easy roast chicken' in its original The Best Recipe , and on to Simon Hopkinson's Roast Chicken and Other Stories, with hundreds of other stops along the way. At home, I love roasting a whole chicken, an art form where, if you do it right, you're rewarded with a dark, crispy skin, delicious leg quarters, and tender breast meat. It's a balancing act, though. Breasts need to hit an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, but legs and thighs are better when cooked to a higher temperature. It's not like you're cooking a perfectly round, fairly-homogenous, inch-thick hamburger, either. Chickens are … you know … chicken shaped, with different thicknesses, densities, and parts that poke out. Photograph:Roast a chicken breast and it will cook pretty quickly and be ready to pull out of the oven a bit under 165°F, which will allow it to coast to a finish without overcooking, something known as 'carryover cooking.' Thighs, on the other hand, are much more forgiving and become fall-off-the-bone tender with a longer cooking time and if they're cooked to a higher internal temperature, which turns cooking the whole thing into a puzzle. By tweaking variables, like the oven position, cooking time, and cooking temperature, you can set it on the right flight path for all the parts to glide into doneness at the same time. Way back in 1999, Cook's Illustrated cooked 14 chickens at different temperatures (or temperature combinations) for that 'easy roast chicken' recipe and came up with a pan-roasting method that starts at 375 degrees and finishes at 450. As a budding technique nerd, I was entranced. Today, it's surprisingly hard to find a serious cookbook that cooks a whole bird in what you might call the traditional method. They now favor spatchcocking, where you cut out the backbone and lay the bird flat with the skin side up, which allows the leg quarters (drumsticks and thighs) to cook to a higher temperature while keeping the breasts from overcooking. Chef-author Hugh Acheson is a proponent of coating the bird with baking powder for deep and even browning. Taking extra steps like these might sound fussy, but it can also be a lot of fun. Try it one way one day and another the next and see what you like. If you're following a tested recipe, dinner will likely turn out great. Over time, you'll develop favorites. The PoulTree attaches to a pan so you can 'levitate' a chicken over it. Courtesy of PoulTree If that tinkering vibe is your jam, I have a new unique new tool for you to play with, a stout metal rod called the PoulTree with a series of bends along its length allow you to attach it to the handle of a Lodge cast-iron skillet. This allows it to hold a chicken several inches over the surface of the pan. (Side note: While the PoulTree is a solid, well thought-out item, website photos are almost universally, comically bad. They're a tiny operation, and at this point more of a labor of love than a full-grown business. Try to cut 'em some some slack.) I bought a nice chicken, sprinkled it with salt inside and out, aka a 'dry brine,' and let it air dry overnight in the fridge. These two steps help keep the bird moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. The PoulTree team suggests cooking on a hot grill, so I started there, or at least as close as I could. I cranked my Weber grill, hung the bird on the rod over the pan, sprayed it with duck fat to get the party started, inserted a surprisingly fiddly ThermoWorks RFX cordless probe in the breast, then set the whole shebang on the grates and shut the lid. One particularly fun part about this thing is that's pretty much all you need to do until it's done. Monitor the temperature and pull it out when it gets where you want it to go. I could not resist peeking once or twice, when I watched the drippings and Seattle raindrops vaporize on the pan surface. Per the manufacturer's personal suggestion, I pulled it when the breast hit 148 degrees, put but it on a cutting board and let it coast right to 165 degrees, at which point the drumstick got up to 188 degrees. This was pretty ideal for both parts. I carved it and got out my notebook. The drumstick and breast meat approached perfection, with great texture and crispy skin. The breast even had a bit of that griller's grail know as 'the jiggle.' The skin ranged between crisp (good!) and a little leathery (fine, not great). The thighs, perhaps, due to their position between the drumsticks and the body, were less perfect than the drumsticks, but still quite good. I liked cooking with it! I wondered how I might change things the next round, and I kind of marveled at the simplicity of the thing and how it cooked with do-it-on-a-weeknight speed. Interestingly, it got me thinking about how heat and and technique affect cooking. I also realized a safety item to keep in mind. Before it's time to take it off the heat, figure out how you're going to get the chicken from your grill to your kitchen and where you're going to set it down. You can't really remove the bird from the rod when it's over the grill, and you don't want to walk far at all holding a heavy and still screaming-hot skillet with a chicken attached to it either. I thought about what could've happened if it started burning my hand while I was walking down the stairs from my deck to my kitchen with nowhere to set it down. You also don't want to melt your countertop or scorch up your cutting board. I ended up transfering it on a sheet pan on my grill's (metal!) side table, then walked that down to the kitchen and set it on top of my stove. A few days later, bird number two was not the smashing success that its predecessor was, mostly because I didn't account for the effects of the weather. On this cooler, wetter day, the grill simply didn't get as hot, meaning that pulling it at 148 degrees didn't carry over as much as I wanted it to by the end of the resting period. I carved the chicken and put the less-done parts in the oven to finish. Not a big deal, an easy-to-fix user error, and being a decently cooked chicken slathered with za'atar, it was still great. The $19 PoulTree offers a $60 "roaster" option, where you buy it with a Lodge pan with the idea that that's all you use the pan for, and considering how scuzzy the pans get during cooking, it's a pretty good idea. A third bird, this one with no overnight brining or air-drying, simply coated in amba (see the cookbook Zahav Home for more on that goodness) and put on the grill was an unqualified weeknight success. Not a brined and marinated wonder, but still very good. I was in Oaxaca City for the next round, where I bought a chicken from Pollos José (no relation) in the Merced market. For 'not lugging a heavy skillet around in my baggage' purposes, I just brought a rod and a device PoulTree calls a 'Double Coupe' that allows you to use the rod over a sheet pan. I cooked the chicken over potato wedges and while the sheet pan and spuds definitely did not help the chicken skin crisp up, the schmaltz-roasted spuds were well worth the trade-off. If you cook the chicken over an empty pan—PoulTree's preferred method—in too hot an oven, it can really turn into a smoke show, so you've got some thinking to do. My chef-pal and regular review helper Hamid Salimian got the willies thinking about cooking it in a hot oven, suggesting brining, then air-drying it before cooking it in a (not-too-hot) 350-degree oven with some veggies underneath. He also suggested marinating it with chilies for caramelization and flavor and trying to cook it breast side up. Chef Chris Young of Modernist Cuisine and Combustion—a better wireless thermometer than the RFX, IMO—fame also weighed in. He seemed to appreciate how the PoulTree lifts the bird away from the cooking surface, a category that along with rotisserie chickens he refers to as 'levitating birds,' that allow the whole thing to get uniformly dark on the outside. Putting veggies in the pan, he posited, creates steam close to the underside of the chicken, and that part of the skin won't get as nice and crisp as the rest of the chicken. For both chefs, I got the sense that they might be enjoying thinking about this new way to cook a classic, how they might approach it, and what the final outcome would be. (I hope they did, anyway. At the very least, I was having fun.) This might've been my favorite thing about the PoulTree. It asks you to think about your desired end result and how to achieve it. It encourages tinkering, and, as a bonus, it cooks fast and easy. If you're into chicken and general kitchen nerdery, trying it out is a fun and inexpensive way to tinker. You can make a speedy weeknight chicken with satisfying results, or be rewarded for putting a little extra care into it. If you throw some veggies in the pan, it's worth the sacrifice. 'This will make things a bit steamier in the oven than a bare pan, but at least the smoke alarm won't be going off,' Young says. 'Personally, I think you want something like potatoes, that benefit from the drippings … For me, nothing beats potatoes soaking up the drippings from a levitating bird.'
