Bitter is a flavor, not a flaw
What bitter flavor in cooking is actually doing: four sources worth using, the dose that balances fat and sugar, and the two fixes for a dish gone too far.
13 min read
Author: Daniel Okafor
Daniel Okafor writes SuperCooking's flavor column. He is interested in why a dish tastes flat and what specifically fixes it, which usually turns out to be acid, salt, or a missing bitter note. He keeps about ninety spices and grinds most of them the week he uses them.
Smoke without a smoker: pimenton, chipotle, lapsang, smoked salt
How to add smoky flavor from four pantry items: pimenton, chipotle, lapsang and smoked salt, with the dose that reads as depth and the two that hold up.
14 min read
Butternut, delicata, and kabocha want different partners on the plate
What goes with butternut squash, delicata and kabocha: nine pairings that hold up, three repeated every autumn that fail, and the reason behind each one.
13 min read
Cinnamon belongs at dinner in Morocco, Mexico, and Greece
How cinnamon in savory dishes works in Moroccan, Mexican and Greek cooking: cassia against Ceylon, the dose that reads as depth, three dishes to start.
13 min read
Twelve chiles ranked by heat, and the flavor behind it
Twelve chiles on the chile pepper heat scale, ranked with the flavor behind each burn: fresh against dried, the seeds question, and the four worth stocking.
14 min read
Sherry, rice, cider, balsamic, malt: which bottle finishes which dish
The five types of vinegar cooking guides treat as one bottle, ranked by acidity and sugar: the pair that swaps, the three that never do, and the best value.
13 min read
When a shallot cannot stand in for an onion
The types of onions cooking guides call interchangeable, tasted raw, sweated and browned, with a substitution chart and three dishes where the swap fails.
13 min read
Tamarind, green mango, sumac, verjus: four acids that are not lemon
Four types of sour ingredients tested against lemon in one dressing and one braise: what tamarind, green mango, sumac and verjus each add, and how much.
14 min read