Put MSG in Everything, You Cowards
By now, we should all be completely unafraid of monosodium glutamate, the umami-boosting molecule more commonly referred to as “MSG.” It will not give you headache, it will not make…
The Difference Between Fish Sauce, Oyster Sauce, and Lobster Sauce (and How to Use Them)
The food world has no shortage of potentially confusing terminology (and I’m not even talking about techniques where the French names happened to stick). Take, for example, fish sauce. The…
Stop What You’re Doing and Muddle Raspberries With Soy Sauce
Raspberries are nature’s SweetTarts. For me, they’re always just slightly too sweet and too tart, but I moved into a house with so many raspberry bushes that for a long…
Koshō is the Citrusy Umami Bomb You’ll Want to Put on Everything
Yuzu koshō is like sunlight on your tongue. A fermented paste of yuzu, chilies and salt, it brings the umami, but with a brightness you only get from fresh citrus.…
How Long Do You Need to Marinate Protein?
I am bad at letting things marinate: ideas, problems, meat. The issue is I don’t know what I want to eat until an hour after I’m hungry, which is not…
Five Asian Sauces That Make Everything Taste Better
I was obsessed with helping my mom cook growing up (hard to believe, I’m sure). Though she would dabble in making Italian food, and try out popular boxed ingredients of…
Soy-Cured Egg Yolk Butter Is My New Favorite Spread
If someone were to study the color palette of my diet, they would find a lot of beige and yellow, and most of the yellow would be from butter and…
Sous Vide Beets With Seaweed for Easy Vegan ‘Poke’
The appeal of the modern poke bowl lies in its customizability. Pick a fish, pick a sauce, toss in a few pickled items, and you’ve got a colorful and inviting…
Stop Making Cornstarch Slurries With Boring Water
Photo: Michelle Lee Photography (Shutterstock) Cornstarch is a functional, journeyman ingredient, neither sexy nor exciting. It does its job well; all you do to activate its thickening powers is mix…
You Should Cure an Egg Yolk in Soy Sauce
If anything could get me to believe in a higher power (and the fact that they have a sense of humor), it’s the existence of eggs. They’re a perfect food…