"Preheat oven to 350 degrees." This may be one of the most common phrases in the cooking universe...and also one of the most misleading. If you fret over the accuracy of your oven's internal temperature reading, you're working too hard. Here's why: More

Oh, cheese. If I have any say in the matter, cheese will be a significant part of my last meal. The fattier, the saltier, the better. But not everyone agrees. In fact, in the last few years the cheese industry has been under enormous pressure to produce low-fat, less-salty products that appeal to consumers. Unfortunately, they haven't been that successful, and here's why: when you take the fat out, you essentially turn cheese into an eraser... More

Do you sometimes notice that certain foods make you feel sluggish while others energize and revive you? Well, Oprah does and in the latest issue of her magazine, she reporting on which foods she grabs at the grocery store to boost her brain power. More

Back when our grandmothers started baking cookies, they probably weren't reading articles about the gluten content of cake flour versus all-purpose, or the melting points of butter and shortening. Baking is chemistry, it's true — but it's also more than that, as writer Deborah Blum realized when she set out to recreate her grandmother's chocolate chip cookies. More

Amazing thought for the day: a group of scientists are currently working on a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s—and it involves astronauts cooking for themselves, and tending a greenhouse! What does a Mars-bound menu look like? Check it out: More

Quick beer-brewing lesson: most beer is made from barley. Barley contains gluten. Therefore, most beer is not gluten-free. This is why I am absolutely fascinated by this new process by which the Craft Brew Alliance and Widmer Brothers Brewing in Oregon have made a barley-based gluten-free beer. It's science meets craft brewing in the best possible way. More

On a scorching summer day, you're probably more likely to grab an iced coffee than a steaming cup of joe. But a study has shown that drinking a hot beverage on a hot day actually can cool you down. How? More

Your sense of taste is one of the most important tools you use in the kitchen, but it isn't always as dependable as your favorite wooden spoon. In fact, there are a number of ways to damage your sense of taste, either temporarily or permanently — and this list includes quite a few everyday habits. More

Why are some tomatoes so tasteless? It's due to disregarded seasonality, yes, and long, chilled shipments (both of which destroy flavor), but plant geneticists have discovered an imbedded source: the gene mutation that makes tomatoes bright red, and which was deliberately bred into tomatoes by plant breeders, is now known to to stifle the gene that makes tomatoes tasty! So red tomatoes = tasteless tomatoes. Who knew? More

Many health-conscious eaters opt for low-fat or non-fat dressings on their salads, but according to a study by Purdue University, eating a salad without fat is actually less healthy. That's because fat is needed by our bodies to absorb the nutrients in vegetables — but not all fats are alike. Researchers discovered one type of fat in particular is the best choice for salad-eaters who are watching their weight. More