The Kitchn Archive: Mar 2018

If I could implore you to do one thing whenever you cook brisket, it would be this: Make extra brisket and freeze it. Beef brisket is better the day after it is cooked, but it can be momentarily life-changing when you remember you have some ready and waiting in the freezer. This simple tip for freezing those leftovers will ensure that you can take the leftovers and turn them into breakfast, lunch, or dinner anytime.

Meghan Splawn

Mar 31, 2018

3 Important Questions to Consider When Buying Beef Brisket

Beef brisket is the cut we know and love for pastrami, corned beef, smoked barbecue brisket, and tangy, oniony braised brisket. It is readily available in every grocery store, warehouse club store, and your local butcher. When it comes to cooking your Sunday brisket, do you know what you should buy? A little bit of knowledge will guide you through the supermarket case or help you tell your butcher exactly what you’ll need.

Meghan Splawn

Mar 30, 2018

3 Ways We Make Passover Fun for Newbies Every Year

Holidays are defined by their foods. When someone says they’re roasting a turkey, you’ll think instantly of Thanksgiving. Similarly, candy follows Halloween, and chocolate goes with Valentine’s Day. For those of us who were born into the traditions of Jewish holidays, knowing when we eat fried potato latkes and when we eat apples with honey and when we eat matzo comes just as naturally.

Jess Thomson

Mar 30, 2018

Chicken Sausage, Egg & Cheese Muffins Are Meal Prep Marvels

The appeal of muffins is undeniable. A delicious treat that can be eaten with one hand on the go — what more could you want? Well, sometimes you want something a little more substantial than a traditional muffin. Maybe you’re trying to eat fewer carbs in the morning, or cut back on sugar? These savory egg and cheese muffins are just the ticket.

Lauren Kodiak

Mar 30, 2018

Jonathan Adler, Gail Simmons, and 4 Other Super-Stylish People on How They Set a Modern Passover Seder Table

The Passover Seder is one of the most important meals that Jewish people eat all year, and there is no arguing that the symbolism and ritual associated with the dinner is far more meaningful than the décor. That said, given that family and friends use the first two nights of the week-long holiday to gather around the table, it would be nice if that table looked beautiful.

Samantha Zabell

Mar 30, 2018

The One Word You Should Never Say to Guests in Your Home

We all work so hard to make our homes beautiful, relaxing spaces where we can host our friends and family. So what if I told you that by merely uttering one little word, you could derail all the positive, beautiful attributes of your home in the eyes of your guests? Please, I beg you, never say this! “Sorry about the mess.” “Sorry it’s so hot in here.” “Sorry, we’re out of milk.” Sound familiar?

Jennifer Hunter

Mar 29, 2018

The Internet Isn’t Sure How to Feel About This $250 Egg Spoon

I am an unrepentant cheapskate, someone who is familiar with every Dollar Menu within a 10-mile radius and also someone whose friends have asked her to please stop using each Keurig K-Cup more than once. I recently ordered the sous-vide egg bites at Starbucks, and when my four-bite breakfast came out to five bucks with tax, I decided that I’d stick to scrambling more affordable eggs in my own kitchen.

Jelisa Castrodale

Mar 28, 2018

5 Easy 3-Ingredient Pizza Sauces

You can make some pretty awesome pizza sauces from things you likely already have in your pantry. It doesn’t even have to be tomato-based (but I will argue a pizza party without a red-sauce pizza really isn’t a party at all). I love riffing though, whether that means making a creamy Alfredo-inspired sauce or an herby pesto. Lean on any of these five (three-ingredient) sauces the next time it’s homemade pizza night and you’ll forget all about that jarred stuff.

Sheela Prakash

Mar 28, 2018

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Brisket in the Slow Cooker

Brisket isn’t a dish you make every day (most of us only cook it a few times a year), so it helps to have a refresher — especially when making it in the slow cooker. Just a few tips will ensure your brisket braises into its tangy, tender best. Avoid these common pitfalls and you’ll be rewarded with a fork-tender brisket you will be proud to serve.

Meghan Splawn

Mar 28, 2018

Passover 101: What Is the Afikomen?

Allow us to explain.

Lisa Freedman

Mar 28, 2018

Your Quick Cleaning Checklist to Tackle 10 Minutes Before Company Arrives

Company’s coming! Now! Whether you’re hosting book club, having your in-laws over for a special celebration, or throwing a full-on party, having guests over is a good reason for many of us to fly into a full-fledged cleaning frenzy. And if you’re like me, that cleaning frenzy often turns into hyper-focusing on all the things that are messy and dirty in the house (which turns into, let’s be honest, wasting time cleaning things that no one cares about).

Ayn-Monique Klahre

Mar 28, 2018

Make This One-Pot Cashew Chicken & Rice Tonight

Cashew chicken is a popular Chinese takeout order, but why call for delivery when you can make your own cashew chicken so easily at home? This recipe cooks in one skillet — rice included! — which means dinner and cleanup are both a cinch. This recipe is super versatile. For one, the author offers two cooking methods here: stovetop and Instant Pot.

Lauren Kodiak

Mar 28, 2018

A Smart Trick for Getting More Juice from Your Lemons

Lemons are one of the most powerful and essential ingredients in the kitchen. They give a bright burst of flavor and acidity to just about everything from salads, to roast chicken. If lemons are kitchen gold, however, I am Ebenezer Scrooge. Every wasted bit of lemon means I’m more likely to not have lemons in the house when I need them, and that’s my nightmare.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 27, 2018

3 Secrets of People with Flawlessly Clean Kitchens

You know the type of person we’re talking about. It doesn’t matter if you’re at their home for a party or just dropping by for an unannounced visit — their kitchens are always impeccably clean (and seemingly effortlessly). What do they know that you don’t? These three things. What sounds more overwhelming: giving your countertops a quick swipe after cooking a meal, or trying to wipe up after a week’s worth of cooked meals?

Adrienne Breaux

Mar 27, 2018

The Only 5 Things You Need to Know When Dyeing Easter Eggs

If you celebrate Easter, you’ve most likely been dyeing eggs for years. But have you ever stopped to consider why this process works? There’s some science to it all, and certain conditions are more ideal for egg dye than others. Here’s all of the essential info you need before you start dunking. If you’re going to end up peeling and eating your Easter eggs, don’t use fresh-from-the-farm eggs.

Caylin Harris

Mar 27, 2018

Instant Pot Honey-Glazed Ham Is Fast, Fancy & Foolproof

Are you planning on picking up a HoneyBaked Ham for Easter this year? What if I told you that you don’t have to? With this Instant Pot version you only need five ingredients and 30 minutes for a perfectly cooked, sweet and tangy ham. Not only does making your own Easter ham give you more control over the seasoning and final product, but it also can save you a few bucks in the process.

Lauren Kodiak

Mar 27, 2018

This Twitter Thread About Lying Vegetables Is So Accurate

I never expected to be someone who has a favorite subreddit, but it’s 2018 and nothing has gone to plan, has it? I love r/ExpectationvsReality, which is an endless buffet of little disappointments, of burgers that don’t look like the pictures on the menu, of tattoos that didn’t turn out as you’d imagined, and of new hairstyles gone wrong. (There’s also a lot of Taco Bell-related posts.

Jelisa Castrodale

Mar 26, 2018

Here’s Why You Need to Keep a Hair Dryer in Your Kitchen

On the website for the Dyson Supersonic, the high-tech hairdryer with a $400 price tag, the company says that it’s “inventing new methods of testing to solve real-world hair problems.” But in the hands of one food writer, the Supersonic is also solving a real-world cooking problem: getting super-crispy skin on roast chicken. Last week, instead of binging on Netflix or trying to sleep until the temperatures got above freezing, a snowbound Helen Rosner decided to roast a chicken.

Jelisa Castrodale

Mar 26, 2018

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Commemorative China Is Now Available for Purchase

It’s hard to believe Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding is just two months away. The amount of work that goes into preparing for a royal wedding is staggering, and people around the world are working frantically right now to make sure their parts of the big day go off without a hitch. Just one of the many jobs that someone needed to do was to design and produce the official royal commemorative china.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 26, 2018

Sliced Ketchup Is the Condiment You Never Asked For

Do you love the taste of ketchup but hate the way it adds moisture and visual appeal to a variety of foods? Are you a busy person on the go, with only a few minutes a day to dedicate to your passion project of trying to create the world’s strangest sandwich? Then you need to hear about ketchup slices. Yes, slices.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 26, 2018

7 Things I Never Do When Making Homemade Pizza

I’m not sure when I turned into such a pizza fanatic, but when you’re willing to drive six hours roundtrip to eat at a pizza place you read about online and put down several hundred dollars for an outdoor pizza oven, you’ve got to admit to yourself that pizza isn’t just something you enjoy eating on Friday night — it’s your passion. For years, making great pizza at home always eluded me.

Elizabeth Barbone

Mar 26, 2018

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rules on Whether or Not a Hot Dog Is a Sandwich

If you ever want to derail a conversation, all you have to do is get people talking about whether or not various foods are sandwiches. I once saw a professional meeting devolve into 30 minutes of utter chaos while two food editors yelled at each other about whether or not a hamburger was a sandwich. And the beauty of this is that you can do it with just about anything. Is a wrap a sandwich? Is a taco a sandwich? Is a ravioli a sandwich? Is a Smuckers Uncrustable a ravioli?

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 23, 2018

Recipe: Herb Salt

It feels like money in the bank when you’ve got this herb salt in your freezer. It’s a great way to put stray herbs to use — adapt the quantities of each to whatever’s available in your fridge or garden — and you can use it to deliver fresh herb flavor to everything from salad to roasted vegetables to meat.

Alon Shaya

Mar 23, 2018

If You Love Ottolenghi, This Is the Cookbook You Need in March

What’s the sign of a great cookbook in 2018? You don’t know what shelf to put it on. Does Shaya by James Beard award-winning chef Alon Shaya go next to the Israeli cookbooks? Or next to Marcella Hazan, since Shaya also owns two Italian restaurants, Domenica and Pizza Domenica? Or should we slide it next to Brock? Shaya’s empire is in New Orleans, after all, and there’s a hard-to-resist recipe for red beans and rice on page 197.

Maria Ribas

Mar 23, 2018

Recipe: Schmaltzy Potatoes

Welcome to your new favorite way to eat potatoes. Nothing soaks up chicken fat the way potatoes do; they crisp up all golden on the bottom like latkes or French fries but have rich, creamy centers like mashed potatoes. Herb salt perks them up, but if you don’t have any on hand, use regular salt and rain some minced fresh herbs — rosemary and sage would be good choices —directly on the warm potatoes.

Alon Shaya

Mar 23, 2018

This Total Transformation Kitchen Took Just 30 Hours and Cost a Little More than $600

This kitchen makeover was renovation-free and budget-friendly. Wendy took her kitchen from standard issue to a colorful, customized tile wonderland in 30 hours. Keep reading to check it out! From Wendy: For my kitchen makeover we worked to a pretty tight budget but man, I gotta tell you, I love it. You know when you go to a party and everyone winds up in the kitchen? Yeah, that’s basically me — every single night. Party for one. This is my most favorite space.

Apartment Therapy Submissions

Mar 23, 2018

Anthony Bourdain Has Strong Feelings About Food Photos on Instagram

Most people talk about Instagram food photography in terms of pure-hearted love and innocent goodness. “Oh, I just wish I could bring all my friends along to the south of France with me!” The idea of inciting Instagram envy must never cross such a person’s mind while posting beautifully composed photos of white truffle pasta in Lake Como, with a view of George Clooney’s house in the background.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 23, 2018

How To Clean One of Those Anti-Fatigue Kitchen Mats

Whether you’re a professional chef in a restaurant or a home cook who spends hours prepping, cooking, and cleaning, a kitchen mat can be a godsend to keep your body from feeling the aches and pains associated with standing for hours. But as you can imagine, kitchen mats get filthy! Spills from food, dishwater, and heavy traffic can quickly mar the surface.

Ayn-Monique Klahre

Mar 23, 2018

The Smart Cook’s Hack for Always Having Chili on Hand for Dinner

If you’ve ever come home at the end of the day tired and hungry with a serious hankering for a warm, hearty bowl of chili, this smart trick is going to make you feel like a total genius the next time it happens. After making a lot of chili this winter, I learned a really smart trick that ensures I always have homemade chili on hand. The first step is to cook an extra-big batch of chili, by doubling (or even tripling) a recipe.

Kelli Foster

Mar 22, 2018

The One Kitchen Item That Belongs in Every Room in the House

If you find yourself surrounded by seemingly endless piles of clutter all the time — old magazines, empty envelopes, and more — you might be in need of a shortcut to help you cut the clutter out of your life. This simple solution might not seem like much, but it could be the trick you’ve needed to fit your lifestyle. That might seem like a lot of trash cans, perhaps even unnecessarily so, but hear me out.

Adrienne Breaux

Mar 22, 2018

5 Mistakes to Avoid When Dyeing Easter Eggs

There are few things worse than getting your kids psyched to dye Easter eggs, only to have the process go horribly awry. While the supplies are all relatively cheap and easy to find, no one wants to dye a second batch of eggs (because, let’s face it, by the time the eggs gets plunked into their respective colors the kids have already lost interest). Avoid these five mistakes to make sure you get egg-cellent results the first time around.

Caylin Harris

Mar 22, 2018

This Slow Cooker Chicken & Rice Is the Easy Meal You Crave

Well, spring has technically arrived, but based on some of the weather in parts of the country, you wouldn’t know it. That’s fine, though, because we have easy, hearty dishes like this chicken and rice to keep us warm until the snow decides to leave for good. It’s basically comfort in a Crock-Pot. The selling point for this recipe? It only requires 10 minutes of your time to prep!

Lauren Kodiak

Mar 22, 2018

A New Bumpy Food Label Could Help You Minimize Food Waste

Trying to decide whether that about-to-expire milk is still OK to drink is a good way to make breakfast feel a little like Fear Factor. Like, how much do you trust your sense of smell? And how bad do you really want that Cinnamon Toast Crunch? But a Danish dairy company and a London-based food-tech startup have joined forces to launch a new label that will let customers use their fingertips to determine whether it’s a good idea to get the cereal bowls out.

Jelisa Castrodale

Mar 21, 2018

Amy Poehler to Direct and Star in “Wine Country” for Netflix

Everyone, raise your “Be the Leslie Knope of Whatever You Do” coffee mugs in a toast to the poetic, noble land mermaid Amy Poehler. Netflix just announced that she will be bringing her luminous brilliance — plus her best friends and a lot of wine — to Netflix this year with a new movie called Wine Country. And in true Leslie Knope fashion, Amy Poehler is doing all the jobs on that set. She’ll direct and produce the movie as well as star in it.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 21, 2018

Why I’ve Become a Pizza Steel Convert

Last year I did a wild thing and got rid of my pizza stone. We have pizza once a week and I used that stone a ton! But I fell in love with another pizza cooking product that was easier to store, made for a crisper crust, and held more pizza: the baking steel. Here’s why I ditched my pizza stone and became a pizza baking steel convert. The Baking Steel was pioneered in 2012 by Andris Lagsdin, after a much-lauded Kickstarter campaign helped launch the brand and concept.

Meghan Splawn

Mar 21, 2018

Why Kitchn Editors Are So in Love with This Seemingly One-Use Tool

Shopping

Even if you're not a baker, you need a bench scraper.

Marshall Bright

Mar 21, 2018

7 Things to Bake on Your Pizza Stone That Aren’t Pizza

Pizza stones (or baking steels) are wonderful, industrious tools to have in the kitchen. Yes, they help produce a crispy pizza crust, but that’s just the beginning of what they’re capable of. If you’ve ever dismissed pizza stones as a unitasker, let me show you seven ways you can put that stone to work in your oven. Pita bread is traditionally baked in a stone hearth that gets so hot it puffs the dough on contact.

Meghan Splawn

Mar 21, 2018

My Favorite Vegan Cheese for Pizza Night at Home

Groceries

It adds a salty, mildly sweet, gooey pockets all over the tops of my pizzas!

Maria Siriano

Mar 21, 2018

Make This One-Skillet Sausage & Kale Gnocchi Tonight

When your starch, protein, and veggie all cook together in one skillet, there’s no excuse not to make dinner — no matter how tired you are or how badly you want to order takeout. Take this gnocchi with sausage and kale, for instance: It all cooks in one skillet and can be on your table in 30 minutes. What are you waiting for? Now, for the record, just because this dish has kale in it doesn’t mean it’s totally virtuous.

Lauren Kodiak

Mar 21, 2018

Modernist Cuisine’s Next Cookbook Will Be All About Pizza

Modernist Cuisine is like the Mythbusters of food. “Is whole-wheat bread really more healthful than white bread? Let’s do science at it and find out.” It was a game-changer when it came out in 2011 and, along with its follow-up book, Modernist Bread, has really changed the way we think about food, science, and traditions.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 20, 2018

Stop Putting Frozen Chicken in Your Slow Cooker, Says USDA

Sometimes I wonder what it is like to work at the USDA and be tasked with giving people advice that you must know a lot of them are just not going to follow. “Cook that hamburger well-done!” “LOL, no.” “Cook eggs until yolks are firm. Don’t eat homemade mayonnaise, Hollandaise, or good Caesar salad!” “Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of this eggs Benedict.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 20, 2018

Twitter Knows What You’re Thinking While Grocery Shopping

Going to the grocery store is pretty close to a universal human experience. Sure, Bill Gates doesn’t know what Tide Pods cost, but for the most part we’ve all been there — eating grapes, comparing prices on cheese, and worrying the cashier will judge us if we buy too much wine all at one time. This weekend the #ThoughtsWhileGroceryShopping hashtag erupted on Twitter, and it’s hilarious.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 20, 2018

We Updated an Old Appliance with Liquid Stainless Steel — Here’s How It Went

Can this outdated, off-white relic of a stove be transformed into a sleek stainless steel beauty? When I learned about a product designed to replicate the look of stainless steel appliances, I was itching to see if it worked — it just seemed a little too good to be true. Could this paint make appliances blend in a little bit more, or maybe look a little less decrepit? Less almond, at least? For this test, I bought Rust-Oleum’s Stainless Steel, which retails for about $30 on Amazon.

Ashley Poskin

Mar 20, 2018

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Share Details on Wedding Cake

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have picked their wedding cake, and they’re breaking with both royal tradition and internet expectations. They won’t be going with the traditional nine-foot fruit cake like Prince William and Kate Middleton, but they won’t be ordering a banana cake, either.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 20, 2018

My brothers are learning how to cook. Truth be told, they’ve been learning how to cook for a few years now, but that’s only because they’re slowly adding to what they know as they realize it’s missing. So when you mostly makechicken breast and broccoli,roast chicken, you need to know how to carve it. There are resources abound on essential culinary techniques.

Jennifer Clair

Mar 20, 2018

This Sheet Pan Sweet Potato Hash Is Here to Save Breakfast

You already know the merits of a sheet pan meal when it comes to getting an easy dinner on the table on busy weeknights — totally hands-off cooking after minimal prep work, quick cleanup — but the same attributes apply to breakfast or brunch as well! Why stand over the stove making eggs and bacon to order when you can just knock it all out at once with the help of a sheet pan?

Lauren Kodiak

Mar 20, 2018

The Crumb-Resistant Keyboard May Be Apple’s Ultimate Technological Achievement

I wish I could tell you that my keyboard is as fresh and clean as the day I bought it, but unfortunately I cannot. Like many people, I take my computer from home to office to Starbucks and back multiple times a day, and all those croissants generate a lot of crumbs. Keyboards are worse than couch cushions for attracting dirt, crumbs, hairs, and other debris.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 19, 2018

This Secret Wine Cellar in a Kitchen Island Is Like Narnia for Grown-Ups

When I was small, I wanted nothing more than to learn what the word “wardrobe” meant so I could disappear into one and find a magical icy fairy land full of talking fauns and allegorical lions. Now that I am an adult, my Narnia looks like this amazing secret wine cellar hidden under a perfectly ordinary kitchen island. It looks like a regular kitchen island in a relatively posh kitchen, but really it’s a magical portal to a wonderful world of wine.

Elizabeth Licata

Mar 19, 2018