Cooking Methods

It’s the best hack of the summer.

Banish soggy zucchini from your table forever.

Never settle for room temp again.

The crispy edges are everything.

No grill? No problem.

Our top dog will seriously upgrade your next cookout.

It just takes a few simple steps.

It's less than a teaspoon.

You’ll never look at hot dogs, or bacon, the same way again.

This fancy sounding technique isn't as hard as you might think and once you master it, you can build lots of flavor.

No other method came close.

They each have their own distinct flavor.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Here’s what you need to know.

Salt is one of the key ingredients in the pickling process, but does it matter which salt you use? Can you just use the salt that’s already in your pantry? Some recipes call for something called “pickling salt” — what makes pickling salt special? Here’s what you need to know. Pickling salt — sometimes called canning salt or preserving salt — is pure granulated salt (sodium chloride).

Air fryers, you gotta read this.

Here’s what actually happens if you do.

Because it's officially slow cooker soup season!

Choosing the right cut can make or break the dish.

Brown sugar is the sticky, fragrant sweetener that adds moisture and flavor to so many of our favorite baked goods, from chocolate chip cookies to banana bread. But if you find yourself staring into an empty box, don’t fret — you’ve likely got everything you need to make brown sugar from scratch. So whether you need a cup or a pound, or light or dark, you’re just two ingredients away from it. Here’s how to make brown sugar at home.

You know the joy of tearing apart a dinner roll to have tufts of steam pour out of it, because it’s still warm from the oven? You can enjoy that same feeling every day until the rolls run out with three simple methods for reheating leftover dinner rolls, whether they’re store-bought or homemade. Our favorite rule for reheating leftovers applies here (reheat the food in the way it was prepared), so into the oven your rolls should go for reheating.

How can you tell if something is done if you can’t take a peek inside while it’s actually cooking? When it comes to bread, there are actually a few ways to make sure your lovely loaf is perfectly baked, every time! To see if your bread is done, insert an instant-read thermometer into the center of the loaf. (If you go at an angle and through the side or bottom, you can minimize the visual evidence!) Most breads are finished baking at about 190°.

Adding a touch of melted chocolate to cookies, strawberries, pretzels, or marshmallows is an easy to way to elevate your favorite sweet (or salty) treat. While you can melt chocolate in a double boiler on the stovetop or over direct heat in a saucepan, the quickest and, in my opinion, easiest way is to melt chocolate in the microwave. If you need chocolate for dipping holiday cookies, coating truffles, or adorning berries, this is a foolproof method for melting chocolate in the microwave.

Everything you need to know.

Roasting and baking are both common cooking methods. Perhaps you’ve baked chicken breasts, roasted a whole chicken or a mix of root vegetables, or at the very least enjoyed a slice of baked cake. But do you know the difference between them? These terms are used interchangeably quite often. What sets them apart? Are roasting and baking actually the same thing?

Your Thanksgiving pie will thank you.

Let me tell you the secret to holiday baking success: You can fully bake pumpkin pies right now and freeze them to enjoy later. Because of their fat content, fully baked pie crusts freeze beautifully, and the rich custard fillings of pumpkin pie and sweet potato seem as if they were designed to be frozen, too. Follow these tips to learn how to freeze a pumpkin pie—and defrost it perfectly when you’re ready to serve. Cool the pie completely.

People feel a lot of pressure when it comes to making Thanksgiving turkey. While some make it the same way year after year, others are tackling the big bird for the first time and even doing a practice run. How long does it take to defrost? How do you brine or dry-brine it? When do you put it in the oven?

Crimping a pie crust is like putting on a piece of statement jewelry before you leave the house. It’s strictly decorative and won’t make your pie any tastier (or will it?), but looks oh-so nice for your pie presentation.There are, in fact, a few keys to knowing how to crimp pie crust like a professional.

If you enjoy making bread at home, especially when they come out of the oven perfectly risen, then you know how important working with yeast is. I’ve been baking and buying yeast for years, and the yeast choices in the baking aisle still get me confused. Here’s the thing, though: There is a difference between active dry yeast and instant yeast, and which one you use does make a difference in your recipe.

Give it a nice wiggle to see if it's ready to be served.

Don't worry, it is still delicious.

Don't worry — it's easy.

Ready to get baking with apples this fall? Pick one of these five varieties for the best results.

Ready to get baking with apples this fall? Pick one of these five varieties for the best results.

This may look like your average graham cracker crust, but it's so much better.

First things first: They're not always interchangeable!

Store-bought frozen puff pastry is a lifesaver any time of year, but especially as we move into the busy holiday season. With a package or two stashed in the freezer, I know a quick baked brie for visiting guests or plate of mini-quiche appetizers for a potluck is only a few steps away — and the empty, crumb-filled plates at the end of the night speak for themselves. If you’ve never used frozen puff pastry before, let me assure you that it couldn’t be easier.

So, you’ve whipped up a batch of homemade pizza dough, and you’ve made a couple of spectacularly good homemade pizzas. But your household is small, and you don’t want to eat pizza for days. What can you do with all that leftover dough? Freeze it, of course! It’s simple as 1-2-3, and then you can have pizza on the spur of the moment next week. Here’s how to freeze pizza dough.

If you see a lot of fruit dehydrating in your future, buying a food dehydrator makes sense. Using one is more energy-efficient than slowly baking fruit in a low oven, and the results are more consistent. But if you just want to make the occasional batch of crispy apple chips or intensely-flavored dried tomatoes, keep things simple and gadget-free: use your oven to make dried fruit!

With Fall being high time for pies and Thanksgiving getting closer, we thought we’d talk about pie crust. No, not about the ingredients (butter vs. shortening) or how to roll it out but rather how to get that floppy round of dough from your countertop to your baking dish. Here are two sensible options, illustrated in some great Flickr photos we found.

There might be some actual legit science behind why adding ice water to white cake is such a brilliant move.

To husk or not to husk?

Halving a recipe can be a challenge for even the best bakers, and no ingredient has generated more questions on how to split in half than an egg. The problem is an egg has two distinct parts — a fat-rich yolk and a protein-rich white — and most baking recipes require a bit of both. It’s very simple; all you have to do is whisk before you can divide. Most baking recipes call for a large egg, which weighs approximately 1.75 ounces without the shell.

And they’re only five ingredients!

The secret is probably already in your pantry.

Vanilla beans are magical. Not only do they look like fairy wands and have an aroma that always brings me to a standstill, but these beans have the ability to transform scoops of ice cream into childhood memories and dishes of crème brûlée into marriage proposals. Using them is easy; wait to scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod until you’re ready to use them. They are definitely not to be squandered or taken for granted.

There's a daunting number of cardboard pints and quarts of different cream varieties at the grocery store. Which is which?

Forgot to plan ahead? No problem.

So, you don’t own a cookie moldWell, unless you consider vintage glassware special equipment.The thing is, you can do this trick with a lot of everyday kitchenware. While vintage glasses are more likely to have pretty little patterns cut into the bottom, some new ones do, too. Country Living, where we read this tip, mentions that you can also use silverware or Jell-O molds to press a design into your cut-out dough before baking.

You’re just 6 minutes away from egg perfection.

Long, tender green spears of asparagus are a spring favorite. We wait all winter for the first glimpse of them at the farmers market, but its pale sibling, white asparagus, doesn’t get quite the same fanfare — at least not in North America. In Europe, its appearance is perhaps even more celebrated. Beyond the obvious difference in color, what exactly is the difference between white and green asparagus?

Don’t have a cake scraper? Use this unexpected kitchen item to help get those sides super smooth.

The secret to perfectly even graham cracker crusts? Check your kitchen cabinets.

The result? Rich and chocolatey brownies made just for you.

You can toast coconut on the stovetop, in the oven, and even in the microwave!

This is how you can fix it and prevent it in the future!

Turns out a rind has so much more potential than flavoring soups and sauces.

It's simple to make and you can add it to so many different things!

This is absolutely the best method for the crispiest, crunchiest, and most tender sprouts!