Skills News

The days for food ingredient labels with a long list of artificial colors (Red 40 Lake and Yellow 6, anyone?) might be numbered. As NPR reported this week, many big-name brands are starting to ditch those questionable, chemical colors in favor of dyes made from plants and vegetables instead. Kraft, General Mills, Nestle, and Panera Bread have all pledged to release products with natural dyes, or to eliminate artificial coloring from their product lines between now and next year.

Slicing a tomato is pretty boring. In general, just use a serrated knife and aim for uniform steaks. Pop one or two on your burger or salad and dinner is served. But sometimes plating calls for something more inspired. Maybe you’re trying to impress someone, or maybe you just want to treat yourself. Whatever the case may be, you’re in luck! Jacques Pépin has spilled his technique for turning a humble tomato into a work of art.

The efforts to combat overfishing have reached a new frontier: faux foods. Certainly most people are familiar with krab, but are you ready to dig in to a plate of faux shrimp? I have to admit, I’m a little wary. With an ingredient list that contains broken-down red algae and a production process that’s been compared to baking bread, New Wave‘s product doesn’t sound wholly appetizing.

If you've browsed the varieties of flours at the grocery store lately, you've likely come across chickpea flour.

Snack board suppers are a dinner solution for eating better during the holidays.

Coffee drinkers know the struggle of keeping their teeth white, as the caffeinated beverage can permanently discolor teeth. Now, thanks to two Slovakian brothers, there is a solution: clear colored coffee. The clear coffee, produced by British coffee company CLR CFF, offers the same caffeine found in a traditional cup of joe, but without the dark-colored hue. According to David Nagy and his brother Adam, the transparent coffee is a “combination of technology and quality ingredients.

When Starbucks rolled out its technicolor Unicorn Frappuccino in April, the internet lost its mind. Instagram was flooded with images of the glittery rainbow cups, and some stores became so overrun with requests that one barista suffered total meltdown from the “magical” mania. Now all of that mayhem is about to begin once again as the coffee company prepares to release a spooky new Halloween drink — at least we think so. Rumors have been flying (lurching?

At this point, it seems like almost every fast food restaurant has some kind of dollar menu — and we’re not mad about that. But when you’re shouting into a drive-thru speaker, how do you know when (and if) you are really getting the most nutritional bang for your buck?

The next time your Paleo-eating friend tells the waitstaff that your table doesn’t need a bread basket, this is your opportunity to go full-on “WELL, ACTUALLY…” A team of archaeology and archaeobotany researchers just discovered a charred, pita-like flatbread at a research site in northeastern Jordan, and this is one history-changing collection of grains, tubers and gluten.

I’m about to have a whole mess of fragmented spaghetti noodles for lunch, and the reason why is super dorky. No, not dorky — educational. When the Kitchn staff got wind that researchers at MIT were testing the long-held scientific theory that it is impossible to break a spaghetti noodle neatly into two halves, our hubris got the best of us. Of course it’s possible to break spaghetti into two pieces — just watch us! And we did.

Last week, the city of High Point, North Carolina, announced that it would be stepping in to prevent its citizens from handing out those gross peanut butter kiss candies. “Alright everybody, we’re giving you a one-week notice as you prepare for trick-or-treaters to remind y’all that by order of the City of High Point Emperor of Acceptable Candy (it’s a real thing), these are banned,” the City of High Point Government wrote on Facebook.

With Halloween over, it’s time to pack up the wigs and get started on planning for the big winter holidays. Now, before the party pressure begins, is the best time to get started; it’s still all about dreaming of amazing appetizers and planning the best bites, with endless scrolling through dreidel-shaped desserts and ombre popcorn strands.

Humans have been seasoning their food as far back as six millennia ago. A piece of pottery found in Germany from 5,900 years ago contained evidence that prehistoric hunter-gatherers flavored fish and deer stews with garlic mustard seed. The difficulty of gathering that seed simply to add a dash to food proves the impetus to spice up meals is ingrained in the very fabric of humans and cooking.

For the past 20 days the United States federal government has been shut down. That means that Congress can’t come to an agreement with the president on how the U.S. Treasury should dispense funds for government projects and agencies — in this case, President Trump would like money to build a border wall, and he hasn’t accepted his Democratic opponents’ compromise of $1.6 billion to fund border security.

Which came first: the chicken or the Instagram influencer? 2019 is already off to a great start. First we were blessed with a 27-pound bucket of mac and cheese from Costco, and now this Instagram egg. On January 4, 2019, Instagram account @world_record_egg (aka “EGG GANG”) posted a picture of a plain, rather boring stock image of a brown egg.

Few candies can claim such an iconic role in a holiday as the SweetHeart Conversation Hearts — you know, the slightly chalky, pastel-colored hearts that say things like “Be mine,” “Text me,” and “Love you.” The candies that come in the box with the clear window that you handed out to friends — just like your parents before you might have — won’t be around this February for Valentine’s Day.

The beauty of Twitter is that anyone can ask the kind of question that really makes you think — and sometimes they even come beautifully illustrated with an animated video. Such was the case this week when user Dave posited, “If baguettes could move, how would they move?” and requested to hear reasoning.

There is hardly a more stressful time in a person’s life than the months leading up to his or her wedding. Who among us has not experienced even the secondhand strain of trying to create an epic party that is both memorable, romantic, and embodies a couple’s strongly-held beliefs about life and love? In perhaps that regard one might sympathize with the vegan bride who recently went viral because she decided to uninvite all the guests who eat meat to her wedding.

Whether it comes frozen or on the rocks, or if you’re on the beach or celebrating Cinco de Mayo, the margarita has long been America’s go-to warm weather drink (or what you drink when you’re missing the warm weather). Tangy, sweet, a little salty — the margarita hits all the right notes. A new study confirms that Americans still call the margarita their favorite cocktail. Well almost all Americans. In Chicago, drinkers buck the trend.

James Beard award-winning cookbook author and breakout Netflix star of Salt Fat Acid Heat, Samin Nosrat, is here to once again school us all on how to transform our attitudes about home cooking. This time she’s weighing in on whether or not we need to start buying artisan soy sauce.

When I think of getting trapped on a desert island, I think to myself: it can’t be that bad. Well, ignoring the obvious dangers of no access to clean water or protein, and having to deal with wild animals who would love nothing more than to treat themselves to an exotic dinner (you), there could be benefits. Right? If you find yourself on one of the more fruitful islands, perhaps off Hawaii in some yet uncharted place, you could have fresh fruits like mangoes, coconut, and pineapple.

With the growing popularity of grain-free diets like the keto diet, the Paleo diet and the Bulletproof diet, bread is becoming more and more of an enemy to people’s everyday menus. I can’t exactly relate (I bought three loaves of bread at Trader Joe’s last week), but sometimes I understand the impetus to reduce the amount of sugar or carbohydrates in your diet which some breads contain a lot of.

If you thought bananas were only good for slicing over some cereal or added to a smoothie for a thickener, then you are wrong, my friends. So very wrong. Bananas are made for dessert, like in pudding and cream pies! As if to prove this point even further, we just heard about the Blue Java banana, which is this beautifully-hued banana which grows mostly in Asia, Australia, and Hawaii.

If you’re like me, the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is make a giant pot of coffee. Personally, I have what constitutes my first cup (of many) down to a science. Here’s my order: I put a spoon of sugar in my mug first, after brewing my grounds with a dash of salt, of course (thanks Alton). Then I pour some of that blessed, steaming brew into my cup almost all the way to the top, leaving space for the last part: the cream.

Valentines’s Day is synonymous with chocolates, sparkling wine, and flowers (lots and lots of flowers). In fact, as many as 198 million roses are sold on Valentine’s Day alone. But here’s the thing: In a couple of days those flowers will die, and all you’ll be left with is the ghost-like feeling of love. What if instead you went for something … edible. You know, something that lasted a little bit longer. Something like meat!

Confession: I have never washed an avocado before eating it. I have never even thought about washing an avocado before eating it. That rough, thick outer shell just seems, to the naked eye, like a perfectly suitable layer of protection against disease, a far cry from the fragile leaves of say, my romaine lettuce. I’m going to start, though, and I suspect that many other people are in my position, because as it turns out, you do need to wash avocados.

Around the holiday season, people who like to siphon that fun, carefree feeling from the spate of year-end celebrations go into overdrive. People rail against Starbucks holiday cups and over-the-top Christmas light displays. The latest controversy – care of the CDC — concerns one of America’s favorite pastimes: eating raw cookie dough. But unfortunately, this one seems pretty valid.

One of the most hotly debated techniques in all of cooking is the easiest, best way to peel a hard-boiled egg. There are a lot of tips I’ve encountered over the years, including adding baking soda to the boiling water, blowing the egg out of its shell, and making sure the eggs are cold before peeling. But then I came across a new method in a recent video on Epicurious and I had to try it out.

Hot sauce is a very important part of our cultural landscape. I mean, what other condiment — besides maybe ketchup – can you add to almost anything? But before your shake that bottle one more time over your burger, soup, or eggs, let’s take a second to consider how it’s made. While you might think it’s as easy as mashing up some peppers and vinegar and throwing it into a jar, it’s actually a lot more sophisticated process.

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar: Every morning when I wake up, I brew a giant pot of French roast, and pour myself a cup. After adding sugar and cream, I take that first sip, and every morning it’s like the first time I’ve ever had such a drink in my life. It’s absolute perfection. It’s like vanilla, sugar, cream, and coffee beans were made to be tasted by me this morning and me alone. But then, each subsequent sip is a little less satisfying.

Look, I understand that the holidays aren’t always full of cheer. There can be a lot of pressure to deliver the perfect holiday party fare, instead of the same old boring wine and cheese spread you find yourself snacking on every year. You want to impress your judgmental relatives so that they’re all talking about the ingenious appetizers you served before Christmas dinner for years to come.

Yesterday the CDC issued a stern warning to the country: Do not, under any circumstances, eat romaine lettuce. An E.Coli outbreak may have contaminated all types of romaine. If you bought any heads or hearts of romaine, go into your kitchen right now and throw it out. Same goes for any boxed salad mixes. In fact, you better stay in there and disinfect your refrigerator. Better to play it safe.

“How long does it take to microwave a 25lb turkey?” Carlota Andrés messaged to the family WhatsApp. Her famous father, chef, and humanitarian José Andrés, responded, aghast, in a mixture of English and Spanish that encompasses a horror perhaps not able to be contained in just one language. In fact, the younger Andrés was simply enacting the same prank that other young adults around the country have been all week.

You’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who’s favorite Thanksgiving dish is ham — or even turkey, if we’re being completely honest about who actually is the star of the holiday table (sorry, turkey fans). While the main dishes are welcome additions to the smorgasbord that is the Thanksgiving lineup, the real stars of the table are the side dishes: mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and, my personal fave, stuffing.

Vanilla ice cream doesn’t have the best reputation in the frozen dessert world. For starters, it’s an insult to call something “vanilla,” as the suggestion implies that whatever you’re referring to is essentially boring AF. Now we are about to add insult to injury with some cold-hearted facts: Nearly one in five store-bought vanilla ice creams doesn’t even contain vanilla, according to U.K. consumer insight organization Which?.

In what has to be the most iconic scene in Meet the Parents, an eager Ben Stiller tells his girlfriend’s parents about the time that he milked a cat so that the smallest kitten in a litter could eat. “You can milk anything with nipples,” he explained. “I have nipples, Greg,” a stone-faced Robert DeNiro responded. “Could you milk me?

We all know the best place for macaroni and cheese is in one’s mouth, but how we get it there is a matter of some debate. Do you use a fork or a spoon? The nation appears to be divided. There are YouTube videos and Reddit threads devoted to the “right” way to eat macaroni and cheese, and now cult-favorite brand Annie’s has conducted a nationwide survey to figure out what utensil people prefer to use when eating one of the most delicious dishes on the planet.

Sometimes it feels like I spend a solid quarter of my life reading nutrition labels. I know I have to read those labels to know what’s in my food, but reading all the labels — for everything — means a trip to the grocery store takes at least twice as long as it would if it didn’t involve standing around the aisles googling “xylitol” while the ice cream melts.

The world is full of billion-dollar ideas I can’t believe I didn’t think of first, like Spanx, Instant Pots, and Harry Potter. Now the geniuses over at Delish have posted a video showing how to make Rolo-stuffed toasted marshmallows that is making everyone say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” and also “I need to go light something on fire so I can try this out right away.

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.

When I was growing up there weren’t a ton of options when it came to buying bacon. It was just, you know, bacon. Now when you stand in front of the bacon section at the store there are endless options to consider. Do you want less sodium? Do you want turkey bacon? What about Paleo bacon (whatever that means)? And don’t even get me started on all the different kind of seasoning options there are. So, how do you know what to spend your money on?

Valentine’s Day is next week. I felt like I had to get that information out of the way for anyone, like me, who has been sitting around thinking, Why is everyone writing so many Valentine’s Day stories right now? I still haven’t taken off all my New Year’s Eve makeup. Valentine’s Day is a million years away. But Valentine’s Day is actually next week, so you should start making plans. Personally, I don’t really like going out on Valentine’s Day.

How do you plan on enjoying your old age? I’ve always hoped for a future that involves wine, coffee, and lots and lots of chocolate. Unfortunately, that might not be possible for many of us, because climate change is affecting the earth’s food producers, and a lot of those favorite foods could be gone in our lifetimes According to research from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, cacao is an extremely difficult plant to cultivate.

The holidays provide a chance to relax a bit, spend time with loved ones, and eat a ton of good food. The world’s celebrities certainly enjoyed themselves, whether they baked cookies at home, like Blake Lively; had a whole menu brought in, like Mindy Kaling; or hopped on a plane to Paris to celebrate with oysters, like Ina Garten. Many posted photos of their celebrity Christmas celebrations so we could share in the festivities. Here are nine of our favorites celebrity Christmases.

Martha Stewart is the queen of beautifully executed entertaining. When one pictures her holiday dinners, it brings to mind visions of spiral hams and glossy golden-brown turkeys with little paper crowns on the drumsticks. One might expect cranberries, or even figgy pudding.

I have good news for anyone with good taste in books and who loves a great adventure. Limited-edition Lord of the Rings wine is now available to purchase and it actually sounds like it might be tasty. The first thing you must know about these Lord of the Rings wine offerings is that there were only 6,000 bottles of each made.

Move over, Cronut. Nigella Lawson may have just created the hottest new hybrid food. On the most recent episode of At My Table, Nigella Lawson introduced a new Christmas cookie she’s calling the “Merookie” because it’s a combination of a meringue and a cookie. “At this time of year, I like to have something sweet in a tin,” she explained as she started demonstrating the recipe for her chewy, chocolatey meringue cookies.

If you’ve ever come to my house for dinner, then I’ve probably made you “brinner.” Breakfast for dinner is one of my favorite things to make for a crowd, and it just got a little bit easier with the help of a trusty sheet pan. Seriously though, is there anything those magical things can’t do?

When I was a little girl, I thought there was nothing cooler than one of those cakes with a doll stuck in the middle of it, so it looked like the doll was wearing a big dress made out of red velvet and buttercream frosting. If the doll could be made to look like a Disney Princess, that was even better. Now a culinary genius named Jessica Leigh Clark-Bojin has taken the doll-in-a-ball-gown cake concept and made it even cooler, because hers are made entirely out of pie.

It’s the day before Thanksgiving, so that probably means you’re prepping ingredients right now. You might be brining your turkey or making sure it’s on its way to being defrosted. Maybe you’re baking all your pies tonight so you don’t have to worry about that precious oven time tomorrow. Your home is about to smell amazing. As you might imagine, prepping for Thanksgiving looks a little different when you’re hanging out in outer space.

Starbucks has been treating us to a ton of special holiday drinks this year. It seems like just yesterday they gave us the Toasted White Chocolate Mocha and Chestnut Praline Chai Latte. It isn’t even the end of November yet, and they just surprised us with another new holiday drink for 2017: It’s called the Juniper Latte, and it sounds like a grown-up twist on the seasonal holiday favorites we all know and love.

With Thanksgiving only a week away, you should already be prepping for the year’s biggest meal. Yes, that means picking up your broiler bird and making some side dishes ahead, but it’s also a prime time to start formulating your dinner-eating game plan. Will you opt for extra mashed potatoes and skip out on green bean casserole? Or take half servings of everything to pace yourself for the next round?

Yes, yes I know. We’ve talked at length about garlic hacks. We all love the taste and despise the prep work. We’ve talked before about how to peel garlic with the help of the microwave, a cocktail shaker (bonus cardio workout), or a few bowls. In addition, we’ve also chatted about peeling individual cloves with your bare hands (hulk smash) and with the side of your knife (old school — no hacks involved).

Just when we thought the world had hit its pumpkin spice peak, a baffling new fall treat has sent the internet into a frenzy. Enter: clear pumpkin pie, a madcap creation from the chefs at Alinea What looks like gelatin poured into a pie crust is actually pumpkin pie that has been distilled into a totally transparent jello-like confection. Allegedly it tastes like real pumpkin and not pumpkin spice or pumpkin-flavored gelatin. (Yes, we’re still wrapping our minds around this one, too.

Harry Potter fans, are you ready to totally freak out? I sure am, because this year you and yours can feast in the Hogwarts’ Great Hall. Yes, the same one they filmed in at Warner Brother’s Studio in London! For three butterbeer-filled days in December, the stage will be set for the great Yule Ball, including “snow-covered Christmas trees, icicles, and an orchestra of magical instruments.” On December 11, 12, and 13 from 6 p.m.

Everyone wants to be the cool house on Halloween. But if you hand out bad candy, all the great decorations and spooky music in the world won’t save you from eggs and toilet paper. To find out which candies people hate the most, bulk candy retailer CandyStore.com looked at 10 years of sales data and 12 independent “best” and “worst” candy rankings, and surveyed 40,000 people.

How many times do you think you’ll say the word “turkey” during the week of Thanksgiving? I usually say it twice: “When will the turkey be ready?” and “Why isn’t the turkey ready yet?” But the experts who man the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line say or type that particular word more than 5,000 times – and they’re ready to give their vocal cords and their texting fingers a break.

Most of us grew up learning about things that our state is known for, like the state bird, flower, and tree. But did you know states have favorite Halloween candies too? This map will not only show you which candies come out on top in your state, but also how many pounds of it are consumed each year. There’s everything from Swedish Fish and Skittles to Tootsie Roll Pops and candy corn (over 146,000 pounds each year in Michigan). Want to see how your state ranks? Well, right this way.

It’s no secret that people change when they’re in a relationship. Being close to someone makes you alter your behavior, daily patterns, and even habits. And there’s no shortage of research hinting at the fact that couples become increasingly similar throughout a relationship — some even say couples start looking alike. Now, a new study published in the journal Appetite has unearthed a thing or two about the dining habits of couples.

There are really very few things that are better than a well-made sandwich. It might not have taken a genius to come up with the idea of putting their meal between two pieces of bread, but whoever it was, I thank you. We all thank you. There’s something so incredibly satisfying about biting into that glorious stack of layers and getting an even amount of bread, spread, cheese, lettuce, tomato, seasoning, and meat. The only problem with sandwiches is that they are frequently poorly made.

As the Carolina coast prepares for Hurricane Florence, those living in areas impacted have plenty of issues on their mind. Amidst debating evacuation plans, stocking up on emergency items, and generally preparing for the storm, there’s one food dilemma for those who plan to flee: Will the contents of their fridge be safe to eat when they return?

Wine tasting is one way to see what blends you like. Another way? A DNA test. Now, thanks to a company called Vinome, you can use your DNA to navigate your way to the perfect bottle of vino. Vinome was founded by a team of genetic scientists and wine experts in 2015. Using genetic analysis, the company determines what bottles are best suited to your preferences.

Hard-boiled eggs are notoriously hard to peel and everyone seems to have a tip or trick that works for them. Some have a three-step method involving ice water, others swear by adding a little baking soda to the water, and still others live by the standard crack-and-peel method. They’re tedious and there’s room for error, but every method eventually gets the job done. Now, a YouTube video has offered a different take: using a wine glass.

Word to the wise: Think twice before airing your dirty food confessions on social media. Specifically, keep your off-beat food pairings off Twitter if you don’t want to provoke the wrath of food traditionalists. Case in point? Just ask Philadelphia-based sports writer Jim Salisbury, who confessed on the micro-blogging platform that he added mayo to his coffee. His supposed crime was that he admitted it was “not half bad.

If you’re guilty of leaving water bottles in your car, whether it be clutter or a backup source of hydration, then it’s time to quit the habit. Firefighters are warning drivers about the hazard that clear water bottles pose. Specifically, Oklahoma’s Midwest City Fire Department conducted a test to find that water bottles magnify sunlight. This can make it reach a temperature as high as 250°F.

Coffee consumption is on the rise around the world. In fact, the demand for coffee is being attributed to two factors: millennials are chugging more java and more countries are adopting a caffeine fix. “Coffee demand is robust and growing at about 1.5 percent per annum,” Carlos Mera Arzeno, a commodities analyst with Rabobank International in London, tells The Washington Post. But not all countries consume coffee equally.

You’ve probably heard of GMOs, and you might even know what it stands for (genetically modified organisms), but understanding what GMOs actually are is a whole other ball game, and there’s a lot of misinformation floating around. Fortunately, Neil deGrasse Tyson and his StarTalk on Mashable podcast is here to set the record straight and start the dialogue on what it really means and how it impacts our health. Tyson’s guest on the podcast is Dr.

When pouring orange juice from the carton, most people intuitively put the plastic spout as close to the glass as possible. This results in the infamous glugging approach, where your juice splatters within the glass and makes a “glug glug” noise. Not cool. Well, I’m here to tell you that if this is your approach to pouring juice out of a carton — or really any liquid from a carton — you’ve been doing it wrong your entire life.

The brains behind the incredibly popular food blogs How Sweet Eats and Two Peas and Their Pod have launched a meal planning subscription service. Called Sweet Peas Meals, the goal is to get people to cook balanced and delicious meals without having to spend too much time in the kitchen. “When we first started talking about Sweet Peas Meals, our main goal was to create something that would simplify your everyday life, every single day,” reads the website.

Ice cream is loved around the globe and if you think the United States is the largest per capita consumer of the treat, it’s time to recalibrate your knowledge. According to an annual report from Mintel, the U.S. is neither the country that consumes the most ice cream nor the nation with the highest per capita intake. Last year, the U.S. scarfed down 2.7 billion liters of ice cream. That’s a lot.

It’s not difficult to pinpoint the types of people who hate cheese: vegans, lactose-intolerant individuals, sociopaths. Cheese-haters who don’t fall into these categories often have an innate distaste for cheese and their peculiar preferences may have less to do with personal taste — in fact, it just might be genetic. According to Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, evolution could be at play.