July 2012We came up with a great recipe for this classic Caribbean marinade. But to replicate the elusive smoke flavor, we had to take a chemistry lesson.
July 2012There’s more to smoked salmon than the thin, glossy slices stacked on bagels. With a little time—and a sweet touch—we produced silky, smoky dinnertime fillets.
July 2012Fideuà, a rich seafood paella made with toasted noodles instead of rice, would be a tempting one-pot meal—if only it didn’t take hours to make.
May 2012Who says great crab cakes have to start with fresh-from-the-shell crabmeat? We wanted briny, sweet-tasting results—no matter what the starting point.
May 2012Stringy, tasteless meat can mar this easy stir-fry served in lettuce cups. A classic Chinese technique came to the rescue.
May 2012Cooking chicken to precisely the right degree of doneness guarantees tender, juicy results. Poaching is one way, but we had a better, more foolproof idea.
March 2012Filipino Adobo is a quick-cooking, pantry-ready braise with bold, tangy flavors and tender meat. To adapt it for the American kitchen, we borrowed a regional ingredient and a French technique.
March 2012Restaurants have an unusual technique for turning out supremely moist, tender fillets of fish. But adapting it for the home cook required an even more unlikely trick.
January 2012More than 25 years ago, this dinner-party mainstay put The Silver Palate Cookbook on the map. Could we retool the recipe for today’s tastes?
January 2012Searching for a route to fresher, cleaner flavors, we got a bonus: shorter cooking time.
November 2011Chicken thighs plus the blast of a broiler equals undercooked meat and charred skin. To ensure that both elements cooked evenly, we rethought the equation.
November 2011Roast turkey is the norm today, but early American cookbooks often recommended another cooking method. We wondered if maybe they knew something worth learning.
September 2011If you can plan ahead, by all means brine or salt your bird. But when you want dinner on the table in an hour, you need a different way to get juicy, tender chicken.
July 2011Surprisingly, the trick to perfecting smoke flavor isn’t getting the wood to smolder for as long as possible. It’s just the opposite: knowing when to let it burn out.
July 2011What’s a nice fresh fillet doing mixed up in a fried cake? Three good reasons: a crispy exterior, a moist interior, and a super-simple cooking technique.
May 2011Stripped of protective fatty skin, barbecued chicken kebabs don’t stand a chance on a fiery grill. But what if the chicken gets a little help from a pig?
May 2011A blazing-hot fire can render scallops beautifully crisp on the outside and juicy within—or cement them to the grates like carbonized hockey pucks.
March 2011Authentic versions of this spit-roasted bird boast an evenly bronzed exterior, moist meat, and robust seasoning. We hoped that an oven—and supermarket staples—could do the job.
March 2011Delicate sole demands precise timing and a gentle touch. Was there a way to roll those requirements into a more fail-safe approach?
January 2011Glazed salmon usually falls victim to the harsh heat of the broiler. We turned down the heat to bump up the flavor.
