Contrast is at the center of many popular culinary trends. There's also a strong emphasis on contrasting textures within a single baked good. For example, soft milk breads and laminated doughs that have been hard-baked create exciting combinations.
Pulp egg cartons are made from paper pulp, water, and grass fiber, making them recyclable and biodegradable. They hold moisture while allowing drainage, breaking apart easily for planting.
Mold loves warm and wet conditions, making your dishwasher a playground for spores - especially around the filter where there tends to also be a buildup of food residue.
I can't help but think of this time a year ago when I was looking forward to a party we'd planned. I didn't know it was the last one we'd host for so long. When I look back at what I cherish and miss the most about what we did during pre-pandemic life, gatherings small and large are high on the list.
Exposure to air speeds up the browning exponentially. But a mason jar can extend the life of that banana, not just for a few hours, but for days. In fact, you could potentially store cut bananas for up to an entire month in a sealed jar without them turning brown. The key is to leave the peels on, seal the jar tightly, and refrigerate it.
"The solution to everything was just add butter. It was the moment when I realized so much of the magic that occurs in pastry, but also in sauces, emulsification, creating that silky texture of a classic French sauce, it's all because of butter."
A burnt bottom is simply caused by the bread coming into direct contact with a hot Dutch oven or stone. Luckily, this is the simplest issue to fix - all you need to do is place some aluminum foil between the bread and your cooking vessel. The foil will create a barrier between the loaf and the hot surface and absorb some of the heat, lowering the temperature of the bread's bottom without impacting the overall temperature of the Dutch oven.
Moisture is your best bet for keeping green garlic fresh and crisp long enough to elevate your dishes throughout the week. Just wrap it in a damp paper towel before placing it in a plastic bag for fridge storage (the crisper drawer should work). These steps should last it for about five to seven days.
To keep a sourdough starter active, it has to be fed regularly using flour and water. However, I didn't realize this until I inherited my first one. How often it's fed depends on where it's stored. For example, if I leave the starter on the counter, I feed it once every 12 to 24 hours. When I keep it in the refrigerator, however, I can feed it less, typically about once a week.
Lentils are an inexpensive source of protein, and they can take on many flavor profiles easily and without much effort. The tiny legumes are great in salads, but they really come alive when simmered with alliums, vegetables, spices, and a flavorful broth. Lentil soups and stews can be simple or extravagant, depending on how you garnish the soup, but they always make for a hearty, satisfying meal.
Making homemade stock isn't just a sustainable exercise in zero-waste cooking; it's also (basically) free. By stashing stray vegetable odds and ends in a resealable gallon bag in the freezer, when stock o'clock strikes, home cooks will already have everything they need on hand. From onion scraps to bits of shallots, celery, carrots, leeks, mushrooms, herb stems, and even peels and roots, you can toss it all in the bag, and (later) into the stock pot.
Plastic food containers are both cheap and convenient these days, offering cheap and simple storage solutions for leftovers in your fridge or dry items in the pantry. But they're not without their problems. Apart from figuring out how to organize those pesky plastic lids, the containers themselves may end up holding onto old food odors that make them unappealing to keep using.