"If you have white meats like chicken or pork you need to use lighter woods for smoking. White meats have a more subtle flavor than red meats such as beef or lamb. Choosing lighter woods, therefore, means you're not overpowering the qualities of the meat itself, but complementing it with an appropriately delicate wood-flavor."
The word 'allium' is the name of a group of vegetables including garlic, onions, chives, leeks and others that are botanically related. Because of the myriad ways they influence flavor, in states ranging from raw to cooked (even burnt), they're culinarily related too.
For an unexpectedly good hors d'oeuvre, char tangerines. Yes, tangerines. Letting the blackened citrus steep in an herby oil yields a sweet, silky and pleasantly bitter result. This recipe for charred tangerines on toast was the first recipe I got a lot of confused comments about. And I understand. It's a little strange. But I also will say it's really good.
I've been getting requests for a blue cheese dressing recipe ever since I shared these buffalo cauliflower wings a few years ago. After testing and tweaking this one with various ratios of mayo, buttermilk, and sour cream, I'm happy to report that it works perfectly as a dip for wings or veggies. With a little more buttermilk (or regular milk) stirred in, it becomes a flavorful, pourable salad dressing too.
Hot honey happens to be a go-to ingredient for people who enjoy swicy foods, a food trend that celebrates foods that are both sweet and spicy. With its unique flavor profile, hot honey delivers syrupy sweetness that honey lovers adore, but it's tinged with mild heat that can make sweet and savory dishes taste more delicious.
A good gravy is one of the most useful condiments out there. It can elevate the most rock-like of buttermilk biscuits, the driest of turkeys, and butter-less mashed potatoes. But since it does a lot of work helping others, your favorite gravy recipe is probably just about due for an upgrade of its own. The next time your gravy is looking especially bland or pallid, give it a boost of flavor with an unexpected ingredient: soy sauce.
