Cook s illustrated 159 2019 july august 1st edition cooks illustrated

Cook s Illustrated 159 2019 july august 1st

Edition Cook'S Illustrated

Visit to download the full and correct content document: https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-s-illustrated-159-2019-july-august-1st-edition-co oks-illustrated/

More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant download maybe you interests ...

Cook s Illustrated 141 2016 july august 1st Edition

Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-141-2016-july-august-1st-edition-cooks-illustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 147 2017 july august 1st Edition

Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-147-2017-july-august-1st-edition-cooks-illustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 156 2019 january february 1st

Edition Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-156-2019-january-february-1st-edition-cooksillustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 157 2019 march abril 1st Edition

Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-157-2019-march-abril-1st-edition-cooks-illustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 161 2019 november december 1st

Edition Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-161-2019-november-december-1st-edition-cooksillustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 139 2016 march april 1st Edition

Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-139-2016-march-april-1st-edition-cooks-illustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 140 2016 may june 1st Edition Cook'S

Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-s-illustrated-140-2016-mayjune-1st-edition-cooks-illustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 142 2016 september october 1st

Edition Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-142-2016-september-october-1st-edition-cooksillustrated/

Cook s Illustrated 144 2017 january february 1st

Edition Cook'S Illustrated

https://textbookfull.com/product/cook-sillustrated-144-2017-january-february-1st-edition-cooksillustrated/

Best Grilled Steak Tacos

Make the Most of Your Fresh Herbs

Our Favorite Salsa Roja

Chile Trif ecta

Grilled Whole Chicken

Little Prep, Big Fla vor

Make Your Own Kettle Chips

Ultracrunch y and Surprising l y Easy

Summer Green Bean Salad

How to Make Pupusas

Fresh Plum-Ginger Pie Ne w Classic

Chocolate Chip Cookie

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Beyond Greek Yogurt

We Taste Other St yles

2 Quick Tips

Quick and easy ways to perf or m e ver yday tasks, from keeping f ood hot to keeping coolers cold BY ANNIE PETITO

4 Easy Grill-Roasted Whole Chicken

Our dead-simple method deli vers juic y, subtl y smoky meat with bronzed sk in BY STEVE

DUNN

6 A New Way to Steam Fish

Classic Chinese and French methods produce moist, f la vorf ul steamed f ish We used the best of both and came up with an entirel y ne w approach that ’ s easy and equall y impressi ve BY ANDREA GEARY

8 Tacos al Carbón

Each component of our quick and easy steak tacos tender, juic y meat; cor n tor tillas; and scallion-jalapeño salsa is cooked on the g rill to inf use it with smoky char BY LAN LAM

10 Homemade Kettle Chips

Mak ing the chips was quick and easy Crack ing the code on a fr ying method that would yield deep crunch? That was another matter BY ANNIE PETITO

12 How to Make Pupusas

These sa vor y stuf f ed cor n cakes are steeped in 2,000 years of Latin American histor y But f or a version that e ven a rook ie could pull of f , we had to break with tradition BY STEVE DUNN

14 Best Ice Cream Sandwiches

Browned butter, brown sugar, and vanilla gi ve chocolate chip cook ies tof f ee-like depth But it ’ s a purel y pedestrian addition that keeps them tender enough when frozen BY LAN LAM

16 Making the Most of Fresh Herbs

Frag rant, distinct, and abundant during war m months, these verdant sprigs ha ve much more to of f er than just a pop of freshness and color BY

ELIZABETH BOMZE

18 Mexico’s Most Famous Salsa

For a top-notch salsa roja, we triple down on the chiles BY ANDREA GEARY

19 The Best Way to Boil Green Beans

For deepl y f la vored, tender, bright-g reen beans f or salad, we looked to the sea BY ANDREW JANJIGIAN

20 Chilled Soba Noodle Salad

Tr y these earth y Japanese buckwheat noodles with a lush miso dressing and colorf ul, crisp raw vegetables BY ANNIE PETITO

22 An Uncommon Pie

The best fruit pie you ’ ve never made starts with fresh plums and whole-wheat f lour BY LEAH COLINS

24 Tasting International Yogurts

Three styles of yogur t ha ve recentl y appeared on American super market shelves We tasted them alongside Greek and American yogur ts to see how they measured up BY KATE SHANNON

26 Searching for the Best Kitchen Sponge

Doing dishes

Chief Executive Officer David Nussbaum

Chief Creative Officer Jack Bishop

Editor in Chief Dan Souza

Editorial Director Amanda Agee

Deputy Editor Rebecca Hays

Executive Managing Editor Todd Meier

Executive Food Editor Ke th Dresser

Managing Editor El zabeth Bomze

Deputy Food Editor Andrea Gear y

Senior Editors Andrew Janj gian, Lan Lam

Senior Content Editor Kr stina DeM chele

Associate Editors Steve Dunn, Annie Petito

Photo Team Manager Tim McQuinn

Assistant Test Cooks, Photo Team Sarah Ewald, Jacqueline Gochenouer, Eric Haessler

Senior Copy Editor J ll Campbe l

Copy Editors Christine Campbel R ache Schowalter

Senior Science Research Editor Paul Adams

Executive Editors, Tastings & Testings

Hannah Crow ey L sa McManus

Senior Editors, Tastings & Testings

Lauren Savoie, Kate Shannon

Associate Editor, Tastings & Testings Miye Bromberg

Assistant Editors, Tastings & Testings

Riddley Gemper e n-Schirm Carol yn Gr llo Emil y Phares

Creative Director John Torres

Design Director Greg Ga van

Photography Director Ju ie Cote

Associate Art Director Maggie Edgar

Senior Staff Photographer Daniel J van Ackere

Staff Photographers Steve Kl se, Kev n White

Photography Producer Meredith Mu cah y

Senior Director, Creative Operations Alice Carpenter

Senior Editor, Special Projects Chr stie Morrison

Senior Manager, Publishing Operations Taylor Argenzio

Imaging Manager Lauren Robb ns

Production & Imaging Specialists Dennis Noble, Jessica Voas Amanda Yong

Test Kitchen Director Erin McMurrer

Assistant Test Kitchen Director Alexxa Benson

Test Kitchen Manager Merid th Lippard

Test Kitchen Facilities Manager Ke l y Ryan

Senior Kitchen Assistant Shopper Michel e Mil er

Senior Kitchen Assistant Receiver Heather Tolmie

Lead Kitchen Assistant Ena Gudiel

Kitchen Assistants Gladis Campos, B anca Castanza, Amar l ys Merced, Ar ene Rosario

B U S I N E S S S T A F F

Chief Financial Officer Jackie McCau ey Ford

Senior Manager Customer Support Tim Qu nn

Customer Support Specialist M tchell Axe son

Event Coordinator Michaela Hughes

Chief Digital Officer Fran Middleton

VP Marketing Natalie Vinard

Director, Audience Acquisition & Partnerships Evan Steiner

Director, Social Media Marketing Kathr yn Przybyla

Social Media Coordinators Charlotte Errity, Sarah Sandler

Chief Revenue Officer Sara Domville

Director, Public Relations & Communications Brian Franklin

Public Relations Coordinator Made e ne Cohen

Senior VP Human Resources & Organizational

Development Col een Ze ina

Human Resources Manager Jason Lynott

Circulation Ser vices ProC rc

Cover Art Robert Papp

PRINTED IN THE USA

R E D STAT E

One cool summer evening in 2005,

campfire and holding a thin metal

onto the prongs was a hunk of slab bacon scored at intervals down to

Hold the bacon over the fire until its fat started to render, dab the fat onto a thick slice of country bread,

n turned crispy and the bread became saturated I then topped my bread with slices of raw onion, radish, and t

t was and still is the world’s finest open-faced sandwich

Making it took a while, and that was just the point As I pressed the sizzling bacon into the bread, flooding its dense crumb with paprika-stained fat, I chatted with neighbors to my left and right. They, too, were plying porky tridents; as we talked, our nostrils became replete with the scents of pork fat and smoke. This was my introduction to szalonnasütés, a Hungarian warm-weather tradition that I enjoyed just as much for the campfire ritual and camaraderie as I did for the sandwich itself. It was also an introduction to my new life as an English teacher in Kétsoprony, Hungary.

I’d end up spending a year in this small farming village located in the southeast corner of the country’s massive, impressively flat Great Plain During that time, I’d learn that my love for food and cooking was a powerful way to connect with just about anyone and that I had completely misunderstood and underestimated paprika

I’d always known that paprika was fundamental to Hungarian cooking, but I didn’t fully understand its import before arriving in Kétsoprony More than just a seasoning, paprika is the foundation of countless Hungarian braises, stews, casseroles, and both fresh and dry-cured sausages It pairs just as well with chicken, pork, and beef as it does with fish, eggs, potatoes, and cabbage If the Hungarians can grow, raise, or catch it, paprika can season it

During my first trip to the market, I marveled at the massive open burlap sacks of the rust-red powder They were arranged in pairs, one brimming with sweet (mild) paprika and the other with hot I saw the same parity in home kitchens, too, where cooks would blend the two types of paprika into dishes by muscle memory, deftly feeling their way to the right balance of heat and fruity chile flavor

Compared to the stuff I’d grown up sprinkling on deviled eggs and lobster rolls, this paprika was far more aromatic and flavorful but it wasn’t as potent That puzzled me at first, but over time I came to understand that its mildness was actually an asset. It encouraged you to use a lot of the spice, which explains how paprika became the central component of so many dishes and of an entire cuisine.

It’s summertime again, and while I’m far from Kétsoprony, I hope I’ll find my way to a few more campfires. You never know who you might meet, what new rituals you might discover, or what you might realize you’ve always underestimated

Dan Souza Editor in Chief

Cook’s Illustrated magazine (ISSN 1068-2821), number 159, is published bimonthl y by America’s Test Kitchen Limited Partnership, 21 Dr ydock Avenue, Suite 210E, Boston, MA 02210 Copyright 2019 America’s Test Kitchen Limited Partnership Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA, and additional mailing offices, USPS #012487 Publications Mail Ag reement No 40020778 Return undeli verable Canadian addresses to P O Box 875, Station A, Windsor, ON N9A 6P2

CooksIllustrated.com

We sell more than 50 cookbooks containing recipes all de veloped in our test k itchen, including The Ultimate Burger and Vegetables Illustrated To order, visit our bookstore at CooksIllustrated com/bookstore C O

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Cook’s Illustrated, P O Box 6018, Harlan, IA 51593-1518 For subscription and gift subscription orders, subscription inquiries, or change of address notices, visit AmericasTestKitchen com/support, call 800-526-8442 in the U S or 515-237-3663 from outside the U S , or write to us at Cook’s Illustrated, P O Box 6018, Harlan, IA 51593-1518

At CooksIllustrated com, you can order cookbooks and subscriptions, sign up for our free e-newsletter, or renew your magazine subscription Join the website and gain access to more than 26 years of Cook’s Illustrated recipes, equipment tests, and ing redient tastings, as well as companion videos for ever y recipe in this issue

C

Dan Souza

Skinning Chickpeas

To quickly remove chickpea skins when making hummus, Kristine Lukasik of New Hampton, N Y , gently rubs skin-on chickpeas between her hands in a bowl of water The beans sink to the bottom while the skins f loat to the top, so she can easil y rake the skins away with her f ingers

Q U I C K T I P S

Hanging Herbs to Dr y Louise Gudac of Talladega, Ala., dries herbs by suspending them from clothes hanger clips, each of which can hold two or three sprigs.

Recycle Small Bits of Spices for Scented Sugar

Inspired by making vanilla sugar, Nancy Merritt of Severna Park, Md , adds small nubs of whole spices such as nutmeg and cardamom to a small jar of sugar The mixture can be used as a frag rant topping for baked goods or as a sweetener for tea

Water Balloon Ice Packs

Deborah Palmer of Carmichael, Calif , makes homemade ice packs by freezing water balloons; the size of the ice packs can be adjusted by filling the balloons with more or less water

Reminder to Salt Bread Dough

Some bread recipes call for letting the dough rest brief l y before adding salt a technique called autol yse Doug Thomas of Minneapolis, Minn , pours the salt on top of the resting dough so he doesn’t forget to mix it into the dough later

SEND

telephone

An Apple Corer for Melon Pops

Apple corers aren’t just f or apples. Jenny Bishop of Duluth, Minn., uses an apple corer to make “melon pops” by pushing the tool through the rind and pulling out plugs of the fruit. The rind functions as a handle f or tidy eating.

Warm Rolls in a Rice Cooker

Jeff Garland of Sarasota, Fla , uses his rice cooker’s “keep warm” function as a gentle way to keep rolls or muffins (individually wrapped in aluminum f oil) warm during meals

Cleaning Reusable Straws

To clean the insides of her reusable straws, Linda Propsom of Valparaiso, Ind , wraps a small piece of wet, soapy paper towel around one end of a wooden skewer and plunges the skewer into the straw, twisting it as she goes to scrub the inside and then f inishing the job with a quick rinse

Grill Prep Kit

Rather than gather paper towels, vegetable oil, and long tongs to grease the grates bef ore ever y grilling session, Wayne Shirkson of Wilmington, Del , keeps a set of those items in a plastic tub at the ready The kit is easy to transport out to the grill

Protective Bag for Produce

David Manzeske of Washington, D C , transports bruise-prone produce such as tomatoes and peaches in the di vided sections of a wine bag In addition to providing protecti ve padding, the di viders evenl y distribute the weight of the produce so that the pieces don’t crush one another

Frozen Chipotle Chile Log

Michael Wirth of St. Louis, Mo., preserves leftover chipotle chile in adobo sauce by mincing it and transferring it to a 1-quart zipper-lock bag. He uses a bench scraper to push the minced chile to the bottom of the bag, rolls the bag around itself to press out the air, seals it, and freezes the minced chile in a log shape. He then cuts pieces off the frozen log as needed.

Easy Grill-Roasted Whole Chicken

Like so many of our readers, I love a simple roast chicken that tastes

o f n o t h i n g b u t c o n c e n t r a t e d

c h i c k e n - y g o o d n e s s O u r m o s t popular chicken recipe, Weeknight Roast

C h i c k e n ( S e p t e m

r / O c t o b e

2 0 1 1 ) , a c c o m p

i s h e s e x a c

t h a t a n d w

h

method that couldn’t be easier There’s n o b r i n i n g , n o s a l t i n g , n o k n i f e w o r k , and no dirtying of dishes required

I wanted to create an equally simple method for the grill, and as with the Weeknight Roast Chicken recipe, pretreatments and extensive prep work were off the table So were rubs, marinades, and sauces But I did want the bird to taste of the grill not so much as to overpower the clean chicken flavor, but enough that you could tell that it had been cooked over coals.

Be Direct

There are two main ways to achieve grill flavor. You can cook the food over direct heat, which produces char the dark browning that develops where food comes in contact with the hot cooking grate as well as all the new flavor compounds that develop when meat juices and rendered fat drip onto the heat source, break down, vaporize, and condense on the surface of the food You can also add a wood chip packet to the fire to produce smoke, which also rises up and condenses on the food

For the moment, I put aside the notion of adding smoke flavor and thought about how to use direct heat Trying to cook a whole chicken over direct heat on the grill would be as silly as trying to sear it in a skillet The exterior would obviously overcook before the interior cooked through And while some measure of fatty juices dripping onto the coals creates desirable grill flavor, too much triggers significant flare-ups that leave a layer of black carbon on the bird’s exterior that overwhelms its mild flavor That’s why most recipes for grilling a whole bird call for indirect heat, which cooks the meat gently and evenly but also produces results without much grill flavor

My solution incorporated both indirect and direct heat I built a fire with heat sources on either side of the grill and a cooler zone down the middle and cooked the chicken, breast side up, over the cooler zone until the breast hit 130 degrees; at that point, a good amount of the bird’s fat had been rendered, so I figured flare-ups wouldn’t be an issue Then I finished cooking the chicken over the hotter zone,

flipping it breast side down after a few minutes so that both the top and bottom received direct heat

What I hadn’t accounted for was that the chicken’s cavity became a receptacle for its fatty juices; when I turned the chicken over, that liquid sloshed onto the fire and flames shot up, scorching the bird’s exterior

A Griller’s Toolbox

Plus, the breast meat was now a tad dry even though I had pulled the chicken off the grill as soon as it reached its target temperature of 160 degrees My fix was to grab the bird by the cavity using tongs and drain the juices into a bowl before moving it to the hotter side of the grill

As for the dry meat, I remembered that the hotter the cooking temperature, the higher the meat’s temperature will climb after cooking Finishing over direct heat caused the chicken’s temperature to rise rapidly To account for that carryover effect, I pulled the bird off the grill when it registered 155 degrees

Now the chicken was moist, with evenly bronzed skin and a good measure of that unmistakable char Time to add some smoke for another layer of grill flavor

Up in Smoke

The trick would be calibrating the smoke’s e

amounts of wood chips using our standard method wrapping them in aluminum foil and cutting a pair of slits in the packet to allow just enough airflow for the chips to smoke steadily and I found that I needed just ¼ to ½ cup of chips (depending on whether I was using charcoal or gas, respectively) to generate the subtle smoke flavor I wanted I also made sure to use dry wood chips, since they start smoking right away while the bird is still cold, and smoke condenses much more readily on cold surfaces

If you want to create the unmistakable flavors associated with the g rill earth y, savor y char and nuanced smokiness without overcooking the food, you have to use the tools that produce them

D I R E C T H E AT

How it works: When the food is placed directly over the heat, the searing-hot cooking grate creates char marks that impart a range of smoky, earthy, and even sweet flavors In addition, meat juices and rendered fat can drip onto the coals, where they break down and vaporize (and sometimes create small flare-ups), and then condense on the food, adding more grill flavor

I N D I R E C T H E AT

How it works: Placing food over a cooler zone not

directly over the heat cooks it gently so that the outside doesn’t burn before the inside finishes cooking

Note that cooking only over indirect heat and without smoke will yield little grill flavor

S M O K E

How it works: Wood either large chunks or chips wrapped in foil that ’ s placed in the fire will not ignite due to limited airflow Instead, it will smoke, flavoring the food ’ s exterior Cutting two slits in the foil allows enough airflow for the wood chips to smoke steadily

A small amount of wood chips and just 10 minutes over direct heat produce a perfectl y cooked chicken with light g rill f lavor

1 Cut chicken where leg meets breast, holding knife close to leg quarter to keep plenty of skin covering breast

2 Pull leg quarter away from breast while pushing up on joint Cut through joint and skin to remove leg quarter

3 Cut through joint that connects drumstick to thigh Repeat steps 1 through 3 on second leg quarter

4 With cavity facing away from you, locate breastbone Starting at cavity end of breast, cut just off center of breastbone

5 Working from cavity end to neck end and using breastbone as guide, cut straight down along breastbone until you reach rib cage

6 Insert your thumb into cut Gentl y pull back breast to expose rib cage Working from cavity end to neck end, cut breast from rib cage As you cut, angle knife to follow curve of rib cage

After about an hour on the grill, my ideal grill-roasted chicken was ready: succulent, subtly smoky meat encased in well-rendered and deeply golden skin Behold, your (and my) new go-to method for roasting chicken alfresco

7 Continue to cut until you reach wing joint Gentl y pull breast away from rib cage while pushing up on wing joint from underneath Cut through wing joint to remove breast and wing

8 Placing knife as close to wing bone as possible, cut wing from breast by slicing through skin and connective tissue Slice 1 side of breast crosswise Repeat steps 4 through 8 on second side of breast

We developed this recipe on a three-burner gas grill with burners that run from front to back In this recipe, we refer to the two outside burners as the primary burners and the center burner as the secondary burner If you’re using a two-burner grill, use the side with the wood chips as the primary burner and the other side as the secondary burner Adjust the primary burner to maintain a grill temperature between 375 and 400 degrees Place the chicken 6 inches from the primary burner and rotate it after 25 minutes of cooking in step 4 so that it cooks evenly

1 tablespoon k osher salt

½ teaspoon pepper

1 (3½- t o 4½-pound) whole chicken, giblets discarded

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

¼–½ cup w ood chips

2. Using large piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, wrap chips (¼ cup if using charcoal; ½ cup if using gas) in 8 by 4½-inch foil packet (Make sure chips do not poke holes in sides or bottom of packet ) Cut 2 evenly spaced 2-inch slits in top of packet

3A. FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL: Open bottom vent halfway Light large chimney starter mounded with charcoal briquettes (7 quarts) When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour into 2 banked piles on either side of grill Place wood chip packet on 1 pile of coals Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent halfway Heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 5 minutes (Grill temperature will reach about 400 degrees and will fall to about 350 degrees by end of cooking )

3B. FOR A GAS GRILL: Remove cooking grate and place wood chip packet directly on 1 primary burner Set grate in place, turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot and wood chips are smoking, about 15 minutes Turn primary burners (two outside burners) to medium-high and turn off secondary (center) burner (Adjust primary burners as needed to maintain grill temperature between 400 and 425 degrees )

4 Clean and oil cooking grate Place chicken, breast side up with cavity facing toward you, in center of grill, making sure chicken is centered

1 Combine salt and pepper in bowl Pat chicken dry with paper towels, then rub entire surface of chicken with oil Sprinkle salt mixture all over chicken and rub in mixture with your hands to evenly coat. Tie legs together with kitchen twine and tuck wingtips behind back.

between hotter sides of grill. Cover (position lid vent over chicken if using charcoal) and cook until breast registers 130 degrees, 45 to 55 minutes.

5. Using long grill tongs, reach into cavity and carefully lift chicken by breast Holding chicken over bowl or container, tilt chicken toward you to allow fat and juices to drain from cavity Transfer chicken, breast side up, to hotter side of grill (without wood chip packet) and cook, covered, until back is deep golden brown, about 5 minutes Using tongs, flip chicken breast side down; cover and continue to cook over hotter side of grill until breast is deep golden brown, about 5 minutes longer Using tongs, flip chicken breast side up and return it to center of grill; take internal temperature of breast If breast registers 155 degrees, transfer chicken to carving board If breast registers less than 155 degrees, cover and continue to cook in center of grill, checking temperature every 2 minutes, until it registers 155 degrees, 2 to 10 minutes longer Let chicken rest, uncovered, for 20 minutes Carve chicken and serve

Greek Cherry Tomato Salad ( July/August 2008) and Grilled Corn with Flavored Butter (September/October 2013)

A New Way to Steam Fish

Classic Chinese and French methods produce mois t, flavor ful s teamed fish. We used the bes t of both and came up with an entirely new approach that’s easy and equally impressive .

If y o u ’ r e n o t s t e a m i n g f i s h , y o u should be It’s a delicate method for cooking a delicate protein that leads to supremely moist, tender results It’s fast enough to do on a weeknight but delivers company-worthy elegance And when it’s done well, there’s a real flavor benefit if you know how to season and dress the fish

Both Chinese and French cuisines have classic approaches to steaming Cantonese cooks steam fish whole (typically sprinkled with aromatics such as garlic, ginger, and scallions) in a bamboo steamer set in a wok filled with a few inches of boiling water

Once cooked, the fish is transferred to a platter, doused with soy sauce and maybe a splash of rice wine, and garnished with fresh scallions. The final flourish is a drizzle of hot oil that sizzles as it hits the fish, releasing a cloud of delicate aromas into the air.

The French technique, called en papillote (“in paper”), calls for enclosing individual fillets in parchment or foil envelopes with vegetables, perhaps a bit of fat, and a splash of wine or broth and then baking the packets in the oven Each diner then gets their own parcel of fish, vegetables, and steaming cooking liquid to open at the table

There’s a lot to love about both approaches, but I’ve long wanted a mash-up that offers what I consider to be the best of each: the bold, fresh flavors and hot oil drizzle of the Chinese method and the convenient oven cooking and flavorful fish jus of the French method Drawing inspiration from both and using easy-to-find fillets would lead to my ideal steamed fish

Full Steam Ahead

Though the steaming would take place in the oven, crimping the fillets in individual packets was a labor of love that I’d save for another time not to mention the fact that packets opened at the table would make it difficult to drizzle the cooked fillets with the hot oil

Instead, I decided to steam all the fillets together in a single makeshift packet: a foil-covered metal baking pan I arranged four skinless cod fillets in the pan and topped them with some sliced garlic and neatly julienned scallions and ginger Next I pondered the cooking liquid Since the fillets would be sitting in the liquid rather than above it in a steamer, it made sense to follow the French method and use something more flavorful than plain water As a starting point, I whisked together a few tablespoons of soy sauce, some rice wine, and a bit of nutty toasted sesame oil; poured it around the fillets; and then covered the pan tightly with foil After about 15 minutes in a 450-degree oven, the fillets hit their target doneness temperature of 135 degrees

I worked carefully to maneuver the tidy fillets onto the serving platter, but they flaked apart anyway Then, when I finished them with sliced scallions and a splash of hot oil (which sent up an enticing aroma), the combined effect of carryover cooking and the oil caused them to overcook slightly

The presentation wasn’t great either: The now-soggy aromatics clung to the top of the fish

Sling It

I had an idea for keeping the fillets intact during transfer: Treat them like bar cookies and cook them on top of a foil sling That way, I could gently lift all the fillets out of the pan at once and deposit them onto the serving platter with minimal disturbance I folded an 18 by 12-inch piece of foil in half lengthwise to create a sling, sprayed it lightly with vegetable oil spray to prevent sticking, laid the sling in the pan, and placed the fillets on top.

I covered the pan with foil and placed it in the oven, but this time I made sure to take the fish out earlier, when it reached 125 degrees, trusting that the hot oil and carryover cooking would help it reach its target temperature. I then grasped each end of the foil sling and transferred the delicate fillets to the platter, carefully sliding the foil out from under them so that I didn’t dislodge a single flake I poured the juices from the pan over and around the fish, topped it with scallions, and drizzled it with the hot oil

Now the fillets were perfectly moist, and the cooking-liquid-turned-sauce balanced the delicately clean flavors of the fish Seasoning the cooking liquid with a little sugar, salt, and white pepper (more floral and delicate than black pepper) made those flavors pop even more, but it was a subtle tweak I made to the aromatics that really gave the sauce depth: Rather than place the garlic, ginger, and scallions on top of the fish, where they turned sadly limp, I laid them in the baking pan underneath the foil sling so that they could infuse the cooking liquid and wouldn’t cling to the cooked fillets Once the fillets were safely deposited on the serving platter, I strained the spent aromatics and drizzled the flavorful liquid over the fish

I scattered the fresh scallions over the fillets and was about to pour the oil over the fish when I realized that I could add even more sweet-spicy fragrance and texture to the dish by adding slivers of ginger to the hot oil, where they would turn aromatic, golden, and crisp Paired with the sauce, this would make a fragrant dressing for the steamed

We steam the f ish in a mixture of soy sauce, rice wine, and sesame oil, which then becomes the sauce Scallions and cilantro add freshness

rice I planned to serve on the side Scattering cilantro sprigs over the top made my quick, new-school interpretation of steamed fish feel as elegant as it was efficient

Haddock, red snapper, halibut, and sea bass can be substituted for the cod as long as the fillets are about 1 inch thick If the fillets are uneven, fold the thinner ends under when placing the fillets in the pan If using a glass baking dish, add 5 minutes to the cooking time To ensure that the fish doesn’t overcook, remove it from the oven when it registers 125 to 130 degrees; it will continue to cook as it is plated Serve with steamed rice and vegetables Our recipe for Oven-Steamed Fish with Scallions and Ginger for Two is available for free for four months at CooksIllustrated com/aug19

8 scallions, trimmed, divided

1 (3-inch) piece ginger, peeled, divided

3 garlic cloves, sliced thin

4 (6-ounce) skinless cod fillets, about 1 inch thick

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dr y sherr y

1½ teaspoons t oasted sesame oil

1½ teaspoons sugar

¼ teaspoon table salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

⅓ cup fresh cilantro leaves and thin stems

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees Chop 6 scallions coarse and spread evenly in 13 by 9-inch baking pan Slice remaining 2 scallions thin on bias and set aside Chop 2 inches ginger coarse and spread in pan with chopped scallions Slice remaining 1 inch ginger into matchsticks and set aside Sprinkle garlic over scallions and ginger in pan

2. Fold 18 by 12-inch piece of aluminum foil lengthwise to create 18 by 6-inch sling and spray

E A S Y T R A N S F E R

A Flavorful Steam Bath f or Fish

Instead of steaming fish over water, Chinese-style, or enclosed in parchment with wine, French-style, we came up with an approach that borrows from both traditions: oven-steaming cod fillets in a foil-covered baking pan The fish sits in a shallow pool of potent soy-based liquid that gets inf used with aromatics and fish jus; when it ’ s cooked, we strain the frag rant cooking liquid and use it as a sauce for the fish (It also tastes g reat drizzled over steamed rice )

FOIL

Goes over pan to trap steam

FISH FILLETS

Release f lavorful fish jus that adds body to sauce

FOIL SLING

Helps remove fillets from pan and prevents aromatics from clinging to them

AROMATICS

Infuse steaming liquid with f lavor and then get strained out

FLAVORFUL STEAMING

LIQUID

Picks up more f lavor from fish and aromatics

BAKING PAN

Allows you to cook 4 fillets at a time

lightly with vegetable oil spray. Place sling in pan lengthwise, with extra foil hanging over ends of pan. Arrange cod on sling. If fillets vary in thickness, place thinner fillets in middle and thicker fillets at ends.

3. Whisk soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, sugar, salt, and white pepper in small bowl until combined Pour around cod Cover pan tightly with foil and bake until fish registers 125 to 130 degrees, 12 to 14 minutes

4. Grasping sling at both ends, carefully transfer sling and cod to deep platter Place spatula at 1 end of fillets to hold in place and carefully slide out sling from under cod Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer set over bowl, pressing on solids to extract liquid; discard solids Pour strained liquid over cod Sprinkle reserved scallions over cod Heat vegetable oil in small skillet over high heat until

Steaming the fillets on top of an aluminum foil sling allows us to easil y transfer them from the baking pan to the serving platter without breaking them

1 Grasping both ends, carefully lift sling so that fillets slide to center and are cradled in middle Place sling gently on serving platter

2 Place spatula at 1 end of fillets to hold in place

Caref ull y slide out sling from underneath fish

shimmering. Reduce heat to low, add reserved ginger, and cook, stirring, until ginger begins to brown and crisp, 20 to 30 seconds. Drizzle oil and ginger over cod (oil will crackle). Top with cilantro and serve.

Finish with a Sizzle

We transfer the fish to a platter when it ’ s just sh y of its target temperature of 135 deg rees and then pour hot ginger-inf used oil over it The oil finishes cooking the fish, releasing frag rant aromas and adding some richness to this mostl y lean dish

Find these sides in our archive: Chinese Restaurant–Style Rice (March/April 2018), Sautéed Baby Bok Choy (March/April 2017), Sautéed Snow Peas with Ginger, Garlic, and Scallion (March/April 2011)

Tacos al Carbón

Ijust means that the protein, usually steak, is cooked over charcoal The meat is seasoned with

garnishes such as charred scallions and lime juice

I would adore these tacos even if they weren’t so simple to make, but the fact that they come together easily is an undeniable perk

Many cuts of steak are used for tacos al carbón, but skirt and flank are high on the list I chose flank here Like skirt steak, flank is thin and beefy, cooks quickly, and has lots of surface area for picking up flavor And flank is less expensive and more widely available After a quick trim to remove any patches of fat, my first steak was just about ready to throw on the grill.

Since I had a hot grill, I decided to do the rest of the cooking outside as well.

To flavor the meat, I opted for a spice paste. Minimalists use a combination of salt, cumin, and garlic. At the other end of the spectrum are recipes that call for a laundry list of ground spices and chili powders. To produce the complexity of the latter via the short ingredient list of the former, I popped open a can of chipotles (smoked jalapeños) in adobo sauce This powerhouse ingredient would contribute spicy, smoky, and savory notes I added cumin, oil, and a little salt to the minced chipotles to make a paste After evenly coating the steak with the ruddy mixture, I headed outside and lit a chimney full of charcoal

Grilled directly over the coals (a gas grill works well, too), the thickest part of the steak was medium-rare (125 degrees) in 10 minutes After letting the meat rest, I thinly sliced it against the grain The chipotle paste was a keeper, but the thinner areas of the steak were overdone What’s more, the meat was unevenly browned and didn’t have much grill flavor

For my second try, I sliced the steak into thirds lengthwise This separated the tapered edges from the thicker center so I could grill each piece to the proper doneness These narrow strips, once sliced, would also fit nicely into 6-inch tortillas

The mediocre browning in my first test had been a result of the steak buckling as it cooked; the bottom of the steak (closest to the heat source) cooked more quickly than the top, which caused its fibers to shrink

We lightl y char cor n tor tillas in batches on the hotter side of the g rill and then wrap them tightl y in f oil so they stay soft and war m until ser ving time

and gave the meat a concave shape Frequent flipping helped the top and bottom shrink at about the same rate, so the steak stayed flat and browned evenly

Flare f or Flavor

As for the flavor deficit, I knew that cooking on a grill doesn’t necessarily guarantee grill flavor Many of the compounds responsible for this flavor are created when fat and juices drip onto the coals, vaporize, and waft up and condense onto the food If I wanted deep grill flavor, I needed drippings And I had been trimming away a main source: the fat on the steak

I grabbed another steak, trimmed the thicker fat deposits to ⅛ inch, and left the thinner ones in place I applied the chipotle paste and grilled the steak, flipping it every 2 minutes Rendered fat dripped onto the coals, causing small flare-ups that brought with them a smoky, meaty flavor that tasted like success This was an A-plus steak

Toppings al Carbón

Since I had a hot grill, I decided to do the rest of the cooking outside as well Inspired by the charred scallions that often adorn tacos al carbón,

I decided to whip up a grilled scallion salsa Along with the scallions, I threw some jalapeños onto the fire, making a note that next time, I could grill the chiles alongside the steak since they cook in about the same amount of time This would not only be more efficient but also infuse the chiles with the flavors of the vaporized drippings Finally, I blistered tortillas on the hotter side of the grill until they picked up a toasty, popcorn-like aroma and then wrapped them tightly in foil so that they would stay warm and soft

Back inside, while the steak rested, I seeded and finely chopped the jalapeños and coarsely chopped the scallions I combined them in a bowl with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of salt, assembled some tacos, and rounded up my colleagues This time no one doubted that the rosy steak had come from the grill They also praised the lively salsa but felt that the two elements were too disparate I reached for the canned chipotles and stirred just enough of the savory adobo sauce into the salsa to tie its flavor to the steak That, along with dollops of rich crema and a few more squirts of lime, brought everything together

Thirst-Quencher

Agua fresca means “fresh water” and is the catchall term for a variety of beverages made by combining fruits, grains, seeds, or flowers with sugar and water To make a watermelon version, we whiz chunks of melon with water in a blender and strain out the pulp before accenting the mixture with lime juice, agave nectar, and a pinch of salt to bring out the sweet and tart flavors

This steak’s grill flavor is created when some of the fat and juices land on the fire and create small, controlled flare-ups, so choose a steak that has some fat deposits. Sour cream can be substituted for the crema, if desired.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

2 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, plus 1 teaspoon adobo sauce

2 teaspoons k osher salt, divided ¾ teaspoon ground cumin

1 (1½- t o 1¾-pound) f lank steak

2 jalapeño chiles

20 scallions

12 (6-inch) corn t ortillas

1½ tablespoons lime juice, plus extra f or seasoning, plus lime wedges Fresh cilantro leaves Mexican crema

1. Combine 1 tablespoon oil, chipotle, 1½ teaspoons salt, and cumin in bowl Trim fat deposits on steak to ⅛-inch thickness Cut steak lengthwise (with grain) into three 2- to 3-inch-wide strips Rub chipotle mixture evenly into steak, then transfer steak to rimmed baking sheet

2A FOR A CHARCOAL GRILL: Open bottom vent completely Light large chimney starter mounded with charcoal briquettes (7 quarts) When top coals are partially covered with ash, pour evenly over half of grill Set cooking grate in place, cover, and open lid vent completely Heat grill until hot, about 5 minutes

Watermelons var y in sweetness Adjust the amounts of lime juice and sweetener to your taste

8 cups seedless watermelon, cut int o 1-inch pieces

2 cups water

¼ cup lime juice (2 limes), plus extra f or seasoning

2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey, plus extra f or seasoning

⅛ teaspoon salt

Fresh mint leaves (optional)

Working in 2 batches, process watermelon and water in blender until smooth, about 30 seconds Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer into 2-quart pitcher; discard solids Stir in lime juice, agave, and salt Season with extra lime juice and extra agave to taste Serve over ice, garnished with mint, if using (Agua fresca can be refrigerated for up to 5 days; stir to recombine before serving )

2B. FOR A GAS GRILL: Turn all burners to high, cover, and heat grill until hot, about 15 minutes. Turn off 1 burner (if using grill with more than 2 burners, turn off burner farthest from primary burner) and leave other burner(s) on high.

3. Clean and oil cooking grate. Arrange steak and jalapeños on hotter side of grill. Cook (covered if using gas), flipping steak and jalapeños every 2 minutes, until meat is well browned and registers 125 to 130 degrees (for medium-rare), 7 to 12 minutes, and jalapeños are blistered and charred in spots, 7 to 10 minutes Transfer steak to clean cutting board and tent with aluminum foil Transfer jalapeños to medium bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap

4. Place scallions on hotter side of grill and cook until dark green parts are well charred on 1 side, 1 to 2 minutes Flip scallions, arranging them so that dark green parts are on cooler side of grill while white and light green parts are on hotter side Continue to cook until whites are well charred, 1 to 2 minutes longer Transfer to bowl with jalapeños and cover tightly with plastic Arrange 6 tortillas on hotter side of grill and cook until lightly charred, 45 to 60 seconds per side Wrap warmed tortillas tightly in foil Repeat with remaining 6 tortillas

5 Without peeling, stem and seed jalapeños; reserve seeds Chop jalapeños fine and transfer to bowl Chop scallions coarse and transfer to bowl with jalapeños Stir in lime juice, adobo sauce, remaining 2 tablespoons oil, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt Season with salt, extra lime juice, and reserved jalapeño seeds to taste Slice steak thin against grain and transfer to serving platter Serve steak in tortillas, passing salsa, lime wedges, cilantro, and crema separately

For Flavor, Leave Some Fat On

To make sure that our tacos al carbón live up to their name that is, have lots of grill flavor we leave some of the steak’s fat attached As the meat cooks, the fat will melt and drip onto the fire The grease, along with meat juices, hits the coals and creates small flare-ups, sending up vapors that condense on the steak, giving it a meaty, smoky grilled taste

DON’T TRIM TOO MUCH

Trim fat deposits to ⅛-inch thickness.

Homemade Kettle Chips

My love for junk food is no secret in the test kitchen

In fact, I am the keeper

o f t h e C o o k ’ s I l l u s t r a t e d

t e a m s n a c k c o r n e r , w h i c h t y p i c a l l y includes everything from chocolate bars and pretzels to popcorn and chips

So I was excited when I was tasked with developing a recipe for kettle chips, the thick and crunchy style of potato chips that I happen to love The prep work is a cinch you don’t even have to peel the potatoes and the frying method is actually tailor-made for home cooks (keep reading and I’ll explain why) Plus, if you’ve ever had freshly fried, still-warm chips, you know that they’re a real treat (especially homemade versions of classic flavors such as barbecue, sour cream and onion, and salt and vinegar). There’s also a certain satisfaction that comes from producing snack food that could pass for store-bought.

Crispy versus Crunchy

Before I dive into the distinctive feature of kettle chips deep, satisfying crunch

i t h e l p s t o k n o w t h e b a s i c d i f f e r e n c e s between this style of chip and the thin and crispy kind (think Lay’s Classic) Crispy chips are cut thin and cooked relatively hot and fast, while kettle chips are cut roughly 50 percent thicker and fried at a lower temperature for longer

E Q U I P M E N T Make

Slicing Easy

With a mandoline our f avorite is the Swissmar Börner Original V-Slicer Plus Mandoline it takes just minutes to transform potatoes into perfectl y thin, even slices

Potato slice thickness impacts a chip’s texture, but it’s the frying time and temperature that make the most profound difference In fact, when I dug through a stack of research papers to see how the two styles of chips are made commercially, it became clear that manufacturers have these details down to a science

First, let’s look at the kettle kind They’re batch-fried in vats of oil, the temperature of which follows a U-curve that is key to creating their characteristic crunch The process goes like this: The potato slices are dropped into moderately hot (about 300-degree) oil, which plunges to about 250 degrees As the oil slowly heats back up, the starches inside the potatoes absorb water, forming a sticky gel that glues the potato cell walls together, like mortar strengthening a rock wall Finally, the water is driven off, leaving behind a rigid net of crisscrossed starch molecules with an open, crunchy structure (All the while, the chips are stirred, which prevents sticking )

Meanwhile, crispy chips are made by propelling the potato slices quickly and continuously through hot (about 350-degree) oil along a conveyor belt a

process called continuous frying which ensures that the oil temperature holds steady at a high enough temperature for the starches to desiccate before they can absorb water and create much sticky gel As a result, the chips are delicate and crisp

Generally speaking, it’s easy to follow a U-curve when frying at home because that drop in temperature happens naturally when you add cold food to hot oil, and it takes time to bring the oil back up to its starting temperature But after making a few batches of kettle chips, I realized that you have to control how steeply the temperature drops and how quickly it recovers and that frying in a regular pot on a regular stove as opposed to using a commercial setup has its limitations

Timing Is Ever ything

When making chips at home, there is only one variety of potato to choose: russet. G

that are extremely low in sugar to prevent

accurately known as Russet Burbanks) are the closest available alternative

I sliced a pound of russets into ¹ 16-inch-thick rounds using a mandoline and then heated 2 quarts of oil in a 7-quart Dutch oven to 300 degrees, mimicking the commercial method But when I added all the potatoes, the limitations of my ordinary pot became obvious The slices, which were covered in sticky surface starches, were crowded in the pot, and they stuck together even with constant stirring So I took a cue from my recipe for Patatas Bravas (May/June 2016) and heated the oil for my next batch to 375 degrees, knowing that the higher temperature would help immediately dry out the potatoes’ surface starches and mitigate sticking (I’d still stir them as they fried)

Now the question was how much to turn down the heat, since that would determine how quickly the oil recovered to the 300-degree range and how much time the starches in the chips had to give up their water I added the potatoes and played it safe by turning the stove dial to low but I shouldn’t have In total, that batch took more than 20 minutes to fry, and the chips were unpleasantly hard That’s because with the longer cooking time, the water

Leaving the potatoes unpeeled saves prep time and gi ves them rustic appeal.

exited the gel so slowly that the starches had more time to organize into a denser, tougher structure

Cranking the heat to high after adding the potatoes was also a mistake First and foremost, the chips overbrowned Second, a weaker gel formed and left behind a disorderly and brittle matrix of starch; as a result, the chips were more crispy than crunchy Frying over medium heat was the answer: It allowed the oil to hover in that 250-degree “gel zone” for about 5 minutes so that the chips began to stiffen After another 6 to 8 minutes just 13 minutes total frying time the oil temperature had rebounded to around 300 degrees, the rest of the water in the chips had evaporated, and they’d turned completely rigid and golden

Powder t o Coat

N

s A smoky spice mix for barbecue chips was easy to make with pantry staples, and I imitated the other two classic flavors sour cream and onion and salt and vinegar with buttermilk powder and vinegar powder, respectively Processing the seasonings in a spice grinder produced a fine powder that clung nicely when tossed with the hot chips

If you’re on the fence about DIY snack food, take it from this aficionado: You’ll be wowed by these chips, and making them is easier than you’d think.

S C I E N C E What Puts the Crunch in Kettle Chips?

Maximizing chip crunch is all about controlling the rate at which the oil temperature recovers Fr ying the potatoes over moderate heat (middle cur ve) gi ves their starches ample time to absorb water and f or m a sticky gel that reinf orces the potatoes’ cell walls, mak ing f or sturd y chips with big crunch But fr ying over high heat (left cur ve) cooks the potatoes too quick l y, f or ming less gel and a fragile matrix of starch; the chips cook up crispy and delicate When the potatoes are cooked over low heat (right cur ve), the opposite happens: Water exits the gel too slowl y so that the matrix of starch has time to organize into a denser, tougher structure

We strongly recommend using a mandoline to slice the potatoes. A heavy 7-quart Dutch oven safely accommodates the full batch of chips and helps the oil retain heat; do not use a smaller, lighter pot Stirring the potatoes during frying minimizes sticking For information about reusing the frying oil, see page 31

2 quarts vegetable oil, f or fr ying 1 pound russet potat oes, unpeeled ½ teaspoon table salt or 1 recipe t opping (recipes f ollow)

1. Set wire rack in rimmed baking sheet and line with double layer of paper towels Heat oil in large

Dutch oven over medium heat to 375 degrees While oil heats, slice potatoes crosswise ¹⁄16 inch (1½ millimeters) thick Carefully add all potatoes to oil, 1 small handful at a time, separating slices as much as possible (oil will bubble vigorously) Cook, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until bubbling has calmed (it will not completely stop) and slices begin to stiffen, 2 to 4 minutes.

2. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until shape of chips is set and slices are rigid at edges (chips will make rustling sound when stirred), about 5 minutes longer, adjusting heat as needed to maintain oil temperature between 240 and 250 degrees.

3. Continue to cook, stirring and flipping potatoes frequently with spider skimmer or slotted spoon, until all bubbling ceases and chips are crisp and lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes longer, adjusting heat as needed during final minutes of cooking to maintain oil temperature between 280 and 300 degrees Using spider skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer chips to prepared rack Sprinkle with salt or, if using topping, let chips cool for 30 seconds, then transfer chips to large bowl with topping and toss until evenly coated Serve (Chips can be stored in zipper-lock bag at room temperature for up to 5 days )

S C I E N C E The Sound of Crispy versus Crunchy

Whether you experience the chip you ’ re eating as crispy or crunch y is not a perfectl y sharp distinction, but surprisingl y, the difference may be more in the ears than in the mouth Scientists have run ver y telling tests anal yzing the differences in pitch among various foods being bitten, so we set up a kettle chip listening experiment

Twenty-one test kitchen staffers listened to audio recordings of two different samples being eaten our f avorite commercial “crispy ” chips and our Crunch y Kettle Potato

Chips and classified the sounds they heard on a continuum from crispy to crunch y The results were conclusi ve: Eighty-six percent of listeners rated the commercial chip as sounding “crispy,” and 95 percent called the homemade kettle chip “crunch y ” Listeners’ auditor y descriptions were even more compelling: “crackl y, ” “light,” “high-pitched,” and “tenor”-like for the crispy chips; “deep,” “low,” and “bass”-like for the kettle chips

To us, that was sound evidence that differences in texture can be heard as much as felt

Look for buttermilk powder in the baking aisle of your supermarket

4 teaspoons buttermilk powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon table salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon dried chives

Grind buttermilk powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and pepper in spice grinder to fine powder Add chives and pulse until finely chopped, about 3 pulses

Look for vinegar powder online

1 tablespoon vinegar powder ½ teaspoon table salt

Grind vinegar powder and salt in spice grinder to fine powder

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon table salt

Pinch cayenne pepper

Grind all ingredients in spice grinder to fine powder

How to Make Pupusas

PAnd when a food has that kind of longevity, you know it has to be good Though Salvadorans and Hondurans both lay claim to the recipe, in El Salvador it is considered the national dish There, these enticing packages are made by stuffing cheese, beans, braised meat, or a combination thereof into a ball of corn flour dough called masa The ball is flattened into a 4- or 5-inch disk and cooked on a comal (a dry cast-iron griddle) until the tender corn cake forms a spotty-brown, crisp shell Garnished with curtido (a bright slaw) and a spicy salsa, the result is downright irresistible

The Salvadoran cooks I’ve seen shape pupusas look like they could do it in their sleep: They work masa into a fist-size cup, spoon in the filling, and pinch the dough closed to form a ball before slapping it back and forth between their hands to create a disk. Sound easy? It isn’t. The first time I tried, it was obvious I was a novice. Using a dough made with the usual ratio of 2 parts masa harina (corn flour) to 1 part water, I formed the cakes as best I could. But the masa was too dry, which caused the pupusas to crack and the filling to spill out.

Using hot tap water instead of cool, as some recipes suggest, worked better since heat causes the starch in corn to absorb more water (just as it does in wheat flour) But boiling water was even more effective, allowing me to superhydrate the 2 cups of masa

We stuf f our pupusas with gooey Monterey J ack and salty cotija cheese and ser ve them with a bright cabbage sla w called cur tido and a spic y tomato salsa

harina with a full 2 cups of water. Now the dough was a dream to handle, and the cakes cooked up as moist as could be

But although the dough was no longer sticky, my pupusas were still thick at the centers and thin at the edges even after all my practice The filling never

spread to the edges, leaving all but the centermost bites tasting of plain dough.

I decided to try a riff on our technique for making tortillas I rolled my superhydrated masa into a ball, placed it inside a zipper-lock bag that I’d cut open at the seams, and used a glass pie plate to press it into a

The traditional method of shaping a pupusa slapping a sticky ball of filled dough back and forth between your hands, patty-cake style requires lots of practice to consistently produce neat, even cakes We came up with a technique that ’ s virtually foolproof, even for beginners: First, prepare a superhydrated (and therefore easy-to-handle) dough by mixing boiling water and masa harina Second, shape the dough and the cheese into balls Finally, follow our unique shaping steps

1 Using marker, draw 4-inch circle in center of 1 side of 1-quart or 1-gallon zipper-lock bag Cut open seams along both sides of bag, but leave bottom seam intact so bag opens completely

2 Place open bag marked side down on counter Place dough ball in center of circle Fold other side of bag over ball Using glass pie plate, gentl y press dough to 4-inch diameter

3 Turn out disk into your palm and place cheese ball in center Bring sides of dough up around filling; pinch to seal Remoisten your hands and roll ball, smoothing any cracks with your damp fingertip

4 Return ball to zipper-lock bag and use pie plate to slowl y press to 4-inch diameter Pinch closed any small cracks that form at edges Repeat steps 2 through 4 with remaining dough and filling

disk I turned the disk out into my palm, placed some filling (more on that next) in the center, and gathered the dough to form a ball, which I again pressed with the pie plate to form a perfectly round pupusa of even thickness Even a newbie could pull this off

As for the filling, basic pupusas are stuffed with a fresh Salvadoran cheese called quesillo that’s delicious but hard to find Some recipes suggest swapping in mozzarella, but we found it too bland Instead, I landed on a mix of Monterey Jack for its meltability and cotija a readily available Mexican cheese for its salty tang

These perfectly flat, round pupusas, stuffed from edge to edge with salty, supple cheese, would fool anyone into thinking I’d been making them all my life

For an accurate measurement of boiling water, bring a full kettle of water to a boil and then measure out the desired amount Properly hydrated masa dough should be tacky, requiring damp hands to keep it from sticking to your palms If the dough feels the slightest bit dry at any time, knead in warm tap water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until the dough is tacky. An occasional leak while frying the pupusas is to be expected, and the browned cheese is delicious. Feta cheese can be substituted for the cotija; if you can find quesillo, use 10 ounces in place of the cotija and Monterey Jack. For information on masa harina, see page 29. Our recipe for Pupusas with Beans and Cheese is available free for four months at CooksIllustrated.com/aug19.

2 cups (8 ounces) masa harina

½ teaspoon table salt

2 cups boiling water, plus warm tap water as needed

2 teaspoons vegetable oil, divided

2 ounces cotija cheese, cut int o 2 pieces

8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, cut into 8 pieces

1 recipe Quick Salsa (recipe f ollows)

1 recipe Curtido (recipe f ollows)

1. Using marker, draw 4-inch circle in center of 1 side of 1-quart or 1-gallon zipper-lock bag Cut open seams along both sides of bag, but leave bottom seam intact so bag opens completely

2. Mix masa harina and salt together in medium bowl Add boiling water and 1 teaspoon oil and mix with rubber spatula until soft dough forms Cover dough and let rest for 20 minutes

3 While dough rests, line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper Process cotija in food processor until cotija is finely chopped and resembles wet sand, about 20 seconds Add Monterey Jack and process until mixture resembles wet oatmeal, about 30 seconds (it will not form cohesive mass) Remove processor blade Form cheese mixture into 8 balls, weighing about 1¼ ounces each, and place balls on 1 half of prepared sheet

The Crack Test

Before forming the pupusas, test the dough’s hydration by flattening a golf ball–size piece of dough If cracks larger than ¼ inch form around the edges, add more water, 2 teaspoons at a time

4. Knead dough in bowl for 15 to 20 seconds Test dough’s hydration by flattening golf ball–size piece If cracks larger than ¼ inch form around edges, add warm tap water, 2 teaspoons at a time, until dough is soft and slightly tacky Transfer dough to counter, shape into large ball, and divide into 8 equal pieces Using your damp hands, roll 1 dough piece into ball and place on empty half of prepared sheet Cover with damp dish towel Repeat with remaining dough pieces

5 Place open cut bag marked side down on counter Place 1 dough ball in center of circle Fold other side of bag over ball Using glass pie plate or 8-inch square baking dish, gently press dough to 4-inch diameter, using circle drawn on bag as guide Turn out disk into your palm and place 1 cheese ball in center Bring sides of dough up around filling and pinch top to seal Remoisten your hands and roll ball until smooth, smoothing any cracks with your damp fingertip. Return ball to bag and slowly press to 4-inch diameter. Pinch closed any small cracks that form at edges. Return pupusa to sheet and cover with damp dish towel. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

6. Heat remaining 1 teaspoon oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Wipe skillet clean with paper towels. Carefully lay 4 pupusas in skillet and cook until spotty brown on both sides, 2 to 4 minutes per side Transfer to platter and repeat with remaining 4 pupusas Serve warm with salsa and curtido

TO MAKE AHEAD: At end of step 5, wrap baking sheet in plastic wrap and freeze until pupusas are solid Wrap pupusas individually in plastic, then

Pupusas are a staple in El Salvador, where they are eaten at home and in outposts called pupuserías The savor y stuffed cakes are enjoyed throughout the day; at breakf ast, they are often served with a cup of chocolate caliente, a mixture of hot milk and water thickened with melted chocolate

TOO DRY

Large cracks f orm in a test piece of dough.

transfer pupusas to zipper-lock bag Freeze for up to 1 month Cook directly from frozen, increasing cooking time by 1 minute per side

For a spicier salsa, add the jalapeño seeds as desired

¼ small red onion

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

½ small jalapeño chile, seeded and minced

1 (14 5-ounce) can diced t omat oes, drained

2 teaspoons lime juice, plus extra f or seasoning

1 small garlic clove, minced

¼ teaspoon table salt

Pinch pepper

Pulse onion, cilantro, and jalapeño in food processor until finely chopped, 5 pulses, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add tomatoes, lime juice, garlic, salt, and pepper and process until smooth, 20 to 30 seconds. Season with salt and extra lime juice to taste.

For a spicier slaw, add the jalapeño seeds as desired

1 cup cider vinegar

½ cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

1½ teaspoons table salt

½ head green cabbage, cored and sliced thin (6 cups)

1 onion, sliced thin

1 large carrot, peeled and shredded

1 jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and minced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Whisk vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in large bowl until sugar is dissolved Add cabbage, onion, carrot, jalapeño, and oregano and toss to combine Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or up to 24 hours

Toss slaw, then drain Return slaw to bowl and stir in cilantro

Best Ice Cream Sandwiches

Te n y e a r s a g o , t h i s m a g a z i n e published a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that we consider perfect: crisp, deeply caramelized edges; chewy centers; gooey pockets of dark chocolate; and complex, toffee-like flavor that’s not too sweet Trust me when I say that a glass of milk will never know a better companion

So when I decided to make chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, I figured I had the cookie part all figured out I baked off a batch, sandwiched two around a scoop of my favorite premium ice cream, and froze the sandwich until solid

Then I tried to take a bite The cookies were so hard my teeth couldn’t get through them, and all that force caused the ice cream to squish out the sides. When I finally did bite through the cookies, I found that the cold temperature had completely dulled their exceptional butterscotch flavor.

Obviously, these chocolate chip cookies weren’t perfect for ice cream sandwiches, but I hoped they’d be a good jumping-off point for calibrating a great sandwich cookie To compensate for the freezer’s flavor-dulling effect, I wanted even more deep toffee flavor packed into a cookie that would be thin and tender enough to bite through when cold but still firm enough to house a generous layer of ice cream

Dimensional Analysis

B Y L A N L A M k Fill the cook ies with your f a vorite ice cream (any f la vor will work); f or tips on scooping, see page 30

I figured out that 2 parts ice cream to 1 part cookies was the ideal ratio The cookies I’d been using were each about ½ inch thick; once I’d added a 2-inch-thick layer of ice cream, it was all too much of a mouthful the frozen-dessert equivalent of a New York deli sandwich Quarter-inch-thick cookies surrounding a 1-inch-thick ice cream center would make for a more edible package

Fortunately, it was easy to make thinner cookies: I again made the dough for our chocolate chip cookies, but instead of baking the cookies at 375 degrees, I dropped the temperature to 325 degrees so that the dough had more time to spread before it set

These cookies were not only thinner but also flatter and more uniform in texture from edge to edge, since the lower baking temperature had allowed the edges and centers to bake at nearly the same rate But once frozen, the cookies were still hard and brittle

Just Add Water

One small fix was to swap out the regular chocolate chips for mini morsels The mini chips were easier to bite through; in fact, I enjoyed their delicate crunch so much that I pressed more into the ice cream around the rim of the sandwich for a dose of Chipwich nostalgia

But then I made a fortuitous discovery Until now, I’d been freezing the sandwiches for just a few hours When I happened to leave a batch in the freezer for nearly 24 hours, I noticed that the cookies were much softer than before, clearly having absorbed more moisture from the ice cream over time It made me wonder if I should be making a moister cookie from the start

To find out, I went straight to the source, adding various amounts of water to the dough along with the egg and vanilla Ultimately, I settled on 2 tablespoons, which, combined with a good 8 hours in the freezer, made for cookies sturdy enough to sandwich the ice cream but tender enough to bite through with just a hint of snap (For a full explanation, see “How More Water Makes Softer Frozen Cookies ”)

I also replaced the granulated sugar with more dark brown sugar, since the molasses in brown sugar is a source of simple sugars (glucose and fructose) that are hygroscopic that is, very effective at attracting water

Brown sugar also boosted that prized deep toffee flavor, though not quite enough, so I also browned all the butter, which maximized the amounts of browned flecks and aromatic compounds that make the flavor of browned butter rich and round. I also upped the amounts of vanilla and salt, all of which added up to cookies that boasted big toffee-like, hazelnutty richness even after spending hours in the freezer.

Here’ s the Scoop

N o w t h a t t h

away, I focused on instituting some best practices for making tidy, professional-looking ice cream sandwiches Making sure to center the scoops of

I L L I N G C O O K I E S E V E N LY

After placing the ice cream in the center of the overturned cookie and topping it with the second cookie, gentl y press and twist the sandwiches until the ice cream spreads to the edges

How More Water Makes Softer Frozen Cookies

We made several changes to our Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe to engineer a frozen cookie that was soft enough to bite through Our new cookie contains a bit more f at and a bit less sugar, but the real outlier is something rarel y considered in cookie composition: water In f act, our ice cream sandwich cookie dough contains almost twice as much water as our “Perfect ” formula That may sound counterintuiti ve you’d think frozen water would make cookies harder but it works because the sugar in the dough lowers the temperature at which water freezes, keeping it fluid By increasing the amount of sugar y water in the dough, we were able to make the cookies more tender

JUST ADD WATER

For soft and tender frozen cookies, add 2 tablespoons of water

ice cream on the cookies translated into neater results. Paying attention to the ice cream itself

m a t t e r e d , t o o : P r e m i u m p r o d u c t s w i t h l o w e r

o v e r r u n t h e a m o u n t o f a i r t h a t g e t s a d d e d

d u r i n g c h u r n i n g t o m a k e i c e c r e a m l i g h t a n d fluffy rather than dense were harder to scoop straight from the freezer, so when I used those, I briefly tempered, or softened, the ice cream in t h e r e f r i g e r a t o r t o m a k e s c o o p i n g e a s i e r ( F o r more information, see “Soften Ice Cream in the Refrigerator” on page 30 )

If you love the deep toffee flavor and crisp-tender texture of our Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies (May/June 2009), you’ll appreciate this ice cream sandwich version, too And if you were raised on Chipwiches, consider this a nostalgic upgrade

Boosting Flavor in the Cold

These sandwiches should be made at least 8 hours before serving For the best results, weigh the flour and sugar for the cookies We prefer the deeper flavor of dark brown sugar here, but light brown sugar will also work Use your favorite ice cream

If using a premium ice cream such as Ben & Jerry’s or Häagen-Dazs, which is likely to be harder than a less-premium brand when frozen, let the ice cream soften slightly in the refrigerator before scooping If you have it, a #16 scoop works well for portioning the ice cream We like these sandwiches with chocolate chips pressed into the sides, but the garnish is optional

10 tablespoons unsalted butter

¾ cup packed (5¼ ounces) dark brown sugar

¾ teaspoon table salt

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (5⅔ ounces) all-purpose f lour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 large egg

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup (3 ounces) mini semisweet chocolate chips, plus 1 cup f or optional garnish

3 pints ice cream

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees Melt butter in 10-inch skillet

2-INCH SCOOP OF ICE CREAM Flattens into manageable 1-inch-tall by 3-inch-wide disk

Cold temperatures are known for dulling flavor They diminish the responsiveness of our tastebuds’ receptor proteins, hindering our ability to taste, and they slow the movement of aromatic compounds, preventing our noses from detecting them To compensate for the flavor-zapping effect of freezing our ice cream sandwiches, we use brown sugar instead of white and up the amounts of browned butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt This not only boosts the complex flavors we taste on our tongues but also increases the number of aromatic compounds we smell, resulting in better-tasting cookies

over medium-high heat Cook, stirring and scraping skillet constantly with rubber spatula, until milk solids are dark golden brown and butter has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes Immediately transfer to heatproof large bowl Whisk in sugar and salt until fully incorporated and let mixture cool for 10 minutes Meanwhile, line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper Stir flour and baking soda together in second bowl; set aside

2. Add egg, water, and vanilla to browned butter mixture and whisk until smooth, about 30 seconds. Using rubber spatula, stir in flour mixture until combined. Stir in ½ cup chocolate chips. (Dough will be very soft.)

3. Using #60 scoop or 1-tablespoon measure, evenly space 12 mounds of dough on each prepared sheet. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until puffed and golden brown, 9 to 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking Let cookies cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and let cool completely, about 45 minutes Place 1 sheet, still lined with parchment, in freezer

1½ -INCHTHICK SANDWICH

Substantial but not too tall; perfect 2:1 ratio of ice cream to cookies

3-INCH DIAMETER

Broad enough to house ice cream without making sandwich too tall

¼-INCH-THICK COOKIE

Thin and tender enough to bite through but firm enough to house ice cream

MINI CHIPS FOR COOKIES AND GARNISH

Add delicate crunch and burst of chocolate f lavor

4. Place 4 cookies upside down on counter Quickly deposit 2-inch-tall, 2-inch-wide scoop of ice cream in center of each cookie Place 1 cookie from wire rack right side up on top of each scoop Gently press and twist each sandwich between your hands until ice cream spreads to edges of cookies (this doesn’t have to be perfect; ice cream can be neatened after chilling) Transfer sandwiches to sheet in freezer Repeat with remaining cookies and remaining ice cream Place 1 cup chocolate chips, if using, in shallow bowl or pie plate

5. Remove first 4 sandwiches from freezer Working with 1 sandwich at a time, hold sandwiches over bowl of chocolate chips and gently press chocolate chips into sides of sandwiches with your other hand, neatening ice cream if necessary Return garnished sandwiches to freezer and repeat with remaining 8 sandwiches in 2 batches Freeze sandwiches for at least 8 hours before serving (Sandwiches can be individually wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, transferred to zipper-lock bag, and frozen for up to 2 months )

M a k i n g t h e M o s t o f Fre s h H e r b s

Fragrant, dis tinc t, and abundant during warm months, these verdant sprigs have much more to of fer than jus t a pop of freshness and color. B

One of the f astest, most economical ways to boost the flavor of food is to add fresh herbs That ’ s long been the philosoph y in cuisines around the world, particularl y in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where fresh herbs are an essential component at meals (often, whole sprigs are heaped onto platters and eaten like vegetables alongside richer dishes) Happil y, there are more varieties than ever available at f armers ’ markets and g rocer y stores All the more reason to work them into your dail y cooking repertoire

T W O B A S I C C AT E G O R I E S : Hearty and Delicate

We classify most herbs as either hearty or delicate These adjecti ves refer not onl y to their textural qualities (leaves that are sturdy and tough versus delicate and tender) but also to the strength or volatility of their flavor compounds; in general, volatile flavor compounds in hearty herbs are somewhat more heat-stable than those in delicate varieties These categories also help clarify the best ways to prep, store, and cook most herbs

E I G H T

We love the classic Simon and Garf unkel quartet (parsley, sage, rosemar y, and th yme), but the herbs below are just as versatile and are worth snapping up if you come across them at the market or nurser y

1 . C H E RV I L

Profile: Grassy, anise-like sweetness

Tr y it in: Egg and fish dishes

Tip: Combine chervil with arugula, lettuce, and endive to make classic mesclun mix

2 G A R L I C C H I V E S

Profile: Garlicky, crisp, juicy

Tr y them in: Stir-fries; as a substitute for scallions

Tip: Garlic chi ves are sometimes referred to as Chinese chi ves

3 C U R RY L E A V E S

Profile: Lemony, cumin-y, menthol-y

Tr y them in: Curries, potato and rice dishes

Tip: Curr y leaves are unrelated to curr y powder

4 L A V E N D E R

Profile: Floral, perf umy

Tr y it in: Syrups, custard, shortbread

Tip: Buy culinar y, not ornamental, lavender, and use it sparingl y

5 L E M O N V E R B E N A

Profile: Minty lemon g rass, menthol-y

Tr y it in: Inf usions (drinks, syrups, jams, custards); salads (tender leaves onl y); with berries or stone fruit

Tip: Steeped in boiling water, it makes a frag rant tisane

6 MAKRUT LIME LEAVES

Profile: Tang y, bright, floral

Tr y them in: Thai curries and soups, cocktails and limeade, rice dishes, flavored salt (see recipe on page 17)

Tip: Use them as a frag rant garnish for proteins and vegetables by cutting out their tough spines and slicing the leaves ver y thin

7 S H I S O

Profile: Minty, citrusy, bitter, medicinal

Tr y it in: Spring rolls, cold noodle salads, g reen salads (tear tough leaves), fried rice

Tip: Red shiso tastes more bitter than the g reen variety

8 S O R R E L

Profile: Juicy, lemony, tart

Tr y it in: Creamy soups, salsa verde, salads; incorporated into a sauce; as a garnish for salmon or lamb

Tip: Sorrel can be cooked similarl y to spinach or Swiss chard, but like those tender g reens, it shrinks way down, so start with an ample amount

( Heartyª Rosemar y, th yme, oregano, sage, marjoram

( Delicate ª Basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, mint, chi ves, tarragon

P R E P S C H O O L

Wash, Then Salad-Spin Dr y

After rinsing delicate herbs, thoroughl y dr y them by spinning them in a paper towel–lined salad spinner (Hear ty herbs don ’t harbor much g rit, but if they are dusty, you can gi ve them a quick rinse )

Pack Lightly When Measuring

Press down slightl y on herbs in the measuring cup to remove air pockets; do not pack them down firml y.

Chop and Mince Like a Pro

Running your knife over a loose pile is inefficient Here’s a better way

(To chop: Gather leaves into tight pile and hold with your nonknife hand Use rocking motion to slice thin Turn sliced leaves 90 deg rees and repeat

(To mince: Chop, then go over pile again by placing fingertips of your nonknife hand flat on top of knife spine and moving blade up and down with your knife hand while using knife tip as pi vot

Proper herb storage is all about controlling the lea ves ’ exposure to moisture

Hear t y herbs are adapted to sur vi ve in dr y weather by tak ing in moisture through their lea ves, so it ’ s impor tant to keep them dr y Delicate herbs take in and release a lot of water and theref ore must be kept moist lest they wilt (but they should not touch liquid, which encourages rot)

Favorite St orage Methods

When stored properl y, many herbs will last at least a week

(Hearty: Store in original packaging or open zipper-lock bag; refrigerate

(Delicate: Wrap in slightl y damp paper towels, place in open zipper-lock bag, and refrigerate

U S E S P R I G S F R O M R O O T T O B L O S S O M

D I Y D R I E D H E R B S

The microwave, which quickl y dri ves off water, is the f astest way to dr y herbs

Method: Place hearty herbs in a single layer between two paper towels on the microwave turntable and microwave on high power for 1 to 3 minutes When the leaves turn brittle and f all easil y from the stems (a sure sign of dr yness), they ’ re done

While some herbs don’t have much use beyond their leaves, others (mostly delicate varieties) are edible up and down the sprig Here’s a breakdown of usable components besides leaves and their suggested applications

R O OT

S

Cilantro roots are aromatic, pungent, and citrusy Cilantro stems with the roots attached are commonl y found at Asian markets The whole plant is increasingl y available at conventional markets, too. Puree the roots into marinades and curr y pastes; store unused roots in the freezer.

S E E D S

Some herbs (such as cilantro and dill) produce aromatic seeds that can be used whole, crushed, or g round

A Keeper Worth

Keeping: Cole & Mason Fresh

Herb Keeper

This slim rectangular container kept herbs fresh longer than the others we tested It also features adjustable height, which makes it easy to add and remove herbs; a vented lid, which staves off condensation; and di viders, which keep the contents tidy and organized

S T E M S

Some herbs (such as cilantro, parsley, and basil) have delicate stems that can be minced or chopped with the leaves or pureed into sauces (such as pesto), curr y pastes, or soups

B

LO S S O M S

In general, herb blossoms taste like their parent plants Add them whole to salads or use them as an elegant garnish

Not All Herbs Can Take the Heat

Due to variabilit y in the strength and volatilit y of their fla vor compounds, hear t y and delicate herbs beha ve diff erentl y when cooked Here are general guidelines

(Hearty: Add earl y in cooking to ensure maximum flavor extraction

(Delicate: Use as a garnish or add for the last minute of cooking to preserve flavor and color

Tender herbs can be more than an accent in salads; in many cuisines, whole or torn leaves are lightl y dressed and served as a refreshing, intensel y flavorf ul accompaniment to g rilled, fried, or roasted dishes Here’s our take Be sure to use vibrant, high-quality herbs; to wash and dr y them thoroughl y (excess liquid can wilt the leaves or dilute the dressing); and to dress them lightl y For the mixed tender herb leaves, we suggest any combination of dill, chi ves, chervil, or tarragon To introduce more dynamic color and texture, add up to ½ cup of thinl y sliced vegetables, such as radishes, shallots, fennel, or celer y –Keith Dresser

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon juice

¼ teaspoon k osher salt

2 cups fresh parsley leaves

2 cups mixed tender herb leaves

Add oil, lemon zest and juice, and salt to large bowl Season with pepper to taste, and whisk to thoroughl y combine Add parsley and herb leaves and toss until evenl y coated with dressing Season with salt to taste Serve immediatel y

Flavored salts add crunch, mineral salinity, and concentrated flavor to meats and fish, popcorn, or even cocktails when used to rim a glass Commercial versions are expensive, but making your own is easy and preserves fresh herb flavor –Sasha Marx

½ cup coarse or f lake sea salt

Choose one of the following:

1½ cups finely chopped fresh basil

1 cup thinly sliced fresh chives

1 cup finely chopped fresh dill

1 cup finely chopped fresh tarrag on ¼ cup finely chopped fresh makrut lime leaves

1 Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper Combine salt and herb in large bowl Pick up handful of salt mixture and rub between your hands to disperse herb throughout salt Repeat until well combined, about 30 seconds Transfer mixture to prepared sheet and spread into even layer

2 Place sheet in 50- to 70-degree location away from direct sunlight Let mixture sit until completely dry, 36 to 48 hours, raking mixture with fork every 12 hours to ensure herb dries evenly

3 Rub mixture between your hands to break up any clumps of dried herb and evenly distribute herb throughout salt Transfer to airtight container (Herb salt can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 months )

Mexico’s Most Famous Salsa

Considering its eminence in Mexican cuisine, salsa roja has a curiously modest name It translates prosaically as “red sauce,” but that moniker fails to convey the zippy tomato-and-chile-based sauce’s ability to elevate so many foods: nachos, tacos, or quesadillas; fried eggs, potatoes, grilled chicken, or steak I’m such a fan that I always need a batch in my refrigerator so that I have some at the ready whenever the mood strikes

Salsa roja is made with tomatoes, a fresh chile (or several), onion, cilantro, and possibly garlic and dried chiles Some or all of the ingredients are cooked, at least briefly, and the sauce is blended It sounds straightforward, but there’s a fascinating amount of variation among recipes

Some cooks char and blister the ingredients, while others cover them with water and boil them for as long as 30 minutes. Some cooks use a Mexican mortar and pestle (known as a molcajete) for rustically chunky results, while others use a blender for a smoother consistency. The heat level can vary from relatively mild to perilously spicy, making it advisable to approach any salsa roja with respectful caution.

In a recipe that varies so much, the presence of tomatoes and fresh chiles was reassuringly universal. I chose to use plum tomatoes for their meatiness and a single jalapeño to start, figuring I could always jack up the heat later Now, how to cook them?

Boiling the ingredients left the sauce watery, so I tried charring the tomatoes and jalapeño in a cast-iron skillet The dry heat sweetened and concentrated the tomatoes and intensified the jalapeño’s flavor In the interest of efficiency, however, I decided to char under the broiler, and I halved the tomatoes so more of their watery insides could evaporate For a bit more flavor, I added a clove of garlic and a wedge of onion to the pan as well

I love pureed versions of salsa roja they’re great for dispensing from squeeze bottles onto everything So I opted to blend the tomatoes, chile, onion, and garlic with some salt until smooth The sauce was good, but it lacked the brightness and depth of the finest examples I’ve had A handful of cilantro helped, but not enough A dried ancho chile would be just the thing to add a bit of raisin-y backbone Dried chiles are usually softened in water before being blended, but waiting around for that wasn’t ideal

This salsa is g reat with chips but can also be loosened with water to drizzle on many other f oods

Then it occurred to me: Maybe I could hydrate the ancho and add brightness in a single step.

I tore the ancho into ½-inch pieces, which I put directly into the blender and ground to tiny specks. Then I added one of the raw tomatoes and pureed the mixture I let the mixture sit while I broiled the rest of the ingredients The fresh tomato pulp hydrated the ancho and added brightness to the sauce

I still thought the sauce could use more depth, so I decided to add some minced chipotle chile in

Three-Alarm Fire

Fresh, dried, and canned chiles each contribute their own flavor profile

DRIED ANCHO CHILE

Raisin-y, fruity backbone

CANNED

CHIPOTLE CHILE

Heat and smoke

FRESH JALAPEÑO

Green, grassy notes

adobo sauce The chipotle added a little more heat along with a welcome hint of smoke

Now that I have a top-notch salsa roja, I’ll keep a perpetual supply in my refrigerator so I can put it on everything

Chiles vary in heat level, so adjust the amount of chipotle to your taste This salsa is great with chips, tacos, fried or scrambled eggs, quesadillas, or grilled meat

1 dried ancho chile, stemmed, seeded, and t orn int o ½-inch pieces (¼ cup)

1 pound plum t omat oes, cored and halved, divided

1–3 teaspoons minced canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce, divided

¼ small onion, root end attached

1 jalapeño chile

1 large garlic clove, unpeeled

¼ cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems, chopped coarse

¾ teaspoon table salt

1. Process ancho pieces in blender until finely chopped, about 20 seconds Add one-quarter of tomatoes and 1 teaspoon chipotle Process on low speed, scraping down sides of blender jar if necessary, until tomatoes are finely chopped and ancho pieces are moistened, about 45 seconds Let mixture sit for 15 minutes

2. Meanwhile, line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil Adjust oven rack 4 inches from broiler element and heat broiler Place remaining tomatoes skin side down on prepared sheet Add onion and jalapeño and broil until onion and jalapeño are blackened and tomatoes are beginning to turn spotty brown, 4 to 6 minutes Flip onion and jalapeño, add garlic, and broil until all vegetables are blackened, 3 to 4 minutes

3. Transfer jalapeño and garlic to cutting board; let cool When cool enough to handle, peel garlic Without peeling, stem and seed jalapeño; reserve seeds Add tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, garlic, cilantro, and salt to blender and process until smooth, about 2 minutes Season with salt and up to 2 teaspoons additional chipotle to taste; process until smooth Transfer to serving bowl or squeeze bottle If desired, stir in water, 1 teaspoon at a time, to loosen to drizzling consistency (Leftover salsa may be refrigerated for up to 1 week )

The Best Way to Boil Green Beans

Il o v e t h e g o r g e o u s b r i g h t c o l o r o f b r i e f l y blanched green beans in salad, but I’ve never l o v e d t h e i r s t a r c h y , s t i l l - r a w t a s t e o r t h e i r so-called crisp-tender texture, which is usua l l y n o t t e n d e

u n t i l t h e y ’ r e s o f t e n o u g h

s p

r e d w i t h a fork generally means you’ve got to boil the living color out of them not to mention all their fresh, grassy flavor

Years ago, I stumbled across a tip in Harold McGee’s indispensable tome On Food and Cooking (1984) that described how heavily salted water speeds the cooking of vegetables According to McGee, the key is to cook vegetables in extremely salty water so salty that it has the same 3 percent concentration as seawater I’d never acted on it since it translates into 2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water an extraordinary amount, given that I usually throw that much into 4 quarts of water when blanching vegetables. Now, with loads of boiled green beans on the horizon, I decided to finally give it a try.

I boiled 1½ pounds of green beans in a solution of ½ cup of salt and 4 quarts of water alongside another batch with just 2 tablespoons of salt in the same amount of water. Sure enough, the beans in the heavily salted water were tender a full 5 minutes before the beans in the lightly salted water. They had also retained their vibrant color, while the other beans had faded to a drab olive

This was a neat discovery, but the one I made when I took a bite of the “seawater” beans was even more important: They tasted incredible The heavily salted water had given them a meaty, highly seasoned, and intensely green-beany flavor and

Hea vil y salted water cooks the beans f aster and signif icantl y enhances their f la vor

without making them overly salty. The beans that had cooked with just a little salt, on the other hand, barely tasted seasoned at all

What’s so magical about supersalty water? According to McGee, when vegetables are cooked in salted water, sodium ions displace some of the calcium ions in their cell walls Calcium ions strengthen pectin the glue that holds plant cell walls together by allowing it to form cross-links, and the ions’ displacement prevents that cross-linking and causes the vegetable to soften (It is for precisely the same reason that we like to brine dried beans in salt water: The displacement of the calcium ions in their skins softens them and prevents them from bursting during cooking )

But ½ cup of salt was a lot to use for one dish I wondered if I could get the same effect with less, so I tried going down to ¼ cup of salt per 4 quarts of water The beans took slightly longer to tenderize, lost a little of their color, and were no longer as well seasoned or as flavorful; clearly you need a strong salt concentration to get enough sodium to infiltrate the beans’ sturdy skins The solution (pun intended)? Keep the concentration the same but decrease the volumes of water and salt Just ¼ cup of salt in 2 quarts of water did the trick and felt like a reasonable amount for such tender, vibrantly colored, and deeply flavorful green beans

To highlight the beans in a salad, I created a few variations: a Mediterranean composition using mint, parsley, feta cheese, and tomatoes; a French-style version with Dijon, capers, and tarragon; and a Southeast Asian–influenced salad with fried shallots, carrots, and peanuts Not only were these some great salads, but I also had a terrific new blanching technique that I could apply to other vegetables as well (see “Best-Ever Blanched Vegetables” on page 30)

If you don’t own a salad spinner, lay the green beans on a clean dish towel to dry in step 2 The blanched, shocked, and dried green beans can be refrigerated in a zipper-lock bag for up to two days. Our recipes for Green Bean Salad with Shallot, Mustard, and Tarragon and Southeast Asian–Style Green Bean Salad with Carrots, Cilantro, Fried Shallots, and Peanuts are available for free for four months at CooksIllustrated.com/aug19.

1½ pounds green beans, trimmed and cut int o 1- t o 2-inch lengths

¼ teaspoon table salt, plus salt f or blanching

12 ounces cherr y t omat oes, halved

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (½ cup)

1. Bring 2 quarts water to boil in large saucepan over high heat Add green beans and ¼ cup salt, return to boil, and cook until green beans are bright green and tender, 5 to 8 minutes

2. While green beans cook, fill large bowl halfway with ice and water Drain green beans in colander and immediately transfer to ice bath When green beans are no longer warm to touch, drain in colander and dry thoroughly in salad spinner

3 Place green beans, tomatoes, oil, mint, parsley, lemon juice, pepper, and salt in bowl and toss to combine Transfer to platter, sprinkle with feta, and serve

Chilled Soba Noodle Salad

Hearty, flavorful soba noodles are a staple of Japanese cooking Made from buckwheat, the seed of a flowering plant

c l o s e l y r e l a t e d t o r h u b a r b a n d s o r r e l , these noodles boast an earthy taste and a slightly chewy texture

Soba noodles can be slurped up along with hot broth, but they also are often enjoyed in a spare bamboo-tray presentation featuring twists of chilled noodles; a dipping sauce made with soy sauce, mirin, and rice vinegar; a dab of wasabi on the side; and shredded toasted nori (dried seaweed) The simple dish, called zaru soba, is a beautiful way to showcase the noodles’ earthy, nuttysweet flavor and resilient chew.

There are also nontraditional recipes that take the concept and turn it into a more casual one-bowl noodle salad fleshed out with crisp vegetables and a flavorful dressing in place of the dipping sauce. The dish would be just right to tote to work for lunch or pair with salmon or tofu (and perhaps a glass of sake) as a light, refreshing dinner

S l e u t h i n g S o b a

Along with lots of fresh vegetables, we mix sli vers of briny toasted nori into the soba noodles; pretoasted sea weed snacks can also be used.

There are a couple of types of soba noodles that are easy to find in the United States Pure buckwheat soba has a deep chestnut color, a pronounced (but pleasant) bitterness, and a coarse texture

Because buckwheat lacks gluten, these noodles can be quite fragile when dry and are less springy when boiled The other commonly available type replaces some of the buckwheat flour with wheat flour In taste tests, we preferred this type for its milder taste and, because of the gluten contributed by the wheat, its more resilient texture

To cook the soba, I brought a large pot of unsalted water to a boil Salt is typically not added to the cooking water for soba because manufacturers sometimes add salt to the noodles and because the soba is usually paired with a highly seasoned dressing or sauce

Once the water was boiling, I added 8 ounces of soba noodles and gave them a quick stir to ensure

that they were submerged and to prevent sticking Because soba varies so much from brand to brand, recommended boiling times range from 3 to 10 minutes Ultimately, I found that it was best to follow the timing on the individual packages Because soba noodles are more delicate than the typical wheat pasta, it was important to check them early and often during cooking

The Stor y of Soba

Once they were tender but still retained their chew, I drained the noodles in a colander and promptly ran them under cold water until they felt slick Rinsing is essential to stop further cooking and cool the noodles; it also removes sticky surface starch, helping the noodles remain distinct and separate

U s i n g M y N o o d l e

With my soba ready to go, I whisked together a quick dressing inspired by the zaru soba dipping sauce To soy sauce and salty-sweet mirin (see “Mirin”), I added nutty toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, grated fresh ginger for zing, and red pepper flakes for a bit of heat.

When I tossed this mixture with the chilled soba, the soy dominated, and the thin dressing slid right off the noodles. So for my next batch, I reached for white miso thinned with a little water in place of the soy sauce. The thick, mildly sweet, umami-rich miso made for a velvety dressing that clung lightly to the soba and didn’t obscure its subtleties Next, I sliced up a medley of raw vegetables: clean, cool cucumber; peppery red radishes; scallions; and snow peas

To help keep the vegetables from collecting at the bottom of the bowl, I cut them into shapes and sizes that would get entwined in the noodles (see “Vegetable Prep School”) I noticed that the cucumbers shed a bit of water when I tossed them with the dressed noodles, so I decreased the water in the dressing by 1 tablespoon

Finally, in a nod to how cold soba noodles are traditionally enjoyed, I added strips of toasted nori to my salad Their understated briny taste was the

Accounts of how soba originated var y, but some sources say that buckwheat came to J apan as earl y as 10,000 BC in the f or m of a por ridge that sustained Buddhist monks during jour neys from China In the late 16th centur y, the J apanese began to make soft buckwheat-flour dumplings called sobagaki Then, during the Edo period (1603–1868), the dumplings e volved: In a process that required much more sk ill, a mixture of buckwheat flour and water was kneaded, stretched thin, and cut into the slender strands that we know today as soba noodles

PLANT-BASED

Soba starts with the seeds of the f lowering buckwheat plant, which are ground into a f lour that’s used to make the noodles

perfect finishing touch to the earthy, perfectly cooked noodles; sweet-savory dressing; and cool, crunchy vegetables

Sheets of nori, a dried seaweed that adds a subtle briny umami flavor and crisp texture to this salad, can be found in packets at Asian markets or in the Asian section of the supermarket Plain pretoasted seaweed snacks can be substituted for the toasted nori, and yellow, red, or brown miso can be substituted for the white miso, if desired Our favorite soba noodles are Shirakiku Zaru Soba Japanese Style Buckwheat Noodles; look for the full tasting results in the next issue This dish isn’t meant to be overtly spicy, but if you prefer more heat, use the full ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes These chilled noodles pair nicely with salmon, shrimp, tofu, or chicken for lunch or a light dinner Our recipe for Chilled Soba Noodles with Cucumber, Snow Peas, and Radishes for Two is available free for four months at CooksIllustrated com/aug19

8 ounces dried soba noodles

1 (8-inch square) sheet nori (optional)

3 tablespoons white miso

3 tablespoons mirin

2 tablespoons t oasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

¼–½ teaspoon red pepper f lakes

⅓ English cucumber, quartered lengthwise, seeded, and sliced thin on bias

4 ounces snow peas, strings removed, cut lengthwise int o matchsticks

4 radishes, trimmed, halved, and sliced int o thin half-moons

3 scallions, sliced thin on bias

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot Stir in noodles and cook according to package directions, stirring occasionally, until noodles are cooked through

Secrets to Stellar Soba Noodle Salad

Follow these guidelines to ensure properl y seasoned, tender noodles that don’t clump together

1 Buy soba that lists wheat flour along with buckwheat flour on the ing redient list This type has a milder flavor than the pure buckwheat style, and because of the gluten contributed by the wheat, it boasts a more resilient texture and a nutty-sweet taste

2 Don’t salt the water since the soba is served with a highl y seasoned dressing and the noodles themselves may have been salted during manuf acturing

3 Follow package directions f or timing since brands var y widel y Check the noodles f or doneness earl y and often

4 Rinse the noodles with lots of cold water after draining them to stop cooking and remove excess surf ace starch that could cause clumping

but still retain some chew Drain noodles and rinse under cold water until chilled Drain well and transfer to large bowl

2 Grip nori sheet, if using, with tongs and hold about 2 inches above low flame on gas burner Toast nori, flipping every 3 to 5 seconds, until nori is aromatic and shrinks slightly, about 20 seconds. If you do not have a gas stove, toast nori on rimmed baking sheet in 275-degree oven until it is aromatic and shrinks slightly, 20 to 25 minutes, flipping nori

RINSE CYCLE

Cold water stops cooking and washes away surface starch

halfway through toasting Using scissors, cut nori into four 2-inch strips Stack strips and cut crosswise into thin strips

3 Combine miso, mirin, oil, 1 tablespoon water, sesame seeds, ginger, and pepper flakes in small bowl and whisk until smooth Add dressing to noodles and toss to combine. Add cucumber, snow peas, radishes, scallions, and nori, if using, and toss well to evenly distribute. Season with salt to taste, and serve.

The dressing for our soba noodles gets its depth from mirin, a Japanese rice wine that can take different forms The traditional form is hon-mirin (“real mirin”), a delicatel y savor y-sweet wine that ’ s made exclusi vel y from fermented rice and is available online and in some liquor stores Supermarkets sell a product labeled “sweet cooking wine,” “sweetened sake,” or “aji-mirin” (“tastes like mirin”) that ’ s made with sweeteners, alcohol, rice, and salt We have determined that in applications where mirin is a main ing redient, it ’ s worth seeking out the traditional, high-quality mirin However, in recipes such as this one that call for just a few tablespoons, it ’ s fine to use the supermarket stuff, which is much cheaper: In a taste test, we couldn’t tell which batch of noodles contained which type of mirin

Here’s how to strategicall y cut the vegetables into shapes that will get tangled in the noodles instead of dropping to the bottom of the bowl

NO NEED TO SPLURGE Hon-mirin and aji-mirin both work fine in this recipe

Remove strings and cut lengthwise into matchsticks

An Uncommon Pie

Ba k i n g a b l u e b e r r y , p e a c h , o r

c h e r r y p i e i s a t e r r i f i c w a y t o

c e l e b r a t e t h e a b u n d a n t f r u i t s o f s u m m e r B u

Plum Delicious

For my pie, I used red or blue-black round plums (2½ pounds for a 9-inch pie); they are the most common and have an appealing, sweet yet bright flavor. If you’ve ever made a peach pie, you probably remember the tedious process of blanching and peeling the fruit so that the resilient skins don’t ruin the tender, sliceable texture of the filling. Well, I’m happy to report that with plums, peeling is not only unnecessary but also detrimental Plum skins are so thin and tender that they don’t detract from the succulent flesh, and if you remove the crimson-violet skins, the pie is not nearly as attractive (see “For Better Plum Pie, Leave the Skins On”)

I cut the plums into slim wedges, added them to a bowl with ¾ cup of sugar, and let them macerate for 15 minutes The sugar pulled juice out of the fruit that could be used to dissolve a thickener

I wanted my thickener to produce a clear filling to show off the plums That meant that flour, which has a tendency to turn cloudy in fruit pie fillings, was out In our Fresh Peach Pie (September/October 2013), we use both cornstarch and pectin to create a translucent gel But plums have more pectin than peaches (one of the reasons they’re popular for jams), so cornstarch alone was sufficient

Adding citrus is a common way to enhance fruit pie fillings; here, I added floral lemon zest and tangy lemon juice to accentuate the tartness of the fruit To perfume the plums with a sophisticated spiciness, I also added both ground and fresh ginger

Pie Dough with a Twist

If my jammy, gingery filling has convinced you that plum pie is worth adding to your rotation, great Now, allow me to push you even further outside the box with a pie dough that calls for whole-wheat flour

If you’re thinking that it would be wise to shy away from adding whole-grain flour to a pie crust since whole-grain flours are lower in gluten and

For Better Plum Pie, Leave the Skins On

Peeling slipper y plums can be maddening, so we were happy to find that our pie actuall y tur ned out better when we left the sk ins on The thin, tender sk ins d yed the filling a lovel y purpl y-red, whereas sk inned plums produced a filling that looked like peaches The bitter tannins in the sk ins also produced a pie that tasted a bit less sweet, which we pref er red Finall y, the sk ins’ high concentration of pectin helped create a lightl y gelled texture that helped hold the filling together

can therefore produce disappointingly dense or crumbly baked goods you’d normally be right But my colleague Andrea Geary came up with a unique method for adding whole-wheat flour to pie dough that produces wonderfully tender and flaky results

The method calls for using the food processor to make a paste with 1½ cups of whole-wheat flour and two sticks of butter, effectively waterproofing the flour (no matter what kind of flour you use) and making it hard for the flour’s proteins to hydrate and form gluten The paste is then broken into chunks that are coated with 1 cup of all-purpose flour before being tossed with half a stick of grated butter Finally, ½ cup of ice water is added, which hydrates the unprotected portion of flour and allows plenty of gluten to form. Each nugget of the all-purpose flour dough is thus surrounded by a jacket of higher-gluten dough that provides plenty of structure.

I used this whole-wheat dough to create a pie with a lattice top a must since it would allow some of the plums’ moisture to evaporate during baking Luckily, the lattice was easy to weave since the dough was relatively sturdy, and the pie baked up looking as great as it tasted The crust was beautifully tender and flaky, with a tawny color and a nutty aroma that paired beautifully with the ginger-scented plum filling

With this success under my belt, I also experimented with an earthy rye pie dough that Andrea developed, finding that it made a great match for

A unique mixing method allows us to make a whole-wheat crust that ’ s tender and f laky and has a nutty aroma

SKINS NO SKINS

another fruit that’s underused in pie: apricots I flavored the apricots with cardamom and vanilla to enhance their aromatic sweetness

Be sure to weigh the flour To ensure the best flavor, use either recently purchased whole-wheat flour or whole-wheat flour that has been stored in the freezer for less than a year In the mixing stage, this dough will be more moist than most pie doughs, but as it chills, it will become more workable Roll the dough on a well-floured counter If at any point the dough is too stiff to work with, let it sit at room temperature until it is slightly softened but still very cold Conversely, if the dough becomes too soft to work with, refrigerate it for 30 minutes to let it firm up Our recipe for Fresh Apricot, Vanilla, and Cardamom Pie with Rye Lattice-Top Crust is available for free for four months at CooksIllustrated com/aug19

P i e D o u g h

20 tablespoons (2½ sticks) unsalted butter, chilled, divided

1½ cups (8¼ ounces) whole-wheat f lour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon table salt

1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose f lour

½ cup ice water, divided

F i l l i n g

¾ cup (5¼ ounces) sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest plus 1 tablespoon juice

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon table salt

2½ pounds plums, pitted and cut int o ¼-inch-thick wedges

1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 tablespoon water

1. FOR THE PIE DOUGH: Grate 4 tablespoons butter on large holes of box grater Transfer to freezer Cut remaining 16 tablespoons butter into ½-inch cubes; set aside Pulse whole-wheat flour, sugar, and salt in food processor until combined, 2 pulses Add cubed butter and process until homogeneous paste forms, about 2 minutes Using your hands, carefully break paste into 2-inch chunks and redistribute evenly around processor blade Add all-purpose flour and pulse until mixture is broken into pieces no larger than 1 inch (most pieces will be much smaller), 4 to 5 pulses Transfer mixture to medium bowl Add grated butter and toss until butter pieces are separated and coated with flour

2 Sprinkle ¼ cup ice water over mixture Toss with rubber spatula until mixture is evenly moistened

1 Evenl y space 4 dough strips across top of pie, parallel to counter edge

2 Fold back first and third strips almost completel y Lay 1 strip across pie, perpendicular to counter edge

3 Unfold first and third strips over top of perpendicular strip

4 Fold back second and fourth strips and add second perpendicular strip Unfold second and fourth strips

5 Repeat, alternating between folding back first and third strips and second and fourth strips and laying remaining strips evenly across pie

Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup ice water over mixture and toss to combine. Press dough with spatula until dough sticks together. Use spatula to divide dough into 2 even pieces. Transfer each piece to separate sheet of plastic wrap. Working with 1 piece at a time, draw edges of plastic over dough and press firmly on sides and top to form compact, fissure-free mass Press 1 piece into 5-inch disk Press remaining piece into 5-inch square Wrap separately in plastic and refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days Let chilled dough sit on counter to soften slightly, about 10 minutes, before rolling (Wrapped dough can be frozen for up to 1 month If frozen, let dough thaw completely on counter before rolling )

3. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper Roll dough square into 10½ by 14-inch rectangle on well-floured counter Transfer dough to prepared sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes Meanwhile, roll dough disk into 12-inch circle on well-floured counter Loosely roll dough around rolling pin and gently unroll it onto 9-inch pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang around edge Ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with your hand while pressing into plate bottom with your other hand Trim overhang to ½ inch beyond lip of plate Wrap dough-lined plate loosely in plastic and refrigerate until dough is firm, about 30 minutes

4 Transfer chilled dough rectangle, still on baking sheet, to counter Using pizza wheel, fluted pastry wheel, or paring knife, trim ¼ inch of dough from long sides of rectangle, then cut rectangle lengthwise

6 Trim lattice ends, press edges of bottom crust and lattice strips together, and fold under Crimp dough evenl y around edge of pie

into eight 1¼-inch-wide strips. Refrigerate strips on sheet until firm, about 30 minutes.

5. FOR THE FILLING: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Whisk sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, fresh ginger, ground ginger, and salt together in large bowl Stir in plums and lemon juice and let sit for 15 minutes Spread plum mixture into even layer in chilled dough-lined plate

6. To make lattice, evenly space 4 dough strips across top of pie, parallel to counter edge Fold back first and third strips almost completely Lay 1 strip across pie, perpendicular to counter edge, keeping it snug against folded edges of dough strips Unfold first and third strips over top of perpendicular strip Fold back second and fourth strips and add second perpendicular strip Repeat, alternating between folding back first and third strips and second and fourth strips and laying remaining strips evenly across pie to create lattice pattern Shift strips as needed so they are evenly spaced over top of pie Trim excess lattice ends, press edges of bottom crust and lattice strips together, and fold under; folded edge should be flush with edge of plate Crimp dough evenly around edge of plate using your fingers Brush dough with egg wash

7 Bake pie on aluminum foil–lined rimmed baking sheet until crust is golden, 20 to 25 minutes Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake until juices are bubbling and crust is deep golden brown, 35 to 50 minutes longer Let cool on wire rack until filling has set, about 4 hours Serve

Tasting International Yogurts

Three s tyles of yogur t have recently appeared on American supermarket shelves. We t as ted them alongside Greek and American yogur ts to see how they measured up.

j B Y K A T E S H A N N O N k

Wable in the United States around

2 0 0 7 , A m

1

50 percent of U S yogurt sales

Now, options such as Bulgarian, Australian, and Icelandic yogurts have emerged Is this just clever marketing by companies capitalizing on Greek yogurt’s popularity, or do these products offer American consumers something different?

To find out, we rounded up five styles of yogurt for a total of eight products: three Icelandic yogurts (or skyrs), two Bulgarian yogurts, one Australian yogurt (or “Aussie” yogurt, the company’s preferred term), our favorite Greek yogurt, and our favorite traditional American-style yogurt. Tasters sampled them all plain, with granola, and in tzatziki.

We were surprised to learn that every yogurt was made in America. Another surprise: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) offers no special guidelines for the international styles It merely defines yogurt as milk or cream that has been cultured with two species of bacteria, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus It also sets certain requirements for elements such as milk fat, acidity, and sweeteners But that’s it

Anything but Plain

The yogurts we tasted varied in flavor and texture

The Icelandic skyrs (“skeers”) were the most like Greek yogurt: thick and more tart and tangy than sweet One in particular was “bright” and “lemony ”

The Bulgarian yogurts, the thinnest in our lineup, tasted bracingly tart In addition, tasters noticed “funky,” “salty,” almost “savory” qualities that were too strong for some when eating the yogurts plain but worked well with other bold ingredients in tzatziki

The Aussie and American yogurts were looser than the Icelandic and Greek products but thicker than the Bulgarian ones Tasters described the Aussie and American yogurts as “mild” and “slightly sweet ”

Ingredient-wise, the yogurts we tasted contained only milk and/or cream and bacterial cultures (One product used pectin as a thickener ) To understand why the yogurts varied so much in texture and flavor, we wanted to learn more about how yogurt is made

Traditionally, the milk used to make yogurt was cooked to thicken it Robert Roberts, professor and head of food science at Pennsylvania State University, told us that it’s common to use evaporated milk instead of regular milk because it contains more protein, which leads to firmer body in the yogurt. Manufacturers can also thicken milk by adding nonfat milk powder. Because these products are technically milk without any other ingredients added, manufacturers are not required to list them on labels.

Using evaporated milk and/or adding nonfat milk powder also allows manufacturers to adjust a yogurt’s fat content and body. The yogurts in our lineup contained 8 to 11 grams of fat per serving with the exception of the one low-fat product, a skyr, which had 3 5 grams per serving But even this low-fat yogurt tasted rich

Eight Ver y Different Yogurts

To start the fermentation process, the milk is heated and the cultures are added The cultures convert the lactose (the sugar naturally present in milk) to lactic acid, which gives yogurt its tang and causes the milk’s proteins to gel and thicken the yogurt The products each contained a variety of cultures, and we were curious about how they differed

The two species of bacteria required by the FDA for yogurt have countless different strains Mirjana Curic-Bawden, a scientist at Chr Hansen, a company that develops cultures for use in dairy products, explained that all the strains “have different characteristics with regards to texture, flavor, mildness, [and] how much acid they can produce ” In other words, although each species appears only once on a given label, it’s possible that companies are using more than one strain of each to create a desired flavor and texture But what about the other species listed on our yogurts’ labels, such as Lactobacillus paracasei and Bifidobacterium lactis ? According to Roberts, they are secondary in importance

One of the biggest variables when making yogurt is the length of fermentation About half the companies shared information about their processes Among those, we saw an enormous range: from just 4 hours to around 30 hours That means some cultures had more time to convert lactose to tangy lactic acid Sure enough, the yogurts with the longest fermentation times in our lineup tasted the tartest and had some of the lowest sugar levels

To get a closer look, we had an independent lab measure the yogurts’ pH levels All the products in our lineup were fairly acidic Most of the yogurts had pH levels ranging from 4 11 to 4 44, with two especially bracing yogurts measuring 3.61 and 3.77. Two of the styles, Greek and Icelandic, are strained before being packaged. In addition to thickening the yogurt, straining removes whey and concentrates the protein in the yogurt. The Greek yogurt had 20 grams of protein per serving. The Icelandic skyrs had 24 to 26 grams, suggesting that they had been strained more or made with a higher-protein milk base. The Bulgarian, Aussie, and traditional American yogurts were not strained and contained less protein Straining also affects sugar content Lactose is mostly found in the whey, so when the whey is removed, the sugar goes with it As a result, the Greek and Icelandic-style strained yogurts had less sugar per serving, while the unstrained American and Aussie yogurts had more

Choose What’ s Right f or You

So how do you decide what to buy? The skyrs were as luxuriously thick as our favorite Greek yogurt but a bit less chalky Their mild-to-tangy flavor was similar to that of Greek-style yogurt, too If you like Greek yogurt, give skyr a try The acidic Bulgarian yogurts boosted the flavor of tzatziki and would add vibrance to other savory dishes The Aussie yogurt was fairly sweet and, while thinner than the strained yogurts, still thick and rich Because they’re not strained during processing and are thinner, the Bulgarian, Australian, and traditional American yogurts can’t be substituted directly for Greek yogurt in recipes; they must first be strained overnight in a fine-mesh strainer lined with a coffee filter or cheesecloth

These international yogurts were plain, but they were anything but boring They vary so much in both flavor and texture that we think they’re all worth a try

The eight yogurts we tasted varied in texture, ranging from thick (f ar left) to thin (f ar right)

G R E E K

I C E L A N D I C ( S K Y R )

TASTING INTERNATIONAL YOGURTS

We sampled five styles of yogurt (a total of eight products): three Icelandic, two Bulgarian, one Australian (or “Aussie,” the company ’ s preferred term), and our favorite Greek and traditional American-style yogurts We tasted them plain, with homemade granola, and in tzatziki Ingredients were taken from product packaging Nutritional information was obtained from the labels and is based on a 227-gram (about 1 cup) serving Manufacturers provided additional processing information An independent lab measured pH levels We purchased the yogurts in Boston-area supermarkets The yogurts are listed by style, from thickest to thinnest We named a category winner in each style

FA G E Total Classic Greek Yogurt

P R I C E : $6 99 f or 35 3 oz ($0 20 per oz)

p H : 4 24

p H : 4 11 p H : 4.38 p H : 4 25

A U S T R A L I A N

p H : 4 44

T R A D I T I O N A L A M E R I C A N

I N G R E D I E N T S : Grade A pasteurized milk and cream, li ve acti ve yogur t cultures (L bulgaricus, S ther mophilus, L acidophilus, Bif idus, L casei)

G R E E N M O U N TA I N C R E A M E R Y

Skyr Icelandic Style Yogurt

P R I C E : $4 99 f or 24 oz ($0 21 per oz)

I N G R E D I E N T S : Pasteurized whole milk Contains the f ollowing li ve cultures: S ther mophilus, L delbruec kii subsp Bulgaricus, B lactis, L acidophilus, L casei

I C E L A N D I C P R O V I S I O N S Plain Skyr

P R I C E : $5 99 f or 24 oz ($0 25 per oz)

I N G R E D I E N T S : Cultured pasteurized Grade A low f at milk Li ve and acti ve cultures: heirloom skyr cultures

(Streptococcus Ther mophilus Islandicus), Lactobacillus Bulgaricus, Bif idobacterium

S I G G I ’ S Plain Whole Milk 4% Skyr

P R I C E : $5 99 f or 24 oz ($0 25 per oz)

I N G R E D I E N T S : Pasteurized whole milk, pasteurized cream, li ve acti ve cultures: S ther mophilus, L delbrueckii subsp Bulgaricus, B lactis, L acidophilus, L delbrueckii subsp Lactis

WA L L A B Y Organic Aussie Smooth Plain Whole Milk Yogurt

P R I C E : $5 99 f or 32 oz ($0 19 per oz)

I N G R E D I E N T S : Cultured pasteurized whole organic milk

Li ve and acti ve cultures: L acidophilus, L bulgaricus, S ther mophilus, Bif idus

B R O W N C O W Cream Top Plain Yogurt

P R I C E : $3 99 f or 32 oz ($0 12 per oz)

p H : 4 43

B U L G A R I A N

I N G R E D I E N T S : Cultured pasteurized whole milk, pectin, 5 li ve acti ve cultures: S ther mophilus, L bulgaricus, L acidophilus, Bif idus and L paracasei

W H I T E M O U N TA I N F O O D S Whole Milk

Bulgarian Yogurt

P R I C E : $8 99 f or 32 oz ($0 28 per oz)

p H : 3 61

p H : 3 77

I N G R E D I E N T S : Organic Grade A pasteurized whole milk and li ve cultures (L acidophilus, L bulgaricus, S ther mophilus, B bif idum)

T R I M O N A F O O D S Bulgarian Plain Yogurt

P R I C E : $5.99 f or 32 oz ($0.19 per oz)

I N G R E D I E N T S : Pasteurized organic whole milk, li ve & acti ve yogur t cultures: L bulgaricus, S ther mophilus, L acidophilus & Bif idobacterium

C O M M E N T S : Our f a vorite whole-milk Greek yogur t combines all the qualities we love about the st yle: It ’ s “plush,” “pillowy,” and “butter y ” in texture, and its “delicate” f la vor is “acidic but not overl y so ” Unlike some Greek yogur ts on the market, it ’ s strained and has no added thickeners or stabilizers It was the “perf ect backdrop” to the other ing redients in tzatzik i and a good “neutral” base f or g ranola

C O M M E N T S : Tasters loved that this skyr was “rich in f la vor and bod y ” and mar veled that it didn ’t f eel hea vy despite being so thick It had a “subtle yet distinct tanginess” and “plent y of f la vor ” without overwhelming the g ranola or the other ing redients in the tzatzik i

C O M M E N T S : We ne ver would ha ve guessed that this skyr was made with low-f at milk and contained half the f at of e ver y other product in our lineup As with other strained yogur ts, its “thickness made it seem reall y indulgent ” and “decadent ” It had a “clean dair y f la vor ” with “ g reat tang” that was balanced out by “natural sweetness ”

C O M M E N T S : This product was the tangiest of the Icelandic-style yogurts in our lineup Tasters described its “bright, lemony ” f lavor as “beautif ull y tart ” Because of both its pronounced acidity and its lush texture, many people compared it to sour cream As with the other skyrs, its “rich and silky ” texture was deemed a good complement to both g ranola and tzatziki

C O M M E N T S : The onl y Australian-st yle yogur t in our lineup was an “in-between yogur t ” in both f la vor and texture It wasn ’t strained and theref ore was signif icantl y thinner than the Greek and Icelandic products but was thicker than the Bulgarian yogur t Tasters could tell that this “ ver y smooth and creamy ” yogur t contained more sugar than the Icelandic and Bulgarian st yles Some liked its “slight sweetness,” while others wanted a bit more acidit y

C O M M E N T S : Our f a vorite traditional whole-milk yogur t is made without homogenizing the milk (an optional processing step that keeps the f at and milk from separating), so the cream f or ms a layer and rises to the top during f er mentation The f la vor seemed “mild ” or “neutral” at f irst and had “ a mild dair y tang on the f inish ” It was on the sweet side, though, with the most sugar per ser ving in our lineup

C O M M E N T S : If you ’ re accustomed to ultrathick yogurt or sweet yogurt, this Bulgarian-style product may seem like “ a different animal ” It ’ s unstrained and had a “looser, creamier texture ” Some tasters thought it was “too thin,” but others thought it “coated the g ranola nicel y ” Because we strained it before making tzatziki, the sauce had a “nice creamy texture ” It was ver y tang y, and tzatziki made with it was “superf lavorf ul ”

C O M M E N T S : Like the other Bulgarian-style yogur t we tried, this product is not strained and has a thin, loose consistenc y Although dif f erent from what most of us were used to, this yogur t g re w on us “The more I eat, the more I like it,” said one taster Intensel y f la vorf ul, this yogur t was decidedl y tar t and “ sa vor y ” and had a “hint of gaminess” that made it taste “f ar m fresh ” We loved the tanginess and complexity it added to tzatzik i

Searching for the Best Kitchen Sponge

We w e r e s c r a m b l i n g e g g s w i t h o u t

butter or oil in stainless-steel skillets over high heat The eggs stuck to the pans and made terrible messes The test cooks working around us kept shaking their heads, no doubt wondering why we hadn’t switched to nonstick pans or tossed pats of butter into the skillets We just smiled and ignored them

We wanted those eggs to stick We’d just started working on a review of kitchen sponges and needed to use them for some challenging cleaning tasks As anyone who’s ever goofed up their scrambled eggs knows, getting these skillets clean would be tough

Our quest was to find the best all-purpose sponge, so we nixed products that weren’t safe to use on nonstick cookware Several major brands had multiple options for all-purpose sponges, so we conducted a two-step preliminary test: cleaning onions and sticky, cooked-on barbecue sauce off skillets and washing delicate wine glasses, eliminating the lowest performer from each brand. Our final 10 sponges varied considerably in price, from about $0.70 to about $6.00 per sponge, and came in a variety of designs and materials.

How We Tested

We expect a lot from a kitchen sponge, so we tested accordingly, using them to clean nonstick, traditional, and cast-iron skillets containing a variety of cooked-on foods; mixing bowls with sticky biscuit dough; stained carving boards; cheese-smeared box graters; dirty chef’s knives; fragile wine glasses; and small measuring spoons Throughout testing, we controlled both the water temperature and the amount of soap used We also sent three new copies of each sponge home with staffers for several weeks of use in their kitchens

Some sponges were ineffective and sometimes downright unpleasant to use, but many performed well and several really impressed us To our surprise,

no one material or design stood out as best when it came to performance; we found sponges we liked across a range of materials and styles. So what mattered most? Our favorites were more versatile, stayed cleaner longer, and made quicker work of tough messes such as those stuck-on scrambled eggs.

No Two Sponges Were the Same

We first looked at the scrubbing surfaces of the sponges. Our favorites had coarse, textured surfaces. Two had fibers formed into loops or woven into netting that acted like mini scrapers Others had wide ridges or were covered with bumps and valleys resembling an egg crate–style mattress pad

The size of the sponges also mattered The smallest, though precise and agile, became too small when squeezed to effectively clean larger items Bigger sponges were hard to maneuver into wine glasses or tiny measuring spoons The most versatile sponges measured roughly 4 25 inches long, 2 5 inches wide, and 1 inch thick

Many people use sponges to clean up spills, so we tested how much liquid the sponges could soak up

What’s Growing in a Wet Kitchen Sponge?

Water streamed off the one all-silicone sponge: It absorbed less than 4 grams, hardly enough to make an impact on a big spill The most absorbent sponge soaked up more than 105 grams of liquid

You Can’t Clean with a Dirty Sponge

By the end of testing, some of the sponges looked downright dirty One fabric-wrapped sponge became so gunky that its fibers resembled a carpet into which gum had been trampled, and food stuck to the silicone sponge despite its “stay clean” promise When we tried to pluck trapped biscuit dough from two other sponges, their fibers became pilled and grubby Other sponges trapped food temporarily but were easier to rinse clean

We also noted some wear and tear Netting on one sponge tore, and big patches of bristles were missing from the silicone sponge; they had accidentally been sliced off while cleaning a knife. All the sponges were a little stained or discolored by the end of testing, but we think that’s to be expected.

A Traditional (but Improved) Choice

Which kitchen sponge should you buy? The O-Cedar Scrunge Multi-Use Scrubber Sponge impressed us the most throughout testing Its scrubbing surface was heavily textured and gritty, so it was especially effective at dislodging cooked-on food and grease It was also one of the more absorbent sponges we tested, which makes it handy for cleaning counters or wiping up spills It was durable and easy to rinse clean, even of sticky biscuit dough Whether you regularly cook elaborate meals and produce a pile of hard-to-clean kitchen equipment or you just need to wash a coffee mug every morning, we highly recommend it

We’ve al ways generall y preferred to wring out our kitchen sponge and leave it in a dr y place between uses, assuming that a drier sponge harbors less microbial g rowth than a sopping one But does it actuall y make a difference? We decided to find out For 14 days, we used six identical sponges to clean up dishes, caref ull y measuring the amount of food, as well as the temperature of the water and the amount of soap we used After each use, we squeezed the water out of three of the sponges and placed them in a dish rack so they could air-dr y We left the other three wet and set them in open plastic bowls, mimicking sponges that had simpl y been dropped and left in a damp place such as the bottom of your sink After the two weeks, an independent lab measured the total bacterial count of each sponge in colony-forming units per milliliter (CFU/mL) and the difference was staggering The sponges that had been left wet averaged more than 500,000 CFU/mL, while the wrung-out sponges came in at just 20 CFU/mL The lab did not differentiate species of bacteria, so we don’t know if any of this bacteria was potentiall y pathogenic, but we ’ re still convinced From now on, we’ll caref ull y wring out our kitchen sponges and store them in a place where they can dr y between uses And we’ll insist that ever yone else who does dishes in our k itchen do the same

Our winning sponge abl y tack led cooked-on eggs