[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, unless otherwise noted]

Every year is different, but this year has been extra different for me. I’ve spent a big chunk of my time working on a second book (currently slated for release sometime in 2019). The book has a much stronger emphasis on non-American techniques and recipes than my first book did, which happily coincides with the way I typically like to eat at home. I’ve also been hard at work on the opening of Wursthall (come join us for beer and sausage in San Mateo when we open the doors in February)! And oh yeah, my wife and I also created human life pretty much from scratch and I’ve discovered that I enjoy stay-at-home-dad’ing even more than I enjoy testing recipes and writing all day every day (which is to say, a lot).

So there’s really one thematic element you’re gonna see in this list: Easy and delicious family meals, with a few weekend projects thrown in for good measure.

Pressure Cooker Chile Verde

As a new parent who doesn't have as much time on his hands to cook as he used to, this is my favorite type of pressure cooker recipe. No pre-cooking, no searing, no simmering, no added liquid to water down flavor, no nothing. Just dump a bunch of roughly chopped ingredients into the cooker, seal her up, and let her go. By the time dinner time rolls around, you've got yourself a rich, complex stew with tender chunks of pork bathed in chilies and tomatillos. The best part is you can make as much as your pressure cooker will handle. Spend 15 minutes in the kitchen, then get ready to eat for days.

Get the recipe and technique for Pressure Cooker Chile Verde »

Caldo Verde

"So, what's this soup? Just potatoes and kale simmered together until they're mushy? Hmm. Sounds boring," is what you might be saying to yourself in your head. And yeah. Potatoes and kale sounds kinda boring to me too. Yet when you actually cook up this classic Portuguese soup (and okay, it also gets some onions, chicken broth, and, if you're so inclined, some chouriço), you'll watch as those chunks of potato slowly break down and thicken up the soup while the kale reveals flavors you never knew it had. It all transforms into something comforting and hearty without being overly heavy.

Get the recipe and technique for Calo Verde »

3-Ingredient Mac and Cheese

This is one of those "wait, is it really that simple?" recipes. It takes just three ingredients—pasta, cheese, and evaporated milk (in equal parts!)—and ends with a stovetop mac and cheese that is just as creamy, gooey, and delicious as far more complex recipes. Cooking the pasta in barely enough water to cover it and allowing that water to completely evaporate to concentrate starch (an emulsifying powerhouse) is the secret.

Get the recipe and technique for 3-Ingredient Mac and Cheese »

One-Pot Pozole Verde

This is a bright green version of the classic Mexican meat-and-hominy soup. Made by combining several green ingredients (tomatillos, chilies, cilantro, pepitas, etc.) along with chicken and hominy, it all comes together in a single pot. The trick is adding things in the right order and at the right time in order to maximize the flavor of each ingredient and layer them into a cohesive whole.

Get the recipe and technique for One-Pot Pozole Verde »

BraveTart's Magic Bagels

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

I've been on my own personal quest to bake the perfect bagel at home ever since moving from New York to California (where the bagel pickings are a whole lot slimmer). Leave it to Stella to publish a recipe that beats any of my attempts. By incorporated a tangzhong—a cooked flour-and-water paste that gets added to the dough—she's able to greatly increase the shelf-life of the bagels. Most bagels aren't worth their hole even an hour out of the oven. I've eaten Stella's bagels two days later (toasted whole before slicing, of course; we are not savages who toast sliced bagels) and still got that perfect crisp-on-the-outside, chewy-in-the-middle bagel experience.

P.S. I am still working on my own personal recipe which, depending on how testing continues, may or may not make it into my next book.

Get the recipe and technique for BraveTart's Magic Bagels »

Kickass Quesadillas

I've been making some variation of this style of quesadilla for a couple decades. They're sort of like microwaving a flour tortilla with cheese except a little more work and a lot less sadness. The first key is to combine additional ingredients and aromatics directly into the grated cheese for even melting and flavor throughout (cilantro and chopped pickled jalapeño are my go-to late-night-snack), then it's just a matter of using enough oil and managing your heat so your quesadillas end up extra-crispy on the outside and fully-melted and gooey in the middle.

Get the recipe and technique for Kickass Quesadillas »

Detroit-Style Pan Pizza

I've been carefully orchestrating Alicia's pizza-eating experience since before birth, starting with ensuring that my wife Adri ate only the finest pizzas while she was pregnant. Currently I'm using a historical approach to her education. She started with Neapolitan, then moved on to New York-style slices. Next on her agenda is a New Haven-style apizza which would complete her tour of the offerings from the three pizza capitals of the world.

New Haven, New York, and Napoli may be the cheese-and-tomato-topped-bread capitols of the world, but Detroit, with its signature rectangular pies originally baked in blue steel pans used in the automotive industry, certainly deserves a seat at the United Nations of Pizza. My recipe is the culmination of a years-long love affair with Detroit-style pizza, delivering an extra-crispy crust with a tall, airy, and chewy crumb, a balanced tomato sauce, and of course those signature blackened crispy cheese edges. I can't wait for her to try it.

Get the recipe and technique for Detroit-Style Pan Pizza »

Pasta Primavera

Once a classic, pasta primavera has suffered from the Olive Garden-ification effect where lightness, freshness, and seasonality go out the window for more cheese, more cream, and more year-round uniformity. There's nothing wrong with creamy dishes you can eat year round, but dammit, I want my pasta primavera to actually taste like spring.

This recipe only works for a few months out of the year when those green spring vegetables—asparagus, peas, fava beans, snap peas, etc.—are at their sweetest, snappiest, and most tender. And what a good few months those are! My version of the dish uses a technique I learned from Melissa Clark at the New York Times, who uses crème fraîche to bind her sauce together. It all gets lightened up with some fresh lemon juice and parsley.

Alicia hasn't been of eating age during spring yet, but boy does she love pasta and vegetables. I have a feeling she'll do just fine with this one.

Get the recipe and technique for Pasta Primavera »

Egg-in-a-Hole for You and Your Spawn

OK, here's a secret*: I really like cooking for Alicia and she really seems to enjoy eating what I cook. Sometimes** I even succumb to the temptation to make everything cute and and put together teeny-tiny mini versions of my food for her. Tiny sandwiches, tiny salads, tiny pancakes, tiny bowls of noodles, tiny quesadillas, tiny stir-fries, etc. This particular one is probably the cutest thing I've ever seen my own two hands make. You start by cutting a circle out of a slice of bread, then frying it up with an egg in the middle. Meanwhile, you cut a smaller circle inside the circle you just cut out and fry a second, smaller quail egg inside that new hole. One slice of toast, two different eggs, and you've got a nice little breakfast for you and your spawn.

*not a secret.

**all the time

I haven't found eggs small enough to dive in a third layer. Yet.

Get the recipe and technique for Egg-in-a-Hole for You and Your Spawn »

Erdäpfelsalat

Have I mentioned I'm opening a restaurant soon? I am! Wursthall, a German and Austrian-style beer hall is gonna be opening up near my home in San Mateo around February 2018. A while back, I was debating whether to put Austrian or German-style potato salad on the menu. A "research" trip through Austria and Bavaria, where I fell in love with Austrian erdäpfelsalat, helped me decide. It's looser and creamier than an American or German potato salad, yet contains very little fat. Instead, it's dressed with vinegar, aromatics, and broth (typically a white beef or chicken broth), along with just a touch of oil.

One problem with making Austrian potato salad in the United States is that it's impossible to find those uniquely sweet and earthy yellow Austrian potatoes, but I've found that so long as pure authenticity of flavor is not your goal (authenticity is way overrated), some good American potatoes can make a salad that's equally tasty, if a little different.

Get the recipe and technique for Erdäpfelsalat »

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice

Alright, so Alicia may like pasta and vegetables and fruit and meat and bread and cheese and everything else, but she loves beans. She can sit for a full half hour*** at a stretch, diligently picking up a single bean at a time between her thumb and forefinger (the only utensils she's currently proficient with) and carefully transferring it to her tongue, using her eight baby teeth to mash them up.

I also love beans, and it's hard to think of a bean dish I love more than New Orleans Red Beans and Rice. It's smoky, spicy, hearty, and supremely comforting. But, for a dish so complex in flavor, the preparation and ingredient list are pretty simple: a few vegetables to start, a handful of common pantry spices, a couple of fresh herbs, some chunks of pork, and some red kidney beans.

***It's amazing how much time compression occurs as a new parent. I get a full half hour of quiet time?!? Think of everything I can accomplish!

Get the recipe and technique for New Orleans Red Beans and Rice »

Asking me to pick my favorite Special Sauce episodes of the year is like asking a father to choose his favorite child. In many ways, I love every episode equally. Why? For the same reasons I love Serious Eats as a whole: I like putting together a strong team and watching each member do their thing.

In the case of Special Sauce, that means the teamwork of Associate Producer Marissa Chen and producer/editor extraordinaire Marty Goldensohn; the editors at Serious Eats; and you, our listeners. Between selecting and researching guests, structuring and conducting the 90-minute interview, editing it in post-production, and writing up an article to accompany the audio, each Special Sauce episode is really a microcosm of Serious Eats as a whole. Both on the site and on Special Sauce we're trying to tell the best, most well-informed food-related stories in whatever form is appropriate, be it a recipe or technique, a video, a feature, or an equipment review.

All that being said, after great deliberation, I've chosen five Special Sauce episodes that I think exemplify the best audio storytelling we do. I hope I haven't offended my other Special Sauce "children," the other 45 we produced this year, because each of those contains many unforgettable gems as well.

Special Sauce is available on iTunes, Google Play Music, Soundcloud, Player FM, and Stitcher. You can also find the archive of all our episodes here on Serious Eats and on this RSS feed.

Adam Driver

[Photograph: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP]

How did we end up getting Last Jedi star Adam Driver on Special Sauce? Well, it turns out that one of Kenji's sisters is good friends with Adam's wife. Adam's approach to his work, along with his newfound love of cooking (which came from, among other things, reading Kenji's recipe for meatloaf), became the basis for two great episodes of Special Sauce. Though Adam is a Juilliard grad, he movingly explained that his craft, and the capacity for empathy it demands, developed as much from his experience in the Marines as it did from his classical acting training.

When it comes to food, Adam admits that his eating habits are more than a little idiosyncratic—when Kenji cooked dinner for Adam and his wife, he ate a bowl of cereal a few minutes after the meal was over. And this is not an unusual occurrence. As to why he went through a period of eating a whole chicken every day for lunch, Adam said, "I don't know. I couldn't answer that. I put myself on this big physical regime coming right from the military that I thought was...to challenge myself, and a whole chicken was part of it. One day I had a whole chicken and a foot-long sub from Subway and I'm like, 'This has got to stop.'" Adam Driver is that rarest of birds—a thoughtful, non-self absorbed movie star who engaged in real conversation with me, a total stranger (though we do have Kenji and his sister in common). Maybe that's why I loved his Special Sauce episodes so much.

Listen to part one and part two of Adam Driver on Special Sauce.

Helen You

[Photograph: Ed Anderson]

Helen You is the owner of Dumpling Galaxy, the finest dumpling shop in New York City, and coauthor of The Dumpling Galaxy Cookbook, written alongside former Serious Eats editor Max Falkowitz. Her dumplings are world-class, with delicate, almost translucent wrappers and distinctively flavorful fillings. But as good as her dumplings are, it's Helen's remarkable personal story that moves me most.

Helen grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. When she was a little girl, her political activist father was sent to a labor camp, where he remained for 22 years. Helen, abandoned by her friends, became a pariah at her school. But she found refuge in her mother's kitchen, where her mother and grandmother made dumplings every day. When Helen was 12, she started making monthly 20-hour sojourns to deliver some of those dumplings to her imprisoned father. Eventually, Helen made her way to America. She spoke no English when she arrived, but nonetheless managed to put herself through school and become an accountant, and ultimately to open up a tiny dumpling stall in a basement food court in Flushing's Chinatown. The rest, as they say—and as you'll find out when you listen—is dumpling history.

Listen to Helen You on Special Sauce »

Marcus Samuelsson

[Photograph: Matt Dutile]

Chef, restaurateur, and humanitarian Marcus Samuelsson didn't have an easy start. When Marcus was a little boy in Ethiopia, he and his entire family fell victim to a country-wide tuberculosis epidemic. His heroic mother carried him and his sister 75 miles to a hospital in an effort to save them. Miraculously, the three did in fact make it to the hospital. Tragically, though Marcus and his sister survived, his mother did not. In our interview, Marcus admits that he is still haunted by the fact that he's never seen a picture of his mom. You'll also hear the remarkable discovery that Marcus made years later, after he had found a new home with his adoptive family in Sweden.

Marcus' journey from Ethiopia to Sweden to restaurants in Europe to chef stardom in the States would be deemed far-fetched by any movie executive. Amazingly it's true, as you'll hear on Special Sauce. It makes for riveting listening; you won't be disappointed.

Listen to part one and part two of Marcus Samuelsson on Special Sauce.

Andrew Rea

[Photograph: Katie McKinney]

Kenji hipped me to Andrew Rea's terrific show Binging With Babish. Its ingenious conceit—trying to create or recreate dishes found on television shows and movies—is so deftly executed it may have restored my faith in YouTube cooking shows. How Binging With Babish became a viral phenomenon, with two million subscribers and counting, involves an unlikely road map and journey indeed. As with most successful things, it starts with hard work, insane focus, and sheer determination. Anyone interested in creating something of meaning with value in the digital realm should listen to what Andrew has to say.

Listen to part one and part two of Andrew Rea on Special Sauce.

Seth Godin

[Photograph: Brian Bloom]

Seth Godin is a serial entrepreneur, an insanely prolific and thought-provoking blogger and author, and one of the most inspiring people I've ever had the good fortune to have lunch with. His book Tribes should be required reading for anyone interested in embarking on the less-traveled path to career satisfaction. Consider his take on failure: "You can't make the fear go away, you have to learn to dance with it. Pablo Picasso painted 10,000 paintings, only a hundred of them are amazing, fifty changed the world, which means he failed 9,900 times." I also love Seth's definition of an artist: "What it means to be an artist is to do work that matters in a human way that changes someone else."

Given the particular path I took to start Serious Eats, I was especially interested in what he'd have to say. Our interview is an edifying dive into what it takes to run a passion-driven business.

Listen to Seth Godin on Special Sauce »

2017 has been a pretty great year for Serious Eats. We've broken traffic records left and right, we've been lucky enough to hire some amazing new colleagues, and we've managed to crank out some top notch recipes, techniques, and features, all while juggling a host of different complicating factors—three babies were born (!), one of the head honchos got married (!!), and half the office got addicted to a silly trivia game on their iPhones (!!!). Here are some of our team's favorite pieces of content from the year.

East, West, Then Backward: Falling for Groundnut Soup in Ghana

[Illustration: Laura Freeman]

A study abroad trip to Ghana leaves a student of color feeling profoundly othered, withdrawn from both his fellow travelers and the community he’d hoped would embrace him. The significance of food, family, and mealtimes courses through each juncture of the narrative—and lands the reader with an incredibly delicious recipe for peanutty, meaty groundnut soup.

It’s a moving and beautifully composed piece, but it's the author’s powerful honesty and introspection that make this piece such an engaging read. Sara’o Bery is a longtime friend, which doesn’t always bode well for a joint professional undertaking, but in this case, I couldn’t be more thrilled to have played a part in giving this piece an audience. —Niki Achitoff-Gray, executive managing editor

Read the full story about Ghanaian groundnut soup »

Grilling With Vinegar

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

I have a lot of reasons to pick Michael Harlan Turkell's summertime series on grilling with vinegar as my favorite post(s) of the year. First, selfishly, because it meant that I got to hang out with him multiple times throughout the summer as we worked our way through his recipes, using a grill we'd set up on a rooftop in Brooklyn. Standing in the sunshine and drinking cold beers with a friend while grilling up a storm is about as good as my job gets. But on top of that, I just love his recipes: He has so many creative, unexpected, and goddamned delicious ideas for how to use vinegar in grilled foods. There are the burgers spiked with Japanese black vinegar, dripping with melted cheese and slathered with a black olive mayo; there's the tart and herbal chimichurri sauce spooned not onto the obvious steak but sweet and plump grilled squash instead; a Spanish-inspired grilled scallion and endive salad topped with a creamy, nutty, and spicy sauce; and—who can forget—grilled peaches on grilled poundcake with a perfectly sweet-sour cider-caramel sauce that should be a classic all on its own. —Daniel Gritzer, managing culinary director

Read our full series on grilling with vinegar »

Cheesy Bread Is Absurdly Good, No Matter What You Call It

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Writing a post about cheesy bread could so easily become, well, cheesy. But Sohla's cheesy bread post was so full of easy-to-digest, cheese-filled wit and wisdom I almost forgot it was about one of my favorite snacks in the world. Her post had me at the second line: "In our wedding vows, my husband promised to have and to hold and to always keep the fridge stocked with three varieties of cheddar." She makes baking them sound like the easiest thing in the world, and for an unconfident baker like me, that is incredibly reassuring. And when you get to the end of the post, be prepared for one of the great visual kickers in Serious Eats' eleven-year history. Thank you, Vicky Wasik. —Ed Levine, founder

Dive into the cheesy bread experience »

The Definitive Guide to Eggs

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

When I first started at Serious Eats earlier this year, the team was deep in the throes of developing The Definitive Guide to Eggs, a.k.a. "The Egg Page." It was a gargantuan effort of collecting techniques, creating guides to the different shapes and sizes, decoding the terms and labels you find on the carton...the list goes on. It was perhaps the best way to get to know my new team. From the videos produced by the culinary and visual teams, to the user-friendly experience designed by our dev team, to every quick-hitting blurb written and edited by the editorial team, everything came together in a smart and savvy product. I've come to learn that such a product is standard at Serious Eats, thanks to the talented folks I get to call coworkers. —Kristina Bornholtz, social media editor

Explore the Serious Eats Definitive Guide to Eggs »

Chaat Your Mouth: How to Make the South Asian Street Food at Home

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

I love how Sohla’s recipes often start with a story. From the first line, you’re with her in that airplane cabin hurtling its way towards Dhaka, tightly packed in with relatives and strangers alike passing the time by flinging heated opinions to and fro on what constitutes the best chaat, where to get it, and even when to consume it to mitigate the effects of certain digestive ailments. It sets the scene for how you should think about chaat: as a chaotic, beautiful mess of personal preferences synthesized and represented in a dish. It’s customizable, highly subjective, and somewhat hard to pin down, but Sohla does just that. She hands you the essential components, a roadmap to the key flavor profiles, and a dizzyingly detailed but comprehensively clear breakdown of the adjustments you can make to create a satisfying version of your own. My favorite part? How she describes kala namak, personified as a condiment with attitude that lends the dish’s foundational chaat masala spice blend “a bossy bit of savory funk.” Lyrical genius. —Marissa Chen, office manager

Read all about chaat »

Staff Picks: Our Favorite Fictional Foods

[Illustration: Katie Shelly]

Spending hours of my day geeking out with my coworkers about the most fantastic scenes of food and drink from our favorite childhood books and movies isn't what I'd call "work." Neither is having a serious discussion over whether the two pizza slices in the Saturday Night Fever illustration should be neatly stacked or remain slightly splayed, and whether the central figure was adequately representative of Tony Manero. Neither is eagerly, secretly reloading comments once the piece was published to see who out there might have been fascinated by some of the same things we were as kids. Writing and editing this post was delightful proof that nothing unites like youthful nerdery. —Miranda Kaplan, editor

Check out our favorite fictional foods »

How to Make a Mixed-Green Salad Like You Actually Care

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

The state of salad in this country is a sordid mess, and the problem starts with the greens. Take a stroll down the salad aisle in any supermarket and you'll see stacks upon stacks of prewashed stuff—salad mixes and plastic clamshells filled with insipid "baby" lettuces—as if all good taste had been sacrificed to the great god of Convenience. There is a reason bottled salad dressing is so aggressive, so cloyingly sweet: Good greens don't need much more than a little acid and good olive oil, or a light vinaigrette. Daniel offers up what might seem like remedially simple advice in this post, but it's advice that is sorely needed. Salad shouldn't be a chore to make, or to eat; salad should be celebrated, from the moment you purchase the greens until you finish your plate. All it takes is a little care, a little inspiration in the supermarket aisle, a tiny wee bit of patience once in a while, and you'll be surprised at how much you look forward to the salad portion of a meal. —Sho Spaeth, features editor

Read more about how to step up your salad game »

The Best Things I Ate in Japan

[Photographs: Daniel Gritzer]

I've never been obsessed with the idea of seeing (or eating my way through) Japan. I love traveling, sure, and Japan is on my list, but it was never particularly high on my list until I edited Daniel's essay on his favorite bites from a visit there. This is not a travel piece, not a series of restaurant reviews, and not a primer on Japanese foods that are uncommon in the West, but it includes elements of all three, and the result is a low-key window into the country's cuisine that makes it seem simultaneously more approachable and more exciting to me than before. It just might convince you that blowfish sperm is a thing you want to put in your mouth. —Miranda Kaplan, editor

Join Daniel on his culinary adventure through Japan »

The Food Lab: How to Make Kickass Quesadillas

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Kenji's "Kickass Quesadilla" post is probably the one I used the most this year. There are three recipes attached, but let's be honest, you don't need them. If you're anything like me, your quesadillas are rarely pre-planned beyond gazing into your fridge and realizing you have tortillas, cheese, maybe some random leftovers/vegetables/pickles, and a strong desire not to go outside. That's really all you need to make a good quesadilla, but if you read Kenji's tips and apply them, you'll almost certainly make a great one. —Paul Cline, developer

Check out our quesadilla pro-tips »

The Pho I Lost

[Photograph: Max Falkowitz]

I have the pleasure of sitting next to Sho at the office. While I sometimes jokingly refer to him as the office curmudgeon, he has come to be a good friend and I appreciate how discerning he is about pretty much everything. I think this friendship really developed after I read his story about pho, taste memory, and his mother. I admired the courage (and ability) it took to write about and share the feelings and memories he describes. And the fact that he can eat two bowls of pho in one sitting (and do that every day for two-and-a-half weeks) is just...well, that's something to respect. —Ariel Kanter, marketing director

Read about Sho's long-lost pho »

For the Most Flavorful Piña Colada, Freeze Everything

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

The piña colada is one of those things—like pasta —that is surprisingly hard to get a good version of when you’re eating out. Growing up, the PC was a special-occasion drink and my mom’s go-to at our family’s Italian weddings. That’s where I first had one, at around 12 years old, when she ordered a small (not virgin) one for me—God bless European parents. I love Daniel’s story because the big tip—to freeze everything—is that one little step that can make your shopping trip to buy coconut cream worth it. Trust me, I made several batches of these while testing blenders and it works. The taste is sweet, but not too sweet, with clean, creamy coconut and pineapple flavors, and just the right amount of rum. —Sal Vaglica, equipment editor

Learn how to make piña coladas like a boss »

What Is "Traditional" Soju?: A Spirited Debate

[Photograph: Emily Dryden]

I like to think I know a little bit about Korea: I've had Korean friends my entire life, I've been there more than a few times, and my father has lived in Seoul for close to a decade now. So I also thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about soju, the nation's ubiquitous and beloved liquor. When we got the pitch for this piece, what struck me most wasn't just my own ignorance about soju's long history (I am never, ever surprised by the depths of my ignorance); it was how little had been written about the liquor anywhere else. This was an untold story in English, one that we were in a unique position to be able to offer a wide audience. Add to that the fact that in delving into the story of what "traditional" soju is, Josh managed to weave into the narrative much of what makes South Korea such a remarkable place—its ultra rapid industrialization and modernization, its skyrocketing cultural capital—and I can say without a doubt that it was my favorite feature of 2017. It was a privilege to publish it. —Sho Spaeth, features editor

Read more about soju »

How Oreos Got Their Name: The Rise of an American Icon

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Nothing grabs my attention more than the thrilling histories behind iconic foods. Lucky, that's Stella's forte, as she dives deep into the corporate intrigue and betrayal behind the beloved biscuit. Walking down the snack aisle has never felt the same after reading about the cutthroat cookie war that culminated with Oreo taking the throne. I'm eagerly awaiting the movie adaptation. —Sohla El-Waylly, assistant culinary editor

A rich and totally unexpected look at the origin of Oreos, by the one and only Stella Parks. I am lucky enough to work with Stella once a month, where I have the pleasure of witnessing her deep knowledge base and attention to detail first-hand. It's front and center in this piece, as is her intense curiosity about all things pastry-related. Her approachable and snarky style makes it all the more enjoyable—phrases like "they might as well have told Oreos to get off their lawn" pepper the piece throughout. Humor aside, it's a zippy and fun exploration of a history you never knew you wanted to know. —Natalie Holt, video producer

Get the full history of Oreos »

A Losers' Thanksgiving: No One Knows Your Name (But All Are Welcome)

[Illustration: Alex Citrin]

This story had me hooked from the get-go and held me straight through til the end, a tale of frozen misery, daring hope, social ambition, and conquering life with pie. —Stella Parks, pastry wizard

Read Sohla's heartwarming holiday tale »

Obsessed: A Man and His Mold

[Photograph: Chris Anderson]

Man, Rich Shih is smart. And he's passionate as hell. His responses to the interview questions in this article are so in-depth and intelligent that you might think they were heavily edited, but I had the pleasure of meeting Rich (and making miso with him) in the office, and he really is that knowledgable. And that knowledge is built on a fervent curiosity. This isn't his day job—it isn't even related—but he is all-in on his koji project, devoting years to researching and experimenting with the stuff. I can attest to the results being delicious. The article is also accompanied by gorgeous photographs of close-up mold spores and fermented products. Kudos to Sho and his wonderful "Obsessed" series about the passionate amateur and professional foodies of this world. —Tim Aikens, front-end developer

Catch the koji bug, right this way »

For the Lightest, Crispiest Granola, Grab the Buttermilk

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

When Stella told me she was developing a granola recipe to shoot on her next trip up to NYC, I didn't give it a second thought. I mean, granola is great and all, but why would I spend the time making it when I can easily pop into my corner grocery store and grab any of the 10 varieties they have in stock at any given time? And then I ate it. And then I ate MORE of it. And then I took the entire jar from the photoshoot home and finished it in less than a week. This is the most addictive snack I've ever had. And it's granola so...it's good for you...right? I made it a few weeks later when my craving kicked in. It's definitely a labor of love, but well worth the effort! —Vicky Wasik, visual director

Find out what makes Stella's granola so great »

The Best Chicken Pot Pie, With Biscuits or Pastry

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Chicken pot pie is one of those recipes I’ve always been too intimidated to tackle; all my life I’ve resorted to frozen Marie Callender’s. Don’t get me wrong, those frozen pies are still delicious, but when Stella came out with her savory pie, it gave me the confidence to give it a try. Who knew making the roux would turn out to be so easy? I also love having the freedom to add whatever fillings I want, and it's now a crowd favorite among my friends and family. I even got my roommate to give it a try, too, which means double the pot pies at home! —Vivian Kong, designer

Dig into some chicken pot pie »

2017 was a big year for video here at Serious Eats. We ramped up our production significantly, producing well over 100 (!) new videos, and our (very small!) video team has, in our humble opinion, done an excellent job of translating all the elements that make our cooking techniques and recipes so successful to the new medium—clear instructions, sound science, and just a dash of entertainment along the way. Since they mostly work in secret, the rest of us tend to only see the fruits of their efforts when the videos go live on the site, so it's pretty common to hear "oohs" and "ahs" all across the office any time a new video gets published.

Without further ado, here are our favorite videos of the year.

Roast Rack of Pork, 2 Ways

[Video: Serious Eats Video]

I absolutely love this video. Firstly, because I never knew that a crown roast was just two large loins tied together. Secondly, the illustrations are adorable and informative. And finally, you get to see Daniel in his element. While Daniel's culinary expertise is all over the site, embedded in his recipes and stories, you don't see his face very often, or get a chance to experience what he does behind-the-scenes. This video gives a little snippet into how knowledgable he is and, more importantly, how goofy he can be. Have you ever seen someone put his hand through a crown roast like a horror-movie villain and then cook it to perfection? I think not. —Ariel Kanter, marketing director

“Daniel Gritzer Fondles Pork in an Educational and Illustrative Way.” “Serious Eats Ups Its Sizzling-Sound-Effects Game to Excellent, Mouthwatering Effect.” “This Video Will Give You Alien Flashbacks. We Won’t Tell You When.” None of these alternate titles are particularly pithy or helpful or any better than the video’s actual title, “Roast Rack of Pork, 2 Ways,” but the sentiments still ring true. It’s a video I’ve watched a quite a few times now for its thorough and engaging breakdown of tips and tricks, with the occasional rewind for its pure entertainment value—especially to watch Daniel sing made-up ditties to himself. —Marissa Chen, office manager

Read more about how to make rack of pork or crown roast of pork »

How to Make the Best Salmon Burgers

[Video: Vicky Wasik]

The videos that have been the most fun and rewarding for me to work on this past year have been the longer-form ones where I get to go deeper into one of my recipes, like my crazy fresh tomato sauce, or a technique we're fond of on the site, like dry-brining a turkey. I'm proud of those videos, and I think we get better and better at them the more we do (and I'm getting marginally better at them the more I do, though I have plenty of room for improvement despite what my kind colleagues say), but I think my favorite has to be our short-form guide to making better salmon burgers. First, there's the perfectly generic '80s-style synthpop track that sets a light, bopping pace. Then there are the shots of hand-chopping the salmon and the patties going into the hot oil, which Vicky sped up to synch to the music. It's just fun to watch. And to top it off, we manage to work in just enough real explanation for why the recipe works, without weighing down the video with in avalanche of explanatory captions. It's more informative than most of those awful hands-only cooking videos clogging up the internet these days, and it retains the snappiness that makes them so easy to digest. —Daniel Gritzer, managing culinary director

Read more about how to make the best salmon burgers »

BraveTart's Homemade Oreo Cookies

[Video: Natalie Holt]

Slow-mo shots of homemade Oreos slam-dunking in milk. It really speaks for itself. —Kristina Bornholtz, social media editor

This video takes the cake (cookie?) for most attempts at dunking a cookie, and most cookies eaten in one sitting. By me. In my life, ever. (When milk-drenched homemade Oreos are sitting in front of you, you simply have no choice in the matter.) Once we discovered the power of a camera that can record 960 frames per second (that’s about FORTY TIMES SLOWER than real life) combined with the magic of a cookie plunging into milk, we just could not stop dunkin’. Add technicolor backgrounds to the mix, and we were literally screaming as we watched the playback. I dare you to find a more mesmerizing thing than these bursting waves of milk. —Natalie Holt, video producer

We had so much fun shooting those slow-mo dunks! Milk went EVERYWHERE but it was worth it. —Vicky Wasik, visual director

Read more about how to make homemade Oreo-style cookies »

How to Make the Best Tomato Sauce From Fresh Tomatoes

[Video: Serious Eats Video]

This video was definitely a departure for us. It's much longer than what we usually do, much more in-depth, and it allows you to see and hear Daniel talking about his method in his own words. There's a little bit of everything here: the beauty shots of the tomato bounty at the market and the slow-cooked sauce bubbling away, the helpful practical knowledge of what different tomato varieties can contribute to a sauce, and Daniel's obvious excitement for the subject at hand—when he blurts out "I love tomatoes! Tomatoes are delicious and nutritious!", it's utterly genuine. The video feels casual and approachable enough that it looks almost unplanned at times, like something he, Vicky, and Natalie decided to do on the spur of the moment. If it weren't so pretty, you'd almost believe that it was. —Miranda Kaplan, editor

Read more about how to make fresh tomato sauce »

How to Make Spaghetti Carbonara

[Video: Natalie Holt and Vicky Wasik]

This is a truly delectable recipe, but that’s not even why it’s one of my faves. (But seriously, look at those egg-y, cheese-y, guanciale-y noodles right now and tell me your mouth isn’t watering.) This was shot during an unseasonably warm week in February in a fabulous sunlight-drenched Red Hook kitchen, only a few months into my tenure at Serious Eats. It was one of my first times shooting Daniel talking to the camera as he cooked, and I had a lot of nerves going into it. But Daniel was a natural (well, duh) and the recipe went off without a hitch! I don't think I've ever put down my camera faster after a shoot to reach for a fork. Major props to Vicky Wasik and Sarah Jacobson for their work on this and also for not salivating all over our camera gear while shooting. —Natalie Holt, video producer

Read more about how to make spaghetti carbonara »

How to Make Super-Thick and Fruity Whipped Cream

[Video: Natalie Holt and Vicky Wasik]

I could watch the color-coordinated triptych of freeze-dried strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries being processed forever. —Vivian Kong, designer

Read more about how to make thick, stabilized fruity whipped cream »

How to Brine a Turkey

[Video: Serious Eats Video]

Ever since I was introduced to dry-brining, I've been making roast chicken nearly every week. Between the crispy skin and incredibly juicy meat, it's remarkable what an overnight stint in the fridge with some salt and baking powder can do to a chicken. There's a lot to love about this video from an informational perspective—and I'm all about spreading the word about dry-brining to my friends and family. But I'm especially excited about the experimentation our team did with animation and stop-motion for this project, not to mention the personality that Daniel brings to the screen. —Niki Achitoff-Gray, Managing Editor

Read more about dry brining »

How to Make Mulled Apple Cider

[Video: Vicky Wasik]

I had nothing to do with this video shoot and love it so much. I find something totally enthralling about its moody lighting, swirling cider waves, and tumbling spices. Time slows down while you watch this video, and you’ll find yourself pining after a hot spicy drink once it’s over. It’s a beautifully rich treatment of a simple recipe, and that’s no easy feat! Vicky Wasik gets all of the props of this one. —Natalie Holt, video producer

Read more about how to make mulled apple cider »

5 NYC Chefs on How to Eat a Bowl of Ramen

[Video: Natalie Holt and Vicky Wasik]

This is the best-looking video ever to appear on Serious Eats: It's well produced, well shot, and well edited. I'm far from the biggest ramen-lover at this company, but the ample slo-mo shots of swirling broth and hurtling noodles make me want to slurp up a bowl of my own. —Tim Aikens, front-end developer

I sort of hate watching this video because of the multilayered craving it inspires; it's not just that I want to eat noodles after, it's that I want all five of those bowls of noodles in front of me at the same time, which is impossible. Also, the look Joshua Smookler has on his face at the end of the video captures perfectly the satisfaction of crushing a good bowl of ramen. —Sho Spaeth, features editor

This was so fun to shoot, and not just because I got to eat all five bowls of ramen afterwards. In this video, inspired by Tampopo’s iconic “ramen master” scene, you get to see the truly spiritual views these chefs bring to bear on their ramen preparation and consumption. As Keizo Shimamoto of Ramen Shack expounded on the value of “being one with the ramen” my jaw literally dropped. It was interview gold, and also such a beautiful notion that I tried mightily to apply it as I slurped his rich ramen afterwards. And as Sho said, the look on Joshua Smookler’s face at the very end is all you need to know about how just good a bowl of ramen can be. This was also a technically difficult video to execute, with five different locations, two cameras, lights, cramped spaces, and limited time to get it all done. I loved every minute of it. —Natalie Holt, video producer

Read the full story »

How to Make Light and Tender Potato Gnocchi

[Video: Natalie Holt and Vicky Wasik]

We shot this gnocchi video in a gorgeous rented kitchen with beautiful natural light. Natalie did a great job capturing all the little gnocchi close-ups and fun moments of steamy, potato-y goodness. Even though it's hands-only, I think you still get a sense of Daniel's personality here, and it's informative enough to give someone the confidence to make gnocchi at home. —Vicky Wasik, visual director

Read more about how to make light, tender potato gnocchi »

One-Bowl Cinnamon Rolls

[Video: Natalie Holt]

Cinnamon rolls are my version of internet kittens. I could watch videos about baking and icing these treats for an embarrassing amount of time. This video scratches that itch, and Stella also drops in a few game-changing pro tips, like use a piping bag to add the filling and dental floss to slice the rolls. —Sal Vaglica, equipment editor

Read more about how to make one-bowl cinnamon rolls »

How to Store Fresh Herbs

[Video: Vicky Wasik]

Many of my weeks would end in the same horrific scene, pulling soggy herbs out of the crisper drawer and tossing them into the trash. This video has shown me that I've been doing it all wrong! If you treat them well, fresh herbs can last long enough for you to use them up. I now feel free to buy herbs with abandon, knowing confidently that they’ll stay equally fresh from the first pluck to the last. —Sohla El-Waylly, assistant culinary editor

Read more about how to store fresh herbs »

How to Make Tiramisu

[Video: Natalie Holt]

Tiramisu isn't exactly the world's most photogenic dessert, but this video manages to capture it in all its glory in the most beautiful light. —Stella Parks, pastry wizard

Read more about how to make tiramisu »

How to Assemble a Chocolate Cherry Layer Cake

[Video: Vicky Wasik]

On a cold day in January, I was hanging out with Stella at her Airbnb while she was in NY for her monthly photoshoot/recipe testing trip, and she made a chocolate cherry cake. I had my camera on hand, and we decided to make a spur of the moment cake frosting video. No lights, no fancy gear; just my camera, a tripod, and a cake. Cooking for video isn't always easy, and I often have to contort Stella's hands into odd positions in order to get the right camera angle, but here I just let her do her thing and hit record. It's simple, one angle, natural light, but I find it really soothing and pleasant to watch. —Vicky Wasik, visual director

Read more about how to make chocolate-cherry layer cake »

The Tongmaster 2000 in Action

[Video: Sal Vaglica]

I'm consistently impressed by the work of the people on our video team, who often work under conditions that are less than ideal, but I'm going to go way off into left field for my pick. This video, which is all of 25 seconds long and contains no dialogue, shows Sal (or his torso at least), in his backyard, with a jig rigged up to a pair of kitchen tongs. He's testing what I believe became our winning pair of tongs to see what kind of abuse they can take. It's sort of our strange Serious Eats version of the IKEA Poang chair test. I'll certainly never do that to my tongs, but I'm glad Sal did. —Paul Cline, developer

Read more about how we tested kitchen tongs »

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik, J. Kenji López-Alt]

New Year's Eve scares me a little bit—I normally try to turn in fairly early, so any time I'm partying past midnight I know I'm going to drink too much. The obviously solution is just to have a little self-control and alternate booze and water, but, despite my best intentions, I have a feeling I will wake up on January 1st with a hangover.

If I can't keep myself from being hungover, at least I can make sure I have food on hand to nurse myself back to health. To that end, we've got 18 hangover-friendly breakfast recipes for New Year's Day, whether you're looking for something simple like fried eggs or granola, or a total gut-buster like a croque madame or junk-food migas.

Fried Eggs Your Way

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

If you're looking for a simple breakfast, it's hard to beat a plate of eggs. We have fried egg recipes to suite every taste:sunny-side up (for the ultimate simplicity), over-easy (for perfectly cooked whites every time) or really fried (for crispy edges).

Get the recipe for Crispy Fried Eggs »

Get the recipe for Classic Over-Easy Fried Eggs »

Get the recipe for Sunny-Side Up Fried Eggs »

Scrambled Eggs Your Way

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

Fried eggs aren't hard, but they take a little more finesse than I'm capable of after the wildest nights out. On the other hand, I can pretty much always muster the strength to make scrambled eggs. As with fried eggs, we have a variety of recipes to choose from—varying the heat of the pan and the amount of stirring can make eggs that are fluffy, slightly soft, or super soft and spoonable.

Get the recipe for Fluffy Scrambled Eggs »

Get the recipe for Soft-Scrambled Eggs »

Get the recipe for French-Style Soft, Spoonable Scrambled Eggs »

Waffle-Iron Hash Browns

[Photograph: Daniel Shumski]

Need something to serve with the eggs? Potatoes are a great way to bulk up your breakfast. You can't go wrong with perfectly crispy hash browns—we like to use a waffle iron to give them a crunchy exterior and smooth interior. Moisture is the enemy of hash browns, so squeeze as much water out of the shredded potatoes as you possibly can before cooking them.

Get the recipe for Waffle-Iron Hash Browns »

Scrambled Egg and Cheese Drop-Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches

[Photograph: Daniel Gritzer]

My go-to move when I have a hangover is to make scrambled eggs with an amount of cheese that a more reasonable person might describe as insane. This recipe should give you a good idea of what I'm talking about—it has so much mozzarella that you might confuse it for queso fundido. Making biscuits might sound like too much work, but they only take 15 minutes of active work.

Get the recipe for Scrambled Egg and Cheese Drop-Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches »

Doritos Migas With Pepper Jack, Tomatoes, and Jalapeño

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If I'm letting a professional cook me breakfast on New Year's Day, I might go with a plate of traditional migas, but if I'm at home there's no way I'm going to fry up a batch of homemade tortilla chips. I'll probably go low-brow and use crumbled Doritos instead, mixing them with scrambled eggs, onions, jalapeños, tomatoes, and plenty of pepper jack cheese.

Get the recipe for Doritos Migas With Pepper Jack, Tomatoes, and Jalapeño »

Vegan Migas (Mexican-Style Fried Tortillas With Tofu)

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

I know a lot of you like to drown your hangovers in eggs and cheese, but I'm sure our vegan readers get drunk, too. This vegan variation on migas is made with silken tofu, which has a similar creaminess to soft-scrambled eggs. We shallow-fry the chips to make them a little easier—they don't need to be perfectly crisp.

Get the recipe for Vegan Migas (Mexican-Style Fried Tortillas With Tofu) »

BraveTart: One-Bowl, Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

If you're anticipating being out of commission on New Year's Day, you might want to consider preparing breakfast ahead of time. Almost all the work for these cinnamon rolls can be done a day in advance—all you have to do when you drag yourself out of bed is throw them in the oven and pipe on the icing when they're finished baking.

Get the recipe for BraveTart: One-Bowl, Overnight Cinnamon Rolls »

Crisp Homemade Granola

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

After a really debaucherous night my stomach can't usually handle anything too intense—I'm more likely to be nursing something more mild. One of my top choices is yogurt topped with a homemade granola made with raw pumpkin seeds, almonds, pecans, dried apricots, tart cherries, and blueberries.

Get the recipe for Crisp Homemade Granola »

Ultra-Smashed Brunch Burgers With Quick Jalapeño Hollandaise

[Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg]

If you're more into gut-busting hangover cures then ignore the rest of our list and go straight for this monstrosity. Enough to scare any hangover into submission, we make this epic brunch burger by serving a crispy smashed patty on an English muffin with bacon, avocado, Colby Jack, a fried egg, and spicy jalapeño Hollandaise.

Get the recipe for Ultra-Smashed Brunch Burgers With Quick Jalapeño Hollandaise »

Rich and Creamy Croques Madames

[Photograph: Vicky Wasik]

I hope you didn't actually stop reading, because I've got another ultra-rich breakfast for you. The croque madame is a brunch classic made by setting a fried egg atop a croque monsieur, which itself is a rich sandwich made with ham, Dijon mustard, and both grated cheese and a silky Mornay sauce.

Get the recipe for Rich and Creamy Croques Madames »

Sweet Potato, Sage, and Fried Egg Tacos

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

My not-at-all-expert opinion is that you need carbs to soak up booze, and these tacos have plenty. We make them by stuffing warm corn tortillas with sautéed sweet potatoes, then topping with fried eggs. When you break into the yolk it blends with the hot sauce and crema to make a simple but comforting sauce.

Get the recipe for Sweet Potato, Sage, and Fried Egg Tacos »

Quick and Easy Huevos Rancheros With Tomato-Chili Salsa

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Huevos rancheros—fried tortillas, runny fried eggs, and plenty of salsa—is an easy dish that takes only half an hour even if you make our homemade tomato and red chili salsa. It's totally doable on a hangover, but on New Year's Day I won't blame you for making the dish even simpler by using jarred salsa.

Get the recipe for Quick and Easy Huevos Rancheros With Tomato-Chili Salsa »

Diner-Style Ham and Cheese Omelette for Two

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

There are times for elegant French omelettes and times for hearty American ones, and I think you know which is more appropriate after one too many glasses of sparkling wine. Diner-style omelettes are all about the big, fluffy curds, which you get by being careful not to overwork the eggs. Feel free to stuff the omelette however you want—diced ham and cheddar is always a good choice.

Get the recipe for Diner-Style Ham and Cheese Omelette for Two »

Homemade Egg McMuffin

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

I used to live right next door to a McDonald's, so I ate more Egg McMuffins than I'm proud of. These days, though, if I'm craving those flavors, I'll make the sandwich myself. There are a couple tricks to keep in mind: Cooking the egg in a Mason jar lid gives it the perfect shape and wrapping the sandwich in foil after assembly melts the cheese and softens the English muffin.

Get the recipe for the Homemade Egg McMuffin »

Sausage Gravy

[Photograph: Joshua Bousel]

Regardless of how much I drink the night before, there are few breakfasts I love as much as creamy sausage gravy. Our recipe is pretty standard—roux, pork sausage, milk—but gives you the option of adding chopped fresh sage and dried red pepper flakes for extra flavor. Don't forget the biscuits—our two-ingredient recipe is too easy to skip.

Get the recipe for Sausage Gravy »

Shakshuka (North African-Style Poached Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Shakshuka is impressive enough for a fancy brunch but simple enough for a rough morning. The dish is extremely versatile—our version is made with charred onion, red pepper, and chilies; spices like paprika and cumin; and of course tomatoes and eggs. Spoon some of the sauce over the egg whites before covering the pan to help them cook at the same speed as the yolks.

Get the recipe for Shakshuka (North African-Style Poached Eggs in Spicy Tomato Sauce) »

Tamago Kake Gohan (Japanese-Style Rice With Egg)

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Not everyone is going to want to start the New Year with raw eggs, but this Japanese breakfast dish is rich, comforting, and incredibly easy to make. All you have to do is microwave leftover rice; mix it with a raw egg, soy sauce, salt, and a pinch of MSG; and top with furikake and a raw egg yolk.

Get the recipe for Tamago Kake Gohan (Japanese-Style Rice With Egg) »

30-Minute Pressure Cooker Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup)

[Photograph: J. Kenji López-Alt]

Pho is typically eaten for breakfast in Vietnam and chicken soup is a beloved cure-all in the West, so we think that a morning bowl of pho makes perfect sense as a hangover cure. The traditional technique of simmering the soup for hours probably won't do you much good on New Year's Day, but with a pressure cooker you can make a totally respectable version in just 30 minutes.

Get the recipe for 30-Minute Pressure Cooker Pho Ga (Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup) »

It's been an exciting year for us at Serious Eats. We welcomed three new editors to team—Assistant Culinary Editor Sohla El-Waylly, Equipment Editor Sal Vaglica, and Social Media Editor Kristina Bornholtz—and settled into our new digs at Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. We've created a record number of videos, added regular equipment reviews to our content rotation, and churned out weekly episodes of the Special Sauce podcast, all in addition to the features, techniques, and recipes you know and (hopefully) love. Here's a look at the content you clicked on most over the course of 2017.

The Reverse Sear Is the Best Way to Cook a Steak, Period

[Photograph: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]

Reverse searing is a stunningly simple technique that's virtually guaranteed to change the way you cook steak. Gently heating the meat in a low oven cooks it evenly throughout, not unlike a sous vide set-up. Then we finish it over high heat on the stovetop to give it a beautiful burnished crust. The result is a meat with little to no temperature gradient, but the same browned, crisp exterior of a conventionally cooked steak. Kenji's been promoting the method for years, and now we finally have a definitive post on the subject.

Read on for our step-by-step guide to reverse-searing steak »

How to Roast Spatchcock Chicken (Butterflied Chicken)

If you regularly read our site, you know that spatchcocking is hands-down our preferred way to prepare poultry for roasting. Removing the bird's spine allows you to butterfly the meat, providing a more even surface that promotes faster, more even cooking. That means perfectly roasted chicken in under an hour, with moist breast meat and tender thighs. In this post, Kenji walks you through the technique from start to finish; the result is some of the juiciest, crisp-skinned roast chicken you'll ever taste.

Learn how to spatchcock right this way »

How to Make Pressure-Cooker Chicken Stock

There are myriad excellent uses for a pressure cooker—it makes quick work of stews, soups, and even rice for the easiest risotto you'll ever cook. Case in point? This chicken stock recipe, which takes under an hour to make but tastes just as good as a batch that's simmered on the stovetop for half the day.

Read on for quick, foolproof chicken stock »

Introducing the Fat Flash, the Best Way to Finish Your Steak

In the world of meat nerdery, there's a great debate over whether or not to rest meat after cooking. Some argue that a rest is necessary to retain a steak's juices; others insist that resting results in the softening of the meat's crisp, satisfying crust. Kenji, never one to compromise, captures the best of both worlds with the "fat flash" method, which calls for first resting the steak and then restoring its crust with a drizzle of bubbling-hot oil or butter right before serving.

Learn all about the fat flash here »

We Should All Eat More Crepes, Starting Now

Why is it that we think of pancakes as easy, casual Sunday morning fare, but treat crepes as a fancy and elaborate undertaking? After all, crepes require fewer ingredients and tools than pancakes, and relatively little technique. Best of all, they're the perfect canvas for a wide array of sweet and savory fillings, like ham, cheese, and eggs or spinach and feta. If you needed inspiration to get started, this post is it.

Pull out your nonstick pan and get crepe-ing »

3-Ingredient, 10-Minute Macaroni and Cheese

Think upgrading your mac and cheese from the boxed stuff means buying fancy expensive cheeses or committing to a labor-intensive undertaking? Think again. The key to this ultra-quick, ultra-easy stovetop mac and cheese is evaporated milk, which keeps the sauce creamy and emulsified. If 10 minutes and three ingredients isn't selling point enough, get this: it all happens in one pot, so there's no extra dishes to deal with, either.

Find your way to 10-minute, three-ingredient mac and cheese »

Maryland Crab Cakes

It turns out that making truly exceptional crab cakes isn't terribly difficult. Cut back on fillers like breadcrumbs and swap 'em out for light, airy panko; buy the right meat (that's lump, or "backfin," if you're going with the canned stuff); and strike a good balance with your seasonings—we go with Dijon mustard and Tabasco for heat and tang, Worcestershire for some savory bass notes, and paprika for a hint of smoky spice. Egg and mayo help hold it all together for a brief sear. Serve the crab cakes with lemon wedges and tartar sauce for the full Maryland experience.

Learn how to make the crabbiest crab cakes in town »

28 Unitaskers That Belong in Your Kitchen

Most kitchen unitaskers belong, to be blunt, in the trash. But while we may not be proponents of spiralizers, fruit-specific slicing tools, or virtually anything from As Seen on TV, there are also some important exceptions. Our recipe development team has put together a list of nearly 30 unitaskers whose particular applications are so handy, or whose uses extend sufficiently beyond their "unitasker" designation, that we are more than happy to keep them around. Some are pretty specific—if you're not a seafood buff, you might want to pass over the fish scaler; and if you're gluten free, the pasta machine may not be for you—but you'll get no raised eyebrows from us if we stumble into a garlic press, docking tool or even, GASP!, a taco-shell mold tucked into your kitchen drawers.

See all the unitaskers we're giving a free pass to »

No-Bake Cheesecake

When we say no-bake, we mean zero baking—crust included. This cheesecake nonetheless rests on a firm Biscoff-cookie crust made of cookie crumbles, butter, and a pinch of salt. But it's the cake itself that's the star of the show. It's a no-frills, utterly classic cheesecake with a gloriously silky, airy texture thanks to an extended stint in the stand mixer.

Get the recipe for one epic cheesecake »

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Chip Cookies

Though Kenji tackled the science of chocolate chip cookies a few years back, his resulting recipe requires at least 24 hours to prepare. So what's a person to do if they want their cookies within the hour? These classic chocolate chip cookies, from Stella's newly released cookbook BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts, are the answer to the eager baker's prayers. With their hand-chopped chocolate chunks and a dash of nutmeg, they may turn you off store-bought doughs for good.

Read on for the ultimate quick and easy chocolate chip cookies »