The key to any great pie starts with the crust — One of America’s most beloved dishes that no Thanksgiving table is complete without—pie. From pumpkin to apple to pecan, there are so many different ways to fill a pie, but they all start with an amazing crust. Baking a pie from scratch may seem like a daunting task for many…

The keys to a perfect turkey: crispy skin and juicy meat — It’s almost that time of the year already. Everyone gathered together over a beautiful spread of Thanksgiving dishes. Smack in the center of the table? A beautiful, golden-brown turkey with scrumptious, juicy meat. This is the American (Thanksgiving) dream. However, as anyone who has roasted a turkey will tell you…

Learning how flour is used in both baking and cooking will make you a better chef — Flour. It’s one of the most used ingredients in the entire world. It’s used in everything from pasta, dumplings, and pancakes in cooking, and it’s used in almost every baked good you can think of. If you are a home cook, then you’ve probably worked with flour hundreds of times…

Soy sauce is the not-so-secret secret ingredient behind some of the most popular Asian dishes — What do some of the most popular Asian (in the colloquial sense meaning East Asian) dishes — lo mein from China, bulgogi from Korea, shoyu ramen from Japan — have in common? They all rely on soy sauce for much of their flavor. Soy sauce is a simple ingredient that…

Learn about the different types of chocolate used in baking and how to use them to their full potential — Brownies. Molten lava cake. Chocolate ganache. Truffles. Pain au chocolat. For many, those words alone conjure up feelings of warmth, comfort, and home. Chocolate is one of the most popular ingredients in baking, used to make some of the best and most decadent desserts around the world. …

How the Maillard reaction makes not only meat, but also bread and coffee (among other foods) taste so much better — What do steak, toast, roasted coffee, and beer all have in common? They all undergo the Maillard reaction! If you’re a meat-lover like I am, then you probably know that meat always tastes better when seared until it develops a beautiful brown crust. From hamburgers and steak to chicken breast…

Everything you wanted to know about how this popular leavening agent works — If you went to a grocery store anytime toward the beginning of the Covid-19 quarantine, you most likely would have seen an entirely cleaned out baking section. In particular, flour and yeast were nearly impossible to find as seemingly everyone became a baker overnight. …