I’ve become such a junkie for beautiful food photography that I sighed when I saw The Good Food on my kitchen counter. It looks like a paperback novel—colorless, photo-less, with deckled edges. How could I be inspired if I wasn’t shown what the food should look like, and more importantly, the lifestyle that…

Chicken stew on toast, however delicious, lacks sophistication. Now pour that stew into an elegant edible vessel? Thrilling. Crisp. Like a golden chalice of cream sauce. Now that’s downright ladylike. The good news is even if you’re not feeling particularly ladylike, this dish is scrumptious to all manner of persons.…

Deliciousness is not just how a dish looks, but how it feels. It’s the tactile and textural pleasures. And being that we’re in the midst of soup and stew season, there’s nothing more disappointing than digging in with your spoon and discovering a thin, watery bowl. Think about it: Chicken pot pie with runny juices…

Seven years ago, I starting baking yule logs around Christmas time. I enlisted the help of my friend and baking soulmate Cristin. It’s become our annual tradition, a chance for us to spend time together, flex our baking muscles and eat some really good cake.

In all my years of reading glossy food mags, I don’t think I’ve ever made a magazine recipe twice. Then I met the apple cider cream pie.

My favorite part about Thanksgiving isn’t the turkey, the cranberries, nor the stuffing. It’s the cheese sauce.

This technique was inspired by an episode of Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients—Quick and Easy Food in which he plonked his whole chicken right on the rack in the oven. I did a double-take. Was this okay to do? No pan? No intricate arranging of carrots like Lincoln Logs to support the chicken in the roasting dish? Would…

Velveeta gets a bad rap, and frankly, we think it’s undeserved. (The state of Texas will respectfully disagree.) The golden processed brick has actually been around in some form for a century—it was created in 1918 by Emil Frey of the Monroe Cheese Company, then sold to Kraft in 1927. Yes, the product has been…

Knobby and fatty, with protruding discs of marrow, oxtails turn off a good many home cooks before they even get a second look. But step right up, your new favorite fall braised dish is here.

My Cantonese in-laws were in town last weekend to spoil our toddler and make us tasty Chinese food. The talk turned to the latest restaurant dish they’re attempting to faithfully replicate at home: Hong Kong-style char siu, the sweet-and-salty staple of barbecue shops known colloquially as “barbecued pork.”

I’ve eaten my fair share of deliciousness in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, arguably home to the city’s best Mexican restaurants. The most satisfying meals have revolved around carnitas: pork cooked in roiling pots of lard, shredded, and plopped onto discs of just-made tortillas. When the line at my favorite…

Coronation Chicken was created in honor of Queen Elizabeth II’s crowning in 1953 and was served at her coronation luncheon. The original recipe was credited to Rosemary Hume of Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, and combined Indian spice-inspiration with the few readily available ingredients in post-war London. Like many…

Weren’t twice-baked potatoes the highlight of any circa 1990s wedding banquet? I used to think so, going to countless family weddings as a child. I remember watching the cloche lift from my dinner and thinking Sheeeeeeeeeesh is this fancy. Whimsically piped, flecked with chives, the twice-baked potato was a…

Carrots are nature’s long-legged root vixens. Just look at those lurid photos of wanton carrots on those “weird produce” sites (don’t pretend you haven’t seen them!). I’d welcome more carrots into my life but I’m surrounded by two camps of people. The “I hate cooked carrots” clan and the “I hate raw carrots” faction.…

Imagine if you ordered fried chicken at a restaurant, were so excited and confident you had ordered the right thing, could almost taste its deliciousness, and when the dish arrived it was poached scrod. And you had no one to blame but yourself. This great disappointment is akin to my recent experience of trying to…

I make really great fried rice. Before you silently judge me for this arrogance, know this: Behind this hubris lies the wisdom of my Chinese in-laws. When first dating my now-husband, I would fly to Seattle to visit his parents, and our family time would be spent with me taking copious notes on an iPad while they…

Japanese Western-influenced cuisine known as “yoshoku” reimagines popular Western ingredients with Japanese staples. A particularly popular dish called omurice—a contraction of ‘omelet’ and ‘rice’—is a perfect example. A stalwart of children’s menus, omurice is also a popular dish amongst Japanese home cooks and in…

Umami Issues is The Takeout’s exploration of cooking food with the rich, savory, mysterious taste sensation known as umami. 

The Monday following Easter is the only day each year when a person can justify a complaint about “too much ham.” (The other 364 days, there exists no such thing.) After you’ve gorged yourself on honey-baked, spiral-glazed slices all weekend, it seems there’s still a formidable stack in the fridge. Sandwiches are the…

Mountains of boiled potatoes have rolled blandly across my dinner plate throughout my life. I was never thrilled by their presence, tolerating them but never truly enjoying them. It wasn’t until later in life when I began studying the food of my Irish heritage that I began to realize their worth. I treat them with…