Fake meat discourse tends to center around burgers, with their seemingly impossible meat-like texture and pink centers. But patties aren’t the only shape available from the makers of uncanny meat—it also comes in tubes, complete with sausage-like casing.

Roasted garlic is the ultimate finishing touch. Smear it across a steak, mix it in a dip, or toss it with some sort of grilled vegetable salad, and it will make it better. But, in the summer months, the act of roasting turns your kitchen into a sweaty, unpleasant place. The great news is that you don’t have to choose…

I love hot dogs, but I have never cared much about their taxonomy. In fact, I have stayed fully out of the “Is a hot dog a sandwich?” discourse, firmly refusing to form an opinion either way. But words mean things, and I understand the urge to bring meaning and order to this chaotic existence any way one can.

There are a lot—some might say “too many”—recipes floating around in the world. Books and magazines are full of them but, thanks to the internet, you could cook a new recipe a day and never open a cookbook. There are many apps for keeping track of your online favorites, but the truly special recipes deserve a hard…

Stainless steel pans are kitchen workhorses, but they have an ever so slight learning curve, particularly when it comes to searing food without it sticking. Letting the pan get nice and hot before even adding the oil is key, but determining the temperature of something by sight is not a skill most humans have.

I am always suspicious of single-use slicers and dicers, but I am truly in aw of this watermelon wedger. It’s particularly helpful during BBQ season, when serving lots of fresh melon wedges is of the utmost importance.

Cake pop makers are the worst tool you could use to make cake pops. For you see, cake pop is not a cake that has been shaped and baked into a ball; it’s cake that has been crumbled, mixed with frosting, and then rolled into a ball—using your hands—and stuck on a stick. But just because the seemingly single-use…

Mayonnaise is not hard to make, particularly if you have a food processor or immersion blender, but emulsions can be a little tricky without the help of electrically-powered appliances. Because hand beating is a much slower process—especially if you have to take breaks to rest your wrist—patience is key in keeping…

Wine spritzers have a hokey reputation but, like most things dismissed as “girly,” they’re damn delicious. They’re also a great, low-ish proof beverage for when you want to sip on something without ruining yourself for the next day.

Whole, pan roasted fish look really impressive, and are crazy easy to cook, but some home cooks are put off by the idea of scaling, cleaning, or otherwise dealing with fish guts. The good news is that any fishmonger at any decent seafood counter will prep your fish for you—you just have to use your words.

My dumbest warm weather habit is buying super cheap rosé, telling myself and others that “I’m not picky,” only to discover that I actually am kind of picky, and that a five-dollar bottle of wine gives me an almost instant headache. And yet I persist, filling my fridge with half-finished bottles of crappy pink wine.

Fake meat products have come a long way in recent years, but vegetarians still have nowhere near the number of grilling options as their carnivorous friends. Grilled vegetables are fun, but they have always felt more like a side to me, particularly when juxtaposed with something like a rack of ribs. For a filling,…

When it comes to making dressings at home, vinaigrettes are usually the most accessible option. All they require is a bit of not-super-precise measuring, common kitchen ingredients, and some shaking (preferably done in a jar). But by replacing or supplementing your salad oil with a bit of mayonnaise, you can have a…

I am a wimp when it comes to pepper-based, spicy “red” heat, but I have a high threshold for the sinus-clearing “green” heat of wasabi and horseradish. Beyond dabbing a bit of sushi with the green paste, I like to keep a jar of the powder around to zhuzh up dips, dressings, and mayo.

Being lactose-intolerant can feel like you’ve been cursed to a life without cheese, but not all cheeses contain high levels of the sugar. To see which cheeses are your friend (and which will give you trouble), just take a peek at the nutrition label.

A good cheese plate is a harmonious arrangement of several components. The cheese is important, yes, but you also need fruit, nuts, a drizzle of something sweet, and a carby delivery system. Though the mixing, matching, and stacking gives me warm and fuzzy Lunchables feels, sometimes I just want to shove something in…

Fast food dupe recipes are popular for a lot of reasons. Some people get a thrill out of nailing an illusive flavor profile, some people feel it’s a little healthier, and—in the case of Chick-fil-A—some people don’t like their money being donated to homophobic organizations.

It’s Negroni season. How can I tell? Easy—I just open my inbox and read the many press releases alerting me to the fact. I do love the three-ingredient cocktail; I drink it year-round, but the “season” is really a marketing ploy for the Campari company, which means the grassier, gentian-focused White Negroni gets left…

When I make macaroni and cheese from the (blue) box, I rarely stray from the instructions. As far as processed foods go, this one is pretty dialed in, and I’m not one to mess with aggressively orange perfection. But the other night, after two martinis and a shot of Fernet, I remembered I had buttermilk in my fridge,…