As I sent my friends home bathed in the warm glow of hog grease, I felt sure that our generation would pass the test of lard. We might not cook with it every night—natural lard is expensive and (all right, I'll admit it) deep-fried foods are often loaded with calories, no matter which fat you use. But we won't live in fear of it, either. When we want deep-fried excellence, we'll reach for the best fat for the job: lard.
posted on Aug 30, 2008 - View this thread

Le Bernardin chef Eric Ripert's got a blog where he serves up demos of recipes he makes in his toaster oven.
posted on Aug 20, 2008 - View this thread

Open Source Food is a multi-lingual community of enthusiastic cooks browsing, creating, and sharing recipes. The Itsa Pita Pizza is quick and easy, Yuzu Pesto Tagliolini is almost too pretty to eat, but !!!warning!!!, do not even look at the mango crepe a la mode. 2000 recipes with photos.
posted on Jul 20, 2008 - View this thread

The African Cookbook is a compilation of recipes from 9 countries in Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal, Sudan and Tanzania & Zanzibar. As well as a handful of recipes each section has short chapters on how food is served in each country. For more recipes and information go to Try African Food.
posted on Jul 9, 2008 - View this thread

101 20-Minute Dishes for Inspired Picnics (NY Times link irritatingly spread across multiple pages) from Mark Bittman, who also gave us 101 20-minute appetizers and 101 10-minute meals.
posted on Jul 2, 2008 - View this thread

"Food Party is a (would-be) TV cooking show with a spicy saigon kitchen-witch as your hostess, a cast of unruly puppets as culinary advisors, and a cavalcade of hip-hop/sports world celebrities as surprise dinner guests. Shot on location in a technicolor cardboard kitchen, each episode will instruct you on how to prepare wild gourmet multi-course meals with ingredients you probably have on hand in your kitchen already, such as pretzel rods, cheese puffs, eggs, sugar, secret ingredients, and pizza. After all, you never know who might show up for dinner."
posted on Jul 1, 2008 - View this thread

Keith Law's Ten Common Home Cooking Mistakes. Law, better known for his sports writing, lists ten pitfalls the home chef can fall into and how to avoid them.
posted on Jun 17, 2008 - View this thread

NYT asks: What's your recipe deal breaker? Deep frying? Requiring a helper? Standing overnight? Lifehacker readers chime in with the recipes that stop them cold.
posted on Jun 10, 2008 - View this thread

Wine jelly. Yes, wine jelly. It isn't bacon flavored, but you can make it yourself and its damn good. Distilled beverages can also be made into jellies, though they tend to be mixed with fruit juice.
posted on Jun 7, 2008 - View this thread

An interesting food web site - enter your ingredients, it tells you what you can make. Even suggests items you'll need for other dishes. Previously questioned in AskMe.
posted on May 27, 2008 - View this thread

Make your own stock. Make your own broth. Argue about the difference! Use your stock to make French onion soup. Or Beef Bourguignon. But whatever you do, don't use the storebought stuff unless you have to.
posted on May 22, 2008 - View this thread

Hervé This, dubbed the "Father of Molecular Gastronomy", is also known as the man who unboiled an egg.
posted on Feb 16, 2008 - View this thread

What Am I Craving? That's the question we always ask ourselves when thinking about what to eat. So we got to thinking: wouldn't it be cool to have a tool that could listen to what we were craving and then suggest something good to cook?
posted on Jan 25, 2008 - View this thread

For all your culinary information needs, search through Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking for free online. Also, in a more limited capacity, Larousse Gastronomique.
posted on Dec 5, 2007 - View this thread

Multinational food and pharmaceutical company Podrovka is cooking its books -- literally. Its latest annual report includes a section that must be baked in the oven before it can be read.
posted on Nov 21, 2007 - View this thread

Manufold Menus [4.4MB PDF - mirror]: Cooking on train motors, including recipes, cooking vessels (really, plastic bags and Gladware) pictures of where to stash the food, and resulting dishes.
posted on Oct 25, 2007 - View this thread

Carbonated watermelon. Gelatin spheres with liquid centers. Broths and sauces whipped into foams. When the world's best chefs want something that defies the laws of physics, they come to one man: Dave Arnold, the DIY guru of high-tech cooking. Want to turn your kitchen into a science lab? Check out 25 extreme kitchen gadgets. Related, previously on Mefi: molecular gastronomy.
posted on Oct 10, 2007 - View this thread

King of Fruits, Tempter of Adam, Prize of Paris: It's apple-picking time. The apple's origins reach into prehistory. Thanks to tremendous genetic variance in each new generation, humans have cultivated a dizzying number of named varieties, as many as 17,000, of which 7500 are available as growth stock. In the past, different apples were prized for particular strengths: cider pressing, storage, cooking, drying, or eating out of hand. Despite this bounty, just 15 shelf-stable, shiny, easy-to-pick varieties account for 90% of apple sales today. But heirloom apple growers are working to preserve the old flavors of the Roxbury Russet, the Westfield Seek-No-Further, the Fallawater, the Limbertwig, the King Luscious...
posted on Oct 2, 2007 - View this thread

The Near-Fame Experience: A fascinating interview with former contestants of Bravo reality television shows Project Runway and Top Chef, presenting the fickle nature of fame and how it can come at significant professional and personal cost, if at all.
posted on Aug 24, 2007 - View this thread

Anyone CAN Cook [NY Times link] 101 incredibly simple 10-minute recipes from Mark Bittman.
posted on Jul 18, 2007 - View this thread

Sicilian chef Filippo La Mantia has sworn off garlic. La Mantia says that garlic is a "leftover from when Italians were poor", and feels it is overplayed and unnecessary. Others disagree, like chef Antonello Colonna: "eliminating garlic is like "eliminating violins from an orchestra".
posted on Jul 14, 2007 - View this thread

Hungry in Hogtown may be Toronto's best food blog. This guy goes all-out to recreate his favourite recipes, whether it requires rendering 50 pounds of horse fat to make french fries, or sourcing bunny scalps for a crispy snack. Oh, and his most recent post is about Kool-Aid pickles.
posted on Jul 8, 2007 - View this thread

Freedom haters wail:
"Cilantro! More cilantro!"
The terrorists win. - Dstieve
posted on Jun 25, 2007 - View this thread

Tastier tofu courtesy of Shiok Food, a fantastic Thai cooking blog run by chef and restauranteur madman.
posted on Jun 20, 2007 - View this thread

America's Test Kitchen, On Demand | Chowhound Cooking Videos | FOOD Network, Videos on Demand
posted on Feb 9, 2007 - View this thread

Soup has a history. Enjoy this comprehensive history of the humble (and sometimes not so humble) dish. A widely stated "fun fact" is that the earliest soup was made with hippopotamus bones, but fortunately today you have much tastier options. One favorite, chicken soup, is easy to make and really is good for you [pdf] .
posted on Dec 26, 2006 - View this thread

FoodCandy. A foodie hang.
posted on Jul 13, 2006 - View this thread

Baking tutorials are fun. Would you prefer a wood-fired bread baking course? This set has recipes to go along with the delicious looking pictures, and here is a virtual tour through a chocolate factory. Poetry your fancy? Here is a set of haikus soley dedicated to Spam™, and other cooking poems here. Want to make your own sausages? (NSFW, or dog lovers) How about Sushi? Make your own flowers out of vegetables. But don't forget to have fun.
posted on May 28, 2006 - View this thread

Edna Lewis, the Julia Child of Southern cooking, has passed away at the age of 89.
posted on Feb 14, 2006 - View this thread

Cooking Behind Bars. In 1986, upon my arrival at the county jail, my cooking lessons began. There, I witnessed men using empty toothpaste tubes as spoons, and burning toilet paper to heat up coffee or reheat the food served. Complete with recipes.
posted on Jan 7, 2006 - View this thread

These amazing gingerbread houses on display in Seattle sent me looking for others. This directory includes tons of pictures, including a haunted house, a millhouse complete with millwheel, the old lady's shoe, a tudor castle, and a Thai temple. Recipes and dimensions for your own modest (and delicious!) abode.
posted on Dec 9, 2005 - View this thread

À la carte explores French cookery in just about every angle one can imagine. Featuring an extensive list of recipes, suggested menus, and in-depth articles ranging from how to plan a meal, to what tools to use, including everything one needs to know about knives. Like Strawberries, & crêpes? Want to know more about ice creams & sorbets? Obsessive is an understatement.
posted on Nov 25, 2005 - View this thread

Ted Allen interview! The food and wine expert on Queer Eye has a new cookbook out, and he talks to Slashfood about...well, everything: favorite foods, music, books, beer, birds, and other things.
posted on Oct 20, 2005 - View this thread

The Company Cookbook. Have you ever attended a company potluck? Did you vote on recipes and create a cookbook to send as promo to unsuspecting clients? Warning: If you select to read this post, you take "pot luck" - what was available, not knowing for sure what you might receive. (But be sure that, with this cookbook, it will include shredded cheese). And as a bonus, things you shouldn't bring to the company potluck.
posted on Sep 27, 2005 - View this thread

Chinese food around the world. Ethnic Chinese immigrants worldwide took their cuisine with them. New Yorkers are familiar with Cuban-Chinese restaurants, owned by ethnic Chinese from Cuba who served steam tables of ropa vieja and chuletas right next to the pork fried rice and wonton soup. In Jamaica & Trinidad, Chinese immigrants pioneered jerk chicken lo mein and bok choy & callaloo stirfries.

Or how in Peru, Chinese Peruvians developed their country's restaurant industry and created a national dish, lomo saltado along the way.

But then there's the Indian-Chinese food popularized by the descendants of ethnic Hakkas who moved to Mumbai in the 18th century. Personally, I'm partial to some lollipop chicken or gobi manchurian with a nice, cold Kingfisher.
posted on Sep 22, 2005 - View this thread

The Epicurean online. Charles Ranhofer's 1893 book The Epicurean is available online from the Michigan State University Library and the Museum as part of their Feeding America digital project. Ranhofer was the head chef at Delmonico's Restaurant from 1862 to 1894; he popularized the Escoffier version of French cooking to America, modifying it to take advantage of American foods such as turkey, squash, corn, and Pacific salmon. Besides thousands of recipes, The Epicurean discusses table settings, menus, various methods of presentation, and kitchen management. The book may be downloaded as a PDF in two parts.
posted on Sep 11, 2005 - View this thread

Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project "...an online collection of some of the most important and influential American cookbooks from the late 18th to early 20th century." Includes scanned, searchable, and downloadable copies of such titles as "The Virginia Housewife, Or, Methodical Cook," "Practical Sanitary and Economic Cooking Adapted to Persons of Moderate and Small Means," and "Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent."
posted on Aug 5, 2005 - View this thread

Shouldn't you cook salmon in your dishwasher? Poaching fish in the dishwasher is a virtually foolproof way to shock your friends, prepare a succulent meal, and do the dishes—all at the same time. Not all of the The Surreal Gourmet's offerings are quite so weird, but they might, as he claims, make you into a culinary hero.
posted on Jun 6, 2005 - View this thread

Gode Cookery. A compilation of medieval recipes adapted for the 21st century kitchen. [via Monkeyfilter]
posted on Jun 3, 2005 - View this thread

Feed Me Better Jamie Oliver (UK fat tongued food wizard) campaigns to ban the junk food and get fresh, tasty and, above all, nutricious food back on school dinners menu.
posted on Mar 17, 2005 - View this thread

It's the future. Now where's my fucking food?
posted on Mar 4, 2005 - View this thread

Science of Cooking guide resource
posted on Feb 27, 2005 - View this thread

Inkjet sushi - Some argue the kind of molecular gastronomy created by chefs like Moto's Homaro Cantu sucks the soul out of gourmet dining. Others turn it into better cooking for the unwashed masses, while still others turn it into a science project for the kids.
posted on Feb 3, 2005 - View this thread

It used to be that there were four basic tastes- Sour, Sweet, Salty, and Bitter. Now there are five. Umami is the fifth. More commonly thought of as "Savory", the taste is connected to receptors that sense Glutamic acid. In fact, the first taste receptor ever discovered was one that interacts with glutamate. While Monosodium Glutamate has gotten a bad reputation, most sources agree that it's relatively harmless, and in fact, does add the "more-ish" type of flavor that is ascribed to umami foods. Foods like mushrooms are high in glutamate, and therefore taste more "umami". Pass the Parmesan cheese, please.
posted on Jan 7, 2005 - View this thread

"Salt rising bread is, when at it's best, as if a delicately reared, unsweetened plain cake had had an affair with a Pont l'Eveque cheese." There's even a mystery to go along with your (cheese-flavored) bread.
posted on Nov 26, 2004 - View this thread

Cooking with Cum. It's been a long time since I've been to a site that rendered me (almost) speechless.
posted on Nov 18, 2004 - View this thread

Gode Cookery: Medieval & Renaissance food & cookery, and more.
posted on May 7, 2004 - View this thread

Cicadas best served sauteed in butter and parsley apparently, or if you want to go more upscale: "The soft-shelled cicada, it's done just like a soft-shelled crab," says executive chef Frank Belosic, describing how freshly molted cicadas should be rolled in flour, pan-fried in olive oil, and finished with a sauce of white wine, butter and shallots.
posted on Apr 16, 2004 - View this thread

MMMMMMMMMmmmmmm, Banana Worm Bread....... Most of us would cringe at the thought of eating our six legged friends, but many cultures eat insects as a standard practice. Perhaps we should lighten up and give it a shot ourselves! If one is so inclined there are clubs to join and resources available. Chocolate Chirpie Cookies, anyone?
posted on Mar 21, 2004 - View this thread

National Men Make Dinner Day is today, gentlemen. What culinary delights will you be whipping up this evening?
posted on Nov 6, 2003 - View this thread

The World's Worst Food. "A naked imitation of the Gallery of Regrettable Food", featuring late 50's and early 60's-era recipes from the UK.
posted on Aug 25, 2003 - View this thread

Just Because They're Celebrity Chefs Doesn't Mean They Aren't Damn Fine Cooks: We're all supposed to yawn when it comes to TV Chefs, but that's just as silly as ignoring a writer or an actress because they're famous. Wolfgang Puck's website, for instance, is generously full of the most enticing recipes. On another note, my favourite TV chef, Rick Stein, has online a superb list of UK suppliers. Do you know of any other cuisine auteurs on the Web who are as generous with their savvy? Which chef wouldn't you mind having as your own private cook?
posted on Jun 28, 2003 - View this thread

"I explain to them that they are in my restaurant. And they must have the flounder the way I make it."
One of Washington's top chefs draws the line with picky diners. Welcome rebellion or self-important rant? Discuss.
(This is a Washington Post "Live Online" chat. The chef's letter is the first entry; scroll down further for reactions on both sides.)
posted on Apr 30, 2003 - View this thread

Science in the kitchen. It's more star trek then home-ec, the cooking of Blumenthal and the legendary Ferran Adria from El Bulli, brings the chemistry set into the kitchen. Egg and bacon ice cream anyone?
posted on Mar 31, 2003 - View this thread

We know that the French take their food seriously, and restaurant ratings are a BIG deal over there. But here's a sad illustration of that: famed chef Bernard Loiseau was found dead yesterday of an apparent suicide, and speculation centers around his downgraded rating from the influential GaultMillau guide. Shades of Vatel?
posted on Feb 26, 2003 - View this thread

"64 grams of fat, 2,090 milligrams of sodium, and enough cholesterol to kill anything that's ever lived." 104% of your USDA daily requirements of saturated fat. 231% of your daily intake of cholesterol. Swanson's Hungry-Man All-Day Breakfast! (Pancakes included.)
posted on Feb 25, 2003 - View this thread

Don't know how to cook? You might find Cooking for Losers helpful, with new tips and recipes every day. Today:

Take one flour tortilla from the fridge and warm it slightly in the microwave. Spread a bit of cream cheese on it. Spread a bit of spicy sweet mustard on it. Top with a few slices of your favorite lunchmeat - pastrami, ham, turkey; this recipe does not work well with tofu products. Roll and consume. May be cut into multiple little rolly-things if more food is desired.

Share your own carefully hoarded recipes and be a guest loser.
posted on Feb 16, 2003 - View this thread

The Gallery of Regrettable Food: "Frizzle slices of cooked ham in hot butter, adding 1 1/2 teaspoons of drained prepared horseradish to each 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine. Add cheese." Advertisements, Strange recipes from "the golden age of butter", and just plain weird stuff. Also, I think this guy used to do my tech support. with thanks to Television Without Pity and cakeman
posted on Feb 12, 2003 - View this thread

The Year In Pizza is a review of the happenings in one of the worst years ever for the pizza industry; what's touching, and quirky about this corporate industry wrap up is the inclusion of brief memorials for pizza murder victims, those workers slain by hungry robbers for whatever little cash they had on them. It's hard to imagine a "year in printing & bindery" review listing all the victims of industrial press manglings.
posted on Jan 6, 2003 - View this thread

Good Ol' Foreign Home Cookin': Mexicans, Italians and other foreigners are just as surprised with what passes for Mexican and Italian food in the U.S. as Indians are to encounter chicken tikka masala or vindaloos in the U.K. Americans and Brits visiting the countries whose cuisines they think they know and love must be similarly surprised. Well, purists be damned! Not only is "faux foreign" cuisine sometimes very tasty (less pretentious than "fusion" cooking, for instance), in some cases (e.g. Tex Mex) it can be a damn sight better than the supposed original. And let no one argue these confusions aren't fun... [Apologies it the post looks funny and full of ampersands and the links don't work: my first no-right-clicking post on a mac...]
posted on Dec 13, 2002 - View this thread

The New York Times Dining section on pancakes. Not just for Sunday morning breakfast anymore (like we didn't know that already). (reg. req'd, etc.)
posted on Dec 4, 2002 - View this thread

Bad Flash! A little respect, gentlemen, please! Er, it's not that I'm a vegetarian, but, just this once, I think I'll stick to the hors-d'oeuvre and the Wild Turkey on the rocks, thank you very much. But have a happy Thanksgiving all the same - and don't let this Flash animation or that NYT registration ruin your appetite!
posted on Nov 28, 2002 - View this thread

Cooking has never been so endearing. ....and I am now certainly a convert to using the internet for recipes. So far I have racked up a madras, pasta and now I'm gunning for casserole recipes. Truly a delicious use of the net, n'est pas? ( first link via FlipFlopFlyin)
posted on Nov 27, 2002 - View this thread

"Deep-fried chicken livers, crusty and delicious as any chicken liver ever, anywhere. Utterly wonderful, served with peppered cream gravy on the side."
Michael Stern - co-author (along with his wife) of numerous pop-culture classics - pontificates on the subtle joys of roadside diners, collaborative cuisine and comfort food. If all the talk of chicken-fried steak makes you want to hit the road, use his site to hunt down some choice noshing stops. Or just whip up some down-home grub yourself. Personally, I like a big ole pot of ravioli with a ketchup and butter sauce. Mmmm....
posted on Nov 4, 2002 - View this thread

How To Say Yes (Or No) To British Food: Apart from the language barrier (ably demolished by Mike Etherington's magnificent online dictionary), British food has a dreadful reputation all over the world. Yet people who try it, whatever their nationality, often find they enjoy it. If it's properly made, that is. Enter Helen Watson's impeccable and ethnically correct recipes. And those who can't be bothered to cook can always plump for the many ready-made goodies (and some real stinkers) now offered by internet mail order firms. The most promising has got to be, with over 2,500 goodies, the FBC Brit Shop. Unfortunately it's based in Japan and will only start delivering in September. The best of the rest is probably yummy British Delights. My mother's English so I'm obviously biased, but aren't a lot of people missing out on the unique gastronomic charms of the good old United K? Oh yes![FBC link pilfered from the Boing Boing larder.]
posted on Aug 3, 2002 - View this thread

Food For Thought For Serious Foodies And Would-Be Pros: Egullet.com is mainly written by professional cooks for professional cooks but obsessive, perfectionist gastronomes like you and I can join in too. It's delightful and delicious; like a MetaFilter for fussy gluttons, over-curious gourmets and gastro-porn addicts. Today, celebrated chefs Dan Barber and Michael Anthony, currently wowing New Yorkers at the Blue Hill restaurant, will be answering questions from hoi-polloi such as ourselves. My question's already in...[ From the August issue of Food and Wine magazine, where Michael Anthony was interviewed as one of the best new American chefs.]
posted on Jul 25, 2002 - View this thread

Betty Crocker makes it easy to eat well. On her website she has (among other things) a dinner planner, a page that figures out what groceries you need for a given set of recipes, and my favorite, a page where you input your ingredients, and she tells you what you can make with them! Everybody eats, and most of MeFi is just news or pop culture, so I think this is incredibly appropriate. What other uses do MeFites get out of the web, besides news, games, and their daily pr0n fix?
posted on Jun 20, 2002 - View this thread

Very cool artwork made out of pieces of toast of various done-ness. "The toaster toasts and when it does this it reproduces itself." If I had a nickel for every time I made that observation. (via Bifurcated Rivets)
posted on May 23, 2002 - View this thread

An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. Because you never know when you'll need to make Marrow Without Marrow (Which No One Will Suspect), forget how to grease your Chicken Called Madhûna, or need to rustle up something for the in-laws (A Dish Praised in Springtime for Those with Fulness and Those with Burning Blood).
posted on Apr 15, 2002 - View this thread

The Food Timeline: Want to know when people first started eating watermelon? This site claims to tell you (roughly). I've no idea how accurate their dates are but this is a grand place to surf foodstuffs. (Also links to some ancient, ancient recipes that sound mouth-watering.)
posted on Jan 19, 2002 - View this thread

Although he's been discussed in the past, I'm surprised that nobody's posted Alton Brown's home page.
posted on Jan 12, 2002 - View this thread

Sex and the Kitchen (NYT article) Anyone watch TV cooking shows? "She is voluptuous. She licks her fingers and likes to flick her hair as she flirts with the camera. And her cooking show, "Nigella Bites," has created a sensation in Britain, where it is one of the country's most popular cooking programs." Our compatriots across the ocean have done quite a 180 since The Two Fat Ladies. Our Emeril's days are numbered. What is it about food and sex anyway?
posted on Jan 9, 2002 - View this thread

Love the Iron Chef? Be the Iron Chef! Some fan has reverse engineered selected Iron Chef recipes and put them on a site. As a frequently terrified fan of the show, I find them fascinating. Veal Stew Cheese Sauce, anyone? No?
posted on Nov 1, 2001 - View this thread

Thanks to FoodTV and online recipe sources, it seems like more of us are cooking (and more of those who do cook are even cooking well)...
Inspired by that (and the popularity of the beer and liquor threads) I thought we ought to move on to food:
What's your favorite recipe?
(My ceviche inside)
posted on Sep 24, 2001 - View this thread

The only person that annoys me more than G.E. Smith is Emeril. As if his constant rotation on Food TV wasn't enough, he will now have a sitcom on NBC. Who wants to start the cancellation pool? How could this be funny?
posted on Jun 12, 2001 - View this thread

Did you get enough to eat this Thanksgiving? If not maybe next year you should try a Turducken! Its a dinner inside a dinner. A chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey! This guy loved his. Scarey yet strangely appealing.
posted on Nov 27, 2000 - View this thread

Top Secret Recipes is a site that aims to reveal the secrets of almost any popular restaurant's items. They have McDonalds Shakes, Orange Julius, Hot Dog on a Stick (complete with video), and Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints. Oh my god, they actually reverse-engineered McDonalds' Secret Sauce. Be careful with the knowledge of that last one, you could be killed just for possessing it. If food is considered a restaurant's intellectual property, how does this site continue without being sued silly?
posted on Jun 26, 2000 - View this thread

From the "You learn something new everyday" file: apparently, if you're a vegan, you can't drink most red wines. Luckily for them, there's people selling vegan friendly wines. I've been a vegetarian for about 10 years now, and I was a vegan for a few months until I heard that you're not supposed to eat honey. That was a bit much for me, but like most things, there's always someone willing to take it even further.
posted on Feb 8, 2000 - View this thread