For those of us in the food world in the 1980s, the Silver Palate Cookbook was a sensation. It was really the first book that played with its food, taking ideas from around the world and translating them for the American home kitchen. It was fun, and cooking at that time was considered more of a project than a casual hobby. After all, we were all trying to “master the art.” Throwing chunks of brie onto hot pasta was a hoot and it tasted great to boot.

The concept was simple. A whopping pound of torn up Brie was tossed with EVOO, garlic, tomatoes, and basil, and you let it sit at room temperature. Then you tossed it with a pound of hot linguine. The amount of Brie is a bit much, so I brought it down to 12 ounces. The other key issue, borrowing a classic Italian pasta trick, is to use the hot pasta cooking water to help loosen and emulsify the sauce, so be sure to reserve at least 1 cup before draining the pot.

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Silver Palate called for linguine but spaghetti is fine, although a chunkier pasta might be even better—an open-tube paccheri or rigatoni, maybe even penne. You need to remove the rind from the Brie. If it’s very soft, freeze for 30 minutes to make this easier. I find that a high-quality brie will melt better than a cheap one, so spending a bit more is worth it.

I make this dish with fresh cherry tomatoes—Sun Golds are usually best; if you taste them and there is little flavor, I would not make this dish—but you can use a mix of regular and cherry or whatever. It’s just important that the tomatoes taste as good as they look.

I like the simplicity of this dish but, since this is late summer with lots of produce available, you can add what you like including string beans, mushrooms, zucchini, etc. You will need to blanch these veggies first, however, or sauté them in a skillet. To be honest, I prefer to not mess with additional ingredients. Maybe leave those other veggies for another dish.

Since the pasta water is going to be used in the sauce, I would cook the pasta in less water; try 2 quarts of water instead of 4. Sometimes I use even less since I want a lot of starch in that water to help bind the sauce. I would use one tablespoon of kosher salt as well with the 2 quarts.

Pasta with Tomatoes, Basil and Brie

Cooking the pasta in only 2 quarts of water will yield a starchier water, which will help emulsify the sauce. Use a high-quality bronze-die pasta that has been dried slowly. This information is usually printed right on the package. (High-quality pasta is usually rougher on the outside than pasta that’s extruded through a teflon-style die and dried more quickly.)

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Our family has frequently vacationed at GoldenEye, the resort in Jamaica built around Ian Fleming’s homestead, which still features his writing desk and typewriter. A set of stone steps leads down to a small grotto where he liked to snorkel, an experience that shows up in many of his books, especially Live and Let Die. In fact, Port Antonio (not far from GoldenEye) has a small island in its bay, and I like to think that this was the inspiration for the treasure island described in that book.

In A View to A Kill, Fleming starts out with a description of the Doctor Bird, which is where hummingbird cake got its name. The Doctor Bird (the scissors-tail hummingbird) is Jamaica’s national bird and it lent its name to this banana-pineapple cake flavored with vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon. The cake was exported to the world in 1968 to show off the fruits and flavors of the island once sugarcane was no longer a viable commodity and tourism was to be the new economic engine. Jamaica became independent in 1962. (On its own, Jamaican cuisine has a lot to like, including ackee, a buttery, non-sweet local fruit that looks a bit like scrambled eggs; bammy, a flatbread made with cassava root; jerk chicken; and callaloo, a local green which is sometimes served for breakfast with chili oil and poached eggs.)

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That was just the beginning. The recipe took on a life of its own and became a Southern classic in February 1978, when it was published by Southern Living. It was a huge hit with readers and went on to win the Favorite Cake Award that same year at the Kentucky State Fair. It was later voted Southern Living’s favorite recipe in 1990 and, at that time, was the most requested recipe in the magazine’s history.

By this time, the cake had two or three layers with pecans or walnuts, mashed ripe bananas, canned crushed pineapple and a sweet cream cheese frosting. However, the Hummingbird Cake may be more English than Jamaican, the latter offering denser, more traditional cakes, such as toto (a delicious spiced coconut cake served without frosting) or bulla cake (a bit like a gingerbread cookie), that rely on starchy ingredients like cassava and coconuts. In essence a sponge cake, the Hummingbird Cake was probably created to appeal to a foreign audience and increase tourism.

Of the four recipes I gathered for reference, the list of ingredients were the same and quantities similar with only a few variations. Shape-wise, there’s more variety. Two recipes called for a 9x13-inch pan, one a bundt, and the recipe that seemed to go back the furthest in time gave several baking options: three 8-inch cake pans, or a Bundt pan, a tube pan, or a “large” loaf pan. All of them are topped with a cream cheese frosting and chopped pecans, with one adding shredded coconut as well, though just on top. I settled on the Bundt pan for convenience.

This is an oil-based batter much like carrot cake, the best part being it’s all hand-mixed. There’s plenty to keep the cake moist, with bananas, oil and pineapple, but without the aeration of eggs, sugar, or butter, the only leavening comes from baking soda combined with the acidity of pineapple. (There are eggs in the batter but they are not aerated.) The texture is soft and light—truly appealing.

Many recipes instruct one to mix the dry ingredients, then dump everything else on top and mix it together, which is easy enough, but there’s risk of overmixing the flour and toughening the texture. I made a few adjustments to help ensure that the cake stays tender. The banana needs a bowl for mashing anyway, so after measuring it, the same bowl is used to mix banana, pineapple, and vanilla. I also whisk the eggs and oil together separately, giving them some emulsification before stirring everything together.

Instead of just topping with a soft cream cheese icing that drips down the sides, I added a cream cheese filling that bakes inside the cake, visible only once sliced. There’s cinnamon in the icing on top, but not the inner mixture, which I wanted light-colored for more contrast against the darker cake. I first made it with just cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and egg, but it was too bland against the flavorful cake. Some citrus zest pumped up the flavor. Either lemon or orange work well here. It is an easy cake to throw together but impressive and delicious beyond its humble beginnings.

Hummingbird Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Swirl

Named after the Jamaican Doctor Bird, a local hummingbird, this popular cake was exported from Jamaica to enhance tourism. Introduced by Southern Living Magazine in 1978, it soon became one of the most popular cakes in the Southern repertoire. In my version, I have added a citrus-flavored cream cheese filling.

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Many breakfast recipes are simple formulas: pancakes, waffles, biscuits, etc. I include the muffin on that list. It’s a basic recipe that can be adjusted to make make corn muffins or perhaps nutmeg muffins, and it can be adapted for inclusions like blueberries, peaches, pecans, etc. And it is simple.

I use buttermilk as the liquid of choice, along with a stick of melted butter, two eggs, 3 cups of flour, a 1/2 cup of sugar, leavener, salt, perhaps some nutmeg, and a bit of vanilla. The trick, as with most quick breads, is to barely moisten the batter using a silicone spatula—there may be a few streaks of flour visible. A tender muffin needs a tender touch.

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Just this morning, I made a corn muffin with blueberries, since the family had gone out to pick blueberries yesterday up in Granville, NY, at Hick’s Orchard. In July, they also have sour cherries and we picked 35 pounds of them last year! It took hours to pit them, but then we froze some, made jam, etc. (It is the end of the blueberry season here in Vermont, so the pickings are slim. The best place to look is near the ground, under most of the foliage. U-pickers are often too lazy to bend over.)

Figuring out when a muffin is done can be handled two ways. A small wooden dowel or toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean, or you can use an instant read thermometer, which should read 205℉. If you want to add fruit, mix it with just a tablespoon of flour so it readily incorporates into the batter.

One last trick: You can substitute a bit of semolina flour for the all-purpose; maybe a 1/2 cup. Semolina, made from hard durum wheat, works wonders on breakfast items such as pancakes and waffles; you get a better exterior with a slightly custardy interior.

Chris Kimball’s Master Recipe for Muffins (with variations)

These are not cupcakes. I only use a 1/2 cup of sugar, since I prefer to add butter and jam or honey when serving. Remember that you should use a light hand when mixing the batter; it will look rough, thick and on the dry side. If you are using salted butter, reduce salt to a 1/2 teaspoon. You can also substitute brown sugar for white or replace 1 cup all-purpose flour with either whole-wheat or rye flour.

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American home cooks do not prepare a lot of fish, except on the grill. The one exception to this rule is salmon, putting aside shellfish such as shrimp. The Japanese have a great technique for salting salmon before cooking it. Just take 3 tablespoons of light brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of coarse salt, rub it over the filets and let them sit in the fridge for up to an hour. This will firm up the salmon and also get rid of the white stuff (albumin) which oozes out during cooking.

This particular recipe, however, was inspired by one of my favorite restaurants, Gjelina, in Venice, CA. Travis Lett is the chef and he is one of the most interesting cooks around. (I highly recommend the Gjelina cookbook.) The notion is that adding a simple sauce or pesto after cooking is the best way to add flavor, as opposed to marinating which never, ever flavors meat or fish and does very little for tenderizing either. Dry brining, however, firms up the fish and makes it less fishy.

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I love mint in this pesto but you can switch it out for cilantro. The honey is optional—I like the fact that it mellows the flavor but others may prefer a sharper tasting pesto, so just leave it out. Baking the salmon is the simplest and most even method of cooking and, since we are serving it with a bold pesto, the salmon itself can be understated in terms of flavor. The cooking time is only approximate since the thickness of your salmon and the accuracy of your oven can make a huge difference.

Jalapeño, Ginger and Mint Pesto with Baked Salmon

I love the Japanese technique of dry brining salmon. Mix 3 tablespoons light brown sugar with 2 tablespoons Kosher salt and rub it all over the salmon and let sit in the fridge for up to an hour.

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I recently visited Oaxaca for a second time, and, yes, it is a gorgeous city, and, yes again, it has been discovered first by wealthy Mexicans who use Oaxaca as the location for a second home, but also by tourists. That is why there are plenty of art galleries and fancy restaurants.

What is most fascinating about Oaxaca is the culinary range. Some local cooks grew up in small mountain towns at the end of a dirt road and only cooked what was locally available. If you wanted meat for dinner, there was no butcher shop. You had to kill a pig or a chicken. And many of these small towns still exist, some of which still do not have electricity. When they move to Oaxaca, they bring with them a traditional form of cooking – simple, practical and delicious.

For example, the basic salsa recipes (char onions, tomatoes, garlic and chilies; add to a blender with some water or stock made from whatever meat you are cooking; blend it; and put it back into a skillet to finish) are still used daily. The tortilla is ubiquitous, and the simplicity of the approach to cooking is enviable.

Sopa de Guías is a simple soup made with wild greens and herbs. Or a Salsa de Costilla, spareribs or other meat with a red mojo sauce. Or a mashed potato casserole cooked in what looks like a tandoor oven. Or Sopa de Garbanzos made with toasted chickpea flour whisked into chicken stock and served with a poached egg on top.

But at a local restaurant, you can order more unusual fare: nicuatole, a thick burned custard made with corn masa with a granitas of prickly pear. Or a tomato plate with eight or nine varieties with a simple dressing. Or large shrimp with a guava mole. Or a goat cheese panna cotta.

Bugs are part of the diet. I tasted seven different types and loved them all, except the one that looks like a tiny lobster. It tastes like seafood, but not in a good way. And I love the fact that wild greens also play a large part in the diet.

And, at night, the streets are full of food carts my favorite being the local burger (Cangreburger – the Mexican version of krabby patties) made with super thin meat patties, American cheese, Oaxacan cheese, ham, finely chopped onion, pineapple, tomato, pickled jalapeño, caramelized onions, mayo, mustard, ketchup and lettuce. Delicious. And the michelada, a Mexican Bloody Mary made with lime juice, salt, Clamato, tahin spice blend, and maggi juice or Worcestershire sauce. Great for hangovers.

If you want a guide to eating in Oaxaca, see our friend María Ítaka’s top ten restaurants, including Oaxaca’s “best kept secret.”

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What I am Watching: Besides finishing the second season of Landman (I hate to admit it, but it is expertly written and acted; even minor characters bring a lot to the party), I have been watching the 2025 documentary Genghis Khan: The Secret History of the Mongols. It was done on a small budget: they keep using the same drone footage over and over again, and major battles are reenacted with maybe twelve people, but it does a good job of providing a big picture of the geography and the various kingdoms that he conquered. Yeah, some fast-forwarding is necessary, but the scope of the Mongol kingdom is breathtaking, as is the organizational smarts, as in breaking up clan loyalties in favor of Roman-style cohorts of 10, 100, and 1000 warriors. Loyalty was key to his reign, so when enemies showed up to deliver their fallen leader, the leader was spared, and the disloyal soldiers were executed.

What I am Reading: The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. What was missing from the new film version was the essence of Odysseus. He was a trickster, he was complicated, and soon after he arrived back home in Ithaca, he left on another voyage – so much for his devotion to Penelope. All of his men were killed, all of his boats were sunk, he spent a year with Circe, and another 7 years with Calypso, and the first thing he did after leaving Troy was to pillage a town, killing the men and enslaving the women. And he slaughtered all of the suitors, his house literally running with blood. He also hanged twelve of the palace maids who were disloyal to his household, stringing them up in the courtyard from a ship’s cable.

That is what makes this story so compelling – the complexity of his character and his story. Emily Wilson’s translation is eminently readable and comes across like a modern adventure story.

Yes, Odysseus is still a hero, but not the type that inhabits the world of Marvel Comics.

My father, born in the early 1920s, used to tell me that he remembered the ice man since his family’s “icebox” was exactly that – a box that held a big square of ice (with drainage) to keep things cool. By the late 1920s, the refrigerator was born and then icebox desserts were really off to the races. (He also used expressions such as, “The best thing since sliced bread,” and “Now we’re cooking with gas!” At the time, I found these sayings unfathomable but, in later years, the historical context made them a bit more charming.)

Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers, introduced in 1924, also played a part, since a refrigerator roll recipe was printed directly on the packaging. A chocolate biscuit refrigerator cake was also a favorite of the late Queen Elizabeth, so it is a good example of commoner’s dessert making it into a royal household.

Starting with the filling, some recipes use a form of buttercream, while others employ chocolate mousse with whipped yolks and whites, neither of them cooked. My first thought was to start with a cooked chocolate pudding, but that takes a long time to cool. Instead I preferred making a mousse with a sabayon base folded into whipped cream instead of egg whites for a richer, creamier end result.

The first step was to melt the chocolate and butter together in a large mixing bowl over simmering water. I usually take the bowl off heat while there are still a few bits of chocolate unmelted since they will melt as the mixture cools. Next, using the bowl of my stand mixer, I whisked together the yolks, sugar, coffee liqueur or espresso, or bottled cold brew. It’s whisked as it heats and begins aerating, then cools as it’s whipped in the mixer, gaining volume. Cream is then whipped in the same bowl, no washing needed.

Marie biscuits are crunchy and lightly sweet. All the recipes I saw call for dipping them in milk before layering, but that makes them drippy when they go on top of the mousse. I tried layering without dipping, thinking the mousse would soften them overnight, and they did soften and were easily sliced, but were still too dry in the mouth. I went back to dipping but then blotted on paper toweling, which conveniently allows for setting up a layers’ worth of biscuits on the towel before adding them to the pan, instead of dipping and dripping one at a time. Instead of milk, I mixed cream with whatever coffee element is used in the sabayon, also adding some flavor to the biscuits. For the chocolate, semisweet was better than bittersweet, since there is not a lot of sugar in the recipe.

CHOCOLATE BISCUIT REFRIGERATOR CAKE

Queen Elizabeth was a fan of this recipe, although I hope that this version is better than the one made at the palace. Instead of a pudding or a buttercream, I use a chocolate mousse based on a sabayon for a richer filling without raw eggs.

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My wife, Melissa, has relatives in Salzburg, so we try to visit every year or two. This year, it has been incredibly hot, close to 100 degrees most days, but Salzburg and Vienna are still great food destinations.

We stay at a private farm just outside of town. (One of the owners knew the Von Trapp family back in the day and the true story is nothing like the movie).

Here are a few of the places that we like eat and drink.

Where to eat and drink in Salzburg

220 Grad

This used to be a small breakfast spot a few blocks outside of the center of the Altstadt but, a few years ago, it moved into a more central location not far from where the Festspiele (the annual music festival) takes place. One of my favorite specialties, a millet oatmeal with fruit and nuts, is no longer on the menu, but they still offer the Tutti Frutti—excellent plain yogurt with fruit, a dash of tahini, and a form of not-sweet praline. They also have lots of coffee choices and egg dishes served mostly with brioche. Lovely place to start the day, although they do not open until 9 a.m.

Schranne Farmer’s Market

Only open Thursday mornings, this is the best market in town, with loads of eierschwammerl (chanterelles), marillen (apricots), meats and sausages (plus super thinly sliced sheets of schinken—ham), breads and rolls, sweet pastries, tons of flowers, honey, jam, etc. (The market is on the other side of the river from the Altstadt, in a parking lot opposite the Mirabell gardens.)

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Herzl Restaurant

This used to be a very traditional spot until a few years ago when they built a large outdoor patio with a more modern menu. However, it is a nice place to sit, not far from the Festspiele. The gemischter salat is excellent (has lettuce plus Austrian potato salad and a cucumber salad) as is the Wiener schnitzel. Don’t worry about looking like a tourist with the schnitzel—it is the best version around.

Sporer

A tiny but outstanding wine and liquor store near the end of Getreidegasse. Order a white wine spritzer with a shot of holunderbluten (elderflower) schnapps. Elderflower is one of my favorite flavors—it is also used as a non-alcoholic flavoring with sparkling water, the perfect drink on a hot day. You can grab your spritzer and stand outside to drink it; they even provide a small shelf to hold your drink. Best visited in the early evening when Getreidegasse is a bit less crowded and things start to cool down.

Schwartzbrot

Black bread is one of the specialties here and it is best purchased at Josef Brot, around the corner from Sporer. They also sell great small sandwiches with ham and cheese or just cheese. They add some grated horseradish to the schinken (ham) sandwiches, which makes them spicy.

Dishes to Try: Other than the wienerschnitzel, there are dumplings filled with crispy pork belly (grammelknødel), tafelspitz (boiled beef with vegetables and horseradish), which sounds awful but is great, and, for dessert, palatschinken, which are crepes usually filled with apricot jam. Summer is the season for eierschwammerl and they are all over the menus, from a mushroom goulash to soup to appetizers.

Where to eat and drink in Vienna

Braunerhof Café

Had the best goulash of my life there, with two dumplings that were super light. The goulash sauce was rich, dark, silky and divine. Cannot recommend this dish too highly.

Café Vollpensionn

Cool concept. The bakers are mostly grandmothers who come is for 5-hour shifts and cook old-school desserts. Their sachertorte is way better than what you find at the Sacher Hotel, the latter being, in my opinion from a visit years ago, not that fresh. The indoor part of the café looks a bit like a grandmother’s living room with chintz-style sofas and lots of photos on the walls. Cute, but the desserts are terrific.

We made buchteln for an upcoming episode of Milk Street TV; it’s a sweet yeast dumpling (looks more like a hot cross bun to me) filled with a thick plum jam and served with a crème anglaise.

Café Sperl

This is perhaps the coolest old café in Vienna. The baker made an apricot cake which starts with a layer of biscuit dough. You cut off thin pieces from a big square of dough, place it on a baking sheet and bake until done. Cover with a creamy sweet filling and bake until that filling sets. Top with sliced apricots glazed with apricot jam. Highly recommend this café if you want to get a feel for old Vienna.

We also went to a cooking school where we made topfennockerl, cream cheese dumplings (made from an Austrian farmer’s cheese called topfen) plus breadcrumbs and egg, covered with toasted breadcrumbs, simmered in water and served with a plum coulis.

Kachumber is a simple salad of crunchy produce that’s popular in Southeast Asian Cuisine. You can find it made with unripe mango, peppers, and all sorts of herbs, but cucumber, tomato, and onion are nearly always present. The salad isn’t doused with an oily vinaigrette, but seasoned simply with lemon juice, chili powder, and cumin, proving once again that the classic French vinaigrette is not a bad thing, but hardly universal. (If I hear another French-trained cook go on and on about the 3:1 ratio of oil to vinegar and the essential ingredient, mustard, I am going to scream. Sure, it’s a perfectly fine salad dressing but only one of hundreds of dressings used around the world.)

I saw several references comparing how this everyday Indian salad is served with meals, similarly to a Mexican pico de gallo, though I see kachumber as much more than a condiment-like salsa. It could even become the base for an entire meal, topped with seared or grilled chicken or paneer. For this recipe, the tomato and cucumber remain central, but I expanded the vegetable options for a crunchier, more substantial side dish. The light seasoning of toasted cumin and chili powder make it compatible with almost any vegetable, especially raw, crunchy ones, and the citrus and herbs punch up pretty much anything.

Tomato and cucumber are the core of kachumber, and they’re usually present equal in amounts, or sometimes with more cucumber than tomato. I decided to up the tomato, as it is tomato season, after all. I also cut the amount of cucumber, because several other crunchy vegetables—namely, carrots, radishes, and sugar snap peas—are included.

Recipes for kachumber often mention that the salad gets watery once lemon and salt are added, particularly from the tomato. To prevent this, I lightly salted the tomatoes in a sieve and let the excess liquid drain away before incorporating them into the salad.

Instead of raw red onion, I quick-pickled some thinly sliced shallots in lemon juice to give the salad a bright pop of flavor. I also used a combination of fresh chili and dried chili powder—that classic contrast between the hot and cold is great here.

As with vegetables, you have a lot of room to play around with the herbs. Typical recipes call for cilantro, dill or mint (I am fond of the latter) —I threw in some parsley, too, but it’s up to you if you want to include it.

Chunky Tomato-Cucumber Salad

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I just interviewed Roz Chast, the cartoonist of New Yorker fame, and she co-wrote an illustrated book entitled The Two Saddest Kitchens. My favorite bit is about turning on a stovetop burner. She writes, “Hey, big boy! Do you want to TURN ME ON? Don’t think you can just twist the knob and voila! No sirree! You’ll have to light another burner, then wait a bit, and THEN twist the knob! And even then, it’s iffy! Maybe you should send me a dozen roses or take me out dancing!” Sounds all too familiar to me! (Be sure to follow Milk Street Radio to hear the full interview when it airs this fall.)

The Best Cutting Board in The World

I am persnickety when it comes to cutting boards, very persnickety. I do not like “hard” boards that dull my knives, I do not like boards that are too small, I do not like boards that cannot be put into a dishwasher, I do not like super heavy boards, and I really hate boards that warp. The only board I love is the most expensive: the Hasegawa Wood Core Soft Rubber Cutting Board. It costs well over $100, but it does everything right. And it feels so good as you draw your knife across its soft, giving surface.

Salsa Macha

This is my favorite salsa to serve with any sort of meat. It is dark, rich and nutty, and contains dried chilies. I do not love the store-bought versions, which are often way too spicy. This version from Paola Briseno-Gonzalez is mild enough to use on seafood or scrambled eggs. She also uses cocoa nibs, which really makes this special, and it will last for months in the fridge.

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To make it, combine 2 cups of olive oil and 4 peeled and smashed garlic cloves in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the oil starts to bubble, about 4 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of slivered, blanched almonds, 1/2 cup peanuts (salted or unsalted), 3 tablespoons of raw cacao nibs and 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic and nuts are fragrant and lightly golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Add 5 medium guajillo chilies, 2 chipotle chilies, and 2 ancho chilies (all stemmed, seeded and torn into rough 2-inch pieces), and cook, stirring, until they soften and brighten in color, about 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in 1 teaspoon dried oregano and cool for 10 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, transfer the solids to a food processor (it’s fine if tiny bits remain in the oil) and add 2 teaspoons cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt; reserve the oil. Process until the mixture is chopped, 30 to 60 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the oil and pulse until the solids are evenly and finely chopped, about 4 pulses. Taste and season with salt. Transfer to a container and use right away or cover and refrigerate for up to several months (bring to room temperature before serving).

Fake News: BBQ and Grilling

I spend a bunch of time chatting with Meathead, the BBQ expert, and he and I agree on a few things that go against common wisdom. First, soaking wood chips does nothing—the “smoke” that comes up is just steam, not smoke, and until the chips dry out, you are not flavoring anything. When the wood does start to burn, it will produce the same amount of smoke as you would without soaking. Second, when grilling steaks, move them around the grill constantly. Grill marks are a sign that the gray parts in between have no flavor! Finally, Meathead is against resting meat before cutting. His point is that juices will flow out in any case, and you simply consume the juices on your plate along with the meat. I still prefer to give a steak a 5-minute rest, as I think it does hold onto juices a bit better, but agree that letting grilled meat sit until it is room temperature is less than ideal. I do not find that letting chicken rest makes much difference.

What I am Reading: Cellar Rat: My Life in The Restaurant Underbelly

Hannah Sellinger does a terrific job of a tell-all about the restaurant business, especially the wine side of it all. She did enjoy the celebrities, from Paul McCartney to Nathan Lane to Bill Clinton to Steven Spielberg, but on the flip side were the chefs, one in particular, who threatened, “I will murder your family!” Another boss went to knock a Yankees cap off her head during service (the restaurant was in Red Sox territory) and ended up breaking her nose in the process. The Sea Grill was one of her least favorite venues due to the out-of-town customers that “needed a maid to clean up after the atrocity of tourist dinner service.” In an effort to cover up for an alcoholic co-worker, she got caught on video pouring low-grade liquor into high-grade bottles, and that was that. But if you have wondered if something goes on behind the scenes, well, it probably does!

I am fascinated by the Pillsbury Bake-Offs. They tell a story about America, year by year, providing a bit of insight into who we were, what we ate, and how we viewed the world. In 1950, Orange Kiss-Me Cake won the Bake-Off (it was just in its second year). It was submitted by Lily Wuebel of Redwood City, who pocketed $25,000 for her winning creation, a massive payday for its time. The name probably came from the Broadway play, Kiss Me Kate, although a less likely alternative is that it was named after Kissimmee, FL, famous for its orange groves. I go with the Broadway version.

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One interesting aspect of the recipe is that it uses a whole orange in the batter, excluding the seeds. (How did they process a whole orange before the invention of the food processor? Did they use a meat grinder?) The rest of the cake batter is pretty standard, except for the raisins, pecans and walnuts, which are broken down and incorporated. The topping is a streusel with brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and chopped nuts. The original poured orange juice over the top and then sprinkled on cinnamon sugar and chopped nuts—the streusel is a better approach.

I converted this recipe entirely for the food processor to avoid using a food processor plus a mixer and it worked just fine. I am wary of cinnamon since it is overpowering, so prefer cardamom, but the choice is yours. Just for fun, I also made this recipe with kumquats, which I think provides a more interesting flavor than orange, so I have provided this as an option. I also use butter instead of shortening—the original recipe called for a 1/2 cup.

Orange Kiss-Me Cake

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Pestos are the easiest way to get dinner on the table. You do not need a recipe—just include nuts (almonds work great; you don’t need pine nuts), grated Parmesan or pecorino, one or two cloves of garlic (raw garlic in a pesto can be overwhelming), olive oil and some sort of greens (basil, arugula, parsley, or a combination, etc). You can cook garlic cloves in water for a minute or so to mute their flavor.

Start with the nuts, garlic and cheese in a food processor, then finish with the greens and finally the olive oil. If you want a particularly creamy pesto, use more nuts and cheese. Or you can mix it up with basil, arugula and mint or whatever. Arugula is a great choice since it will keep the pesto green and it has a bit of spice to it.

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The other basic pasta sauce you need to know is this: Cook some pasta, drain and set aside, reserving a couple cups of the cooking water. Cook some broccoli or zucchini (cut into matchsticks) for a few minutes in oil to soften. (You can also start by sautéing two cloves of garlic and remove them from the oil when browned.) Add half of the vegetable mixture to a blender with 1/2 cup of pasta cooking liquid and the garlic (if using). Transfer back to the pot with some grated cheese, another 1/2 cup of cooking water, a few tablespoons butter—you can also add some fresh basil if you have it—and then the reserved pasta. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly for 2 minutes to finish. I always finish pasta dishes like this with some fresh, high-quality EVOO and a bit of cheese.

The Best Ingredient Nobody Cooks With

Leeks are vastly under-appreciated. I use a ton of them in the roasting pan with liquid when I roast a turkey, then make the world’s best stock out of that flavored liquid. But a simple braise is also great. (To prep, cut off the hard green part, slice in half lengthwise, and rinse. Make sure there are no tough outer layers that will not soften during cooking.) Cook them in a large skillet with some stock or wine, olive oil, and/or even a bit of butter. Leave the top on for 15 minutes and then cook with the top off for at least another 15 minutes, adding liquid if need be. They should come out super-soft and creamy. You can also finish with cream, top with grated cheese, and run them under a broiler, but I prefer the simpler approach. Buyer’s Tip: Many leeks have only a small portion of white which means that most of the leek is unusable. Be sure to purchase leeks with a long stretch of white root.

Please Try Japanese Medium Grain White Rice

I am in love with premium Japanese white rice—Yuki Tsubaki Koshihikari White Rice, to be specific. It is a medium grain rice that is brilliantly white and full of sweet flavor. I never realized that rice could taste so good. It also uses less cooking water than long grain rice. For 1 cup of rice, I use just over 1 cup of water. It is pricey, yes, but once you taste it you will find basmati and jasmine rice to be on the boring side. I cook it in my Japanese donabe (a glazed earthenware pot with two tops) which is my favorite way to cook rice, but an electric rice cooker is also fine. You can find it on Amazon.

Yotam’s Simple Too Coming in October

Yotam was just on the Milk Street Radio show, helping me to field calls from listeners. He has an amazing depth of culinary knowledge, and that is why I have pre-ordered his latest book, Simple Too. (It pubs in October.) He is a master of pairing flavors and textures.

What I am Reading: Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey

Her version is highly readable, much like any good adventure story. Even the current film version leaves out most of the details, which make this a richer and more compelling tale. It is also a master class in storytelling, since Homer uses a lot of time shifts instead of starting at Troy and ending back in Ithaca. What I love most are the jealous, scheming gods who have all the foibles of man. Athena works hard to keep Odysseus safe while Poseidon is constantly plotting against his return, since Odysseus blinded his son, Polyphemus, the cyclops. And the whole thing is written in iambic pentameter, which makes this version that much more impressive.

What I am Watching: Theodore Roosevelt

I have read a couple of books on Roosevelt but this documentary brings the man to life. He was the most popular man in America for over a decade. He was a populist by nature, aligning himself with the common man. He put millions of acres of land under government protection as national parks. And, despite a lot of pain and health issues, he was going to run again in the 1920 election and might have won. He understood the raw power of the presidency, but also understand the rule of law and how to represent the working man. His love of war was tempered by the death of his youngest son in WWI. He once said, “Ain’t war grand!” but lived to regret that enthusiasm. We need a Teddy Roosevelt for the 21^st century.

Banana pudding? I am supposed to be a well-schooled cook who has traveled the world looking for exciting new ways to prepare food, and now I am talking about a recipe you can find on the back of the Nilla wafer box!

Let’s turn back the clock to 1984, when I first dined at An American Place, Larry Forgione’s paean to American cooking. I do remember the term “marsh hare” on the menu (a type of rabbit) and for dessert there was banana pudding. Larry was flat out celebrating American cooking, including a recipe that ended up on the back of a box of cookies.

So if banana pudding was good enough for Larry Forgione, one of my culinary heroes, it is more than good enough for me. I started with the recipe on the back of the box and it was quite good. It is simple enough—a vanilla custard layered with banana slices and cookies, topped with a meringue. It’s a Southern classic that, let’s be fair, may not need much improving.

I complain all the time about folks who take winning recipes and muck them up, so I am skating close to the edge by suggesting that dulce de leche might work well here.

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But rather than present a basic banana pudding with a ribbon of dulce de leche, I flavored the pudding with a simple butter-sugar caramel, giving it a deeper, slightly bittersweet flavor and a bit of color. If the method sounds familiar, it’s the same one I used when making the pain perdu: Instead of caramelizing the sugar directly in the pan (or with water), it’s caramelized in a pool of melted butter. It takes about 5 minutes, then the milk is added and the regular pudding method continues.

Cornstarch is the preferred starch for thickening this pudding, it doesn’t leave the powdery mouthfeel that flour sometimes does, and adds a glossy finish. A 1/2 cup of cornstarch might seem like a lot, but it’s well within the ratio for classic pastry creams. I did test 1/3 cup and the pudding was, for me, too soft, almost runny.

This pudding is also lighter than usual. Instead of using whipped cream as a topping, I decided to fold it into the caramel base after it cooled. It gave the thick, sometimes heavy layer a touch of lightness, without detracting from its creamy richness. It also gave it more structure; the plated scoops kept their shape and distinct layers, without slumping.

Another big difference is how I treated the eggs. Instead of separating them and using the yolks in the custard (and whites for a meringue topping), I kept them whole. The resulting texture was thick—but not overly heavy—creamy and smooth.

For the dulce de leche, I tested three different brands—one canned grocery brand from Nestle, and two jarred brands ordered from Amazon. Surprisingly, their colors and textures were practically identical, so the directions on thinning worked for all of them. You can thin your brand of choice with water or milk; I left it at water. The only modification I made was a little bit of vanilla extract, added to the dulce de leche to give it some depth, but this is optional if you think it’s too fussy.

One last thought: You can skip the dulce de leche topping if you like. I have made a bunch of changes to the basic recipe so it works great on its own. There is something to be said for keeping a classic a classic.

If Larry is still around, I hope that he gives this a shot and then gives me a shout. It would be just like old times.

Caramel Banana Pudding with Dulce de Leche

Instead of the typical vanilla custard and meringue or whipped cream topping, this banana pudding is flavored with a butter-sugar caramel, lightened with whipped cream, and layered with dulce de leche.

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After watching a video of Erling Haaland (Norway’s most famous and well-spoken footballer) eat like a ravenous tiger, I wondered about his diet. One article in Forbes claimed that he consumes 6000 calories per day and lives off of an “ancestral diet,” which I assume is a lack of processed foods in favor of raw or unprocessed foods. According to a 2022 documentary, Haaland: The Big Decision, his diet includes cow hearts and livers as well as raw honey, sea bass, asparagus and egg fried rice. Whether it is a matter of diet or genetics, I would stay out of his way on the football pitch—he flings away defenders as if they were small, noisome children.

The Best Refried Beans?

I have been working on a new approach to refried beans, since they are often tasteless. I started with two cans of black beans, softened up some onion and garlic in a sauté pan, added the beans with ¾ cup of the liquid in the cans plus an extra 1/4 cup water and cooked them for about 10 minutes with a tablespoon of chipotle chilies. They then went into the food processor, where I added 3 ounces of Monterey Jack or Oaxaca cheese, shredded, in three 1-ounce additions, pulsing just one or twice each time. Reheated in the pan and added lime juice to finish. I served them this last weekend and it was the best thing on the table.

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Reverse-Seared Grilled Chicken?

I just made two grilled chickens over the weekend, and have come up with my preferred method, which is similar to a reverse-seared steak. I start with the grill on low; if you have a thermometer, it should read around 250℉. This means that the skin is unlikely to char and burn with flare-ups, so you do not have to stand in front of the grill every minute. (I keep the top on throughout.) If the skin is not nicely browned and rendered near the end of cooking, you can increase the heat for the final sear. This is easy to do on a gas range, but on my Green Egg I just open the top and the bottom vent, which jumpstarts the temperature. (Same thing with a Weber.) By the way, I cook the legs/thighs to an internal temp of 195-200℉, so that all of the connective tissue is fully melted. Forget the 175-degree rule of dark meat—it is not nearly high enough.

You Can Make Hummus Out of Almost Any Bean

I just interviewed Pati Jinich for an upcoming episode of Milk Street Radio, and she told me that she had a hummus made from tepary beans at the Desert Rain Café in Sells, Arizona. These beans are tiny and slightly flat, and look more like lentils than beans. They come from the Sonoran desert and have been cultivated by indigenous tribes for thousands of years. They have a creamy, dense, almost meaty flavor and texture. So think beyond the chickpea and try any bean you like, such as Great northern, cannellini, butter beans, lima beans, pinto, red kidney and black beans.

Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice

I’m not a fan of bottled citrus juice in general, but key limes are not easy to find and this juice is actually pretty good. Two 16-ounce bottles cost just under $12 on Amazon. Not a bad ingredient to have around in the summer, and a great addition to spritzers as well as in cooking.

What I Am Reading Now: The Traveler’s Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Years ago, I was rereading Live and Let Die, and Fleming mentions a book called The Traveler’s Tree by Patrick Leigh Fermor, who was a distinguished travel writer of his time. Yes, it’s a product of its era, but if you get past that the descriptions of his experiences are both detailed and poetic as he travels through Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad, and Haiti. If you are interested in the culture of those islands before tourism, before the Americanization of the Caribbean, this is where you will find it. It is not a perfect world—there is poverty and the painful remains of colonial culture—but you sense that Fermor is in love with the people and places without judgement. In any case, he reports on a world that had mostly disappeared by the 21^st century.

Miya Japanese Ramen Bowls

I visited Miya when I was in Tokyo last year and they have a unique series of ramen bowls based on traditional Japanese art with a modern take. The designs include the great wave, a floral design, coy fish, etc. I also like the size and shape—they can hold a lot of ramen, or soup, or stew or just a bowlful of pasta. You can find them in the Milk Street Store.

Let’s do the math. Most seven layer bars count the graham crust as two layers and add five more layers on top. They melt butter in the baking pan, then add the graham cracker crumbs as if these two ingredients make up two distinct layers, not a simple crust. Come on guys, really?

What follows (at least for most of the recipes) are coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, and sweetened condensed milk to fuse everything together. Some recipes add an additional layer of toffee bar pieces, a caramel drizzle, or even flaky sea salt. My goal was to make this a true seven-layer bar, so I needed to find one more layer that gave this recipe a real upgrade.

I finally settled on adding a brownie layer on top of the bottom crust. A thin layer of brownie provides a distinct second layer in addition to the crust. Then comes the jumble of stuff on top. The brownie batter is made with cocoa and quickly mixed by hand.

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One problem with these bars is that they are way too sweet. So, instead of using chocolate chips or peanut butter chips, I added Rice Krispies. They have a great crunch and don’t come with any additional sugar. As a bonus, I also added a few mini marshmallows, which rise to the top during baking and get golden-toasted. If you want to also add chocolate chips, you can scatter them onto the top of the recipe just before baking.

I kept the coconut, pecans and sweetened condensed milk. Some recipes pour the milk over the crust and press toppings into it; some add it last as the final layer. I didn’t want anything pressed into the brownie batter, but did want some of the topping to stand upright and offer textural contrast, so I added the milk after the coconut, then topped with pecans and chocolate chips.

So now I had a legitimate eight layer bar: bottom crust, brownie layer, Rice Krispies, coconut, pecans, miniature marshmallows, sweetened condensed milk and chocolate chips on the top, one that had a better texture and was less sweet. My serving suggestion is to bake these bars for the kids and then eat most of them yourself when they aren’t looking.

Eight Layer Bars

I have added a brownie layer to this bar and also cut back on the chips, using Rice Krispies as a substitute for some of them. Please use unsweetened coconut, not the sweet stuff.

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We just posted this video for a Burnt Honey Tomato Salad on the Milk Street Instagram account, and it has over a million views. You’ll have to go to Milk Street for the full salad recipe, but the essence of this dish is the dressing, which involves “burning” honey in a skillet.

Here’s how to make it: Add 3 tablespoons of mild honey to a skillet over medium-high and cook until the honey is a dark amber. Pour in 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (it will splutter), remove pan from heat, and add 2 tablespoons EVOO and a pinch of salt. Now you have one of the best salad dressings ever, perfect for tomatoes that need a punch of flavor.

Do You Need to Refrigerate Ketchup (or Mayo)?

I just interviewed Kristen Miglore, who wrote the article, “Do I Need to Refrigerate Ketchup?” The answer to that question is “no,” with a caveat—for best flavor over time, store in the fridge. (Note that ketchup sits at room temperature at every diner in America.)

Some of the other results are surprising—ghee can be stored at room temperature, specialty oils should be stored long-term in the fridge, oyster sauce and soy sauce need refrigeration after opening, and so does maple syrup (though I store it at room temp). Although her article says that butter is only good on the counter for two days, I keep salted butter on the counter for at least a week. Peanut butter is fine, once opened, in the pantry for two to three months. The big surprise for me was that mayo is fine at room temperature for three to six months once opened. For me, that has always been a bridge too far. My burning question is whether this is about safety—are you going to poison yourself?—or is this about optimum flavor and texture? The answer, like with most things, is that it depends.

Scott Simon from Weekend Edition as Mother Ginger?

Scott Simon, host of Weekend Edition, one of NPR’s biggest and longest-running hit shows, told me recently that his favorite role of all time was Mother Ginger in The Nutcracker (the woman with the large hoop skirt). He is hoping for a return engagement, so if any of you are in charge of casting for a ballet or opera, please give Scott a call! (And check out my interview with Scott on here.)

The World’s Best Tortillas

A couple of years ago, I came across Caramelo Sonoran-style flour tortillas at a local gourmet store and it was night and day. Made with pork fat and flour (they also have an avocado oil option), they offer incredible flavor and the texture is better—they are stronger and less likely to tear. Just toast them in a pan or on a gas burner and you are good to go. Nothing comes close, even the ones I make with my tortilla press at home. (They’re currently out of stock in our store, but you can sign up to be notified when they’re back.)

3 Ways to Cook Eggs

First off, I use my 8-inch carbon steel skillet which is, for all intents and purposes, nonstick. To season, I place a tablespoon or 2 of oil in the pan and heat it, rubbing the oil into the metal with a paper towel every 30 seconds or so, then let it cool, again rubbing the pan with paper towels. I repeat this process seven or eight times when I first buy the pan. Then, every time I use it, I wipe it out with paper towels and re-season. (After a while, this becomes unnecessary. And never wash the pan if you can help it; just wipe it out with a paper towel.) One other trick is to use a fair amount of oil when cooking in the pan, which also helps to keep it seasoned.

For scrambled eggs, I heat the pan until I can no longer hold my open palm for more than 5 seconds about 2 inches above the surface. Then I add the eggs, beaten with a little salt (no water or milk please), immediately turn the heat off, and stir the eggs with a silicone spatula. The water in the eggs turn to steam and they end up fluffy and perfect. The whole process takes less than 30 seconds. (Oil does not contain water as butter does, which heats up the water in the eggs faster.)

For fried, I get the pan pretty hot, with 2 or 3 tablespoons of oil, add the eggs, and immediately turn the pan to low, add 1 tablespoon of water to the pan and cover. This way you get a crispy bottom and a cooked (steamed) top without flipping.

Finally, to boil an egg, add an inch or so of water to a small saucepan and, when simmering, add your eggs, turn the heat to low, and cover. It takes exactly 6 minutes to cook a soft-boiled egg.

Grilling Pizza in 3 Minutes

My wife Melissa loves grilled pizza more than baked, and here’s why. First off, the dough does not have to be a perfect circle; it can be as misshapen as you like, but you want it relatively thin throughout. Throw it on the hot side of the grill and cook for just a minute or two until it blisters and shows some black spots underneath, Flip it over to a medium-hot area, brush with good olive oil, sprinkle coarse sea salt on it and add herbs if you like. What you end up with is a large piece of grilled flatbread in all of 3 minutes. If you want a topping, say cheese, that takes more time to melt, use a medium setting for the second side, add the toppings, and cover with a disposable aluminum roasting pan. My favorite topping is grated Raclette cheese with thin slices of prosciutto.

I like icebox cheesecake; I really like it. It is lighter than a typical cheesecake, perhaps with the exception of Japanese cheesecake, and I also like the cool temperature and tang, which ameliorates the fat content. I have not had a slice of icebox cheesecake in over 20 years and, like restoring an old Corvette hidden in a barn, I set out to make this one with great enthusiasm.

I started with a graham cracker crust and punched it up with ground ginger. You can use either an 8- or 9-inch springform pan, the former giving you a tad more height with the finished cheesecake. Sour cream was added along with the cream cheese, nothing new there.

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The bigger issue was the gelatin. You want the cake to set, but you still want a creamy texture, avoiding an over-set texture like in a bad panna cotta. I used half a packet, but also folded in whipped cream; the gelatin is there to support the already airy texture, not to transform the ingredients into a rubber ball. I made one version with just a refrigerator rest, which came out super-creamy, although the tip of each slice was a tad droopy. An hour or so in the freezer is probably a good idea, so the cheesecake sets up properly, but after that initial cooling period you can leave it in the fridge.

I love this cake served with a glaze, and a tequila glaze was my favorite, although you can just use water. The glaze provides punch and color and also is thickened with gelatin.

Key limes can be hard to find, and they are a bit gnarly to juice, so we found an acceptable substitute available on Amazon: Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice. Key limes are also hard to zest, so regular limes are a better choice.

Now I had the perfect summer cheesecake—bright, fresh and tangy. Oh, and did I say cooling? That too!

Key Lime Icebox Cheesecake

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How to Determine When A Steak is Done

I have a a few digital Thermapens in my kitchen, and they are top-of-the-line, but I find that temping steaks is tricky. I pull a steak off at 130 degrees, and it is blood rare, or the steak goes from 120 degrees to 145 degrees in just seconds. You can use a Bluetooth meat thermometer such as the Meater Pro (this is my favorite brand—it is compact and I like the Bluetooth app) or, and this is old school, you can teach yourself to test a steak with your fingers.

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This is the most reliable method, but it takes practice. The rule is that if you press a steak and it feels like pressing the fleshy pad of your hand below the thumb, the steak is rare. If you touch your thumb and index finger and then touch that same spot, it feels firmer and that is medium-rare. If you touch your middle finger to your thumb, it will feel still firmer for a medium steak. I suggest that you try to train yourself (also using an instant read thermometer) and you will get proficient quickly. And you can impress your friends with your newfound skill and your steaks will end up being cooked properly.

Cha Chaan Teng: The Hong Kong Diner

In a recent interview with Lucas Sin, author of Cha Chaan Teng: Comfort Food from Hong Kong’s Iconic Diners, he made it clear that this food is not fusion food, it’s just what folks like to eat. It’s a mishmash of different cultures, with dishes like breakfast noodles in a broth made from diluted canned cream of chicken soup, reinforced with salt, sugar, and MSG, then topped with ham and macaroni or even Spam. You can also find scrambled eggs, made extra silky with extra yolks, or how about Black Pepper Spaghetti with Pork Chops? His favorite restaurant in the world is Australia Dairy Company, and he details how one shows up, sits down, orders, eats, pays and leaves all within seven minutes. The Hong Kong Diner is a world unto itself.

Easy Roasted Potatoes Recipe

Heat oven to 425℉. Halve small yellow potatoes and toss in olive oil and salt. (The pieces should be an inch or an inch and half in diameter.) Place on a baking sheet, cut side down. Roast for 20 minutes or so and then flip them. Continue roasting until they are nicely browned, another 10 plus minutes. Do not overbake—the interiors will become dry and airy. You want a deeply browned exterior and an interior that still has some moisture. You can also toss them with a simple dressing when they come out of the oven.

What I’m Reading: Persian Fire by Tom Holland

Holland is one of the top historians and is also the co-host of my favorite podcast, The Rest is History. (They cover everything from Jack The Ripper to WWI to ancient Rome.) Persian Fire is the story of the Persian empire that started with Cyrus The Great in the sixth century B.C., and what is so striking is the sophistication and scale of the Persian Empire.

The Persians, who predated the Romans, were brilliant at managing a vast empire, along with incredible architecture and technology. Later on, Darius became king and tried to invade Athens at the battle of Marathon. The Persians had landed miles away from Athens at a flat plain that was perfect for their much feared calvary. The Athenians built defensive positions in the hills overlooking the plain, and when the Persians shipped their calvary up the coast in a pincer movement, the Athenians ran down the hills and attacked, pushing the Persians back onto their ships. A runner was sent to warn Athens and, you guessed it, it was 26 miles away. (That runner, Pheidippides, was known to have run 140 miles in two days.)

The Greek army force marched back to Athens in time and the city was saved. (Using fires on mountaintops, runners, and trained announcers who could make themselves heard throughout the course of long valleys, the Persians could transmit news across their vast empire within two weeks.)

What I Am Watching: Grant

Grant is a 2020 documentary miniseries that takes a fresh look at this American hero who is known today for drinking and corruption. (This description was falsely created by his opponents, who tried to stop Reconstruction and the restoration of civil rights to all Americans.) The facts are that he was a brilliant general who was responsible for the end of the Civil War and he was, if not an outright abolitionist, at the very least anti-slavery. His victory at Vicksburg was the beginning of the end, since it cut a lot of the confederacy’s supply lines. He did suffer massive casualties at Shiloh, and also during the Wilderness Campaign, but his dogged and adaptive style of fighting, unlike most of the other Union generals, earned him Lincoln’s affection and the presidency in 1868, after which he used federal troops to put down the Klu Klux Klan and protect the lives and rights of Black citizens.

Although he did drink in the 1850s, in between West Point and re-entering the military in 1861, this aspect of his life was probably exaggerated. His cabinet did have corruption scandals, but not of Grant’s making—he was honest and never made money from the presidency.

One interesting note: Mark Twain offered to publish his autobiography (Grant was broke at the time), which Grant finished a few days before dying of cancer. Since Grant was the most famous man in America, the book was a blockbuster, earning his family half a whopping million dollars in royalties. (The first publisher Grant spoke to about his book only offered him $10,000.) When we think of the Civil War, we think of Lincoln and Lee, but Grant was the most beloved figure of his time. (During his travels abroad, the crowds he drew were enormous, in the hundreds of thousands.)

Miya Bowls from Japan

Made in Japan, Miya has both serving bowls and individual ramen bowls with distinctive designs such as “Aranami,” which translates to raging waves; or a design based on woodblock artist Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.” I use these bowls at home and love them, not just for their designs, but for their size. They are large enough for serving noodles, rice, whatever. You can find them at our store.

Once in a great while, I come across a recipe from the past that sounds intriguing, in this case, the Melting Tea Cake from Paula Peck’s “The Art of Good Cooking” from the 1960’s. What caught my attention was the notion that this is a half sponge and half pound cake. That is a worthy goal, since pound cakes are dense and rich and sponge cakes can be a bit airy. But this is one recipe that almost did me in.

Let’s start with the eggs. This recipe started with an egg foam (whole eggs and sugar heated over a bain-marie and then whipped). The problem was that this delicate foam is hammered by the addition of over a cup of flour and a full cup of melted butter. When I tested this approach, the cake never rose much in the oven. The egg foam collapsed under the weight of all that flour and butter.

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I then tried variations with the eggs separated, using beaten egg whites to do the heavy lifting. Yolks were hand-mixed with butter/sour cream and flour, then the whites were whipped with sugar and cream of tartar to a medium-stiff peaks. While some of these test cakes rose a bit in the oven, they collapsed while cooling and the crumb was often unevenly textured inside.

I then split the sugar between the yolk mixture and the meringue, and aerated both. I did the yolks in the stand mixer with the whisk attachment, and I whisked the whites by hand to make a meringue, again using 6 eggs. This cake had a nice, velvety texture, but again, no loft or half-sponge-like quality. Plus, whipping meringue by hand isn’t for everyone.

I then decided to re-visit the original whole-egg foam, with some adjustments. Instead of 4 eggs + 4 yolks, I tried 6 whole eggs with no added yolks (along with 6 ounces each sugar, butter, and flour.) I heated the eggs with sugar over a bain-marie, then whipped with a mixer to peak volume. Then, instead of folding in flour and butter by hand, I used the mixer to add these, but added the melted butter first, flour last, and finished folding by hand. The batter itself was the lightest of all the tests and rose more in the oven.

To fill a tube pan, though, I still wanted more height, so I upped everything from 6 to 7 just to see if it would work: 7 eggs, 7 ounces each sugar, butter, and flour. This worked well and the cake was taller. There are no chemical leaveners in Peck’s recipe, but I settled on baking powder for overall loft and a bit of baking soda to balance out the citrus juice.

I tested various flavor options and almond with orange was the winner. A sprinkling of toasted, sliced almonds, added to the bottom of the greased tube pan looks great after unmolding, but is optional.

So now I finally had something in between sponge and pound cake, the perfect recipe for a light but toothsome tea cake, and one that can be flavored any way you like.

Melting Tea Cake with Orange and Almond

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Marie Briggs was the cook and baker at the Yellow Farmhouse in our small Vermont town, the population shrinking to just 150 souls in the 1940s. The farmhouse still stands today just within the town line, with the farmhouse on the left and two sagging horse barns on the right. Much of the cooking was still done on a green Kalamazoo wood stove, there was no running water—a hand pump in the sink was positioned right above the well—and Marie not only cooked for the farmhands, including Floyd and Junior, but also for the summer help, Onie and Herbie.

Marie was a great baker and made bread, cookies and pies for the local stores. But Anadama bread was my favorite, a simple loaf built on a bit of cornmeal and molasses. It has a slightly sweet flavor, which makes it superior to regular white bread, which was also on Marie’s baking list. If you happened to stop by the Yellow Farmhouse in the afternoon, Marie would offer a slice of warm bread with a schmear of butter and a cup of tea. And lots of folks did stop by, since the farmhouse was the de facto town center.

Every time you left town or returned, you could be sure that Floyd or Junior would notice, especially if there was a second person in the car or truck. That was just about the only form of entertainment, telling stories, old ones and new, and gossiping about whatever was going on that week.

Anadama’s origin story, at least the way I heard it, was that a husband came home after a long day of work and found that his wife, Ana, had not prepared anything for dinner; she wasn’t even home. So, in desperation, he baked up this bread and uttered the oath, “Ana damn her!” which is hard to believe, both because he would have to know how to bake bread and, second, it takes way too long to bake bread for supper.

But almost everything in our town did have a story to it, like the one about Claude and Chester Hayes. They went out deer hunting one night out of season, traveling with a horse and small wagon. They shot a buck and, as they neared Charlie Randall’s house, which was close to the road, they realized that they were in trouble. Charlie would look out of a window with his thick wire spectacles and see what they had done. They decided to prop the buck up between them on the bench seat, pretending it was just another passenger. Charlie’s eyesight was poor and it was dark out. Sure enough, as they drove by, they could see the curtain parted and Charlie’s big round face looking out as they passed.

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The next day at the store, they ran into Charlie who asked, “Who was that coming back to town with you in the middle of the night?” Claude thought fast and said, “Oh, just a local girl!” Charlie grinned and replied, “Kinda ugly ain’t she?”

Anadama bread is simple enough. The yeast is given a jump start with the warm water/milk mixture, and a bit of cornmeal mush is added, along with 1/4 cup molasses. Be careful not to add too much flour when doing the final kneading and shaping for the best texture when baked. Get the recipe below.

Kitchen Scraps

The Best Scotch Whiskey?

I just interviewed Ian Buxton, author of Whiskies Galore, which is being published next month. I asked him to give me a few suggestions to get started and they were: Highland Park, Talisker, Harris, Laphroaig (of course), and Arran. Of course, there is no such thing as the best, but these are worth trying. He also made a very smart suggestion: Buy a bunch of the tiny bottles and do a blind tasting. That way you don’t get stuck with a $50 bottle you don’t like.

What to Make for Dessert When You Have Nothing for Dessert

My daughter Caroline whipped up a last-minute desert, a throw-together parfait. She stewed some rhubarb (you could use any fruit) and then whipped up heavy cream, a bit of sugar, and crème fraîche and layered them in a wine glass. Perfect.

MILKFISH, the Popup Bakery

Just spent some time with Kimmie Mcintosh, founder of the MILKFISH Bakeshop, a popup in downtown Las Vegas which is going to become a permanent bakery soon. She had me at the Pandan Tres Leches Cake (I love pandan, its color and fresh flavor), along with her Ube Halaya Babka (ube is a Filipino sweet potato), Cashew Coco Sticky Bun, a Wagyu Empanada, and Karioka (coconut mochi fritters with a coconut milk glaze served on a skewer). You have to stop by if you are in town.

What I’m Reading: Larry McMurtry: a Life by Tracy Daugherty

This may be the best biography I have ever read, and it was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. McMurtry grew up in Archer City, TX, the location of The Last Picture Show, right at the time when the prior generation (the hobbled uncles who had spent too much time on horseback) served as a link between the old West and the new one. He moved to town from a ranch when he was young and he had a keen eye for what was going on behind closed doors.

Augustus McCrae and Captain Woodrow Call from Lonesome Dove spring from the pages of this biography—those characters are true to what McMurtry admired growing up: character, hard work, and a sense of place. This book is so good it almost reads like fiction. Cannot put it down.

What I’m Watching: John Carter

By now, you realize that I have a taste for old-school B movies, but John Carter (2012), based on the book by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is a stunner. The plot is absurd—a cowboy/prospector ends up transported to Mars and ends up in the middle of a civil war. (Yes, he gets the girl, a Martian princess.) But, the cast is amazing: Dominic West of The Wire fame (looking extremely roguish), Caesar and Marc Anthony from the Rome series, as well as Willem Dafoe. I am not saying that it is a great movie, but using B movie standards, it’s more than watchable. The best part is they take it seriously—no wink, wink, nod, nod; no silly asides—and the production value and effects are first rate. Plus, you can see where Star Wars got its idea for the speeder races—right out of John Carter. And Burroughs really did build an exotic world that, by its own terms, kinda made sense. Worth a shot.

Anadama Bread

You can make this bread dough by hand, but a stand mixer is much easier. The rising and proofing times are approximate—it will depend on the temperature of your kitchen. Do not heat the water and milk beyond 120℉—you can kill the yeast if the liquid is too hot. When adding flour to the bowl, mix on low until it is incorporated. Anadama bread makes the world’s best toast.

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