Hey, everyone.

You may have noticed (or more likely, have not noticed at all) that I haven’t published this newsletter in nearly 8 months. A little over a year ago I moved to NYC for a new job, got extremely busy, and neglected this newsletter. More recently, I’ve noticed how much I missed it as a creative outlet, and I’m committed to getting back into a regular publishing cadence.

I started this newsletter as a way to share cooking-related things I was excited about, and it later on became something that felt like less of a side project and more of a side hustle. I experimented with paid subscriptions (which I’ve come to hate as a model for both writers and readers), created a live cohort cooking course, set up affiliate partnerships, and experimented with a number of other paid products and services. Each of these things provided a lot of really valuable learning, but I ultimately found that most attempts to monetize this newsletter resulted in 1) me enjoying the process a lot less, and 2) a different type of content.

When I first started, the content I published was almost entirely driven by my own curiosity. As soon as monetization entered the equation, I started feeling like I had to publish more often, publish a certain type of content, create more value for the reader, and give into other considerations that slowly but surely eat away at the creative, inspiration-driven spark that actually makes for compelling reading material.

I no longer monetize this newsletter in any meaningful way (other than affiliate links), and I haven’t in quite some time. I’m now working on getting back to writing here based purely on what is creatively inspiring to me, rather than anything born of a desire to grow the newsletter. I’m still figuring out the exact subject matter and cadence moving forward, but I doubt I’ll stick to any kind of regular publishing schedule. I’ll likely include new recipes as I come up with them, recommend new products I find (provided they’re truly useful), brain-dump the occasional scattered thought or philosophical musing, and occasionally publish something more structured. If you signed up for this newsletter with other expectations, I will not be offended in the least if you decide to unsubscribe. Life is too short for newsletters you don’t love.

That said, I’ve been sitting on a stack of pieces, and I’m finally shipping them— an updated Cookware Guide and Pantry Guide, some reflections from Japan and France, several recipes I’ve created over the past year, and some cool ways I’m using AI to get better at cooking. More soon, and more often.

As always, hit reply if you want to talk cooking or send feedback.

Myles

Travel Notes

Japan

I took an absolutely incredible trip to Japan in March. I will write about this in detail more in the future, but I’d like to highlight a few things worth sharing:

• I did the trip with Roads & Kingdoms, a media and food travel company founded by my favorite food writer, Matt Goulding. It was a 10/10 experience and I can’t recommend R&K enough. If you’re thinking about doing one of their trips, don’t hesitate. I’m planning to do more in the future.

• If you haven’t read any of Matt’s books, do so immediately. Rice, Noodle, Fish was what inspired me to want to visit Japan in the first place, and it was the experience of a lifetime to do it with Matt as our guide. He’s fun, kind, deeply knowledgeable, and speaks about food with the same poetic eloquence with which he writes about it.

• If you’re in Osaka, I had one of the best meals of my life at Tonkatsu Koushirou. It’s a tonkatsu-inspired omakase dinner that blew my mind.

• If you’re in Kyoto, I had another one of the best meals of my life at Torisho Sai. It’s a masterful yakitori experience that you should not miss if you’re there.

If you want a full list of my Japan recommendations, feel free to email me. I’m happy to share.

France

I just got back from 3 weeks in France— my third time visiting the country. I’ll be writing more about this experience, as well. France consistently proves to be a deep source of inspiration, and probably has the highest general bar for food quality of anywhere in the world.

A few favorites from the Nice area:

• La Base Bakery — incredible bread and pastries.

• HUG Cafe — fantastic coffee.

• Rouge — natural wine and small plates.

• Beurre — excellent sandwiches.

• Entre 2 Vins (Antibes) — more natural wine and small plates.

Backyard Dinner Parties

I recently helped my sister Maddie host a Spanish-themed backyard dinner party. It was a great reminder that we should all be hosting more dinner parties, more often.

Maddie was the real brains behind the operation— I just took care of the food. She has an awesome Substack, as well, and she wrote about how to execute a great dinner party here.

On My List

Pepper Mills

I’ve been in the market for a new pepper mill, and I wanted to share some ideas and solicit feedback. I’m currently deciding between three different options:

• Service Projects: Easily the best-looking one I’ve found, from a company whose designs I love.

• Mann Kitchen: Seems to be an internet favorite.

• Federal Pepper Mill: Small company, extremely well vetted by a great site.

If you’re also in the market, you probably can’t go wrong with any of these. If you’re not in the market, that likely means you have a pepper mill you’re happy with, and I’d love to know which one it is. Please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email with any recommendations you have.

Surface Butter Knife

I’m a big fan of this Surface butter knife that I came across in France. I love the minimalist-industrial style. Even better when paired with world-class French butter served on a rock.

In My Pantry

Dan Barber’s Tinned Vegetables

Chef Dan Barber’s company Row 7 recently came out with this concept of tinned vegetables. Row 7 grows heirloom vegetables that are specifically bred for flavor instead of yield. Now they’re taking them at peak season, cooking them, and preserving them in tins. I think it’s a very cool concept, and these beets were a wonderful addition to a recent farmer’s market salad.

Burlap & Barrel Spices

I’ve recommended Burap & Barrel more times than I can count in this newsletter, but they continue to impress me every time. This crushed red pepper blend is so good— it blows every other generic Italian red pepper flake out of the water.

Recommended Listening

Jeff Zalaznick Interview

I really enjoyed this podcast with Jeff Zalaznick, the co-founder (along with Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone) of Major Food Group. It’s a very cool window into how one of the most iconic hospitality groups operating today was built.

This is an index of all of the recipes I’ve published here on Substack. You can find a shorter list of my personal favorite recipes here.

Sauces & Condiments

• Spicy Herb Lime Sauce

• Whipped Ricotta

• Yogurt Herb Sauce

• Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

• Olive Oil Mayo

• Salsa Roja

• Pecan Salsa Macha

• Cherry Tomato Salsa

• Black Garlic Chimichurri

Grains, Starches, & Pastas

• Risotto

• Pasta all’Amatriciana

• Pasta Bolognese

• Pistachio Herb Rice

• Bucatini with Tomato Cream Sauce

Breads

• Flour Tortillas

• Yogurt and Olive Oil Flatbreads

• Corn Tortillas

Soups & Stews

• Kitchen Sink Soup

Eggs

• Cacio e Pepe Scrambled Eggs

• Jammy Eggs

• Poached Eggs in Tomato Chipotle Salsa

• Crispy Fried Eggs

Meat

• Red Wine Braised Short Ribs

• Steak with Balsamic Vinegar Caramelized Onions

• Beef & Lamb Meatballs

• Quick Carne Asada

• Chicken Meatballs with Smoky Chile Tomato Broth

• Marinated Skirt Steak

• Braised Beef Shanks

• Reverse Seared Steak

• Chicken Parmesan

Fish

• Summer Ceviche

Vegetables

• Asparagus with Mushroom Aioli

• Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Salsa Macha Sauce

• Chickpea and Red Pepper Salad

• The Best Roasted Sweet Potatoes

• Sautéed Carrots with Chile Flakes and Lemon (aka 20 Min Carrots)

• Roasted Broccolini with Garlic-Shallot Confit and Whipped Ricotta

• Roasted Carrots with Yogurt, Pistachios, and Balsamic Drizzle

• Marinated Butter Beans

I like to release a gift guide every year, as I often get asked for gift recommendations for food lovers and cooks. Instead of creating a big list with all kinds of options, I decided to keep it simple this year. There are only 8 things on this list, and they’re all items I’ve personally owned and used for years. I highly recommend each and every one of them, and there’s an option here for pretty much every price range.

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an email!

Myles

Misono UX10 Santoku Knife

This is my personal favorite chef’s knife and the one I recommend the most.

I prefer Japanese chefs knives because they’re lightweight and balanced. This style of blade is called a Santoku— it’s a slightly different shape from a classic chef’s knife and offers unmatched versatility. It also has a western-style handle, which I find to be more comfortable. I own a bunch of different chef’s knives, but this is the one I use more than any other. If I only had to take one with me, this would be it.

It’s available on Amazon, but unfortunately looks like it won’t deliver until after Christmas. Korin and some other suppliers have it in stock, so take a look around.

Made In Saucier

The saucier is the single most underrated piece of cookware out there, and I think that every cook should own one.

A saucier gets you many of the best elements of a skillet, a saucepan, a small stockpot, and a Dutch oven rolled into one. It has sloped edges, a wide opening, and deep walls.— this makes for easy stirring and allows you to cook things that might stick in the corners of a saucepan. It’s also oven-safe with a lid (so you can braise), lightweight, and easy to clean. I use this for soups, stews, braises, curries, rice, beans, polenta, oatmeal, risotto, pasta, sauces, poaching and a bunch more. When I travel I tend to just bring this and a skillet, and I can cook pretty much anything.

Made In makes the best one I’ve used. I own their 3QT saucier, which is perfect for feeding 1-3 people. If you want to cook larger batches, I’d recommend sizing up to a 5QT.

Six Seasons Cookbook

If I’m ever asked to recommend a single cookbook, this is the one.

Joshua McFadden has worked as both a chef and a farmer, so his knowledge is unparalleled. The book is filled with wisdom, practical advice, and amazing recipes.

But the real reason I recommend this book more than any other is that it’s one of the most useful cookbooks I’ve ever owned. He breaks down the year into six distinct seasons, and each section contains an overview of the produce available in that season and individual sections for each. He talks about how to prepare and cook each item, along with a few recipes for every one. It serves as an encyclopedic reference for navigating seasonality and figuring out how to cook whatever you find at your local farmer’s market.

Gray Kunz Spoon

A Gray Kunz spoon is the perfect gift for the serious cook in your life who already has pretty much everything. Every professional chef I know is obsessed with these spoons. They’re perfect for basting, but also great for plating or serving. You might think that it’s simply a big spoon, but I can guarantee you’ll end up finding a bunch of ways to use it.

You can buy them at JB Prince, which is the official retailer. Look out because there seem to be a bunch of knockoffs on Amazon. This gold version is also quite cool and looks nice if you’re planning to use it for serving.

Gestura Utensils

I first discovered Gestura while dining at one of Sean Brock’s restaurants, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since. They’re a small company that specializes in kitchen utensils that are beautiful, functional, and very thoughtfully designed.

They first became known for their spoons, which measure exactly 1 tablespoon and have a pointed tip that makes them great for pouring. Like a Kunz spoon, they’re great for basting, but I actually use this more for measuring and plating— the single tbsp size of the spoon is really useful here. So I’d argue you can have both.

I also love their offset spatula (which you’ll use more than you expect, especially if you bake). I haven’t tried some of their newer items like the tongs or the bench scraper, but I’m sure they’re phenomenal as well.

Zero Japan Salt Box

Every cook should own a salt box or a salt cellar. You need something that lives on your counter, holds a lot of salt, offers easy access, and is big enough that you can get your hand in there to grab a big pinch.

The Zero Japan salt box is great because it’s the perfect size, has a wide opening, a handle for easy movement, and a flip-top lid that offers both easy access and protects your salt from splatters.

You can find it in various colors on Amazon.

Thermapen

This is the only meat thermometer that you need. Previously I made the mistake of buying cheap thermometers— they were often inaccurate, had battery issues, and broke quickly. The Thermapen is high-quality, durable, fast, and extremely accurate. It sets the standard.

It’s available on Amazon or on their website at a slight discount.

Vera Salt

Vera Salt is the only brand of salt I use.

Salt is the single most important ingredient in all of cooking, and it’s the one thing that will touch everything you cook. That’s why I think it’s worth seeking out the best option you can find.

I’ve done the research, tested them all, and Vera Salt is the clear winner. It’s sourced from an ancient moutain seabed and is untouched by a lot of the modern contaminants you’d find in regular sea salt. It’s free of microplastics and low in heavy metals (and is third-party tested for both). It has a nice grind size, dissolves easily, and has a super clean flavor. I use their fine grind for my everyday cooking salt and their flaky grind for my finishing salt.

You can use this link for 15% off on their website, and they’re also available on Amazon.

This is one of those recipes I’ve been riffing on for a couple months now, and I’ve made a bunch of different versions of it. It’s a great weeknight staple, and it reliably turns canned beans into something to get excited about.

I love beans, but I generally find canned beans to be a little boring. If you’ve never made dried beans from scratch, it’s worth doing. You really haven’t experienced beans at their best until you do. For that I recommend Rancho Gordo’s excellent method. My favorite quote:

Keep the beans at a boil for about ten to fifteen minutes. After so many years, I think this is the moment that really matters. You have to give them a good hard boil to let them know you’re the boss and then reduce them to a gentle simmer, before covering.

It turns out he’s right— you do have to let the beans know you’re the boss with a hard boil to start. He’s also ambivalent about whether or not to soak the beans beforehand— I usually do simply because it reduces the cooking time. I’ve been making beans this way for years, and they’re always great.

The problem with dried beans is that they take forever to cook, so they’re not very convenient. To that end, I’ve found that dressing up canned beans with a ton of olive oil, some spices, shaved cheese, and fresh herbs is a game changer.

I usually make this with butter beans or Cannellini beans— I think their flavor profile works best here, and they hold their structure well. I think this would also be great with chickpeas, and you can certainly play around with other mixtures of spices, herbs, and cheeses!

Ingredients

• 1 can of butter beans

• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

• 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

• 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

• Fresh-cracked black peppercorn

• lemon juice or vinegar

• Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

• salt

• olive oil

Process

1. Drain the beans into a fine mesh strainer and run them under some cold water to rinse them off. Shake off the excess water, and then pour them into a bowl.

2. Add in a generous amount of olive oil— probably more than you think you need. They should be very well-coated, plus a bit extra.

3. Add in the smoked paprika, sweet paprika, and several twists of fresh-cracked black pepper. Season the whole mixture with salt.

4. Pour the beans into a small saucepan, using a spatula to make sure all of the oil goes with.

5. Place the saucepan over low to medium-low heat. At this point, you want to gently warm the beans up. Not aggressively, but just enough to heat them through and to allow the spices to open up and infuse with the oil. This should take 5-10 minutes.

6. Once the beans are warm, taste them. Adjust as needed with more salt.

7. Take the beans off the heat, and season them to taste with a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of vinegar (I used this Chardonnay vinegar).

8. Add in the chopped parsley, and then mix everything together to incorporate.

9. Pour the whole mixture onto a plate, and then finish it with a generous grating of shaved Pecorino or Parmigiano.

10. Enjoy immediately. Lately I’ve been serving this as a side dish along with roasted baby broccoli with balsamic vinegar and Italian sausages.

Hey y’all.

Here’s a short list of a few things I’ve been enjoying recently— ingredients, equipment, books, etc.

As I’ve mentioned before, my cooking has been very focused on simplicity as of late. I haven’t had as much time to cook big, elaborate meals, so I’ve instead been focused on finding really good ingredients and letting them speak for themselves. This process tends to be easier when you’ve got a few high-quality pantry items to help dress those things up, and you’ll find a few of those here.

Let me know if you give any of these a try!

Myles

American Vinegar Works Chardonnay Vinegar

I think that vinegar is the most underrated pantry ingredient, and I’m long overdue to publish a full post on the subject. Bottom line— there’s a huge difference in flavor between small-batch artisanal vinegars and generic mass-manufactured versions. There are a lot of great producers out there, but American Vinegar Works has been a recent favorite of mine. Especially their chardonnay vinegar.

It’s a perfect light vinegar— great for roasted vegetables, soups, and salad dressings. I’ve been making an amazing vinaigrette recently with 1 tbsp Greek yogurt, 1 tsp mayo, a pinch of salt, a few tbsp olive oil, and a tbsp or so of this vinegar. You can adjust the amount of salt, olive oil, and vinegar to get the taste and texture that you want. This makes for a really nice acidic dressing that pairs really well with richer dishes like sausages or braised meats.

Our Place Wonder Oven

I just picked up this air fryer/mini-oven from Our Place, and it’s been a game changer for me. It’s great that it’s an air fryer/oven/broiler/toaster all in one, but the most impactful thing has been how quickly it heats up compared to my regular oven. This has been really convenient and has saved me a bunch of time, especially since I live alone and often cook in small batches. I rarely even use my oven now and instead do everything from roasting potatoes to reverse-searing steaks in this thing.

Sourdough Cookies

I recently discovered these incredible sourdough chocolate chip cookies. They’re made with super clean ingredients and are absolutely delicious. I polished off two bags nearly instantly. Will be ordering more very soon.

Burlap & Barrel Crushed Red Peppers

Crushed red peppers are a classic Italian-American pantry staple, but almost all of them are completely flat and flavorless to the point where they’re not even worth using. That is, until Burlap & Barrel released their crushed red pepper blend in collaboration with Razza. It’s perfectly balanced, highly versatile, and has become my go-to pepper blend for anything Italian. It works especially well for Pasta all’Amatriciana.

Kitchen Garden Farm Sriracha

I love hot sauce, but I’m often frustrated with the state of the market. A lot of small hot sauce producers these days focus mostly on novelty ingredients and flavors. These can be fun, but the thing I want most is a classic all-purpose hot sauce made with really clean, high-quality ingredients.

This sriracha from Kitchen Garden Farm is a good example of that— they’re not reinventing the wheel, just making a really good sriracha with simple organic ingredients and fermentation.

Six Seasons of Pasta

One of my all-time favorite cookbooks is Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden. It’s the cookbook I’ve gifted and recommended more than any other, and I’ve personally learned a ton from it. I consider it one of the great modern cookbooks.

McFadden just released his newest cookbook— Six Seasons of Pasta— and I just picked up a copy. I haven’t yet had the chance to read it or cook from it, but I trust that there’s a lot of wisdom in there. I’m excited to dive in.

Today I’m sharing the method I like to use to make risotto. I call this a method, rather than a recipe, because there is a ton of room for customization and different flavor profiles once you’ve mastered the core techniques. In this post I’ll cover everything you need to know about the fundamentals of risotto so that you can get comfortable with the method and then start to get creative.

This is one of the methods I included in 80/20 Cooking, a guide to the fundamentals of cooking that I released earlier this year. There are 12 lessons covering foundational skills like seasoning, heat, and knife skills, plus 18 recipes that are designed to help you put those skills into practice (like this one). If you want to check out 80/20 Cooking, you can learn more at the website, or purchase with this link (and subscribers here can use the code SUBSTACK for 20% off).

Let me know if you make this!

Myles

Notes

I absolutely love risotto, and I think it’s a really great thing to have in your repertoire. It’s hearty, healthy, very customizable, scales up easily, and makes great leftovers.

There are a few key considerations here:

• When making risotto, you do not want to rinse the rice as you would when making traditional white rice. Here the starch on the rice helps to contribute to the creamy, starchy texture that defines a great risotto, so you don’t want to wash that off.

• Always use Arborio or Carnaroli rice for this dish. These are specific Italian varietals of rice with a high starch content that are specific to risotto. If you use another varietal, you won’t get the right texture.

• I start this recipe by sautéing shallots, which have a nice mild flavor and cook fast. But any type of onion works.

• Some risotto recipes call for adding a half cup or so of dry white wine before adding the broth. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it does make for a slightly more balanced dish. I do this whenever I have white wine on hand, but it works fine without it. If you do add the wine, pour it in after you’ve toasted the rice and simmer it until it’s fully absorbed, then start adding your broth.

• The key to good risotto is to slowly add in hot broth, and to keep the dish moving fairly constantly. Make sure you have a separate pot with your broth that’s heated. If you add in cold broth, it will delay the cooking process and the texture won’t be right.

• You can make this dish with any kind of broth, but a high-quality bone broth will make a big difference in terms of texture and flavor.

• You should add salt in stages and taste throughout the cooking process in order to land on a final level that works. Remember that certain broths (and the cheeses you’ll add) have salt as well, so you’ll need to taste and adjust.

• If you run out of broth before the rice is fully cooked, you can finish it with water. Just make sure that’s hot too. The exact quantity of liquid that you add can vary slightly.

• If I’m adding other ingredients to the risotto (mushrooms, broccoli, etc) I usually add those fully cooked towards the end of the cooking process.

• In this particular recipe I’ve included saffron (to model this dish after the classic Italian risotto Milanese), but you don’t have to include it.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups arborio rice

• 2-3 cups chicken bone broth

• 1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)

• 1 large shallot, finely diced

• 1/2 tsp saffron threads

• Parmesan or Pecorino romano

• butter

• olive oil

• salt

• black peppercorn

Process

Heat up a saucepot, small stock pot, or saucier (my preferred piece of cookware) over medium-low heat.

Place a separate pot with your broth over medium heat and allow it to get hot.

Into your risotto pot, add a tbsp or so each of butter and olive oil. Once the butter has melted, add in your diced shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent.

Add in your rice. Stir it around the pot, allowing the oil to coat the rice.

Cook the rice until the grains are coated and the edges are turning translucent (2-3 min).

If you’re adding white wine, add in 1/2 cup at this point and stir to incorporate.

Meanwhile, use the back of a spoon to crush the saffron threads into a powder. It doesn’t need to be super fine, but this helps with distribution. Add the saffron threads to the rice mixture and stir to combine.

Certain recipes call for “blooming” the saffron in hot broth before adding, but I find that you can just add it directly early in the cooking process and it will bloom throughout the cook time.

Pour in 1/2 cup of the hot broth and begin stirring immediately.

Stir the broth until it’s well-absorbed, maintaining a gentle simmer the whole time. At this point you can add in some salt.

This is essentially the process of cooking risotto— add in hot broth, stir and simmer until absorbed, taste and adjust with salt, and then repeat until the rice is fully cooked!

Continue to add in hot broth, stir, and simmer. Make sure that you taste throughout the cooking process and add more salt as needed.

You want the risotto to maintain a gentle simmer the whole time, so adjust your heat as necessary. Usually this process takes around 20-30 minutes, but this can vary quite a bit, so taste it and use your senses to tell you when the rice is done. It should be ever so slightly al dente (like pasta) and should have a bit of a bite to it but be fully cooked.

When the rice is close to being fully cooked, add in a generous grating of Parmesan and/or Pecorino, a tbsp or two of butter, and a few cracks of black pepper. Stir to combine.

When it’s complete, the risotto should have a creamy, velvety texture that’s thick and spreadable without being too liquidy. Serve it immediately.

I particularly love serving this with red wine braised short ribs.

This also makes for amazing leftovers. The rice will continue to thicken as it rests, and it can be used the next day to make arancini.

Hey, everyone!

It’s been several months since I last published this newsletter. I think that’s the longest I’ve gone without publishing since I first started writing it! I’ve been busy lately— I moved to NYC, started a new job, and have had a lot less free time than I did previously. I missed writing here, and now that I’m out of the transitional moving phase, I’m excited to get back into it.

I’ve lived in a lot of different places throughout my adult life, and it’s always interesting to observe how each new place changes how and what I cook. Some places offer local access to really special ingredients— seafood in Coastal Mexico, meat in Central Texas, and dairy in Upstate NY, for example. Every place has its own seasonality, and it’s always fun to shop at local farmers markets, see what each new place has to offer, and to see how that changes throughout the year. One of the hardest parts about leaving Southern California was giving up the year-round access to world-class produce— those are still my favorite farmers markets in the world.

Each new places comes with a change of ingredients and availability, as well as a new home, a new kitchen setup, and a new schedule. In NYC I have the smallest kitchen that I’ve had in years, and a busy work schedule means I have more constraints around time than I’ve ever had before. I’m embracing this. I firmly believe that constraint breeds creativity— when you work within the confines of certain limitations, you end up producing new ideas that never would have materialized given infinite optionality.

For me lately, this has meant a real focus on simplicity in my cooking. When I had a lot more time and space, I’d often cook more elaborate, technical dishes, even if it were just for myself on a weeknight. Over the last couple of months, I’ve taken the opposite approach. I’ve focused on buying the highest-quality ingredients I can get at local farmers markets, and preparing them really simply.

I like to say that great cooking happens at the intersection of fresh produce and a well-stocked pantry. If you’ve got your bases covered with some great oils, spices, vinegars, sauces, and condiments, then it becomes really easy to make delicious meals out of the basic meats, vegetables, cheeses, and other produce you pick up on a regular basis. That’s exactly how I’m cooking these days. I’m also taking advantage of the abundance of bakeries, cheese shops, butchers, speciality grocers, and other local shops here in the city. If you’ve got any to recommend— please send them over!

Myles

Our Place Titanium Pan

This is my favorite new piece of cookware I’ve picked up in the last year or so. I really don’t like most non-stick pans— the chemically coated ones are terrible for your health, and the ceramic ones generally don’t last very long and don’t stand up well to heat. I cooked with titanium pans for the first time a few years ago and really loved them, so I was excited to see this from Our Place.

The interior is entirely titanium— meaning there’s no chemical non-stick coating— but it’s designed with small grooves that help to give it some really nice non-stick properties. The best part is that it has an incredibly high heat tolerance, so you don’t have to baby it like you do with ceramic. This has become my go-to pan for things like stir-fries, scrambled eggs, sausages, sauces, steaming, and a bunch more. I use it pretty much daily at this point.

NYC Restaurant Recommendations

Since moving to NYC, I’ve added a few new favorite spots to my list. If you live here or visit, these are all worth checking out.

• Eyval - A Persian restaurant in Bushwick where I had the best meal I’ve eaten since moving to NYC.

• The Snail - I’ve been here a bunch of times, and it’s consistently amazing. They serve a 10/10 burger, but everything else is great, too.

• Esse Taco - A new-ish taqueria from Enrique Olvera in Williamsburg. Currently my favorite taco spot in the city.

• Jonny’s Pizza - An unassuming but really great slice shop near me. It doesn’t have nearly as much hype as some of the other well-known spots, but I think it’s up there with the best of them.

Cacio e Pepe Scrambled Eggs

This is an example of one of those really simple dishes I’ve been making recently. It’s not at all complicated, but with really high-quality ingredients it shines.

This has been my go-to way of making eggs these days— soft-scramble a few eggs in butter, then top with a big shaving of Pecorino cheese and some fresh-cracked black pepper. Make sure you get the good peppercorns— these ones from Burlap & Barrel are my favorite.

Vandy Chips

These are my current snack obsession. They’re made by the same company that makes Masa Chips (by far the best tortilla chip on the market), and both are fried exclusively in beef tallow. If you want to avoid seed oils, there are a ton of options in the market today for chips fried in avocado oil. But given the concerns around rancid or fraudulent avocado oil, I think that tallow is a safer (and more delicious) bet.

Try these with homemade French onion dip or steak tartare.

The Best Chef’s Knife

I recently subscribed to Sean Brock’s newsletter, and I saw that he recommends the same chef’s knife I’ve been recommending for years— the Misono UX10.

I’ve had quite a few friends purchase it recently, and I still think it’s the best all-around chef’s knife for the money. Now I can say that one of the most respected chefs in the country agrees with me. It’s the most-used knife in my kitchen. I personally prefer the Santoku, but both are great.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this newsletter, check out 80/20 Cooking, a minimalist guide to the fundamentals of cooking that I put together.

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Hey, everyone!

I’ve been super busy with work and travel recently and haven’t had as much time to write this newsletter as I’d like. I’ve got a whole backlog of ideas to share in the next couple of months, so this is my public commitment to get back onto a regular publishing schedule. Every now and then I like to do a round-up style email with some ideas, product recommendations, and other random stuff. I hope you find some good stuff in here.

As always, feel free to shoot me an email if you’ve got questions or feedback!

Myles

Sauces, Condiments, and Spices

One of my secret weapons for cooking more easily (and more flavorfully) at home is to make generous use of various sauces and condiments. You can cook really simple, easy stuff (steak, grilled chicken, rice, potatoes, roasted vegetables, etc) and not have it be boring if you have a few great sauces in your repertoire. They’re an easy way to add big flavor to otherwise plain dishes.

I usually prep a versatile sauce or two at the beginning of the week and keep those on deck. I’ve shared a bunch of these in the newsletter— yogurt sauce, cherry tomato salsa, spicy herb sauce, black garlic chimichurri, roasted red pepper sauce, homemade mayo, and plenty more you can find in the backlog.

I also like to experiment with different specialty sauces, condiments, spices, oils, and other things I find in stores. They serve a similar role, adding something a bit exciting and flavorful even if you’re cooking very simple things. Here are a few recommendations that I’ve been enjoying recently.

• Bachan’s Sweet & Spicy Japanese BBQ Sauce

  I really like this sauce for rice bowls and fried chicken, but it’s made its way onto a bunch of dishes I’ve cooked recently. It’s got a great balance of sweet, spicy, and umami.

• Lindera Farms Ramp Vinegar

  This is my all-time favorite vinegar from one of the best producers in the country. All of their products are amazing, but the ramp vinegar is really special. I’ll add a splash into soups, over roasted vegetables, or in place of lemon juice in an herb yogurt sauce (one of my favorites).

• Burlap & Barrel Black Peppercorn

  Black pepper is one of the most versatile spices out there, but there’s a huge difference in the flavor of high-quality, heirloom black peppercorn versus what you find in most stores. And it must be ground fresh. This one from Burlap & Barrel is my personal favorite.

• Smoked Pickled Mustard Seeds

  Pickled mustard seeds are incredible. If you’ve never tried them, you’re in for a treat. Imagine that regular mustard and caviar had a baby, and this what you’d get. The texture is amazing, and they provide a really nice pop of acidity and umami. This smoked version adds another layer of flavor on top of that. I use these on fried chicken thighs, roasted potatoes, and salads.

• Noma Mushroom Garum

  I’ve mentioned Noma Projects in the newsletter multiple times, and I’m always impressed with the products I try from them. They tend to be really unique and super flavorful. Garum is a class of fermented condiments that includes things like fish sauce, but Noma’s garum is made with mushrooms for a potent and earthy dose of umami. I included a recipe at the end of this newsletter for a nice sauce made with this!

80/20 Cooking

In case you missed it, I released a new version of my 80/20 Cooking course a couple of months ago. I describe it as a minimalist guide to the fundamentals of cooking. It’s got 12 lessons that cover the foundational skills you need to get competent in the kitchen (and eventually learn to cook without recipes), plus about 20 practice recipes and a bunch of exclusive discounts on my favorite cookware and pantry brands.

If you want to check it out, you can use the code SUBSTACK for 20% off.

Grass-Fed, Carrot-Finished Beef

You’ve heard of grass-fed, grass-finished beef. And you’ve heard of grass-fed, grain-finished beef. But have you heard of grass-fed, carrot-finished beef?

It’s a thing, and I was delighted to learn of its existence. The company is called Santa Carota, and I got the chance to try it at Calico Fish House in Huntington Beach recently (which is an excellent restaurant if you’re ever in the area). You can buy it online, and I think it’s worth a try.

Sourdough Pasta

A few years ago I discovered a technique for sourdough pasta dough in Chad Robertson’s Bread Book, and I started making it a bunch. It’s one of the easier sourdough techniques I’ve learned— you simply add some discard from your starter into the dough and allow it to ferment overnight— but it makes a noticeable difference in digestibility and flavor.

Recently I found that Bionaturae, a brand I love, makes a dried sourdough pasta. It’s quite a bit more convenient than making the dough yourself, and it sits lighter in your stomach than regular dried pasta. I’ve noticed that it does have a fairly strong sourdough tang, so I like to pair it with a big, flavorful sauce and some other elements (here I did a tomato cream sauce with sausage, fresh basil, and burrata).

You can now get this at a lot of grocery stores (including some Whole Foods), Amazon, or their online store.

A Quick Asparagus Recipe

I whipped this up recently and absolutely loved the combination of flavors. This is also a technique I use a lot with vegetables; I saute them in a pan, add in a bit of bone broth, cover the pan to allow the vegetables to steam, and then allow the broth to reduce down into a flavorful glaze. This works with all kinds of vegetables and is a super easy and convenient way to cook them.

Ingredients

• 1 large bunch of asparagus (ends trimmed off)

• 1 tbsp butter

• 1/3 cup chicken or beef bone broth

• salt

• 1/4 - 1/3 cup mayonnaise

• 1-2 tbsp Noma mushroom garum

• Urfa chile flakes

Process

Start by making the sauce— in a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, the mushroom garum, and salt to taste. The measurements here aren’t super specific. Taste and adjust with the three ingredients to get the flavor and texture you like.

Heat a large pan over medium heat. Once it’s hot, add in a tbsp of butter.

Once the butter has melted, add in your asparagus. Toss it in the butter, season it with salt, and arrange it so that the asparagus sits in a flat layer.

Saute the asparagus for a few minutes, tossing to turn it occasionally.

Turn the heat up to medium high, and add in the broth. Cover the pan and allow the asparagus to steam for a few minutes. After a few minutes, remove the lid and allow the broth to reduce.

Once it’s reduced to a sauce-like glaze, turn off the heat and toss the asparagus to coat it in the glaze. Taste and adjust as needed with a little more salt.

Put the asparagus on a plate. Drizzle the sauce over the top and finish with a hefty sprinkling of the Urfa chile flakes. Enjoy!

In my 80/20 Cooking course, I talk about the importance of learning techniques and methods instead of just following recipes. Techniques are individual actions (think searing, boiling, deglazing, etc) that produce a specific result, whereas methods are broad combinations of ingredients and techniques that produce a specific dish but leave a lot of room for variation. Methods are adaptable— once you master a method, you can use it across a variety of different dishes— and they prioritize intuition, rather than following instructions. Methods more closely mimic how great cooks operate.

Braising falls firmly into the method category. It involves a combination of a few different techniques, but there’s nearly infinite room for variation within it. Once you learn how to do it, you can repeat this same method with different types of meat and different flavor profiles for a ton of variety. It’s one of my all-time favorites, and I think it’s something that every home cook should have in their repertoire.

Today I’m going to go over the basics of braising. I’ve also included a recipe for one of my recent favorites— braised short ribs with a red wine reduction sauce.

Enjoy!

The Formula

The core process of braising is simple:

1. Take any slow-cooking cut of meat (tough cuts are especially good here) and salt it. Even better if you can dry brine it overnight.

2. Sear the meat over high heat on all sides to develop a nice crust and browning on the outside.

3. Pull the meat from the pan and (if you’re using them), add onions, garlic, carrots, or other aromatics/flavorings and sauté for a few minutes.

4. Pour a braising liquid into the pan.

5. Tuck the meat back into the pan and make sure it’s 3/4 of the way covered with the braising liquid.

6. Put a lid on the pan and put it in the oven around 275°F.

7. Cook for several hours, and once it’s fall-apart tender, allow it to rest for an hour and then serve.

That’s it. As you can see, I didn’t mention any specific ingredients, measurements, or cook times. Even the temperatures used are somewhat flexible. That’s what makes this more of a method than a specific recipe. This same method works with a ton of different cuts of meat, different braising liquids, and different flavor profiles.

Some Additional Notes

• To make a braise, you’ll need a pot or pan with an oven-safe lid. A Dutch oven works great here, as does a saucier (my personal favorite, especially for smaller braises). You can get creative, though. I’ve braised in sauté pans, stock pots, and sauce pots. In a pinch I’ve even used a regular skillet or a casserole dish and covered it with foil. The key is to have something that can hold the meat covered about 75% in liquid, and has a lid to prevent all the liquid from evaporating.

• You only want to cover the meat 3/4 of the way with liquid. If you fully submerge it, you’re really just making a stew. By only covering it partically, you get the effects of the steaming and the roasting, which allows for better flavor development.

• This works best with tough cuts of meat that benefit from the low-and-slow cooking process. Think short ribs, shanks, shoulder, chuck roast, oxtail, neck, stew meat, and bone-in chicken thighs. If you’re looking for an easy starting point, I’d highly suggest beef chuck roast.

• A lot of the fun of braising comes from playing around with different braising liquids. Usually I’ll use bone broth or water as the base and add additional things to that. I’ve used broth, red wine, white wine, beer, Dashi, coconut milk, and a bunch more.

• You can also experiment with different flavor profiles to add to the braising liquid— various aromatics, different spices, chile pastes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, soy sauce, mirin, miso…the list goes on. You can get really creative here.

• Most cuts of red meat can braise in 3 hours or so, but you can let them go longer than that for additional tenderness. Chicken cooks much quicker.

• A braise works best at a very very gentle simmer— just a few small bubbles slowly popping up. I usually find the sweet spot to be 275°F, but ovens differ. Check the braise as it’s cooking and adjust up or down as needed.

• I’ve found that resting the braise after cooking makes a big difference with texture. It serves a similar function to resting a steak after cooking— in this case it allows the meat to really absorb the juices from the braising liquid. Usually I’ll just turn off the oven when the braise is finished and allow it to rest for an hour or so as it cools down. You can also leave it covered on the stovetop. Braises reheat really well and are often even better the next day.

• Sometimes I’ll add aromatics to the pan (as I do in the recipe below), but oftentimes I’ll omit them, especially if I’m using a very flavorful braising liquid. Often when I’m making certain braises (like Mexican-inspired ones), I’ll first blend together onions, tomatoes, garlic, chiles, and bone broth, then just use that as the braising liquid.

If you’re new to braising, you can closely follow a recipe like the one below. But once you’ve gotten the hang of the general set of techniques, start experimenting on your own.

Braised Short Ribs with Red Wine Reduction Sauce

This is a braise riff that I’ve been making a bunch recently. It’s a classic combination of flavors— short ribs, red wine, tomato paste, beef broth. I like to reduce the braising liquid at the end into a concentrated sauce that can be drizzled over the short ribs.

You can use this all sorts of ways, but the flavors definitely lean Italian. I love serving this with saffron risotto, or tossing a pasta in the sauce with some of the braised short rib and finishing it with shaved Pecorino. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs beef short ribs

• 1 yellow onion, cut into a large dice

• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1/2 bottle dry red wine

• 1-2 cups beef bone broth

• salt

• black pepper

• beef tallow or other high-heat oil

Process

If you can, start by dry brining the short ribs overnight. To do this, generously salt them on all sides and then place them uncovered on a wire rack-lined sheet tray in the fridge overnight.

When you’re ready to cook, pre-heat your oven to 275°F.

Use a heavy-bottomed pan with a lid that is oven safe. A Dutch oven works great here, as does a saucier or a saute pan.

Heat your pan over high heat and, once hot, add in a tbsp or so of beef tallow or another high-heat oil.

Sear the short ribs on all sides until they are well-browned all over (you may have to do this in batches). Set them aside on a plate or sheet tray.

Turn the heat down to medium.

If there’s not any fat left in the pan, add in a bit more. If there already is, just use what’s there.

Add in your onions and carrots and sauté for a few minutes. Season them with salt.

Once the onions are just starting to soften, add in 2 tbsp of tomato paste, and use a wooden spoon to distribute it throughout the vegetable mixture. Add a few twists of fresh-cracked black pepper, and allow the mixture to cook for a just a minute or so.

Pour in 1/2 bottle of red wine, and use a wooden spoon to help the liquid lift the bits of fond off the bottom of the pan.

Allow the red wine simmer for about 5 minutes until it’s slightly reduced.

Tuck the short ribs back into the pan, and then add enough bone broth to cover the short ribs three-quarters of the way with liquid. Season the mixture with a bit of salt, and give everything a stir.

If you have it, toss in a bay leaf at this point, as well.

Place a lid on your pan and put it into the oven to cook.

Allow the short ribs to cook for about 30 minutes, and then check on them.

You want the liquid to be at the gentlest simmer, just barely producing light bubbles. If the mixture is moving more than that, adjust your temperature.

I usually braise at 250-300°F, but different ovens perform differently, so you should check.

After 2.5-3 hours, check on the short ribs. They should be super tender and easily fall apart and off the bone when you touch them. They’re usually ready by then, but they can go as long as 6 hours or so.

Once they’re fall-apart tender, remove the pan from the oven and allow it to sit, covered, on the stove for an hour to an hour and a half. This step isn’t strictly necessary, but it does allow the meat to rest and reabsorb some of the braising liquid. When I do this, I notice a big difference. You can also simply turn off the oven and allow it to rest in there for an hour or so as the oven cools down.

Remove the short ribs from the pan and set them aside.

Pour the braising liquid through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl to filter out the onions and carrots.

Return the liquid to the braising pan and set it over medium heat. You want it at a simmer, but not too strong.

Allow it to reduce until it forms a nice thick glaze. This can take 10-15 minutes, depending on how much you need to reduce. Monitor it thoughout and adjust the heat as necessary. Once it’s well-reduced, taste and adjust as needed with salt.

Once the sauce is ready, spoon it over the short ribs and serve immediately.

Or, shred up some of the short ribs, toss that into the sauce, and then toss it with cooked pasta. I did this recently and it was great!

Enjoy!

If you liked this, I think you’ll like my 80/20 Cooking course. It’s an overview of the fundamentals of cooking, along with a bunch of recipes for practice. Use the code SUBSTACK at checkout for 20% off if you pick it up!

Hey, everyone!

Today I’m sharing one of the recipes that’s included in 80/20 Cooking, a guide to the fundamentals of cooking that I recently released. It includes 12 lessons covering foundational skills, plus 18 recipes that are designed to put those skills into practice.

My goal with the included recipes was to make them lessons in and of themselves, focusing on core techniques that apply beyond that specific dish.

This is one such example. I love this pasta dish; it’s one of the four traditional pastas of Rome, and it’s a beautiful way to experience the Italian ethos of simplicity with a focus on a few really high-quality ingredients. But I also love it because it helps you to master a lot of the core skills that apply to any pasta dish— how to properly salt your pasta water, how to cook dried pasta to the perfect al dente, how to build a sauce and bring it together with starchy pasta water, and a bunch more.

Let me know what you think! If you want to check out 80/20 Cooking, you can learn more at the website, or purchase with this link (use the code SUBSTACK for 20% off).

Enjoy!

Myles

Notes

This dish is a great introduction to the core techniques of pasta cooking. There are a few things you need to get right to successfully cook pasta— especially dried pasta.

• Use a large, heavy-bottomed pot (I like to use a saucier, stock pot, or Dutch oven). You want a large volume of water so that it can quickly return to a boil and remain there after the pasta is added.

• Salt the pasta water heavily. Pasta water seasons the pasta as it cooks, and you need a lot of salt to allow this to happen. In Italy they like to say that the pasta should taste like ocean water— this might be slight overkill, but it should be very salty. Taste the water after you salt it to make sure it tastes quite salty.

• Allow the water to return to a rolling boil after you add the salt, and only then add your pasta. You want it to return to a boil quickly afterwards. Using a large volume of water helps here, or you can briefly cover the pot to speed up this process. Just make sure you keep an eye on it so it doesn’t boil over and extinguish your stove’s flame.

• Stir the pasta right after you put it into the water, and throughout the cooking process, so that it doesn’t stick together or stick to the bottom of the pot.

• Don’t add olive oil to the pasta water. You’ll occasionally see this suggested but it’s wrong and counter-productive. It will prevent the sauce from adhering to the noodles in the final step.

• Cook the pasta until it’s al dente, meaning it has a slight bite to it. Italians cook pasta slightly less time than we do in America, but theirs is the proper way. Pasta with a slight bite to it has the best taste and texture, and there are few things worse than overcooked, gummy pasta. The correct cook time is not what’s listed on the package— it’s simply when the pasta tastes and feels al dente.

• You want to reserve some of the pasta water to incorporate into your sauce. This helps to season the sauce, and the starch in the pasta water helps to thicken it.

• The final step of the cooking process is to toss together the pasta, pasta water, and sauce. This process creates the a thick sauce that coats the noodles. You can also add shaved hard cheeses in at this point— tossing them with the pasta will create an even thicker, creamier sauce.

We’ll cover all of these with step-by-step photos below, but know that all of these core techniques apply any time you’re making pasta!

Let’s dive in!

Ingredients

• 12 ounces dried pasta (I like this with rigatoni, penne, or bucatini). Seggiano is my personal favorite dried pasta brand.

• 1/4-1/3 pound guanciale or pancetta (cut into small cubes)

• 1 14oz can whole peeled crushed tomatoes (or whole peeled tomatoes that you crush yourself)

• 1/4 cup each shaved Parmesan and Pecorino, plus more for finishing

• chile flakes

• black peppercorn

• salt

Note: This should make about 3-4 servings. I use a bit more than 1/4 pound of guanciale, but you can use slightly more if you’d like for a richer sauce. Start with 14oz of tomato, but feel free to add a bit more if need be— just don’t drown it in tomato. Finally, know that a lot of the ingredients we’ll add (guanciale, parmesan, pecorino, pasta water) are quite salty, so you may not need to add much additional salt. TASTE as you go!

Process

Start by filling a pot with water and bringing it to a boil. Once the water is boiling, add in a very generous handful of salt. Don’t be shy— see the video below.

Taste the pasta water with a spoon. It should be quite salty.

Place the cubed guanciale into a cold stainless steel pan and turn the heat to low. Cook the guanciale, stirring occasionally and allowing the fat to slowly render out.

Guanciale and pancetta are both quite fatty, and starting the pan cold and allowing it to slowly heat up will cause the fat to slowly melt— this is a technique known as rendering. Most of the time, you won’t even need any additional oil in this recipe because the guanciale will produce so much fat.

Cook until the guanciale is mostly cooked through and just starting to crisp up and has released a lot of fat.

Pour in your crushed tomatoes and add in a couple of tsp of chile flakes and a few twists of fresh-cracked black pepper. Give everything a stir.

Allow it to cook for a minute or so, and then taste it for salt. Guanciale is quite salty, and you’ll be adding more salty ingredients (pasta water and hard cheeses), so don’t add too much at this point.

Allow the sauce to gently simmer over low to medium-low heat. It will slowly reduce a bit.

Once the pasta water is at a rolling boil, add in your pasta and stir to ensure that the pasta doesn’t stick together.

Allow the water to return to a boil. You can cover the pot briefly to help speed up this process, but make sure it doesn’t boil over and extinguish your flame.

Continue to stir the pasta as it cooks.

You can use the cook time listed on the pasta package as a general suggested cook time. But you must check and taste the pasta throughout.

With dried pasta, you want to go for a final feel that’s called al dente, which translates roughly as “toothsome.” It should be cooked through but still slightly firm to the bite. You can check by cutting a piece of pasta open— you’ll see a white lining inside if the pasta isn’t yet cooked through. That should be mostly gone by the time it’s al dente, but you should really base it on the mouthfeel. Al dente pasta may still have a very thin white line that’s just barely visible.

Great dried pasta should have slightly more chew than you might be used to. It will continue cooking in the sauce, and you definitely don’t want overcooked, gummy pasta.

Once the pasta is close to being done, take about a quarter to a half cup of the pasta water and add that to the sauce. This step is especially important— the starchy, salty pasta water helps to season the sauce and thicken it. Give it a stir and allow it to incorporate. Set aside another quarter cup of pasta water in case you need to add more.

Taste the sauce and adjust as needed with salt.

As soon as the pasta is done, drain it in a strainer and add then it to the sauce immediately.

Toss the pasta in the sauce to cover it.

Then add a quarter cup each of shaved Parmesan and Pecorino to the pasta, along with some more chile flakes and black pepper, and toss everything to combine.

If you want to thin out the sauce a bit more, you can add in a bit more pasta water and continue to toss.

Spoon the pasta into bowls, add a bit more cheese, a twist of fresh black pepper, and some chile flakes.

Enjoy immediately.

Hey, everyone!

If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while you’ll know that last year I created a four-week cohort program focused on teaching people how to cook without recipes. Over the last few months, I’ve taken that curriculum and turned it into a self-paced program that anyone can learn on their own time. Today it’s officially live!

The program is called 80/20 Cooking since it focuses on the few important, high-leverage skills that really make a difference in knowing how to cook. I describe it as a minimalist guide to the fundamentals of cooking because it’s straightforward, approachable, and effective. I don’t dive deep into the science of cooking or the nerdy details— I just focus on the practical and learnable skills that really improve your cooking.

The program is split into two parts:

• First, there are 12 lessons that cover cooking fundamentals and foundational skills— how to stock your kitchen and your pantry, knife skills, using salt and acidity, understanding heat, and a bunch more. These lessons are a mix of written content, photos, and videos, with links to my favorite products and resources.

• Then, there are 18 practice recipes with step-by-step photo instructions. These recipes are designed to be lessons in and of themselves, with detailed notes on key techniques and concepts to apply. The recipes will allow you to learn specific dishes, but they’ll also teach core techniques that you can apply to other similar dishes.

In addition, there are a bunch of exclusive brand discounts included. I’ve partnered with a bunch of my favorite brands, so you can get codes for 25% off Made In Cookware, 20% off Vera Salt and Zimms Organics, 15% off Oliva Dorado, and a bunch more savings on brands like Heritage Steel, Seatopia, Masseria Estate, Masa Chips, and more. I think that if you take advantage of these discounts the course will more than pay for itself.

Finally, I’ve created a built-in custom AI tutor that can answer all of your course and cooking questions, in real time, as you go through the material. You can ask it for recipe edits, ingredient substitutions, suggested dishes based on what you have available, or feedback on what you’ve cooked. There’s also a Telegram group for students of the course if you want to ask me questions directly.

If you’re interested, you can access the program and learn more on the website, or check out a preview of the content below!

Myles

Check It Out

Hey, everyone!

Today I’m sharing a method I like to use for what is perhaps my all-time favorite pasta dish— Pasta Bolognese.

One of the things I love about this dish is that it’s not super specific. I’ve made this probably close to 50 times over the last few years, and I tend to just work with what I have, occasionally omitting various elements or experimenting with new additions. It always turns out great.

This is not my recipe by any means. The blueprint I follow comes from Marcella Hazan in her excellent Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking cookbook, which has been my bible for exploring Italian cuisine. I also learned to make a version of this on my trip to Italy last year when my friend Danny and I trained with a Bolognese chef. He offered some additional points of view that led me to view this dish with a lot less rigidity.

There are a few elements here that are optional:

• You can add milk to the dish, or you can omit it entirely. You can also use half-and-half or heavy cream instead. If I have any of these on hand I use them, but I just go without if not.

• You can add wine to the sauce, but this isn’t necessary. Most of the time I don’t.

• The classic version calls for crushed or strained tomatoes, but I also add in some tomato paste if I have it, which helps boost the concentrated tomato flavor. Again, this isn’t strictly necessary.

• If I happen to have some Parmesan rinds laying around, I always throw those into the sauce as it simmers. It adds a bit more flavor and umami. Do it if you have them (and just remove them from the sauce before serving).

• As the sauce cooks it tends to dry out a bit. You can add in a bit of beef broth to hydrate it, or just use water. Sometimes neither is necessary.

• You can make this with beef, pork, veal, or even bison or venison. I’ve gotten the best results when I use a combinaton of leaner meat (beef, venison, bison) and something fattier like pork or veal. But the low-and-slow cooking process lends itself well to leaner cuts even if you just use those alone. I love making this with an “ancestral blend” that incorporates ground meat with heart and liver, since the heavy flavors of the tomato sauce tend to mask any minerality from the organs.

• This dish is traditionally paired (and I’d argue best paired) with an egg pasta like parardelle. Made with fresh pasta, this dish is transcendent. But it also works great with any style of dried pasta.

Overall, this method is both customizable and forgiving, and what exactly you choose to do depends on your preferences, what you have available, and your own instincts throughout the cooking process. As it should be!

As always, feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions!

Myles

Ingredients

• 1lb ground meat (I prefer a 50/50 combo of beef and pork usually)

• 2/3 cup yellow onion, diced small

• 2/3 cup carrot, diced small

• 1.5-2 cups crushed or strained tomatoes (I use Bionaturae)

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 1 cup whole milk

• (optional) beef bone broth

• (optional) ground nutmeg

• black peppercorn

• Parmesan and/or Pecorino romano

• olive oil

• butter

• salt

• dried or fresh pasta

Process

Heat a large pan or saucier over medium heat and add in a tbsp each of butter and olive oil. Once that melts, add in your onions and carrots.

Stir to combine, sauté for a few minutes, and then salt the vegetables.

Using your hands, break your ground meat up into chunks and layer it throughout the pan.

Use a wooden spoon to really break up the meat. You want it to be in very small chunks in the final sauce. Salt the meat and add in a few cracks of fresh black pepper.

Cook the meat, continuing to break it up with a wooden spoon, for several minutes until it’s no longer a raw shade of red. Note that you don’t want to sear or brown the meat here— just cook it.

Add in a cup of whole milk (or 1/2 cup if using half-and-half or heavy cream). Give it a good stir, and allow the mixture to simmer gently for 5 minutes or so, stirring throughout.

As I mentioned before, the milk isn’t strictly necessary. But it does help to tenderize the meat and balance out some of the heavy acidity from the tomatoes. If you don’t have it, you can just move onto the next step.

After 5-10 minutes, the milk should be somewhat evaporated. At this point, you can add in your tomato paste and strained tomatoes. Give everything a big stir, and salt it generously. Add in a small pinch of ground nutmeg and stir.

Toss in a Parmesan rind if you have one.

Turn the heat down to low or medium-low and allow it to simmer very gently for several hours. I usually let this cook (uncovered) for at least 3 hours, and sometimes up to 5.

While I prefer to make this sauce on the stovetop when I have the time to watch it, you can also cover it partially and put it in the oven at this point (usually around 275°F) for a few hours to cook.

If the sauce starts to dry out, you can either add in some water or some beef bone broth. Add in a bit at a time so as not to over-hydrate the sauce.

Make sure to occasionally stir the sauce throughout the cooking process, and also taste it and adjust as needed with more salt.

By the end, the sauce should be thick and not super liquidy (see the first picture below). If you added a Parmesan rind, remove that before serving.

When you’re ready to serve, cook your pasta and then toss it with the sauce to coat evenly.

Finish with a big grating of Parmesan and/or Pecorino romano cheese and some fresh-cracked black pepper. Enjoy!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I’ve been doing a ton of cooking over the holidays and have a backlog of articles and recipes I’m excited to publish this year.

I’m also planning a trip to Japan later this year— I’ll be using one of my favorite food travel books Rice, Noodle, Fish as a guide, but if anyone has specific Japan recommendations, please pass them along!

With that, let’s get into a few things I’ve been enjoying recently!

Myles

80/20 Cooking

If you’ve followed this newsletter for a while, you’ll know that I launched a cohort course in 2023 called 80/20 Cooking.

I’ve been working on a self-paced version of the course that’s a minimalist guide to learning the fundamentals of cooking. It consists of 12 lessons (a mix of written, photo, and video content covering the most important cooking concepts) and 15 recipes (technique-driven dishes designed to help you put the concepts in the lessons into practice). There will also be a Telegram group for you to ask questions and get feedback, and I’ve also built a custom AI chatbot into the course so that you can ask questions and get real-time answers about the lessons and practice recipes.

This course is focused on helping you master the highest-leverage skills in cooking. Here’s how I described some of those recently on Twitter:

1. Being present and paying attention to your senses. Great chefs cook based on taste, smell, touch, feel, and sound— not instructions in a recipe.

2. Learning how to use salt. It’s the most important ingredient in cooking and is the tool we use to bring out flavor in food.

3. Learning how to use acidity properly, and especially learning about the relationship between acid and fat (acid “cuts through” fat and balances its richness). Acid and salt are two sides of the same coin and together build and balance flavor.

4. Understanding different types of heat (direct, indirect, wet, dry) and how they affect food. As well as understanding Maillard and the relationship between moisture and browning.

5. Thinking in terms of techniques (individual actions that produce a specific result) and methods (specific combinations of ingredients and techniques). When you know these, you can string them together to create lots of dishes with lots of room for customization and no need for specific recipes.

All of these (and much more) are covered in the course. If you go through all of the material, you’ll have really good command of how to cook well, as well as a bunch of really solid, customizable dishes in your repertoire.

I’m putting the final touches on the course over the next couple of weeks. If you want to get an email when it goes live, you can subscribe for updates here!

High-Quality Beef Tallow

I’ve been saying for a long time that there’s room in the market for a high-quality, premium beef tallow brand. If you go to any nice grocery store, you’ll see tons of olive oils with beautiful branding, information on their sourcing, and single-origin offerings. Beef tallow is one of the best cooking oils, and there are only a couple of brands focused on quality.

Recently my friend Anthony launched a brand called Lineage Provisions that offers a regenerative, grass-fed and finished beef tallow that’s tested to be free of glyphosate and other contaminants. Their other products are fantastic, as well.

Fond, a bone broth company I really like, also just launched a line of regenerative beef tallow and pork lard. They have some cool flavored options, which is something I haven’t seen before.

If you cook with tallow as much as I do, I highly recommend checking out both.

The Best Coffee Mug

My mom got me this amazing double-walled glass coffee mug for Christmas, and I love it. If you’re a serious coffee appreciator like myself, I highly recommend picking one up. It’s got a beautiful design, keeps the coffee nice and warm, and (unlike some metal or ceramic mugs) glass doesn’t impart any flavor. This one from Chemex has a super cool look, but Fellow makes a nice version, as well.

Korean Pantry Staples

I’ve talked before here about my love for a brand called Queens SF that makes a bunch of artisanal Korean pantry staples. Their gochujang is the best I’ve ever had, and their chojang is incredible, as well. They’re not for sale on their website unless you’re local to SF, but you can check their stockists to see if they’re sold anywhere close to you.

Recently I was at a store here in San Diego and someone recommended I try another Korean pantry brand called Potluck. I picked up some of their ssamjang and I’ve been blown away by it. I’ve been making a simple braised beef, using either ssamjang or a mix of ssamjang and chojang in the braising liquid, and it’s amazing.

Roasted Cauliflower with Creamy Salsa Macha Sauce

This is a recipe I’ve been riffing on a bunch recently. It works great with cauliflower, broccoli, or Romanesco cauliflower. There’s been a ton of those at my local farmer’s market, so I’ve made this quite a few times. You can either toss the vegetables in the sauce like I do, or just use it as a dipping sauce for any kind of roasted vegetable.

If you want to get fancy, you can make both the mayo and salsa macha from scratch, or just buy a good store-bought version (I really like Chosen Foods for avocado oil mayo).

Ingredients

• 2 heads of cauliflower, broccoli, or Romanesco cauliflower

• 2/3 cup mayo

• 2/3 cup salsa macha

• 1 lime

• salt

• olive oil

• red onion

• cilantro

Process

• Pre-heat your oven to 425°F

• Mix together the mayo, salsa macha, juice of 1/2 of a lime, a bit of lime zest, and salt in a small bowl. Mix, taste, and adjust as needed with more salt or lime.

• Cut the cauliflower into small florets. Toss with a little bit of olive oil and salt, and then spread them out on a sheet tray with plenty of room so they don’t steam.

• Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes until they’re cooked through and lightly charred.

• Toss the roasted cauliflower in a bowl with some of the sauce until it’s well-coated.

• Plate and top with diced red onion and cilantro.

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Hey, everyone!

I often get asked for gift ideas for cooks and food lovers around the holidays, so I put together a list of some of my favorites.

Enjoy!

Myles

The Essentials

You can never go wrong with high-quality cookware essentials. I’ve recommended all of these in the past— well-made, long-lasting, highly versatile pieces of cookware.

• Chef’s knife from Misono.

• Blue carbon steel skillet from Made In.

• Stainless steel pan from De Buyer.

• Saucier from Made In.

• Butcher Block cutting board from Made In.

Cookbooks

Cookbooks make great gifts, but there are so many published each year that it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Below are a few of my time-tested favorites.

• Gjelina by Travis Lett - a beautiful, timeless cookbook from one of my all-time favorite restaurants.

• Six Seasons by Joshua McFadden - an encyclopedic guide to vegetables filled with incredible recipes.

• The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez Alt - probably the cookbook I’ve learned the most from in terms of fundamentals.

• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan - a true classic that has been my bible as I dove into Italian cuisine this year.

• Mission Chinese Food by Danny Bowien - a cookbook that reads like a book from one of my favorite chefs.

Some Random Favorites

Gestura Spoons

I bought myself a Gestura spoon this year, and I’m a bit obsessed with it. It’s got a long handle, a large bowl that’s perfect for basting or serving, a deep well to cradle liquid, a pointed tip for pouring, and the well measures exactly 1 tbsp. I’m a big fan of everything Gestura makes, but this spoon in particular is perfect.

I’ve also written extensively about my love for Gray Kunz spoons, and this gold version makes for a great gift.

Suncraft Everything Knife

I use this knife all the time these days. It’s like a paring knife, a steak knife, and a bread knife had a baby. Super sharp, super versatile.

Zero Japan Salt Box

I firmly believe everyone should own a salt cellar— I talked about this extensively in my salt guide. This one from Zero Japan is great— it’s a good size, looks nice, and it has a handle and a flip top for easy access.

Stocking Stuffers

• Thermapen - the best meat thermometer on the market.

• Vera Salt - the best salt out there (now with flaky salt, too).

• Anything from Burlap & Barrel - my favorite brand for super high-quality, fresh spices.

• Coffee from Sey Coffee - the company consistently roasting some of the best coffee I’ve ever had.

• Any of these one-of-a-kind condiments from Noma Projects.

• Amazing balsamic vinegar from Villa Manodori.

Hey, everyone!

Today I’m sharing an updated version of a flour tortilla recipe I published a couple of years ago. Consider this the new and improved version after a number of trials and experiments.

I love flour tortillas because they’re such an approachable introduction to making bread at home. They’re quite easy, and you don’t have to worry about working with yeast, fermentation, rising times, etc. With that said, here’s a few things to consider:

The Fat

You can make flour tortillas with pretty much any type of oil, though solid fats (animal fats, butter, even coconut oil) work better from a texture perspective. These days I almost always make them with beef tallow.

Lard (aka pork fat) is traditionally used and is delicious. Duck fat works great as well. I like beef tallow because it creates a really rich, delicious flavor (without being beefy) and because it’s the healthiest animal fat available.

Side note— for years I’ve been hoping a company would enter the market with a true premium beef tallow. There are so many olive oil brands with impeccable sourcing and great branding, but the beef tallow market only has a few widely-available grass-fed brands. My friend Anthony Gustin recently did just that with his brand Lineage’s new beef tallow. It’s 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, regeneratively sourced, and tested for glyphosate and contaminants. I have no affiliate deal here— I just think it’s a great product that I highly recommend.

The Flour

You can make flour tortillas with regular all-purpose flour, and that tends to work great. But one thing I’ve learned in my bread-baking journey is the power of heirloom grains. These are grains that are specifically bred for certain use cases and, even more importantly, for flavor. Most grocery store flour is sourced from industrial wheat farms where the crop is bred to produce the highest yield. It’s incredible how much more flavorful the heirloom varietals taste.

The best flour for tortillas, by far, is Sonora flour. It’s a soft white wheat, making it ideal for tortillas, and the flavor is incomparable. Barton Springs Mill in Austin (which I’ve personally visited) makes a phenomenal organic Sonora flour. I also like Grist & Toll and Hayden Mills.

Resting The Dough

There’s a small change I’ve made to my flour tortilla technique since I last published this recipe, but it’s one that I’ve come to consider indispensable: properly resting the dough.

When you work with bread dough, allowing it time to rest after it’s been manipulated helps the gluten to relax, which improves texture and makes the dough much easier to work with. I’ve always rested the dough after I roll it into a ball, but I’ve found that giving it an additional rest after you’ve rolled it into individual tortilla balls also helps a ton. It will roll out much more easily into a perfect circle, and the final texture will be better.

Sourdough Tortillas

At the end of this post, I’ve included additional details for how to make a sourdough version of flour tortillas. If you have a sourdough starter, this is a must-try. I promise you that sourdough beef tallow flour tortillas made with heirloom Sonora flour are the best tortillas you will ever have in your life, full stop. Shoutout to Chad Robertson and Jennifer Latham for introducing me to this technique in Bread Book.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (250g) Sonora or all-purpose flour

• 1/4 - 1/3 cup (~60g) beef tallow

• salt

• water

Process

Start by adding your flour to a bowl and mixing in a big pinch of salt.

Mix the dry ingredients to incorporate.

Add in 1/4 - 1/3 cup tallow — it should be at room temperature or slightly melted, but not liquid. You just want it pliable enough to be able to work it into the flour.

Using your fingers, press the flour and fat together to incorporate. You want a mealy texture like the photo below. Mix it together until the fat is evenly distributed throughout the flour.

Next, you want to pour in and incorporate your water.

Start with 1/2 cup (118g) room temperature water, and add more as needed. Different flour types will hydrate differently, so just add it a bit at a time until you get the consistency you want.

Using your hands, slowly mix the flour with the water until it is just incorporated enough to hold the dough together (like the photo below).

Once the dough is incorporated, move it to a lightly floured work surface.

Being careful not to overwork it, knead the dough until it comes together and is smooth, elastic, and pliable. The dough should have a smooth surface and just a little bit of "bounce" when you press it with your fingers.  

Once you get there, cover the dough with a slightly damp paper towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

After the dough has rested, start by pinching off a piece about the size of a golf ball.

Using the wood surface, roll that into a tight and smooth ball. Repeat that with the rest of the dough. Then cover the dough balls with a paper towel and rest again for 20 minutes.

Once the second rest is complete, place a dough ball on a lightly floured surface and press it flat. Turn it over to get a bit of flour on both sides.

Using a rolling pin (or a wine bottle, if you don't have one), roll the dough ball into a large, flat circle.  

I personally like to roll these quite thin, so they’ll come out light and chewy.

Pre-heat a dry cast iron skillet over medium to medium-high heat.

Cook the tortillas for 30 seconds - 1 minute on the first side, turning the tortilla as it cooks.

Once it starts to bubble up, flip it and cook on the other side for another minute or so.

You want the tortilla bubbled up and cooked through, with light spots of browning. Once both sides look like that, the tortilla is ready to eat.

Serve these immediately, as they're best eaten piping hot.

That said, you can also make these ahead of time, store them wrapped in the refrigerator, and reheat them in a dry skillet. You can also make the dough ahead of time and store it for a few days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer.

Enjoy!

Sourdough Version

You can make a sourdough version of these tortillas quite easily. The best part is that you can use the discard from your sourdough starter, since you don’t need it to be risen to provide leavening.

This is one of the easiest sourdough recipes I’ve made, and the tortillas are incredible.

Ingredients

• 35g sourdough starter discard

• 125g cold water

• 7g salt

• 250g flour

• 60g beef tallow (at room temp)

Process

In one bowl, mix together your starter and water. Use your hand to stir everything together.

In another bowl, combine your salt and flour. Add in the beef tallow, breaking it up into pieces. Using your fingers, press the flour and fat together to incorporate. You want a mealy texture.

Mix it together until the fat is evenly distributed throughout the flour.

Pour your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and start to mix them together with your hands until it forms a shaggy dough. Then, start kneading it until a smooth dough forms. You want a dough that's smooth, elastic, and has incorporated all the hydration.

Take the dough, wrap it in plastic wrap, and put it in the fridge for 24 hours— this is crucial fermentation time. The bacteria and yeast in the starter will get to work on the flour, making it more delicious and digestible.

Pull the dough from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before you plan to cook the tortillas.

Once the dough has come up to temp, roll it into individual balls (as shown in the regular technique above), and then cover and rest for 20 minutes.

Roll out the tortillas and cook according to the same directions for the regular tortillas. Enjoy!

Hey, everyone!

It’s been a while since I’ve sent out a round up-style newsletter. I used to do these monthly, but moving forward I plan to just send them out whenever I have enough random things bookmarked and/or thoughts to share to fill up a newsletter.

These emails tend to be an eclectic mix of things I’ve been using, thinking about, or enjoying. And I plan to keep it that way. Feel free to shoot me an email if you’ve got any feedback or questions!

Myles

Gestura Spoons

A couple of years ago I was eating at one of Sean Brock’s restaurants in Nashville and I noticed some of the line cooks using these spoons. If you’ve been following this newsletter for a while, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of spoons. I’ve previously recommended the Gray Kunz and Mercer plating spoons, but this Gestura spoon might be the best in the game.

This spoon has a few cool features. First, it has a large bowl that makes it great for basting, sauce work, and plating while also being deep enough to comfortably hold liquid. The volume of the spoon is exactly 1 tbsp, which makes it super convenient for measuring and scaling recipes. Plus it has a tapered tip for pouring and a long handle for basting/stirring. It’s super thoughtfully designed and very well-made. I’ve had it for a month now and I use it all the time.

Noma Projects

Noma Projects, the product line from the renowned restaurant in Copenhagen, has been releasing some really fun stuff recently. I love playing around with these condiments because they’re so unique— they really force you to get creative and come up with cool ways to use them. They also have a bunch of great recipes on their site for inspiration. I’ve tried a few recently.

• Dashi RDX: Imagine soy sauce and dashi had a baby. It’s great over fish, on top of rice bowls, in vinaigrettes, or just drizzled over fresh summer tomatoes.

• Mushroom Garum: This is almost like a fish sauce that’s made with smoked mushrooms instead of anchovies. Super umami and great in dressings and sauces. I like adding it to butter and basting a steak with it.

• Corn Yuzu Hot Sauce: A very unique hot sauce. Pairs beautifully with roasted or fried sweet potatoes. Or mix with sour cream and mayo to make a great sauce for a cabbage slaw.

Their recently-released Aged Pumpkin Vinegar also sounds incredible.

August.Build

My friend Kevin Rooke has been working on this site for a while now, and I’m excited to see it start to gain some traction. August.build is a database of “buy it for life” items— really high-quality, well-made gear that’s designed to last a lifetime. He’s got a bunch of fantastic kitchen/cookware recommendations on there.

A Couple of Simple Recipes

Here are a couple of simple dishes I’ve been enjoying recently. You’ll notice these recipes aren’t too exact, since they’re very forgiving and have a lot of wiggle room.

Pistachio Herb Rice

I love white rice. It’s by far the grain I eat the most. And while I’m happy to eat it on its own, I’m also constantly playing around with fun upgrades— different cooking liquids, fats, and additional flavorings.

This one has been a staple for me lately. Rise a cup of basmati rice, then cook it, substituting chicken or beef bone broth for water. Once it has cooked, add in a big squeeze of lemon juice, some lemon zest, some chopped up herbs (I used parsley, cilantro, and dill), a bunch of chopped pistachios, and some olive oil. Stir it to combine everything, then top with more pistachos and a big drizzle of olive oil. This is excellent served with these meatballs and the yogurt sauce I outlined here.

Chickpea Pepper Salad

This is another fun one that comes together quick with pantry staples.

Heat a skillet over medium heat, add in some olive oil, and drop in one finely chopped shallot. Cook until the shallot is softened (a couple minutes). Add in a can of drained chickpeas, and toss to coat in the oil. Season with salt and your favorite spice blend (I used this one). Add in some diced roasted piquillo peppers or roasted red peppers. Once they’re heated through, pull it off the heat.

Add the mixture to a bowl, and add in a bunch of chopped fresh herbs and a big squeeze of lemon juice. Toss to combine. Optionally, top it with some crumbled feta cheese.

Casey & Calley Means on JRE

This is a really fantastic (and alarming) conversation about the current state of US healthcare, pharma, and some ways we might be able to sort out the mess that is the current system.

Calley Means is the co-founder, along with my friend Justin Mares, of TrueMed, a really cool company that allows you to purchase health-related items with pre-tax HSA/FSA money. Check it out.

Bioenergetics and Ray Peat

Speaking of health, I’ve been going down a bit of a Dr. Ray Peat rabbit hole recently. His work can feel a bit unapproachable at first, but I’ve found his ideas to be incredibly informative and they’ve challenged a lot of my conventional thinking about health.

It’s hard to sum up his philosophy, but at a high level it’s all about increasing the amount of energy that your body produces. He challenges a lot of the thinking that comes out of the Paleo/keto/ancestral sphere. This book is a great place to start to learn more about the bioenergetic approach to health. I also recommend this interview with Rick Rubin and Carnivore Aurelius. CA is someone who started his health journey with a focus on low carb/keto and gradually came to incorporate a lot of Ray Peat’s ideas. He does a great job of describing both the science and the rationale behind it.

Some Great Music

A few things I’ve been digging recently.

Hey, everyone!

This is one of my favorite recipes I’ve created in a while. It’s super simple, but it’s a really fun riff on steak if you want to change things up a bit.

I’ve always enjoyed the combination of caramelized onions and steak, but you can take it up a level by adding some balsamic vinegar into the mix. The buttery caramelized onions bring fat, sweetness, umami, and complexity from the Maillard. The addition of balsamic vinegar adds even more sweetness, umami, and a dash of acidity. It hits all the notes, and it feels like a condiment and a steak sauce rolled into one. Plus it’s more than easy enough to execute on a weeknight.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Myles

Ingredients

• 1 steak

• 1 large yellow onion

• 1/2-1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

• salt

• butter

• tallow or ghee

This is one of those recipes where the ingredient list is simple, so getting the best-quality ingredients is of utmost importance.

The most crucial thing here is to get a really high-quality balsamic vinegar, ideally from Modena. A lot of what’s sold as balsamic vinegar is really just a cheap knockoff. You won’t get that magical mix of umami, sweetness, and acidity unless you seek out the good stuff. My personal favorite is Villa Manodori, and I like Sardel as well. Try to find a version that only has two ingredients— cooked grape must and wine vinegar. You want it to be thick and syrupy. A lot of the knockoff brands are pure liquid (like a regular vinegar) and won’t work nearly as well.

This works with any steak cut that you can easily cook in a pan. My personal favorites are ribeye, Denver, underblade, flatiron, or NY strip.

Process

Start by cooking the balsamic vinegar onions.

Cut your yellow onion into thin slices.

Heat a large pan over medium heat. Once it’s heated, add in 2 tsbp of fat. I prefer to use butter here, but ghee, tallow, or even olive oil all work. I prefer butter, since the end result has all the richness of the butter, plus the umami, sweetness, and acidity.

Allow the fat to melt, then add in your onions.

Stir the onions to coat them in the fat.

Once they have softened a little bit, season them with salt. Continue cooking until they become soft and translucent.

At this point, turn the heat down to medium-low or low and slowly cook them, stirring occasionally to move them around.

You want these to cook low and slow to bring out the natural sweetness in the onions. To do so, you’ll have to keep an eye on your heat, and maybe add in a bit more fat if you feel like they need it. Usually I’ll cook these about 20-30 minutes.

Once the onions are well caramelized, turn off the heat and add in your balsamic vinegar.

I cooked one whole yellow onion and added just shy of 1 tbsp of balsamic. Add in a bit at at time and stir to incorporate throughout the onions. Taste and adjust as needed with more salt and balsamic until you’re happy with them. They should have a beautiful balance of fat, sweetness, umami, and acidity.

Once they’re done, set the onions aside.

Next, cook your steak.

Heat a pan over high heat.

Salt your steak generously on both sides.

Once the pan is hot, add in a tbsp or so of fat and allow it to melt. For this, a high-heat fat like ghee or tallow works best.

Sear the steak on both sides.

Once both sides have developed some nice browning, turn the heat down to medium / medium-low.

Add 2 tsbp of butter to the pan, and immediately start basting the steak with the hot butter. Use a large spoon to scoop up the liquid butter and pour it over the steak over and over again, occasionally flipping the steak.

Side note: this is where a Gray Kunz spoon, a Mercer plating spoon, or a Gestura spoon come in handy. I own all three and love them. They’re all fantastic for basting.

Keep basting and turning until the steak reaches your desired temperature, then pull it from the pan and allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.

Slice the steak and serve it with the balsamic vinegar onions. I recommend eating immediately with your hands.

Enjoy!

Hello, everyone.

Today I wanted to share a recipe that I’ve been making a bunch recently. This isn’t my recipe— it’s an amalgamation of a few different recipes and techniques I’ve seen elsewhere over the years. The reason I like this particular version so much is that it’s dead simple, comes together really quickly, and makes use of a bunch of pantry staples. This makes for a delicious weeknight dish that doesn’t require too much time or effort.

This sauce works with pretty much any type of pasta. I love this most with a perfectly al dente bucatini, but I’ve had it with penne, fusili, and a bunch of others.

This recipe is also fairly flexible. I use both tomato paste and crushed/strained tomatoes, but you could make it entirely with just one or the other. If you go with just tomato paste, I’d just add a bit of extra cream and/or pasta water to thin it out a bit. If you go with just strained tomatoes, give it some extra time to cook down into a concentrated sauce before you add the cream. You can use shallots instead of onions, you can add in a little bit of minced garlic, you could throw some Calabrian chiles in the mix, or you could add some ground meat for a bit of extra protein. There are a ton of customizations to explore. Remember, chef in French literally means boss. You are the chef. You are the boss.

Experiment with it, and feel free to shoot me a message if you have any questions!

Myles

Ingredients

As far as ingredients go, this one is pretty simple. These are all things that you likely do, or at least should, have in your pantry most of the time.

I’m a huge fan of Bionaturae for their tomato products— I use their tomato paste and crushed strained tomatoes often. I also found out recently that they have a whole line of sourdough pasta! I’ve been making homemade sourdough pasta for a couple of years now, and I’ve been waiting for a reputable brand to make a dried version. I’m looking forward to giving this a try. I also love Seggiano, which is my personal favorite brand for dried pasta.

• 1/3 cup tomato paste

• 1/3 cup crushed/strained tomatoes

• 1/2 yellow onion

• 1/2 cup heavy cream

• 2 tbsp butter

• olive oil

• salt

• Pecorino Romano or Parmigiano Reggiano to finish

• 1/2 - 1 lb dried or fresh pasta

Process

Start by finely mincing your onion. Alternatively, you can use the same technique I suggested in my meatball experiments post: grate the onion with a cheese grater, or blitz it in a food processor. Then use a spatula and a fine-mesh strainer to press all of the liquid out of the onion. I like to do this because it makes for a very concentrated sauce where the onion seamlessly melts in.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. The rule of thumb in Italy is that the water should be salty like the ocean. Make sure to be generous with the salt.

Heat a stainless steel or ceramic pan over medium-low heat (I don’t like to make this sauce in a cast iron or carbon steel pan since the acidity of the tomato will react with the metal).

Once the pan is hot, add in a big glug of olive oil, and then add in the onion.

Cook for a few minutes until the onion is soft and translucent, but not yet browned. Add in a bit of salt.

Add in the tomato paste, and press it with a spatula to distribute it around the pan. It will slowly melt and become more liquid. Stir it occasionally— you want to slightly caramelize the tomato paste.

Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add in the crushed tomatoes, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust for salt.

Add in the butter, allow it to melt, and then slowly cook the sauce for about 15 minutes.

Turn the heat to low. Add in the cream, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust with salt as needed.

Cook the pasta according to the directions.

As the pasta is cooking, take a big spoonful of the starchy pasta water and add that to the sauce. Stir to combine. This starch will help the texture of the sauce.

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce. Toss to combine.

Plate and finish with a big shaving of cheese, and maybe some Calabrian chile flakes.

Enjoy.

Hey, everyone!

A couple of months ago I was in NYC and ate at one of my favorite restaurants— Nura in Greenpoint. They have these incredible meatballs there, and I just couldn’t get over the texture of them. They were light, airy, and had this springy/bouncy feel that was really satisfying.

I felt like I needed to recreate them, so I started doing some research to find out what their secret might be. Ultimately, I came across a bunch of information around the use of baking soda as a secret ingredient in different recipes using ground meat. AI was actually quite useful in this research process— according to Claude, there are a few things that adding baking soda helps with:

• Tenderizing: Baking soda raises the pH level of the meat, making it more alkaline. This can help break down proteins, resulting in a more tender texture.

• Moisture retention: The alkaline environment created by baking soda can help the meat retain moisture during cooking, potentially leading to juicier meatballs.

• Browning: The higher pH can promote faster browning (Maillard reaction) when the meatballs are cooked, potentially enhancing flavor.

• Texture alteration: In some cases, it can create a slightly springier or bouncier texture in the finished meatballs.

• Binding: It may help ingredients bind together more effectively, though this is a minor effect compared to traditional binders like eggs or breadcrumbs.

I decided to give it a try, and it worked! Not only did it improve the texture and browning, but it did so without affecting the taste at all.

Ultimately I landed on a ratio of 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of baking soda per pound of meat. I also found a number of chefs who suggested mixing the baking soda with a bit of lemon juice beforehand (to neutralize the flavor) and water (to dissolve it and distribute it more evenly in the meat). I did both, and I was super happy with the results.

The other technique that I’ve been using a ton lately is this onion hack that I learned from a bunch of Middle Eastern recipes. Instead of just chopping up onion and adding that to ground meat, you use a food processor or a cheese grater to turn the onion into almost a paste, then press all of the liquid out of it before adding it to the meat mixture.

This does a few things. First, it means you get all of the onion flavor without any of the water present in the onion. Second, the onion distributes much more evenly throughout the ground meat. This not only means more balanced flavor, but it also helps the texture a lot. Big chunks of onion are often the culprit behind meatballs or kebabs falling apart, and this prevents that. When I do this in a food processor, I’ll often throw a few cloves of garlic in with the onion so they get evenly distributed as well.

I’ve used both of these techniques with meatballs and kebabs/koobideh, but I think they’d work for any kind of ground meat dish. I want to try them with burgers next.

Below is a simple meatball recipe using these, but feel free to experiment on your own!

As always, let me know if you have any questions!

Myles

Ingredients

• 1lb ground lamb, or 50/50 mix of beef and lamb

• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 yellow onion

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 2 tbsp spice blend

• (optional) finely chopped herbs, crumbled feta cheese

• salt

• olive oil

Process

Pre-heat your oven on the broiler setting.

Place the ground meat into a bowl.

Separately, in a small bowl, add 1/2 tsp baking soda. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the baking soda (it will bubble up), and then add in a couple of tbsp of water. Mix it to dissolve the baking soda.

Pour the baking soda mixture onto the meat, and use your hands to mix and incorporate it throughout. Set the meat aside to rest for 15 min.

Use a food processor or a cheese grater to grate the onion and garlic until it is almost a paste.

Place that into a fine-mesh strainer, and use a spatula to press out all of the water.

Once the meat has rested, add the onion mixture to the meat.

Salt the meat generously, and then add in whatever herbs, spices, and additional flavorings you’re using. I’ve been loving this spice blend from Burlap & Barrel. I added some crumbled feta and chopped parsley and cilantro to these meatballs, as well.

Put some oil on your hands to prevent the meat from sticking and roll it into balls. Place those onto a sheet tray.

Place the sheet tray under the broiler and cook the meatballs, turning halfway through cooking, for 10-20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, as the broiler can cook things quickly. Alternatively, you can roast them at 400F for 10-15 minutes or until cooked through.

Serve immediately.

I like to plate these over a bed of yogurt with some crumbled pistachios over the top.

Enjoy!

Hey, everyone!

It’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve published here. Life has been busy lately, but I’m hoping to get back into a habit of writing regularly.

I recently came across this excellent post from Sasha Chapin on Substack, and I loved the format. I decided to riff on it and put together a post outlining a few things I know to be true about cooking.

This post is actually based on a Twitter thread I published a couple of years ago that was quite well-received. I’ve added some more details here and expanded on some of the ideas. One day I aspire to turn this into a short book where I can really dive into these concepts. Let me know if you like the format!

Myles

A Few Basic Principles To Improve Your Home Cooking

1. Salt is the most important ingredient in cooking, by far. Learn how to use it.

   I repeat this ad nauseam, but it’s true. Salt is a tool that we use to enhance existing flavors in food and to make food taste more like itself. Proper use of salt is the highest-leverage skill you can acquire as a cook. This guide is a good starting point.

2. No amount of technique will overcome bad ingredients. Focus on sourcing good ingredients and your food will taste better.

   I subscribe to the school of cooking that prioritizes primary ingredients above all else. The better the ingredients that you start with, the less you have to do to make them taste amazing. Reverence for nature and proper sourcing are critical to great cooking.

3. Shop at local farmer's markets, butcher shops, bakeries, and cheese shops before going to grocery chains.

   This goes with the above concept. If you want to source the best-quality products, you’re more likely to find them in these places.

4. You need one chef’s knife, one paring knife, and one bread knife. That’s it.

   There’s a massive industry of companies trying to sell you cooking equipment you don’t actually need. Knife sets are one of the primary culprits. Buy a few good knives and learn how to take care of them and use them well.

5. A great cast iron or carbon steel skillet will last forever, improve with time, and be one of your most versatile pieces of cookware.

6. Non-stick cookware is a sham.

   Most non-stick cookware is coated with toxic chemicals that wreak havoc on your endocrine system and should be avoided at all costs. Not only is it bad for you, it’s also less performant. You can’t use high heat with non-stick cookware, so you’re unable to get the searing and browning you want on things like steaks. Cast iron and carbon still will become virtually non-stick over time as they season, and stainless steel rarely sticks if it’s pre-heated properly. If you feel that you really need a non-stick, opt for a ceramic pan. Just don’t cook your steaks in it.

7. Don’t buy cheap olive oil. It's probably rancid or fake.

8. Acidity is nearly as important as salt. It brightens up food, adds dimensionality, and cuts through fat.

   If you’ve ever cooked something and it tastes “flat,” try adding some salt. If the sensation persists, try adding some acidity. The combination of salt and acidity is what we call “seasoning” in cooking, and knowing how to do it properly is a superpower.

9. Fresh herbs add a ton of flavor to a meal. Use them liberally.

10. Practice kitchen minimalism.

    Simplicity is key in cooking, and this is especially true for cookware. Buy the high-quality items that will last you a long time and that you will actually use. You’ll have less clutter in your kitchen, you’ll actually use what you buy, and you can afford to spend more on these things since you’re buying fewer pieces overall.

11. Olive oil, beef tallow, butter, and ghee should be 90% of what you cook with.

12. Don’t be afraid of high heat. That’s how you get a lot of the best textures and flavors in food.

    I learned this when I started cooking at Hartwood, where everything happened over an open fire. Ripping hot heat is what allows you to develop deep browning (which creates many of the most flavorful compounds) and amazing crusts on food. With the right cookware you can easily achieve this at home.

13. When it comes to grills, wood > charcoal > pellets > propane.

    I have nothing against propane grills. They’re incredibly convenient and have their time and place. But nothing compares to the flavor you get from real wood fire.

14. Sweet, salt, sour, bitter, umami. Learn these 5 tastes and how to balance them.

    Think of these flavors as the primary colors in your cooking canvas. A lot of what makes things delicious is the interaction between these various components.

15. Fish sauce and soy sauce are secret weapons to add umami, even in a subtle way.

    I’d also add miso, anchovies, and certain hard cheeses to this list.

16. Salt your steaks 12-24 hours before you cook them.

17. The best dishes are really simple. Try eliminating something before you add more.

    I learned this from Sean Brock. He said: “When you think you are done creating a dish, ask someone who isn’t attached to it to remove one component.” The more I mature as a cook, the more I’m attracted to simplicity.

18. A quick clean-up of your kitchen before you start cooking will drastically alter the energy of the space for the better.

    In the professional cooking world, we used to say that “a clean kitchen is a happy kitchen.” And it’s true. Objects and spaces have energy, and a clean kitchen will free you from distraction and allow you to be more present and creative when you cook.

19. Mise en place is the most powerful concept home cooks can adopt from restaurant kitchens.

20. Vegetables taste WAY better when they're in-season. Shop locally and seasonally.

21. Textural contrast makes food more interesting. Try layering in different textures.

    Nuts, seeds, breadcrumbs, or fried shallots for crunch. Soft cheeses, yogurt, and sour cream for creaminess. Pickled vegetables for crisp acidity. Raw vegetables mixed into a grain bowl for a nice snap. The list goes on.

22. If you want to master a dish, you have to make it many times. Have at least one dish in your repertoire that you've made enough to cook it without a recipe, anywhere and any time.

    All of the best dishes are worth making over and over again. There are classic dishes I’ve made many times, and I still learn new things each time I repeat them.

23. Recipes are overrated. Techniques are more important.

    Recipes have their time and place. But you should never follow a recipe blindly— always use your senses, first and foremost, to guide you. Focus on learning the techniques that transcend individual recipes, and you’ll develop a much broader repertoire of cooking knowledge.

24. Constraint breeds creativity.

    I lived with a vegetarian friend for several years, and I came up with some of my most creative dish ideas during that time. The constraint of not structuring a meal around meat forced me to think outside the box. This goes for a lot of things— not having the perfect kitchen setup, all the right cookware, or all the right ingredients can, counterintuitively, be an advantage. It forces you to get creative, and you’ll often be pleasantly surprised by what you produce.

25. Presence is one of the most important skills in cooking.

    Cooking is all about using our senses to guide us. Every time you cook, you’re taking in a ton of different signals in the form of tastes, sights, sounds, temperatures, textures, and more. If you’re distracted, you’ll miss these. Cooking well is all about tapping into the present moment and honing that sensory awareness.

If you enjoyed this post, check out myles.cooking, a website that I built with all of my recipes, plus an AI chatbot tool where you can ask questions and get cooking tips and suggestions.