Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2025 i Cook's Country

WHEN YOU THINK about cooking over an open flame, a prepubescent girl tending a 100-pound cornmeal cake in a pit in the ground may not be the image that comes to mind. But this practice, which is part of a four-night Navajo ceremony known as Kinaaldá, was indeed one of two pictures that popped into my head when I saw Executive Editor Morgan Bolling and her mom maneuvering a three-legged cast-iron pot over flaming hot coals. Kinaaldá is a traditional five-day rite of passage where a young Navajo girl is prepared for womanhood. She runs a course toward the sun three times a day, and in between she is molded in the image of “Changing Woman,” an important deity in Navajo culture. She is groomed, bejeweled, and enrobed in special…

For the Coquille Indian Tribe of southwest Oregon, the return of the first spring salmon has long been cause for great celebration and appreciation. “Salmon is our number one first food,” says Chief Jason Younker, recounting stories of the tribe’s centuries-long history with the fish. “The first run would come in the spring. Thousands upon thousands of salmon coming up the rivers to the spawning grounds. You’ve been in the longhouse all winter long with your kids, maybe even your extended family. The first salmon come in, and everybody comes shooting out of that longhouse, especially at the mouth of the Coquille River. Now, you may have used all of your resources during the winter, and you may be really, really hungry, and it’s really tempting to go out and…

INSIDE THE NEW Orleans Jazz Museum at the edge of the French Quarter, cocooned in airconditioning and enthralled by a charismatic Cuban pianist, I catch the unmistakable smell of grilled meat wafting in on woodsmoke. When the music ends, I follow the heavenly aroma out the door, through the tropical heat, and into the festival tent of 14 Parishes Jamaican Restaurant. There, I spot the jerk pork immediately. Across the large wood-fire grills, scores of thick, rib eye–size pork steaks (and half chickens) sizzle and hiss as the flames shoot up around them. My first taste confirms what my nose had suspected. Pork—especially well-marbled slabs of pork butt—takes exceptionally well to the jerk treatment: being marinated in a signature blend of seasonings based on chiles, thyme, and warm spices and…

Skillet Chicken and Rice with Peas and Pancetta You will need a 12-inch nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid for this recipe. Serve drizzled with yogurt or thinned sour cream, if desired. 4 ounces pancetta, cut into¼-inch pieces6 (3-to 5-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed1½ teaspoons table salt, divided½ teaspoon pepper1 onion, chopped fine1½ cups long-grain white rice, rinsed3 garlic cloves, minced2½ cups chicken broth1 cup frozen peas1 tablespoon lemon juice1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill 1. Cook pancetta in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until crispy, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer pancetta to paper towel–lined plate. Pat chicken dry with paper towels and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. Heat fat left in skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add chicken and cook until golden brown, 3…

AT ITS BEST, fresh, ripe cantaloupe is absolutely delicious scooped straight from the rind. But we wanted to take its inherent sweetness in a new direction by creating a sharp, punchy pickle. Curing the cantaloupe in a seasoned brine opens up new opportunities for this ubiquitous melon. As it sits in the brine, its flesh tightens and tenderizes, and the pieces are uniformly seasoned with the resounding brightness of vinegar, sugar, and spice. Sturdy, absorbent, and mildly sweet, cantaloupe is well designed to be pickled. The casual, fun snack is a joyful trick for the senses—the melon cubes appear unassuming, as if excavated straight from the source. But take a bite, and there is an invigorating, salty-sweet shock of flavor that feels both familiar and fresh. Here’s how to make…

EVEN HOMEMADE sourdough devotees and bakery aficionados would be remiss not to admit that white bread serves an important role in the kitchen. Some prefer its soft texture for sandwiches like grilled cheese, but in the test kitchen, we like white bread for more than sandwiches. We use it for French toast, for stuffing, and even to improve the texture of tomato soup. It’s also requisite on a plate of Texas barbecue to soak up sauce or to fold around a sausage link for the perfect bite. Ingredients in Commercial Bread Every bread we tried contained sweeteners, always in the form of sugar and sometimes as additional ingredients such as honey or stevia. Aside from one product, sugar was consistently the third most abundant ingredient after flour and water. Where…

A BURGER IS A glorious thing: A satisfying, nostalgic, and endlessly adaptable. Whether grilled over coals or seared in a skillet, smashed thin or cooked chubby, served welldone or barely done, left plain and pure or loaded with toppings, burgers can be customized for any eater. Here’s one more variation for your repertoire: a smoked burger. It combines the juiciness of a classic, thick grilled burger with the deep, smoky flavors of barbecue. And while it takes a bit more technique than simply tossing wood chips on the grill, the process is easy once you know the formula. First things first: You want to be strategic about the meat. Storebought, high-quality 80 percent lean ground beef (which means 20 percent fat) works great here, producing a burger that’s rich and…

COOKING FOOD outdoors over fire has primordial appeal—it also has benefits that most of us can’t achieve when cooking indoors. Grilling adds tasty char, smoke, and grill flavor to whatever you are cooking. The process of grilling is both exciting and relaxing, and it’s fun. You can cook superhot without worrying about smoking out your kitchen, and it smells amazing. Plus, you’re in the open air. There is the question, of course, of gas versus charcoal grills (and, yes, smokers and fire pits too). Each has its advantages. And there is a lot of practical overlap in the setups and cooking. Here we run through some of the useful information we’ve culled from over 25 years of developing grill recipes and testing all kinds of grills and grill gear. Anatomy…

IT’S A DELIGHT to sip on a margarita while tending to a hot grill. But most people don’t think to actually grill the ingredients for the cocktail itself. They should. (You should!) Grilling limes, or any citrus fruits, softens them and makes them easier to squeeze (a benefit that shouldn’t be overlooked when making four margaritas). The high heat also caramelizes the sugars on the cut surface for just a whisper of extra complexity. With the grill fired up, slice some pineapple rounds to throw on as well. As the pineapple takes on grill marks, it also develops a deep caramel color, an intensified sweetness, a slight smoky edge, and a more compelling pineapple flavor all around. Once the fruit is grilled, creating the cocktail is simple: Squeeze the juice from…

THE ALLURE OF buffalo wings is pretty clear: crispy chicken napped with a spicy sauce of Frank’s RedHot and melted butter, served with chilled celery sticks and cooling blue cheese dressing for dipping. There’s a lot going on flavorwise and a lot to love. So why not drape the “buffalo blanket” over other ingredients? Like cucumbers, for instance. The buffalo cucumbers at Parm, a New York City–based Italian American restaurant, are a top seller. With only three components (fresh cucumbers, crumbled blue cheese, and house-made buffalo sauce), it’s a simple dish. But the playful, exciting array of flavors and textures—cool, crunchy, spicy, savory—makes it (like the wings) absolutely irresistible. For a unique spin on buffalo cukes, I took inspiration from a technique often used in Chinese cuisine: smashing the cucumbers. It’s…

FINDING WAYS TO beat the heat was a regular task during the Philadelphia summers of my youth. With nothing better to do, I’d meet up with my friends to seek relief from the hot and sweaty boredom. Though it was only a mile from my front door, we’d take all day to walk to our favorite destination: the bright, busy water ice stand. There, we’d join the crowd of sweltering customers in search of sweet, cooling comfort. I’d change my mind three times in line before blurting out my order at the counter. There are, of course, no wrong flavors—I love them all—and I was always delighted at the first spoonful of this uniquely Philadelphian pleasure. Water ice, a descendent of Italian ice (see “Icy Fruit Desserts We Love”), has all…

BASIL-INFUSED WHIPPED CREAM Serves 6 to 8 Total Time: 10 minutes, plus 8 hours chilling If your kitchen is particularly warm, it’s helpful to chill the mixer bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 20 minutes before whipping the cream. Serve with Skillet Batter-Style Peach Cobbler (page 38), strawberry shortcake, or fresh fruit. 1 cup heavy cream, chilled1 ounce fresh basil leaves and stems2 tablespoons sugar 1. Combine cream and basil in small container. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 24 hours. 2. Strain cream mixture through fine-mesh strainer into bowl of stand mixer, pressing gently on basil to extract as much liquid as possible; discard basil. 3. Add sugar to strained cream. Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip cream mixture on…

YOU’RE GATHERED around the grill with friends and family, eagerly anticipating juicy burgers and grilled vegetables. What’s missing? A snack to tide everyone over while you wait. Enter that party-time favorite: onion dip. Everyone loves the old-school French onion dip made with a dehydrated soup packet. We add fresh onions and the heady flavor of smoke to the mix. We begin by microwaving onion wedges until their edges turn translucent (this parcooking step ensures tenderness). Keeping the skins on to protect the wedges from drying out, we then take them to the grill. A half hour over indirect heat and a wood chip packet infuses the onions with smoky flavors; a few minutes over the direct flame darkens their edges for a note of char. Once the onions have cooled,…

Making pizzas outside is fun and best done socially, with a group of friends, helpers, and eaters around you. With propane or charcoal as your fuel, you can achieve the combination of leopard-print charring and moist, chewy, crisp-tender crust that you can otherwise get only in pizzerias or with specialty ovens. And it’s much easier than it might seem. Most recipes for grilled pizzas call to par-grill the undressed doughs on both sides and remove from the grill; top the pizzas off the heat; and throw them back on the grate to cook through and warm the toppings. I was using this method for much of my testing, and the pizzas were good . . . but the crusts were a little dry and slightly tough. My breakthrough came as…

MISO, WITH DEEP roots in Japanese cuisine, has become a favorite ingredient around the world. This vegetarian paste packs a wallop of meaty, savory flavor (umami). It’s pleasantly salty and deeply complex. Add some hot water or dashi (or other broth), and you have delicious soup. And miso is a powerhouse ingredient in sauces, marinades, and glazes, making it very worth your while to keep a tub stashed in the fridge. To showcase its versatility and utility, we set out to create a miso marinade/glaze that could be used in weeknight-friendly meals starring either tofu or boneless chicken breasts—with equally delicious results. Starting with the glaze, we tested pairing the miso with a range of ingredients (citrus juice, fish sauce, maple syrup, and chili crisp, to name a few) and ended…

TOMATOES ARE UNDENIABLY delicious fresh off the vine. They offer a satisfying blend of sweet, savory, and acidic flavors—the very best of summer. But this built-in complexity also makes tomatoes an ideal base to build on. Imagine: succulent, ripe tomatoes bursting with vibrancy, paired with a deeply savory Caesar dressing and crunchy, garlicky croutons. It’s everything you want in a warm-weather salad. Instead of using the familiar style of emulsified Caesar dressing, we wanted a vinaigrette to capture the traditional Caesar flavors without weighing down the tomatoes with too much richness. By omitting egg yolks; reducing some oil; and increasing the garlic, anchovies, and Parmesan cheese, we allow the brightness of the seasonal tomatoes to truly shine. Rather than salting the tomatoes to strain away the exuded juices (a technique…

COBBLER IS A wide-ranging category of baked fruit desserts, more an umbrella term than a prescriptive title. Depending on where you are in the country and what your family traditions are, your cobbler might consist of burbling baked fruit topped with gobs of buttery, biscuit-like dough; or a deep-dish double-crusted dessert, like a pie but baked in a dish instead of a pie plate (exemplified by Edna Lewis’s iconic recipe); or it might be a batter-style cobbler, with a thin cake-or pancake-like batter baked with pieces of fresh fruit. Batter-style cobblers are especially prevalent in the South; they’re sometimes called Texas-style cobblers, Southernstyle cobblers, or even “cuppa” cobblers, denoting the typical batter proportions (a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, a cuppa milk . . .). Unlike that of other cobblers,…

SAUSAGE BISCUIT BALLS (often called simply sausage balls or sometimes Bisquick sausage balls, a nod to the packaged mix used by many home cooks) are a simple idea: Biscuit dough studded with breakfast sausage and cheese is formed into balls and baked into lightly browned, biscuit-like nuggets. These cute, savory spheres are a staple of the holiday season, just right for guests to nosh on while they await the main event. While many recipes for sausage balls rely on prefab biscuit mix (such as Bisquick), we created our own mix, which is customized for the air fryer, from basic pantry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper. With butter for richness, buttermilk for tang and cohesion, plus plenty of sausage and cheese, these crunchy little nuggets disappear as soon as…

ADRIAN DAVILA Seguin, Texas In the small town of Seguin, Texas, 30 miles east of San Antonio, Adrian Davila is barbecue royalty. His family has been cooking in this community since 1959: handmade sausages smoked over mesquite, glistening slices of brisket, heaping paper trays of Frito pie. But for Davila, nothing is as important to his family’s barbecue history as their Mexican American culinary traditions, like lamb barbacoa. Just next to the pasture where Davila’s cattle roam the lonely scrub, you’ll find a 6-foot-deep hole in the yard lined with an old oil pipe. In it, over the course of three early morning hours, he burns down mesquite logs into a smoldering bed of coals, using a Mason jar of brisket grease from his family’s restaurant as fuel. He rubs…