Author: Yasmine Maggio

My family members are dairy fiends. At any point in time, our fridge will be stocked with milk, heavy cream, labne, and at least five different kinds of cheese (but usually more). The one dairy product we never seem to have when we need it is half-and-half. We like to use it in recipes like quiche and mashed potatoes, where we want an ingredient that’s richer than milk but lighter than cream, but those recipes aren’t ones we make often, and so we don’t usually keep half-and-half on hand.

For those times when a recipe calls for half-and-half and you don’t have it, I wanted to know which substitutions work best. I spoke with Stephen Chavez, senior chef-instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education’s Los Angeles campus, as well as our Editorial Director Daniel Gritzer, to learn more about how to substitute the dairy product.

What is Half-and-Half, and When Is It Used?

Half-and-half is a mixture of cream and whole milk and is required by the Food and Drug Administration to contain between 10.5 to 18% milk fat. As a result, it’s thicker than milk but thinner than heavy cream. While the name half-and-half implies an equal-parts mixture of milk and cream, that's not necessarily the case: The legal requirements for half-and-half come down to fat percentages, not specific ratios of milk to cream, though as you can probably guess, equal parts milk and cream can get you in the ballpark.

“Half-and-half can be used in recipes where extra fat is needed beyond the fat content that is found in regular milk,” says Chavez, “but not the high-fat content of heavy cream. The combination works great for lighter custards such as flan or the egg custard mixture you would use for bread pudding. Half-and-half is also great for the texture of quiche, French toast, and budino,” a rich Italian pudding. Chavez notes that heavy cream is preferred when you’re looking to achieve an even richer texture in desserts like crème brûlée.

The Best Substitutes for Half-and-Half

Since half-and-half is legally defined by its fat percentage and not by volumes of milk and cream, there are many ways to arrive at the goal. Here are some guidelines for substituting half-and-half by mixing milk at different fat percentages (from whole to skim) and heavy cream. Note: If you're using a lower-fat cream like light cream, you will need to increase the amount of cream relative to the milk (closer to the basic 1:1 ratio by volume that half-and-half's name suggests).

• Whole milk and heavy cream: From a practical standpoint, an equal-parts mixture of whole milk and heavy cream in place of the exact amount of half-and-half a recipe calls for will generally work, but technically you'll end up making a mixture that has a higher fat content than any half-and-half sold in markets.
  
  That's because whole milk is 3.25% fat and heavy cream is at least 36% fat. If you make an equal-parts mixture of those two, you will get a product that is at least 19.625% fat, which is 1.625% higher than the maximum amount of fat in half-and-half as defined by the FDA.
  
  Will that 1.625% difference really matter in a recipe? Probably not, but if you're a fastidious person who wants to actually reproduce half-and-half faithfully at home, you're better off using a roughly 2:1 ratio of whole milk to cream, meaning for every 1 part milk you will add 1/2 part cream. This will land you properly in the FDA’s half-and-half fat zone (3/4 part cream also works too for a richer result that's still within FDA guidelines).
  
  
• Low-fat or skim milk and heavy cream: Blending low-fat or skim milk with heavy cream works just as well as whole milk, and technically you can use the exact same ratio as whole milk for any of these lower-fat options and still get a result that's within the FDA's required half-and-half fat range of 10.5-18%. But, because these milks have slightly less fat than whole milk, the result will be on the low end of that range.
  
  By just slightly adjusting the ratio with more cream, you can nudge your mixture into the middle of the FDA's fat range, which is arguably a nice thing to do given fat is delicious; a ratio of 3/4 parts cream for every 1 part low-fat or skim milk works well. 

Common Half-and-Half Substitutes That Don't Work

The following are common suggestions for half-and-half substitutes, but they’re not recommended by Chavez or Serious Eats’ culinary team. 

• Whole milk and melted butter: “Butter is made by separating the fat from cream,” says Daniel. “Milk and cream are emulsions with the fat suspended in water with proteins and sugars in the mix. When you make butter, the fat coalesces by churning the cream, breaking the emulsion. If you then melt the butter and try to mix it with milk, you won't get half-and-half, you'll just get milk with liquid butterfat floating on the surface, and that will not generally perform the same as something like half-and-half, where the fat is still in an emulsified state.” 
  
  Because of this, we can’t rely on butter to reintroduce fat into milk and form a proper half-and-half mixture.
  
  
• Buttermilk: While buttermilk might have a similar viscosity to half-and-half, it’s actually much leaner, containing around 1% fat compared to the 10.5 to 18% in half-and-half. It's also a cultured dairy product with an acidic tang—it's the culturing, in fact, that gives buttermilk its viscosity, similar to how milk thickens into yogurt.
  
  “The acidity of buttermilk makes it a poor substitute for half-and-half for flavor reasons alone,” says Daniel. “The low pH of buttermilk, which is around 4.4 to 4.8, means it can make batters and other mixtures behave very differently. On top of that, while they may share similar viscosities, the reasons for that are different, with buttermilk getting it from coagulated proteins due to changes in acidity and half-and-half getting it from fat. As a result, they won't work the same way in all situations.”
  
  
• Milk and cornstarch: “This combination must be boiled in order for it to thicken, which means that you would have to cook it in a pot before using it in a recipe,” Chavez says. “The starch will thicken when cooking but will give you more of a starchy, pudding-like texture rather than the smooth silky texture half-and-half would give you.” Daniel echoes Chavez’s hesitation about this substitute. “A starch-thickened milk may behave differently in recipes than something like half-and-half,” he says. “You may be able to create a similar viscosity using a starch, but the fat content is different and that can make a difference in the final cooking results. It's not a safe substitute.”
  

Can You Freeze Half-and-Half?

While you may be tempted to freeze half-and-half to guarantee you always have it on hand, Chavez doesn’t recommend it. “Ingredients with a high water content will freeze well, but it is the defrosting process where things go wrong,” he says. Once you defrost any dairy product, the fat can separate and the product often takes on a grainy texture. In some cases, this may not have a noticeable impact on your final recipe, but in others, it will. 

The Takeaway

If the next time you’re stuck in the middle of a recipe and looking for a half-and-half substitute, there are a few options that will work. You can use a combination of whole, low-fat, or skim milk and heavy cream in roughly 2:1 proportions of milk to cream by volume (not half and half, as the label implies!).

It's like clockwork: Every fall, once that first leaf falls off a tree, it seems like everyone heads to their kitchens to bake pumpkin bread. We get it—we love pumpkin, too, as exhibited by our pumpkin bread and pumpkin spice latte recipes. But for most people, pumpkin bread is a sweet treat—a moist loaf made with flour and sugar, infused with warm spices, and often accompanied by some sort of sweet topping such as a streusel or a glaze. But have you tried the other type of pumpkin bread—the yeasted variety? If you haven't, this versatile savory take on pumpkin bread definitely deserves your attention this fall. 

“Whether in a latte or pie, our concept of pumpkin flavor revolves almost entirely around added sugar and spice,” writes Stella Parks in her yeasted pumpkin bread recipe. Pumpkin itself doesn’t add much sweetness to recipes, but rather a warm color and a subtle earthy flavor.  In the spirit of cooking seasonally, though, Stella likes to use pumpkin purée in place of water in a basic sandwich loaf made up of flour, salt, and yeast. The result is a fluffy and light bread with a relatively fine crumb and that offers a deeper flavor than your average sandwich loaf—a very subtle sweetness with a hint of nuttiness. And, it has a number of fantastic uses.

Griddle up Some Grilled Cheese

If you’re looking for a way to switch up your grilled cheese, yeasted pumpkin bread has been waiting for you. We have no shortage of grilled cheese recipes to choose from, so whether you’re in the mood for a classic grilled cheese with American, cheddar, or Jack or one filled with Brie and Nutella, the faint sweetness in this pumpkin bread is ready to play along with almost any flavor. 

Swap It for Plain White or Wheat in Just About Any Sandwich

A sandwich with plain white or wheat bread? Boring! A sandwich with yeasted pumpkin bread? Thrilling! Mysterious! Living life on the edge! The nuanced flavor of this bread gives it a wide range of applications, making a loaf fair game in just about any sandwich where you'd use average sandwich bread. You can’t go wrong with classic sandwiches like a ham and cheese, turkey club, or croque monsieur. But if you want to complement the loaf’s subtle sweetness, try it as the base of a PB&J or pressed into a Monte Cristo. And for the ultimate Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich, slather some cranberry sauce on a few slices of the bread and stuff it with turkey. 

Turn It Into French Toast 

French toast doesn’t have to be reserved for those lingering slices of bread that are about to go stale. If you have a fresh loaf of yeasted pumpkin bread, you can easily turn it into breakfast with pantry staples like eggs, sugar, butter, and milk. The bread’s complexity will add a little more depth to your everyday French toast. (And, yes, you can make French toast with stale yeasted pumpkin bread, too.) 

Use It in Stuffing

What’s more Thanksgiving than a stuffing made with pumpkin bread? Tear it up and add it to a classic sage and sausage stuffing, or try it in a vegan stuffing  alongside mushrooms and pecans.

With a new autumn tradition under your belt, it's time to head into the kitchen to make this savory pumpkin bread—we're calling it the upgrade of the season.

Being Italian-American, my dad is big on meatballs. That said, he often makes chicken meatballs for cholesterol reasons, and we all agree they’re…just fine, but every now and then, he makes real-deal meatballs with beef and a fresh sauce and it is quite the (cholesterol-damning) treat. 

He, like many others, knows that The Correct Way to Meatball is to let the meatballs and the sauce hang out together on the stove for hours so their flavors can meld. The only problem is that this leaves his otherwise perfect meatballs a bit dry. Indeed, through the testing required to perfect his popular slow-cooker meatball recipe, Kenji found this method of leaving the meatballs to cook on the stove that so many people swear by isn’t actually a great idea. In his development processes, he found that simmering meatballs in sauce for more than 45 minutes turns them from tender and moist to tough and dry. 

So on the one hand, you (and I) (and my dad) want tender meatballs, but on the other, you want that meatball flavor in your sauce. There’s no way to have it all! Right?! Wrong!!!

Kenji’s solution to impart flavor wherever possible without compromising meatball quality is to reserve a bit of the meatball mixture and sauté it in some olive oil to create a flavorful base for the tomato sauce; then the meatballs themselves are added just at the end of cooking. This extracts the same flavors you would get from simmering meatballs in tomato sauce, but avoids the risk of overcooked meat. It’s a trick Daniel also employs in his spaghetti and meatballs recipe to ensure meatball flavor in every bite—which truly is my kind of dinner. Or at least it is more so than chicken meatballs, which I write with love and respect for my wonderful father! 

How to Use This Tip for the Juiciest Meatballs and Flavorful Sauce

After you make your mixture for the meatballs, sauté a little less than a quarter of the mixture in olive oil until brown, before adding onion, garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, and salt, and then, of course, the tomatoes. The sauce can simmer on the stovetop or in a slow cooker for up to 10 hours, and the remaining meat mixture is formed into meatballs and refrigerated until later in the process. 

Keep in mind that the longer your sauce cooks, the more it will reduce, so you'll end up with less sauce if you cook it for a long time—but it'll be a very flavorful sauce. “Ultimately cook it until it tastes well rounded, and is delicious to you, the one who will be eating it!” says Leah Colins, Serious Eats’ senior culinary editor. “The longer you cook it, the more it will thicken and be more intense in flavor, and the tart acidic tomatoes will start to take on a sweeter flavor the more they cook down.”

As for your meatballs, you can cook them by browning them in the broiler or in a skillet and then dropping them into the sauce just until they're cooked through, or dropping them into the sauce raw and letting them cook all the way through there (though you'll miss out on the flavors from browning). This should take about 10 minutes if you've browned the meatballs or about 30 if you haven't; no matter what, you shouldn't leave the meatballs in the sauce for more than about 30 minutes total (provided they are cooked through) if you want to keep their melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Serve with pasta and Parmesan, and you have yourself a dish with tender meatballs and a rich, thick sauce full of intense meaty flavor. One my dad would be impressed by, I might add!

With fall upon us, we’ll unfortunately soon be saying goodbye to all the (literally and figuratively) juicy produce that summer graces us with. No more summer squash, no more tart berries, and absolutely no more sweet tomatoes. Sad! But that doesn’t mean fall has nothing to offer. We see you making your way downtown, butternut squash; you too, mushrooms! Fall is all about using this produce to make cozy, comforting dishes we want to curl up on the couch with, and lucky for us, many of them are also easy to make without sacrificing flavor. So if you’re looking to spend more time in the kitchen this season, buckle up! We’ve got eight easy fall dinner recipes everyone can make, whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro. 

15-Minute Creamy Tomato Soup (Vegan)

This soup gets a rich, creamy texture from the emulsion of olive oil and bread. Make a grilled cheese on the side and you've got yourself a cozy meal to curl up on the couch with.

Channa Masala

This recipe delivers plump chickpeas bathed in a spicy and tangy tomato sauce.

Pressure Cooker Mushroom Risotto

This creamy, intensely flavored mushroom risotto is ready in less time than the traditional stovetop method takes.

Chickpea, Coconut, and Cashew Curry

This curry is intense with garam masala and ginger, and cooled by coconut milk and ground toasted cashews.

Easy Sheet-Pan Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts

This chicken dinner cooks all on one sheet pan so prep and cleanup are easy. It's loaded with flavor and gorgeous, too.

No-Boil Baked Ziti

For easier baked ziti, soak, don't boil your pasta. This will deliver perfectly al dente baked pasta without the need to use an extra pot or wait for it to boil.

Pasta With Butternut Squash and Sage Brown Butter

In this fast and flavorful pasta dish, the hardest step is dicing the squash.

Pressure Cooker Ground Beef and Bean Chili

Unlike a lot of chili recipes that call for short cooking times but deliver terrible flavor, this classic ground beef-and-bean recipe saves time the right way, by using a pressure cooker, not by cutting corners.

Every September, I announce on Instagram, both officially and emphatically: “It’s fall, y’all.” It’s a tradition no one asked for, yet I continue to deliver on dutifully year after year. This announcement doesn’t come when the mornings start to feel chilly, the air starts to feel crisp, or the first leaves start to fall, but rather when all three happen at the same time. This year, that moment came surprisingly early—right after Labor Day—which meant an earlier start to fall baking. The first thing I always make after my officially unofficial declaration of fall? Apple pie.

While this website boasts no shortage of apple pie recipes (we’ve got four of them, to be exact), Stella Parks’ easy, old-fashioned version is the simplest. Unlike many recipes in which you have to pre-cook your apples to achieve a succulent pie filling, Stella’s skips that step entirely while still producing a pie with a thick, saucy filling. Her easy trick is to macerate the apples. 

Why (and How) You Should Macerate Your Apples

When making an apple pie, you want to draw out as much liquid as possible from the fruit so you don’t waterlog the crust, and you also want to make sure the apples are tender. Many apple pie recipes call for pre-cooking your apples to solve those problems, but this can be time-consuming, given that it’s a hands-on task. If the delicate apple slices aren’t monitored closely while cooking, they can quickly overcook, resulting in mushy fruit. Macerating apples helps break down the fruits’ structures and reduces their volume—no cooking or pot-watching required.

While we recommend macerating in a zip-top bag to limit the apples’ exposure to air, you can use a bowl as long as you cover it tightly with plastic wrap pressed directly into the slices. Even then, you should still expect some oxidation. After peeling, quartering, and coring the apples, cut them into half inch-thick slices, making sure they’re as uniform as possible—this will ensure there is an even surface area across all the slices and that they all break down and release their juices at about the same rate of time. Once your apples are sliced, add them to the bag (or bowl) with the brown sugar, spices, and salt called for in Stella’s recipe. From there, the apples need to sit for at least three hours at room temperature, or up to eight hours in the fridge, which gives you plenty of time to make, roll, and shape your pie crust. During this resting time, the tart juice from the apples will collect at the bottom of the bag. Flavored with brown sugar and spices, this liquid acts as a concentrated syrup in the pie filling. 

How to Turn Macerated Apples Into Pie Filling

To ensure the pie filling is nice and thick, we recommend adding a touch of tapioca starch to the apples. This ingredient absorbs excess liquid, thickening the filling without making it gloopy. Add the tapioca starch to the bag of apples after about three hours when the fruit has reduced in size by about a third, then zip it back up and give it a good shake. (You'll want to use about 1 ounce per 4 1/2 pounds of apples.) Waiting to add the starch after all the juices release from the apples ensures the starch will absorb evenly into the liquid. From there, you’re ready to tuck your apples into the pie plate. (The most exciting part…besides eating the actual pie.) 

What Type of Apples Should You Use for a Juicy, But Not Mushy Pie?

Some apple pie recipes suggest using a variety of apples for a more complex flavor. Different apple cultivars, however, have different textures and flavors, and using an assortment may have disastrous results. Some may break down more quickly and release more liquid than others, creating a watery, mushy pie with unevenly cooked apples. For the best taste and texture, we recommend using one variety of apples per pie. We like tart apples like Granny Smiths, since their high pectin levels hold onto their shape nicely in the oven, keeping the filling thick instead of runny. For extra depth of flavor, we incorporate brown sugar and warm spices.

The Takeaway

Macerating your apples eliminates the common apple pie-baking step that calls for pre-cooking the fruit. It’s an easy, hands-off technique that minimizes cleanup and requires little more than apples, brown sugar, spices, a little salt, and a zip-top bag. The maceration process creates a syrup that we include in the apple filling for extra flavor, and a small addition of tapioca starch helps thicken that filling. The result is a saucy, luscious apple pie that you’ll want to make all season long. 

It’s fall, y’all!!! 

My family is big on Kenji’s channa masala. With staple ingredients like canned chickpeas and tomatoes, ginger, garlic, and a few basic spices, it doesn’t take long to put together, so it’s an easy way to get a flavorful dinner on the table, especially on a weeknight. And while it’s a super simple recipe, the dish is never good unless I make it—or so my family says—so I’m tasked with channa masala-ing at least once a month. The beauty of this monthly ritual is that I’ve zeroed in on one technique that really cuts down on cooking time: adding baking soda to speed up the process of browning onions. It’s such an impactful tip that I’ve started using it in other dishes, and it saves me about five to ten minutes, cutting the onion cooking time almost in half. Here’s how. 

What Happens When You Add Baking Soda to Onions

PH has a big impact on the Maillard reaction, a chemical process that encourages browning in foods when they are heated. The higher the pH, the faster the reaction occurs. Onions are only at a pH level of around 5 out of 14, making them a more acidic ingredient, but an alkaline ingredient like baking soda can increase the pH level of onions, encouraging browning in a shorter amount of time. 

Baking soda also softens onions; its high pH level, which ranges from 8.3 to 9, weakens the pectins in the vegetables, causing their cell walls to break down. The faster the onions break down, the faster chemicals are released, which means not only faster cooking, but also faster flavor and color development. 

How to Add Baking Soda to Your Onions to Speed Browning

Incorporating baking soda into your recipes to speed up onion browning is simple. Heat oil in a skillet or whatever vessel you plan to cook the onions in, then add your chopped, sliced, or diced onions, followed immediately by the baking soda. You’ll want to use about 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per one pound of onions. Make sure the baking soda is evenly incorporated with the onions, then allow the onions to cook until beginning to brown, stirring frequently. Once the onions start to leave a brown coating on the pan, add one tablespoon of water and scrape up all the brown bits. Repeat this process until the onions are a deep brown color. The whole process should take about 10 minutes for diced onions cooked over medium-high heat, but you'll need to adjust the time based on how finely the onions are cut.

When You Should—and Shouldn't—Add Baking Soda to Onions

While this technique is great for quickly browning your onions, there are a few caveats. The way the baking soda breaks down the onion results in it losing a lot of its shape and taking on a softer, almost mushy texture. For a dish like channa masala or butter chicken where the onions are meant to blend in with the sauce, that’s not a problem—you wouldn’t want crunchy onions studded throughout dishes like those anyway. But when you want your onions to retain their structure in a recipe like French onion soup or Oklahoma-style onion burgers, you’ll want to skip this technique entirely, otherwise you’ll end up with gloopy onions throughout your dish. And while this tip does speed up browning time, it still takes about 10 minutes, which is why Swetha Sivakumar skips onions entirely in her 10-minute chana masala recipe. 

Baking soda also prevents onions from becoming too sweet, which, again, is warranted in certain dishes. But this hack won’t help in recipes that rely on the sweet, caramelized flavor of onions. Given the sometimes soapy notes that baking soda can give off, you’ll want to make sure the dish you’re using it in has enough flavors to mask that. 

It’s also important to note that while this technique works with white, yellow, and red onions, the baking soda does give red onions a bluish-green color that, in my experience and opinion, is not very appealing. But once the onions are incorporated with other ingredients to form a sauce, the color isn’t typically noticeable. 

The Takeaway

Adding baking soda when you’re cooking onions is a great way to speed up the browning process. However, this technique works best in recipes that don’t rely on (1) onions retaining their structure or (2) the sweet flavor of onions. But if you’re like me and want (or, really, are forced) to whip up a channa masala every month, baking soda is just what you need to save on time.

It's always bittersweet when Labor Day rolls around, it’s always bittersweet. It's a bummer that the holiday is the unofficial conclusion of summer, and for many of us it marks the end of days by the pool, trips to the beach, and sweet-as-can-be produce turned into al fresco meals. But on the up side, it’s also the unofficial start of the second-best season, fall, and the new roster of produce it brings (hello, butternut squash!). 

With that in mind, Labor Day is the perfect opportunity to end summer with a bang. Whether you’re throwing a big bash for the neighborhood or hanging out in the backyard with family or a small group of friends, your menu should celebrate the best of the season’s flavors. We’ve put together a Labor Day menu full of all the recipes you need for the ultimate summer send-off, including dips, salads, sides, mains, and more. You can mix and match to your liking, or go all out by making all the recipes—if there was ever a time, it’s now!

Appetizers and Dips

Fried Pickle Dip

Pickle lovers, unite! This creamy dip gets its tang from both pickles and their juices—and is even better served with pickle chips.

Fried Green Tomatoes with Rémoulade

What better use for those unripe tomatoes than this super-crunchy appetizer?

Hummus B'Tahini (Hummus With Tahini)

There are plenty of methods for churning out a great hummus, but this foolproof recipe—which comes together in 10 minutes and doesn't require a food processor—takes the cake (or, you know, the chickpea).

Salads

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad

This may be one of the last chances to use your grill, so don't just grill the chicken for your Caesar—go all out and grill the romaine and croutons, too, for a salad that's a cut above the rest.

Kachumbari (East African Tomato Salad)

Fresh summer tomatoes shine in this simple East African preparation alongside raw onion, chile pepper, cilantro, and lime or lemon juice.

Classic Potato Salad

The classics are classics for a reason, so it's okay to stick with them. This potato salad is tangy, salty, and sweet all at once and features creamy, fluffy potatoes.

Italian-American Pasta Salad

Vinaigrette, who? This pasta salad introduce brightness and acidity with ingredients like capers and olives.

Sides

Slathered Grilled Corn Ribs

Don't let any forks near these! These long strips of corn—tossed in garlic-paprika butter and grilled—are best enjoyed with your hands.

Slow-Cooked Boston Baked Beans

Beans are a staple at any cookout, and this recipe churns out a vat of them that are creamy, rich, and saucy.

Kansas City-Style Cheesy Corn

Another corn recipe? We couldn't help it! Make the most of what's left of corn season with this creamy, cheesy side.

Mains

The Juiciest Juicy Lucy

Gooey cheese oozing from the center of a juicy burger? Say no more.

Sonoran Hot Dogs

Bacon! Pinto beans! Jalapeño salsa! Juicy tomatoes! All wrapped up in a soft bolillo-style bun.

Hot Sauce-Spiked Mushroom Veggie Burgers

Who said vegetarians can't have burgers? These mushroom burgers are bursting with umami and spiked with hot sauce not once, but twice!

Desserts

Lemon Icebox Cake

An icebox cake has summer written all over it, and this one tastes exactly like a lemon meringue pie.

Easy Fruit-Swirl Ice Cream Sandwiches

No need for an ice cream maker here. With a tub of store-bought ice cream swirled with your favorite jam, all that's left to do is whip up a giant homemade vanilla cookie before assembling these ice cream sandwiches.

Classic Banana Pudding

Our trick for upgrading a classic banana pudding? Using vanilla pastry cream instead of boxed pudding mix. You'll thank us later!

Drinks

Limoncello Spritz

Limoncello, Prosecco, and club soda are all that's needed to whip up this drink and pretend that you're on the Amalfi coast.

Spicy Cucumber-Jalapeño Limeade

Fire and ice and everything nice, right? That's what you get with this limeade, complete with cooling cucumbers and hot jalapeños.

Sous Vide Barbecue Pork Ribs

Roll up those sleeves and dig into these tender, meaty pork ribs—no need for a smoker here!

The summer of 2022 was peak sweet corn for me. Not only had Corn Kid become a mini sensation, but I was also neck deep in fresh farmers market corn for weeks on end. This heavy corn diet started after I decided to make esquites with my haul. My family loved the dish so much that I ended up making it every weekend for the rest of the summer. I would head to the farmers market every Saturday, grab the freshest corn I could find, and make the recipe for lunch or dinner that same day—which meant I didn’t have to worry about how to store the corn. 

This summer, however, I’m exploring new ways to prepare fresh corn, so I often find myself picking it up without having a dish in mind, which sometimes means using the corn a few days later. Of course this isn't really ideal—our general advice about how to store corn has always been…don’t. The ingredient’s flavor and sweetness only declines the longer you wait. But depending on where you’re getting your corn, that advice can vary. I spoke with Smoke-McCluskey, a Mohawk chef and owner of Corn Mafia, a micro-milling project that explores native foodways, to learn more. 

What Happens As Your Corn Sits

Because of its fast metabolic rate, corn can lose its sweet flavor quickly when its sugars turn starchy. This has led to the age-old advice to take your corn straight from the field to the cooking pot. However, the time that it takes for the corn’s flavors to turn into starch depends on the variety of corn you’re dealing with and where you’re buying it. When it comes to sweet corn—the type that most Americans are purchasing to eat on the cob and for recipes like corn ribs and Kansas City-style cheesy corn—the amount of time you have to eat it comes down to whether you’re getting it from a local farmer or the grocery store.

Grocery Store Corn vs. Farmers Market Corn

Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen notes that “in three days, traditional sweet corn,” which is most locally grown corn, “converts half of its sweet sugar into tasteless chains,” giving off a flavor that’s disliked by many. Commercially grown corn, however, has been bred into sweeter varieties that can withstand the long processing times it takes to get from the farm to a warehouse and then on grocery store shelves.  

“Nowadays, with the new commercial sweet corns, some of those are designed to mature slowly,” says Smoke-McCluskey. “So the sugars start to convert a little bit slower than normal sweet corn was, say, even a decade ago. You can leave it in your fridge for five or six days. It's probably been five or six days out of the field [when you purchase it] and it's still sweet when you're eating it, for the most part.“

Unfortunately, there’s not really any way to tell what variety you’re picking up at the grocery store; most are just labeled as “sweet corn.” “There are thousands of varieties of corn,” says Smoke-McCluskey. If you’re shopping for corn at a farmers market, ask the farmer what they’re selling and they should be able to give you more information on the variety and how much time you have before the quality drops off too much. 

What to Look For When Buying Corn

Although you may not be able to identify what type of corn you’re buying, there are a few things to keep an eye out for to make sure you’re picking the best of the bunch. “I look for the plumpest kernels,” says Smoke-McCluskey. Editorial director Daniel Gritzer notes that the silk should be “moist and soft, not brittle and dehydrated,” and Smoke-McCluskey adds that they should be “kind of wholesome looking, not limp and mushy. I look for the husk to be a nice green and kind of vibrant looking. I don't want to see any tan to it at all, or it drying out.”

The Best Way to Store Corn

If you insist on storing your corn, you can keep it in its husk and throw it in your refrigerator’s crisper drawer—the cold slows down the conversion of sugars to more complex (and less sweet) starches. While it's always best to eat your corn as quickly as you can, you likely have some time, depending on the variety of corn you've bought and where you've bought it. Longer-lasting varieties (often what you'll find at the supermarket these days, but also grown by some local growers) can last an additional five to six days from purchase if kept in the fridge. If you've bought corn that doesn't hold onto its sweetness as long, you'll need to eat it faster, anywhere from one to two days after purchase. If in doubt, talk to your produce manager or the farmer for more guidance.

Your best bet for storing corn long term is to freeze it. You can do this by blanching the corn in boiling water for one minute, chilling it rapidly in ice water, and then cutting off its kernels. Spread them across a baking sheet and place them in a freezer until frozen, before transferring them to a zipper-lock bag which you can keep in the freezer for up to three months.  

The Takeaway

Depending on where you’re purchasing your sweet corn, your options for storage vary. If you’re buying shorter-lasting varieties (sometimes still sold at a farmers market), you’ll want to use it as quickly as possible, since this type of corn loses flavor very quickly. If you’re purchasing corn at the grocery store, you should be able to use it within a little less than a week before its flavor truly fades. Store it whole in the crisper drawer of your fridge, or cut the kernels from the corn, blanch and freeze them, then store them in a zipper-lock bag for a maximum of three months.

The produce available in August is fantastically varied and abundant, but truthfully, most of my farmers market basket is usually filled with tomatoes at this point in the summer. And while I do my best to pump out as many tomato toasts and tarts as I can, the delight of fresh tomato season also brings with it a chance to bottle up the best of summer's sweet, juicy tomatoes to enjoy during cold winters by canning them. 

Any type of tomato can be canned, and you can use home-canned tomatoes any way you'd use store-bought canned tomatoes, including in an Italian-American red sauce, shakshuka, and tomato soup. So by all means, can those beautiful Brandywines, Sungolds, and plum tomatoes bursting out of your garden or that you hauled home from the market, just be sure to do it properly—for the best canned tomatoes and for your safety.

Proper canning practices are key not only to preserving flavor, but to avoiding foodborne illness, including botulism, a serious type of food poisoning that’s caused by a type of bacteria that thrives in low oxygen environments like canned and vacuum-packed foods. The bacteria is called Clostridium botulinum, and it becomes poisonous when it’s introduced to low-oxygen, low-acid, or low-sugar environments. To ensure your canned goods are safe to eat and taste their best, there are two key steps you can take: raising acidity or using a pressure canner for high-heat canning. For the ultimate insurance policy, you can employ both techniques, but one or the other should put your canned tomatoes in the safe zone. 

Why You Should Raise the Acidity of Your Tomatoes Before Canning Them

In order to can foods safely, you need to understand the importance of pH, which is simply a measurement of acidity. The pH scale runs from 0 (most acidic) to 14 (most basic). A lower pH value means higher acidity, and a higher pH means lower acidity. For reference, lemon juice is a pH of about 2, while water is neutral with a pH of 7. Achieving the proper acidity (pH) level is key for food preservation. 

An ingredient’s pH level needs to be at or below 4.6 to resist microbes and be considered safe for preserving, and while most tomatoes are safely in that range, some types can clock in at slightly higher pH levels, meaning they are not acidic enough to can safely without added acid. Each variety of tomato will have a different pH level, and that pH level also varies depending on the ripeness of the fruit when it was picked, as well as how much it has ripened since. Various studies have shown that both commercially grown and heirloom varieties of tomatoes can vary anywhere from 3.7 to 5.2. Unless you plan on testing the pH level of every tomato you have before canning, this is where incorporating more acid can give you the extra safety you need. 

In order to properly adjust the pH range of tomatoes for canning, it’s best to add either lemon juice or citric acid. Bottled lemon juice is recommended over fresh since the acidity of fresh lemon juice varies from lemon to lemon, while bottled lemon juice has a consistent controlled pH. You’ll want to add two tablespoons of lemon juice or half a teaspoon of citric acid per one quart jar of tomatoes, according to multiple sources, including University of Georgia’s National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Boiling Water Canning vs. Pressure Canning

Both boiling-water canning and pressure canning drive out air from jars and create a vacuum that pulls the lid down more tightly, creating an airtight seal, but each comes with its own pros and cons. A boiling-water bath is better suited for foods that are already higher in acidity, such as blueberries and strawberries, since boiling-water canners tend to reach the atmospheric boiling point, which is about 212°F (100°C). A pressure canner, on the other hand, will drive the boiling point higher than the atmospheric point to reach temperatures upwards of 250°F (121°C), making the environment even better for killing off microbes. If you’re adding lemon juice or citric acid to your tomatoes to boost the acidity, a boiling-water bath is enough to ensure safety. If you’re opting not to, then pressure canning is a must in order to guarantee high enough temperatures to prevent bacterial growth. 

Another factor that can help you decide which route to go when canning your tomatoes is time. The processing time for tomatoes using  boiling-water canning is 85 minutes, which can sometimes create a mushy texture in tomatoes; the pressure canner, on the other hand, only requires 25 minutes of processing time, along with a venting time of 10 minutes. 

Lastly, if you want to add additional ingredients to your tomatoes like garlic, oregano, or basil leaves, you’ll need to use a pressure canner over a boiling-water canner, since these ingredients can lower the acidity of the tomatoes. 

More Tips for Successfully Canning Tomatoes

There are a few other factors to keep in mind when preserving your tomatoes to ensure the best results. Make sure to look for tomatoes that are ripe and unblemished, since fungus, mold, and other microbes can infect damaged tomatoes and affect acidity. You’ll also want to peel your tomatoes (which you can do by scoring them, blanching for one minute, and then shocking them in an ice bath before removing the skin) to eliminate the bitterness and toughness that the skins bring. Adding a teaspoon of sea salt or kosher salt per two pounds of tomatoes is optional, but will boost flavor. 

Senior culinary editor Leah Colins also emphasizes the importance of “minding the gap” when canning. “Tomatoes are watery, and as they heat, they will release a lot of liquid,” she says. “During processing and cooling periods, a harmless air gap can occur in the jars. Hot-packing the jars helps minimize this.” She advises leaving an inch to an inch and a half of space from the top of a quart-sized jar. “This ensures spaces for juices to move within the jar during the heating or pressure canning process. If a large gap remains after processing, but the lid is still fully sealed, the food inside is still safe.”

The Takeaway

Canning tomatoes is a great way to preserve their flavor, but due to the fruit’s varied levels of acidity, you need to take a couple of key steps to ensure safety. Adding acidity in the form of bottled lemon juice or citric acid is the best way to put the tomatoes’ pH level at the ideal range of 4.6 or below; if you’re employing this technique, then boiling-water canning is a safe route for preserving your tomatoes. Pressure canning raises the temperature inside the jar, further reducing the likelihood of microbial contamination and growth, so this is recommended if you prefer not to add acid to your tomatoes. 

With this in mind, you can get to canning those tomatoes with ease and little worry. And given that tomato season is more than halfway through in most of the United States, you’d better get to it!

I’m a big fresh herb gal. Cilantro on salads, dill in yogurt dressings and sauces, basil on pizzas, chives on eggs—I use herbs in my meals by the handful. Incorporating fresh herbs is a foolproof way to add oomph during cooking or as a final touch. While I love keeping all types of herbs on hand, unfortunately they don't last very long in the fridge, even when stored properly. But that’s where the freezer comes in. 

Stock your freezer with herbs now and you'll be able to add their fresh flavor to dishes for months to come (this is especially handy if you have an herb garden that's overflowing). There are a number of ways to freeze fresh herbs, but my go-to is the one Kenji Lopez-Alt landed on when he tested various methods to find the best way to store herbs in the freezer. While you can simply freeze herbs in water—or even as-is—Kenji found that freezing herbs in oil is the best way to cut down on freezer burn and to reduce melting time when cooking with them. And while you can freeze herbs with oil in ice cube trays, an even better method is to freeze them flat in zipper-lock bags. This method makes it easy to store the herbs and to cut off the exact amount you need whenever you want.

How to Freeze Fresh Herbs in Zipper-Lock Bags

This method works for any fresh herb, including basil, mint, and parsley. To freeze herbs this way, first clean and chop them, either by hand or using a food processor, then transfer them to a large zipper-lock freezer bag and add enough neutral oil (such as canola or light olive oil) to coat them. Any neutral oil works here, or you can use an oil you know you want the flavor of in your dishes, such as extra virgin olive oil or even a nut oil. Seal the bag, leaving about a half inch of space open, then carefully squeeze out excess air before sealing the bag completely. Now place the bag on a large plate or baking sheet, spreading out the herb mixture to a thin, even layer, and place it in the freezer until completely frozen solid. When you’re ready to use your herbs, just cut off the amount you need with a knife or kitchen shears. (To cut down on plastic waste, you can reuse the same plastic bag numerous times or opt for a reusable storage bag.)

While you won’t be able to preserve the texture of herbs when freezing—a result of ice crystals dismantling the herbs’ cell walls, leaving them limp once defrosted—you can definitely preserve their flavor. Frozen herbs should keep their flavor for three to six months—after that, they might lose potency or begin to suffer freezer burn. 

This method is especially wonderful for incorporating the flavor of fresh herbs during colder months. “I can pop frozen herbs right into soups or sauces to thaw and finish a dish throughout the winter,” says Serious Eats senior culinary editor Leah Colins. If your recipe calls for fresh herbs, you can simply eyeball the amount called for and adjust to taste. Frozen parsley adds a welcome freshness to this hearty winter vegetable soup, while frozen basil perks up Italian-American red sauce, and frozen cilantro brightens up channa masala. 

So next time you find yourself with a whole bunch of herbs and don’t know what to do with them, you can turn to this tip to preserve them. Who doesn’t love always having herbs at the ready?