How to Cook – FoodWatcher

How to Become a Weeknight Vegan (Or Just Eat More Plant-Based Meals)

We’ve teamed up with Green Chef to make veg-forward, weeknight dinners easier. Sign up now to get sustainably-sourced ingredients, organic produce, and chef-crafted recipes delivered to your door. Now through May, use code FOOD52 to get 60% Off + free …

At the start of this year, I polled our community about their cooking resolutions for 2024. The number one goal they shared? To eat more vegetarian or vegan meals. As an omnivorous cook who would like to eat a little lower on the food chain, I can relate.

Easy Ways to Restart Your Snack Routine in 2024

It’s January, which means our inboxes are filled with bold forecasts about the foods and fads we can expect to see on our plates in 2024. According to industry experts, buckwheat is going to be big, noshing is trending, and cacao will come into its own. The main takeaway from the various predictions? Our appetite will keep growing for less processed, but unexpected foods—and that includes our snacks.

The small bites and drinks we reach for throughout the day are often ultra-processed, simply because it’s part of what makes them so quick and convenient. But it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to make snack time more interesting (and healthy). You just need a few innovative swaps and new recipes—and we have four weeks of fresh and easy ideas to inspire you.

6 Tiny Tips to Make Thanksgiving Cooking Easier

Cooking (and hosting) Thanksgiving dinner can make you feel like you need six arms and maybe also six ovens. Since you probably don’t have the ability to make either of those things appear out of thin air, we’ve put together this short-and-sweet guide …

Cooking (and hosting) Thanksgiving dinner can make you feel like you need six arms and maybe also six ovens. Since you probably don't have the ability to make either of those things appear out of thin air, we’ve put together this short-and-sweet guide with tips and tricks for planning your Thanksgiving dinner this holiday season.

1. Choose recipes that bake at the same (or similar) temperature

A lot of sweets bake at a lower temperature, around 350 degrees Fahrenheit, so try to pick recipes that accommodate a higher temp, like this Apple Pecan Pie from Erin Jeanne McDowell that bakes at 450 degrees. (Hot tip: most of Erin’s recipes bake at a higher-than-average temperature, so her catalog is a great resource.) If your vegetables or turkey need to roast at 475 degrees, it’s not that much work to bump up the temperature, versus the 125-degree jump another recipe might require.

Why You Should Cook Your Mushrooms in Water (Yes, Water)

There’s something Lucas Sin wants you to know: Water and mushrooms aren’t enemies. “A lot of us have been told that when you process your mushrooms—when you cook them—they’re not allowed to touch a single drop of water,” says Lucas in a recent episode of Why it Works. “But in my experience, I found that not to be correct.” Not only is water not the enemy, he argues—it’s actually the key to extracting the most flavor out of your fungi.

“Mushrooms, because of their cell structure and the way this fungus is set up, in between all these fibers are big air pockets that are filled with air and, eventually, whatever liquid that it comes into contact with,” says Lucas. “That’s a lot of the reason why some people say [not to] soak them in water.”

Our Food Stylist’s Tips for the Best Thanksgiving Cheese Board

We’ve all seen them on social media: packed platters and wooden boards filled with perfectly layered wedges of cheese, neat piles of fruit and nuts, and slices of salami that have—somehow—been artfully molded into the shape of a rose. Known interchangeably—at least online—as grazing, charcuterie, and cheese boards, these creations seem to have become the gold standard for hosting. But they’re also a lot of work and, from a practical perspective, maybe not the best option when you have several hungry guests coming over on the busiest cooking day of the year.

“If you really have time to do all that on Thanksgiving, like kudos,” said Anna Billingskog, Food52’s senior food stylist. “But I think it’s…unrealistic.”

How to Host Your First-Ever Friendsgiving

Thanksgiving is great, but I’d argue that Friendsgiving is really where it’s at. Thanksgiving celebrations can sometimes feel stuffy and beholden to old traditions, whereas Friendsgiving is, at its core, just an excuse to host an epic, themed dinner pa…

Holly Sheppard, owner and chef of Fig and Pig Catering, is sort of an expert at Friendsgiving, hosting one every year for a group of 10 to 15 people. Here are some of her best tips for pulling off the occasion (along with some tidbits of my own Friendsgiving wisdom).

Is There Really a Right Way to Store Spices?

Take a peek at your spice cabinet: If it’s anything like mine, you’ve got a mix of plastic and glass jars, and maybe a few pouches here and there, too. All of them are from different retailers, ranging from the nearby dollar store to Kalustyan’s, and there’s at least one duplicate bottle, from the time you forgot you already had a certain spice at home—in my case, cardamom.

Though it’s not the prettiest or best-organized cabinet out there, it’s deeply functional, and that’s what matters most to me. However, I wondered if—given the variety of spices in my kitchen (and their containers)—there was anything I could or should be doing to extend their shelf lives. Though spices don’t typically go bad or mold like other ingredients, they can lose their potency in a matter of months. So, I reached out to Ethan Frisch, co-founder and co-CEO of Burlap & Barrel, a spice company that works directly with farmers to source its products, who had an unorthodox answer to my spice storage question.

Erin Jeanne McDowell’s Foolproof Tips for Perfect Holiday Pies

Erin Jeanne McDowell, baking expert and Food52 Resident, is no stranger to making pies. She’s written a whole book on the subject (called, literally, The Book on Pie), graced our
Bake It Up a Notch videos with hours of helpful advice, and shared her r…

Erin Jeanne McDowell, baking expert and Food52 Resident, is no stranger to making pies. She’s written a whole book on the subject (called, literally, The Book on Pie), graced our Bake It Up a Notch videos with hours of helpful advice, and shared her recipes—including her famous All-Buttah Pie Crust—on our site. And in this month’s episode of her show, Erin’s back with even more tips, all aimed at helping you perfect your pies throughout the fall and holiday season. Rather than focusing on a specific recipe or method, Erin goes through the three main types of fall pies (pecan, pumpkin, and apple) and troubleshoots common issues that occur with each one. That way, you can still reach for your tried-and-true family recipe—but maybe this year, you’ll be sure to avoid a soggy bottomed pie crust or a cracked surface on your custard filling. Here are five of our favorite takeaways from Erin’s video.

From Our Shop

Emile Henry Ceramic Ruffled Pie Dish $45

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JK Adams Tapered French Rolling Pin $17

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Ceramic Pie Weights $39

1. Use Pie Weights Correctly

It’s common knowledge that, when par-baking a pie crust, it’s important to weigh it down with dry beans, pie weights, or another heavy, heat-proof material. What I didn’t know is that those weights should not just cover the bottom of the crust—they should also go all the way up the sides, filling the pie dish completely. “We’re not only trying to weigh down the base of the crust so that it doesn’t puff up, we’re also trying to weigh down and support the sides of the crust,” Erin says. It’s a trick that stops the pie crust from slumping and sliding down the sides of the pan during baking.

11 Expert Tips for Hosting Holiday Dinners Like a Pro

Hosting a holiday meal—Thanksgiving especially—is almost inescapably hectic. On top of orchestrating a multi-course feast for friends and family who hold comically strong feelings about every dish (see: canned vs. homemade cranberry sauce), you also need to keep a house full of guests entertained as you tend to the bird, gravy, and fixings—all while shooing everyone out of the kitchen.

After all the effort you put into the meal, you should get to slow down and enjoy it, too. To find out how, exactly, one can stay calm in the eye of a feast’s storm, I asked a few experts who spend their professional lives hosting and catering events. Here’s how they set themselves up for success and minimal stress while entertaining.

Our Test Kitchen’s Best Tips for Easy, Mess-Free Holiday Hosting

We’re teaming up with our friends at Finish, the #1 recommended detergent in America by dishwasher brands*, to share some of our Test Kitchen’s best tips for reducing mess while hosting this holiday season.

So, you’ve decided to host this holiday se…

We’re teaming up with our friends at Finish, the #1 recommended detergent in America by dishwasher brands*, to share some of our Test Kitchen's best tips for reducing mess while hosting this holiday season.

So, you’ve decided to host this holiday season. After carefully curating your menu, picking out the perfect playlist, and finalizing (and re-finalizing) the guest list, there’s little to no time to think about the dreaded aftermath: the cleanup. Though thinking of the inevitable pile of dishes may make you want to scrap the holidays entirely, don’t let it faze you. We at the Food52 Test Kitchen have compiled some of our favorite tricks, tips, and methods for cutting down—and simply navigating through—the holiday hosting mess.