When I barbecue meat, there is a layer just under the surface that doesn't look like it got cooked, even though the middle looks done. What causes that?-- Dean What you are seeing is called the smoke ring. It is an area of meat that, although it is cooked, hasn't turned the greyish brown we associate with cooked meat. There are... Read more →

One of my major good fortunes, food-wise, was that my father was a nuclear physicist working at a university which had a fairly good international reputation. What does nuclear physics have to do with food? It turns out lots, but my particular good fortune was that Dad had a habit of offering his post-grad students the deal that he (Dad)... Read more →

At 6:10 PM today, July 9, 2010 (local time), KitchenSavvy had its 1,000,000th reader. The article read was "Sifting Flour", which is 6th most commonly read page on the site. The 5 pages that rate higher than "Sifting Flour" are: Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder Peeling Hard-Boiled Eggs Substituting Whole Wheat for White Flour How Long Can... Read more →

My lovely wife was recently on a painting trip to Portugal, Spain and Morocco. You can check out some of her watercolors here. While in Marrakesh, she really enjoyed the Moroccan foods and returned home not only with some great new spices for me to play with, but also a request that I try making some Moroccan food for her. My initial... Read more →

I was going to make Peanut Butter Cookies as a treat today, but found that I don't have any brown sugar. Can I just substitute plain white sugar instead?-Paula- Yes, you can substitute plain white sugar in place of the brown sugar, but you will find that the texture of the finished product will be slightly different and that the... Read more →

Red onion vs Spanish onion, what is the difference between the two. Its is said that the red is sweet, but I don't find that true. I find the Walla Walla onion and Vidalia are sweet. The red to me is strong onion flavor and I notice it goes sour if you cut them ahead.--Steve Actually, all of the onions you mention are varieties from... Read more →

I frequently receive questions from readers about how to change a recipe. They may want to substitute ingredients, reduce calories, or make the recipe "healthier" in one way or another. The problem is, they send me the question without the recipe they are hoping to change and expect me to somehow be able to know the context. Think of it... Read more →

Perhaps it was my years of cooking in studio and bachelor apartments using a two-burner hotplate or little more, that attracted me to the book Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens, by Jennifer Schaertl. For years I lived in small spaces and served good meals to friends. Sometimes I had the luxury of a real stove top and oven, and our... Read more →

How can I remove the "over-salted" problem in a cooked pork roast. I adjusted the sauce with red wine vinegar and brown sugar,which helped, and cut off the outside edges of roast. I have heard that adding a peeled potato to soup that is overly salty will reduce the salt. Is this true?--Susan There are only a few ways to deal with... Read more →

I have read your earlier post on high altitude cooking, but was wondering whether I should always correct the temperature for the altitude that I'm at, or just in some circumstances? Do I cook a holiday turkey to the same temperature or correct it for altitude?--Shoshana As noted in the post on High Altitude Cooking, the boiling point... Read more →