Pantry & Shopping
What to keep in a cupboard so dinner is always possible
A working pantry is not a large one. It is a small set of things that combine into meals without a shop.
Hugo Lefevre
Baking writer, Dinner Starts Here
Hugo writes about bread and pastry, and will explain hydration percentages if you let him.
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15 articles
Pantry & Shopping
Most food waste is a storage problem, not a cooking one
Households throw away a substantial share of what they buy, and most of it was thrown away before anyone decided to cook it.
Pantry & Shopping
Rice varieties are not interchangeable, and starch is why
The difference between a risotto rice and a basmati is not branding. It is the ratio of two starches, and it decides everything.
Pantry & Shopping
Buying olive oil without believing the label
The words on the front are less informative than the bottle it comes in and the date on the back.
Pantry & Shopping
Shopping for meat by cut instead of by name
The expensive cuts are expensive because they are quick. The cheap ones are cheap because they need a method, and the method is…
Technique
Blanching and shocking: what the ice water is actually for
Two minutes in boiling water and thirty seconds in cold changes colour, texture and how a vegetable behaves for the rest of the…
Technique
Greasy fried food is a temperature failure, not a fat problem
Frying is a race between water leaving the food and oil entering it. Everything soggy lost that race.
Pantry & Shopping
Whole spices, ground spices and the step in between
Aroma lives in volatile oils that escape once a spice is broken open. Everything about buying and using spices follows from that.
Pantry & Shopping
Seasonal buying is about price and water, not virtue
Produce in season is cheaper and tastes of more because it was grown nearby and picked closer to ripeness. The moral framing gets…
Technique
Steaming is not boiling with the water moved
Steam cooks at a different temperature to a hot pan and treats food far more gently than water does. It also keeps flavour in the…
Technique
Layer a flavour by adding the same thing three times
A single addition of an ingredient gives one note. The same ingredient added at three points, in three forms, is what makes a dish…
Technique
How you cut it is a cooking time instruction
Knife work is usually taught as tidiness. The real reason a recipe specifies a size is that it is telling you how fast the heat…
Pantry & Shopping
Vinegars are not interchangeable, and three cover almost everything
They differ in acidity, sweetness and the character of what they were made from. A small shelf of three does more than a large…
Pantry & Shopping
Onions, garlic and potatoes are stored wrong in most kitchens
These three keep for weeks in the right place and spoil in days in the wrong one. The right place is different for each, and they…
Pantry & Shopping
Your fridge has zones and most people use them upside down
Temperature varies by shelf, and so does what should sit there. Most kitchens put the most perishable items in the warmest part…