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At times, I have a certain compulsion around food: when I read about an ingredient enough, I eventually have to try it, no matter the cost. (OK, within reason.) In this case, it was myoga, a Japanese ingredient related to ginger. Nearly every Japanese cookbook I have mentions it, but I had never seen it [...]

On the heels of the cassoulet I made a couple of weeks ago, I’ve continued working with dried beans, trying to get a handle on the best way to cook them. It seems I’m not the only one who has dried beans on the brain. At this point in the winter, many storage vegetables are [...]

In the realm of all things spudular, French fries are king, but mashed potatoes are a close second. As with fries, there are certain criteria that can be used to distinguish good examples of the genre from bad. Mashed potatoes, however, come in two acceptable styles, like peanut butter: chunky and smooth. Chunky mashed potatoes [...]

After letting my blended cider-and-red-wine vinegar ferment for a week, as recommended, I checked on it. It definitely smelled more like vinegar than wine at that point, but I decided to leave it for another week. A couple of days later, it was smelling sharper still, and I had some leftover wine, so I added [...]

After the disastrous end to my last attempt to make my own red-wine vinegar, I was resigned to having to work with the only vinegar mother easily available to me, thereby producing a hybrid cider/wine vinegar. Being something of a purist, I figured I would start with a small amount of unpasteurized cider vinegar to [...]

Nearly two months after I posted about trying to make vinegar without a mother, the time has come for an update. I’m sad to report that it was an utter failure: instead of developing a healthy population of acetobacter, my would-be vinegar developed a nice coating of fuzzy blue-green mold. (Trust me, this photo is [...]

Occasionally, things work out just as well in my mouth as they sound like they’re going to in my head… How to make a quince upside-down cake 2 quinces 2 cups water 1 cup sugar 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 1.5 cups cake flour 2 tsp. baking powder Large pinch salt 1/2 cup [...]

There are a number of ingredients that carry a certain cachet among food professionals and amateurs, before eventually achieving fame among the population at large. From the butcher’s counter, short ribs are an obvious example. In the vegetable kingdom, a case might be made for celeriac. And as far as fruits go, the quince deserves [...]

Every year in the fall, I re-read one of my favourite books from childhood: Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. The story tells of a young boy, Danny, and his father… who just happens to poach pheasants in his spare time. (That’s “poach” as in hunt illegally, not “poach” as in cook [...]

I’ve long been fascinated by the idea of making my own vinegar. In fact, the first copy I ever bought of The Art of Eating, now one of my favourite food journals, was issue 68, which I ordered specifically for its excellent article on homemade wine vinegar. What’s held me back until now, though, is [...]