Ask the Test Kitchen with Dan Souza and Keith Dresser



Dan Souza and Keith Dresser of Cook’s Illustrated sit down (safely socially distanced) to answer your top cooking and food science questions.

Get the recipe for Masala Chai Concentrate:
Get the recipe for Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder:
Get our tips for shipping cookies:
Get the recipe for Pan-Seared Strip Steak:

ABOUT US: Located in Boston’s Seaport District in the historic Innovation and Design Building, America’s Test Kitchen features 15,000 square feet of kitchen space including multiple photography and video studios. It is the home of Cook’s Illustrated magazine and Cook’s Country magazine and is the workday destination for more than 60 test cooks, editors, and cookware specialists. Our mission is to test recipes over and over again until we understand how and why they work and until we arrive at the best version.

If you like us, follow us:

source

Similar Posts

30 Comments

  1. On the frozen dairy, I appreciated this question because in the winter when our fridge is full we use the "Midwestern Freezer" aka the back porch and the extra gallon of milk always tastes weird once we bring it in and it thaws.

  2. So at my grocery stores (Indiana) the hot dogs are always a pack of 8 and the 99¢ buns are a bag of 8, but all the 'nicer' buns are a bag of 6. We always buy the buns that are in 6 count bags, but it's not a huge issue for us because we always store hot dogs in the freezer and just break off the ones to eat when we want them, so we don't worry about them going bad or anything. We use to the hot dog buns for egg salad and other sandwiches so we don't worry about them spoiling either.

    Edited to add: Putting ketchup on a hot dog is grounds for execution.

  3. Late on watching this, but want to say, when we were stationed in MT during the first gulf war, our chapel did a cookie lift to the people deployed. We put clean clear trash bags in boxes, packed the cookies in zip bags, and filled the boxes with plain popcorn as packing. We heard back that the popcorn packing was a huge hit, and was eaten with as much enthusiasm as the cookies.

  4. Okay, honestly, veggie hotdogs are amazing! Lite Life changed their recipe recently and they were crud. Then, even more recently, they changed the formula back. They're tasty without that fake smoke funk. The company sent us some coupons because we complained! I love them with simple yellow mustard, ketchup, and onion.

  5. A friend in the Finger Lakes area makes amazing fruitcakes that have rehabilitated that lowliest of holiday baked goods. Best vinegar recipe: Cornell Chicken. Best hot dog: Ted's (they use Sahlen's Red Hots with natural casings) grille their dogs over charcoal in Buffalo.

  6. I'm actually an expert on hot dogs in Los Angeles. There is science to natural casing hot dogs. The best way to heat them is steaming. As the temp rises, the pressure inside the dog builds, so when you take the first bite, the casing snaps and shoots spicy hot dog juices into your mouth. The first bite is an explosion of flavor. Collogen casings aren't nearly as good.

  7. 10:18 — person in a "basic" apartment with "nothing more than a microwave-vent" asks how to cook a steak. I don't know what a "microwave-vent" is — unless she has almost zero ventilation in her kitchen…??? This should have been made crystal clear, but as it wasn't, I wonder how helpful was the answer "how to sear a steak in a frying pan w/o making much smoke if you only have a microwave oven." I guess the "basic" apartment has a stove??? Meh.

  8. I need a stainless steel cookware set, light weight, affordable, what do you recommend? Would it be weird to own a mix match set. I found a brand name 'Laroma' yet can't seem to find a set. The 3qt. Sause pan was lighter than cuisinart which I liked. I currently own a Rachel Ray set that to me is heavy. Please help. Thank you

Leave a Reply