Cook's Illustrated

I recently moved into a house where the prior tenants tracked their children’s growth with notches on a doorframe. I smiled when I saw it—there’s something sweet and timeless about the tradition—and it got me thinking about all the other ways we track the progression of our lives. There are obvious markers like birthdays, graduations, and weddings, but there are also softer milestones like friendships, romances, travel—and noodles. Stay with me for a minute on that last one because I bet some of you can relate. I was scanning the recipe collection in this issue, my first as editor in chief of Cook’s Illustrated, and felt this burst of joy when I got to the Cacio e Pepe (page 5) and Beef Chow Fun (page 9). Of course I was reacting…

Transport a Cake Slice in a Mini Cake Dome When Daniel Thompson of Laguna Niguel, Calif., needs to store or transport a single slice of cake, he creates a “mini cake dome” by placing the item in an upside-down food storage container. Squeeze Bottle Turned Twine Dispenser Ted Brown of Birmingham, Ala., came up with a clever way to manage his roll of kitchen twine: He stashes it in a squeeze bottle that he’s weighed down at the bottom with a small, clean rock, threading the twine through the bottle’s nozzle. This makes it easy to dispense the twine without getting it tangled. Marinate Tofu in Its Box Leigh Allen-Arredondo of Seattle, Wash., disliked having to dirty a zipper-lock bag when marinating tofu, and she didn’t have a reusable container…

Cacio e pepe makes so much of so little. Like Rome’s other great pasta traditions—pastas alla gricia, amatriciana, and carbonara—cacio e pepe is the magnificent sum of few humble parts. But the feat is at its most impressive here, in the recipe with the sparest ingredient list: just strand pasta, its cooking water, coarse black pepper, and handfuls of Pecorino Romano. Unlike in those other dishes, there is no meaty funk from guanciale, no brightness from tomato, and no richness from egg—and it only takes one bite to understand why none of that is necessary in this formula. When tossed together with care, these components transform into a mirror-glossy sauce that’s plenty complex all on its own, grounded by earthy savor and prickling with fruity heat. The secret to this…

Caesar dressing is scientifically delicious. When glutamaterich Parmesan cheese meets anchovies, which contain a meaty-tasting nucleotide called inosine monophosphate (IMP), the two ingredients create an intense synergy that delivers maximum umami. Garlic, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard add piquancy, and citrus juice lifts the flavor. Raw egg yolks bring everything together with their lecithin, which unites the naturally standoffish watery components and fatty components in a creamy emulsion so that the dressing can evenly coat crisp romaine lettuce. But that bold, rich dressing can stand up to much more than leaf lettuce. The savor and slight pungence of broccoli, an increasingly popular alternative, is an obvious flavor-science match for the punchy dressing, and the crunch of the brassica makes the eating experience all the more dynamic. That said, a traditional Caesar…

So much of beef chow fun’s appeal is right in front of you. Fresh from the wok, the universally adored Cantonese stir-fry is a glistening jumble of sliced beef, bean sprouts, onions, and scallions, all tangled in the folds of ho fun—the broad, chewy fresh rice ribbons that are this dish’s hallmark noodle. The inky, soybased sauce that’s drizzled into the mix just before serving lightly glazes the wok’s contents, burnishing the ivory strands like lacquer does wood. Then there are the dish’s more understated—but arguably most alluring—charms, revealed when you take a bite: the textural contrast of the supremely tender meat, delicately cut vegetables, and delightfully supple noodles. Brightness and depth created when the salty-sweet sauce sizzles against the hot steel. And above all, the smoky, singed glow of…

Every bite of a grilled salmon fillet is dynamic. The char of the grill is the perfect foil for the fish’s richness, infusing the moist, flaky flesh and crackly-crisp skin with smoky complexity. Plus, grilling presents perks to the cook: The intense heat cooks the salmon speedily, and any fishy aroma stays outdoors and out of your kitchen. There’s just one problem: It’s not easy to get salmon off the grill in one piece. The fish tends to cling tenaciously to the grate—so it’s all too easy to end up with a pile of errant pink flakes rather than a beautifully grill-marked fillet. A Sticky Situation Food sticks to cooking grates (and pans, for that matter) when bonds form between sulfur-containing amino acids in the food’s proteins and the iron…