Don’t let the name throw you. While bitters may taste truly bitter on their own, in a cocktail they don’t take center stage. That doesn’t mean they’re not essential. You wouldn’t serve most food without a little salt, and bitters work a similar magic, pulling … Read More

Winemaking doesn’t need to be complicated and intimidating, the way it is often presented. You don’t need to plant a vineyard to make wines. Many ingredients can be gathered for free or can be easily grown in a summer garden. If you are a wine … Read More

We’re witnessing something in the beer world as rare as the birth of a new indigenous language: the emergence of a new national brewing tradition. What is national tradition? It’s a cultural institution, invisible, yet strangely powerful. Like other cultural institutions, it is created and … Read More

Now that you’ve gone to all the effort to prepare your own sausages from scratch, you’ll want to give what to pair it with your due consideration. It’s not so much that there’s a wrong match per se for any particular sausage; it’s more that … Read More

The cornerstone of good food preservation is attention to the Now. Preserving is about using what’s at hand, not wishing for otherwise, and not clinging so tightly to something we’re afraid to lose. Preservation isn’t about madly saving everything. It’s about staying in the moment … Read More

The rise of hard cider today in North America isn’t because our forefathers chugged it or the beverage market needed more gluten-free options to quench the thirst of conscientious CrossFit fanatics. Cider has stepped into the limelight because the consumer demanded it. An educated, eager craft … Read More

Picking Sumac All sumac shrubs with red berries (Rhus spp.) are safe to eat. Poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix) is a rare plant; it grows in swamps, bogs, and wetlands in the eastern United States and has loose, hanging clusters of white fruit. Stick with red-berried sumac … Read More

When you can use weeds in your cocktails, it’s a win-win. You eradicate a few pesky plants and you get a delicious adult beverage. Most people don’t realize that the purslane they pull out of their garden beds is the same purslane you’ll see at … Read More

Like many common culinary herbs, cilantro has been used for thousands of years as a digestive aid. This herb has also been shown to help the body process and utilize cholesterol, most likely due to its effects on the liver: cilantro … Read More

The barrel is one of the barbarians’ finest gifts to humanity. The invention of the barrel is variously attributed to Bronze Age Celts, Vikings, or similar hairy, fur-cloaked tribes. It is a testament to the cleverness of these forest folks that, save for the introduction … Read More