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On the equipment side of things, definitely, people will tag us on social media or write in and ask us to check something out. But we’re also just constantly paying attention to really key categories. When there’s a new kind of skillet out there, or there’s an update to a category that we love a lot, we’ll go back in and test it. For core pantry ingredients, we’re constantly looking at those and testing and retesting. Sometimes there’s reformulations and things like that, and so the winner from before isn’t the winner anymore. It’s very iterative, grounded in the scientific method process that we hold dear in our reviews department.
Please shout out some staples that everybody should have.
We’re talking at an interesting time, it being the 25th anniversary of our TV show, and we’ve got this gorgeous ATK 25 cookbook out. We chose the 500 best recipes over the course of our company, which is such a fun thing to do. It’s like thinking about greatest hits over a long career.
One recipe that’s a home run and beloved across the ages is our perfect chocolate chip cookie. It’s interesting because it was actually developed by Charles Kelsey, who is the co-owner at Cutty’s in Brookline Village. He was working at Cook’s Illustrated, and he used to actually sell the cookies at Cutty’s — he sold thousands of them there. It’s a fan favorite, always, and it kind of represents our testing process, where he was trying every single ingredient. With cookies, you change one little thing, and it can have a massive impact.
The best discovery was completely by accident, where he was mixing up a batch, had the wet ingredients in a bowl, and was called away. He was at his desk doing other stuff. He came back and then whisked it up. With time, the sugar could dissolve, making for super crispy edges and a completely transformed cookie. So that’s baked into the recipe, no pun intended.
The Thermapen is a longtime winner for us. We’re such geeks about taking the temperature of your food as a way to ensure you get great results. … And I would say a workhorse in our kitchen, and I hope in everyone’s, is a really good Dutch oven. Le Creuset has been at the top of our rankings for a very long time. You buy it once, and you have it for life.
Anything that’s been a total testing disaster?
I think there are a lot of quick-to-market gadgets that show up, and they’re kind of single-use, and they don’t really deliver on it. We tested this peanut butter stirrer; it’s for natural peanut butters that separate. Just one company makes it. It does one thing, but it just does it really well, and it’s cheap. But, for the most part, we’re pretty [against] things that do just one job. We think about small kitchens and try to pack them with the right stuff, for sure.
It never occurred to me that I might need a peanut butter stirrer. Let’s talk about what you have in your kitchen. What will we always find in the kitchen of Dan Souza?
Salt is obviously one of the most important things in the kitchen, and knowing how to use it. We spend a lot of time teaching that because we think it really opens up flavor. My favorite is the Test Kitchen’s favorite: Diamond Crystal kosher salt, and it’s different from Morton kosher salt, and I think that’s something that not a lot of people understand. They’re not really interchangeable, because they don’t pass the same into a measuring spoon. You have to use more Diamond Crystal than you would Morton’s. But it’s really great. The process by which it’s made gives you sort of hollow, crisp pyramids — and so they stick to food really well. They’re easy to pinch and measure in a nice way.
And I do keep table salt on hand. We call for it in a fair number of our recipes, because it is the most standardized. If you get any brand of table salt, it will measure exactly the same by volume. So that’s a nice, consistent element. When we’re trying to build really bulletproof recipes, that’s a big one.
I’m a huge fan of preserved lemons. They’re a little bit softer, and you can use the whole thing. I’m a big fish sauce guy. I love Red Boat for its intensity. I’m getting to the point where I almost want a little condiment fridge. I don’t know if you’ve run into this problem. I have a very hard time getting rid of condiments, because they’re so good. They’re amazing. They can change a meal so easily.
Equipment wise, I use my Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy rice cooker. It can learn and sort of change how it cooks your rice to get the results that you want. You don’t have to think too hard about it.
Growing up, did you go to a restaurant or have a meal that made you think: Food could be my career?
My mom is an incredible baker, so we always had incredible pies, tea breads, and things like that. And I remember distinctly, it must have been post-Christmas. I was quite young. We had a spiral ham that year for the meal. I was hungry, and so I took some of the ham out, and I asked my mom if I could cook it in a skillet, basically. Maybe I had been influenced by watching some PBS cooking or whatever.
I threw a slice in there. The edge of that spiral ham is so sugary and glazy, and it kind of oozed out into the skillet, and it started to brown. You can imagine the aromas heating up that ham and that caramel. I just kept flipping it and watching it brown. I was entranced by it in a way that just totally sucked me in. I grew to love and be most interested in the technique and the process of cooking. It was many years later that I would even entertain the idea that it could be something I could do for a living, but technique is something that still really drives me.
Dan Souza is the chief content officer at America’s Test Kitchen.
Where do you love to eat now?
I love Tonino, which is relatively new to JP. It’s that perfect, small neighborhood restaurant. I love Brassica. They’re always trying stuff over there. You get these really remarkable and interesting dishes. I love Mahaniyom in Brookline Village. I think Boong [owner Chompon “Boong” Boonnak] can kind of do no wrong. And I’ve been to his new drinking spot, Merai, which is super fun.
I love Row 34. I’m a big Jeremy Sewell fan. New England coastal cooking has always felt like comfort food to me. I had a great meal at the Eaves last year, from the Cicada people over in Bow Market. I love Cicada; their iced coffees are just insane with all the sweet and condensed milk and salt and all that stuff.
What restaurants do you really miss that no longer exist?
I guess there’s two that come to mind. Fuloon up in Malden was a favorite, not just of mine, but so many of the Test Kitchen crew. We would go up there and get two huge tables and just order everything. They had such good Sichuan food, so consistent.
I miss the original Eastern Standard, which I’m sure most Bostonians miss as well. It was a great place to just get a cocktail. They had great fries. You could get a burger, or you could take your family there for something a little bit fancier.
Did you eat out growing up?
We really were an eating-at-home family. We had a pretty clear budget, and my mom loved to cook. We were sitting around the dinner table every night. If we got a pizza on a Friday night, that was kind of a big deal.
I love restaurants. But, to me, home cooking is the best cooking. It’s why I like being at the Test Kitchen. We put the home cook on a pedestal 25 years ago, and we never took them off.
What food will you not eat at home? What can’t you stand?
Let me think here. I don’t really try to do sushi at home. I’ll do a crudo if I get a really nice piece of fish, but I would rather go out and have a really nice sushi experience. I’m a huge seafood guy. I’d spend good money on tuna if I’m going to get tuna. So really nice Ventresca, tuna belly. I’ll do that on rice with some seasonings or on white bread with mayonnaise, and that’s a go-to snack all the time. I love it.
I don’t hate much. I’m a pretty equal opportunity eater. But when I was in Hungary — this is kind of a convoluted story — but I went to this Halloween party. And, you know, in the US, we peel grapes for eyeballs, or spaghetti is brains, or whatever. They had this big black cauldron, and they were serving food out of it. And I asked the guy I was with: “What is it?” He’s like: “It’s blood.”
I got a bowl of it and a piece of white bread and was like: “Huh. I don’t like this that much. I don’t really know what this is.” And it turned out that it was actually pig blood that had coagulated and cooked with some onions. It had a livery flavor and texture to it.
When you’re cooking at home, who’s eating?
I love cooking for my friends. I have a lot of friends right in the area here, so I’ll cook for them. I’ll cook for my girlfriend. And then my folks are actually still in Westford. My sister lives in Chelmsford, so I was out yesterday cooking for them — lots of grilling and things like that. I like cooking for four to six people. I think that’s the magic number.
Who’s your dream dinner party guest?
I’ve had the chance to travel, and I’ve had friends kind of spread out around the world. It just sounds cheesy, but if I could collect my five or six favorite people from all over the place and get them around a table, that would be my dream.
If I could cook for a celebrity, someone who really had a big impact on me growing up was Jamie Oliver. When the “The Naked Chef” came out, he had this way of energizing food and getting me excited about it. I’d be really intimidating, but I feel like it would be a lovely meal to sit down and eat with Jamie Oliver.
Last but not least: biggest piece of advice, and biggest mistake, for a home cook?
Don’t try to do it all. Let’s say you have a menu that you want to cook. Knock one thing off there, and you can focus in a much nicer way. Do a little bit less.
And load up your menu with great room temperature dishes. We have this show called “America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation.” It’s a competition. One of the biggest things is, the dishes have to sit around, and the ones that are room-temperature-appropriate always do better because they’re just absolutely delicious. So I’d load up your menu with dishes that just can hang out and even get better as they sit.
Interview was edited and condensed.
Kara Baskin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @kcbaskin.
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Publish date : 2024-09-30 19:00:00
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