Blog Posts by bon appétit magazine

Photo courtesy of Conde Nast Digital ArchiveBy Bree Sposato, Julia Bainbridge, and Emily Fleischaker, Bon Appétit

Break with tradition to throw the kind of party that your soon-to-be-wed will really love--be it a refined tea party or an all-out bacchanalia.

Farm-to-Table Feast Few U.S. culinary destinations can beat Blackberry Farm (1471 W. Millers Cove Rd., Walland, TN, 800-557-8864, blackberryfarm.com, from $445), set on 4,200 pristine acres in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Learn about heirloom seeds from Master Gardener John Coykendall; gather produce from the gardens; and, come evening, gather around the fireplace in one of the property's private cottages. In Vermont, the Inn at Essex (70 Essex Way; 802-878-1100; innatessex.com, weekends from $700 per person) offers cooking classes with regional staples (bring on the cheese and maple syrup) as well as gardening and visits to nearby farms. For a more rustic experience, the Europe-based Feather Down Farms (716-226-6323, featherdown.com; from $153) partners with

Read More »from 10 Creative Bachelor and Bachelorette Parties for Food Lovers

Misono Child's Mini Knife, $65; korin.comBy Carla Lalli Music, Bon Appétit

Having children robbed me of many of life's pleasures (sleeping in, dozing off on the beach, finishing a sentence), but it never stopped me from eating. I held my babies on my lap at restaurants--so what if I dropped food on their heads trying to get the fork in my mouth? They survived. These days, my kids both help in the kitchen (for the 3-year-old, "help" means crushing--not cracking--eggs against the side of a bowl and then losing interest while I pick minute particles of shell out of the batter). Supposedly this will make them better eaters; studies show that kids who participate in meal preparation are more likely to try new things.

Read More: The Top 20 Best Tasting Burger Recipes

I've found that is true, so I did what any supportive, risk-averse mother would do: I bought my 8-year-old son a knife. No, it's not a toy. It's legit (so legit it's Japanese!). The rounded tip is designed for safety, but that's an actual blade, and he can really

Read More »from Kids Can Cook with This Safe (But Real) Knife

Photograph by Diane Fields By William Bostwick, Bon Appétit


Saison is less a style of beer than it is a state of mind: a down-to-earth brew made for easy, summertime refreshment. Invented in Belgium, saison (French for "season") was traditionally brewed with whatever grain was on hand--barley, rye, oats. Last year's hops? A handful of spices? Why not? Add a peppery, fruity yeast (the Belgian trademark), leave the beer to mellow in winter, and pop the cork the next summer, when the brew is at its dry, effervescent peak.

Saison was the Gatorade of the 1800s: hydrating and--at least compared with the brackish European well water--restorative. These days, it's often referred to in America as farmhouse ale, and though it's still easy-drinking, crisp, and relatively low in alcohol, it doesn't skimp on flavor like other so-called lawn-mower beers.

Read More: The Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

Perhaps that's why saison happens to be the secret darling of an industry smitten with the big and boozy. Ask even the most

Read More »from Try This Ultimate Summer Beer

Photograph by Matt DuckorBy Elizabeth Gunnison, Bon Appétit

Whether you like it on salad greens, chicken wings, crudités, or burgers, if you're a red-blooded American, you've guzzled your fair share of ranch. The nation's most popular dressing is everywhere, going so far as to make a run for ketchup's place on the American dinner table.

But who even knew it could be made from scratch? Store-bought bottles are ubiquitous; the flavor we all know is so consistent. It seems inherently synthetic, an industrial substance like axle grease or something. Curious about the potential, we called in our testers to determine whether homemade dressing would trump the bottled version.

Read More: The Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

The Contenders Kraft Ranch Dressing vs. Ina Garten's Buttermilk Ranch Dressing
Ranch dressing is a mixture of mayonnaise, buttermilk, garlic, herbs, and spices invented in 1954 by Steve and Gayle Henson at their Hidden Valley Ranch in California. Originally sold as flavoring packets to be added to

Read More »from Make it or Buy It: Homemade Vs. Bottled Ranch Dressing

Photograph by Sarah Flotard By Deena Prichep, Bon Appétit

Last time I cruised the seafood counter at Whole Foods, sustainably caught salmon fillets were going for $12 per pound. I passed them up--and so might you if you knew a way to get a cut from the same fish for less than $3 a pound.

Amazingly, given all the interest in nose-to-tail dining these days, there is a way: Buy the collars. Sure, they're a little harder to find, and a little uglier on ice. But once you learn how to showcase their delicious, rich flavor, you can use them to pull together a deliciously thrifty omega-rich meal.

Read More: The Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

What are collars?
Exactly what the name suggests: a cut from along the fish clavicle, right behind the gills. The collar runs from top to bottom (including stiff pectoral fins along the way), with especially rich meat along the belly, ending in a little fat cap. The cut is anchored to the collarbone, but once cooked it separates nicely--and with no smaller bones to navigate. Collars

Read More »from The Best (and Cheapest) Cut of Fish You've Never Heard Of

By Julia Bainbridge ,Bon Appétit

Dad might hunt. He might fish. He might like to cocktail. Any which way, we've got something for him.

More from Bon Appétit:

10 Snacks You Thought Were Healthy But Really Aren't
10 Quick and Easy School-Night Dinners

25 One-Bite Appetizers

Junk Food Makeover: Healthier Chicken Nuggets

Read More »from Great Gifts for Food-Loving Fathers

Photographs by Matt Duckor By Jamie Feldmar and Matt Duckor , Bon Appétit

Chef Mark Ladner has his nose buried in a bowl of pasta. He's sniffing it. "I'm checking for the wheat," he explains. "Or the lack thereof." We don't really get this (aren't all pastas made from wheat?), but because Ladner has agreed to taste-test five supermarket brands of pasta for us--and he's Mark Ladner for gods sake--we let it slide.

See, when it comes to Italian food, Ladner has serious cred: In 2010, The New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton awarded a rare four stars to Ladner's Del Posto (owned by Mario Batali and Lidia and Joe Bastianich), describing his pastas as "insanely good." More recently, Ladner came up for a James Beard Award for best chef in New York City, no doubt thanks in part to his way with the noodle.

Read More: The Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

We just didn't anticipate the sniffing. Ladner is known for dishes like his 100-layer lasagna, which takes three kitchen stations to assemble (of course, he

Read More »from Supermarket Standoff: Best Store-Bought Pasta

Photo courtesy of Conde Nast Digital ArchiveBy Danielle Walsh , Bon Appétit

This past month, cooking grains has been our jam. Oddly enough, one of the most common grains--rice--is the trickiest to get right. Knowing this, our test kitchen set out to find a master recipe: We made nearly a dozen pots of long-grain white rice in different ways for a side-by-side comparison. Here were the variables we played with:

Read More: The Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

1. Rice to liquid ratio
With one cup of long-grain rice, we tried 1 cup of water, 1 1/4 cups water, 1 1/2 cups water, and 1 3/4 cups water.

2. How much salt
We tried 1/8 tsp, 1/4 tsp, and 1/2 tsp. of salt.

3. Stirring or no stirring
We tried both.

4. Fat or no fat
Before adding them to the liquid, we toasted kernels in oil, and we toasted kernels in butter.

5. Cooking time and steaming time
We cooked pots between 15 and 20 minutes and experimented with steaming the rice between 5 and 15 minutes.

Of course, in this cruel world, the rice that was toasted in butterRead More »from Step-By-Step Guide to Cooking Rice Perfectly