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If you’ve ever found yourself dripping sweat with socks full of grass clippings in the middle of June, having just pushed your lawnmower in concentric circles for an entire Saturday, then you can thank the French and English aristocracy of the 16th century. The fact that lawns exist at all in North...

Thinly sliced raw meat. That phrase doesn’t exactly have a three-Michelin-star vibe to it, but that’s what carpaccio is. Thanks to fancy restaurants and modern refrigeration, consuming raw meats and fish is more popular than ever. While the popularity of carpaccio, tartare, and sushi represents a...

Salt is the only rock that humans regularly consume in its raw form. Despite its ubiquitous use today, salt was once used as currency due to its rarity and difficulty in manufacturing. In fact, the word “salary” comes from the Latin word salarium which was a payment of salt given to Roman soldiers...

Confit is an ancient cooking method with a very simple technique—salting meat then cooking it low and slow in a bath of fat until it's unctuous, rich, and falling off the bone. Traditionally this was done for food preservation purposes, but it lives on in the age of refrigeration because it might be...

Sometime around 6,000 B.C., in the far reaches of what is now South America, an early human held a swollen root in their hand. The root was infected by a genus of bacteria called Agrobacterium which replaced a segment of the root’s DNA with its own, causing it to proliferate and grow tumors. As the...

Do you struggle to get venison shanks to fall off the bone? Or wonder why a pot roast comes out tender but still dry? Cooking tough cuts from wild game presents many challenges, but with the right knowledge you can transform any hard-working muscle into an amazing meal. The most effective cooking...

One of my favorite things about apples is the endless spectrum of flavor, shape, texture, and color—when you pick them outside of the supermarket. Most orchards offer the same handful of popular varieties, which I love, but they’re only a small slice of the pie. These commercial varieties aren’t...

As simple as fried rice sounds, there are a lot of tips, tricks, and rules (some more useful than others) to making it. Fried rice was a childhood favorite of mine, as well as a college and post-college staple. It’s a great way to use up leftover rice and whatever else you have in your fridge. But...

Organic over conventional. Regenerative over sustainable. The recent shifts in our preferences when it comes to agriculture illuminate our modern understanding of how agricultural practices can and should work. Although the term “regenerative agriculture” is not new (the Rodale Institute coined it...

Late summer is a busy time for anyone who gardens, hunts, or both. As the days get shorter, the preparation for the upcoming hunting season takes on more urgency, and my mind wanders from lures to broadheads to ceviche to chili. At the same time, the garden is in full production mode and I’m...

Pan roasting is one of my favorite cooking techniques. I often implement it because it yields excellent results and will work with any kind of protein. This two-step process starts with searing meat in a hot sauté pan, flipping, and immediately transferring to a hot oven. This technique is one of...