Have ideas for a post you'd like to see on a food & cooking blog? Post them here as answers! Try to provide a concise title at the beginning, followed by a sentence or two if necessary, so we can quickly look through them. It's okay to post things whether or not you think you'd want to write them yourself.

This will help serve as proof of concept and interest for the blog. You might also like to have a look at the separate question about scope of the blog to get some general ideas for directions.

Update The blog is up and running. But we will continue collecting ideas in this thread, so that people who want to author a post can a) get a feeling about what content we would like to have and b) pick an idea they like and write away. Once somebody starts on an idea, please post about it in this thread.

32 Answers 32


A comprehensive guide for caring about knives

Obviously, the community loves knives; we have some highly upvoted questions about them. But Aaronut pointed out that our current knife care questions aren't that great; the good answers there are buried under lots of noise.

I don't count myself as a specialist on knife care - I still use no-name knives and can't sharpen - but if somebody could adopt the topic, I think it will be popular.

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    I'd go further and suggest separate, in-depth blog posts on the different aspects of knife care: honing, sharpening, and maybe another one on why you should/shouldn't do some of what the manufacturers say you should/shouldn't do. – Aaronut Mar 17 '12 at 20:51

Book Review

The three best books in my kitchen:

  • Beginner Book: The Best Recipe - a bullet proof, comprehensive book that will teach you the why as well as the how.
  • Intermediate Book: Ratio - explains the basic building blocks of common dishes so that you can start to create your own food rather than follow a recipe. Cooking as template rather than instruction.
  • Advanced Book: The Flavor Bible - a detailed reference of good flavor pairings. An invaluable source of inspiration when creating your own dishes.

This could be done as 1 or 3 posts.

  • Finished, the first part is online. Thank you @yossarian. – rumtscho Jun 6 '12 at 15:00

How a novice can learn to make good cheese

I haven't tried it myself, but I know we* have the knowledge to produce such a post. This would be interesting for people, because most probably haven't tried making cheese themselves, but haven't thought of the idea seriously enough to read a thorough manual. So, experience-based info on what one needs to start, and what quality one can expect with some light effort sounds like good information.

*for the purposes of this answer, "we" means Sobachatina

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    I would enjoy such a post. – Sobachatina Apr 9 '12 at 21:37

Oven steam injection with a pressure cooker

Here's looking at you, rfusca!

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    This should become a series, You did what to your oven‽, covering all sorts of equipment modifications. – derobert Apr 3 '12 at 21:01

Cooking for TV

I was on a short spot that aired nationally on TBS about Molecular Gastronomy. Talk about the experience of coming up with a menu for the show and then shooting it. I think I can get production stills and can certainly link to the video.


Cooking Disasters

Even when you're fairly experienced, every once and a while things go completely wrong. Sometimes, its because you did something stupid, other times it was a good idea, “in theory.” Either way, it provides an opportunity to learn from—and also encouragement to less-experienced cooks.

I'm imagining posts written in a semi-serious manner, reminiscent of In the Pipeline's "How Not to Do It" and "Things I Won't Work With".


Pea and Carrot Gnocchi

A molecular gastronomy experiment. Adapting a technique from elBulli and crafting a dish around it, with lots and lots of failure.


Product Review: Vita-Mix

Is it really worth spending $500 on a f@#%ing blender? What does it do that a normal blender won't do?


Sushi for Dessert
Creating a Novel Dessert from Scratch

How I came up with the initial seed of an idea, how that turned in to a full fledged dish, two iterations of a complete product, and serving it to 500 people at a food fair.

Some detail:


Difference between rice cooking methods

This is an experiment. Its goal is to compare the result of cooking rice by different methods. There should be two variable dimensions: Rice type (basmati, short grain and long grain) and method (exact amount of water, cooked covered (Western); more water than needed, cooked uncovered and excess water discarded (Indian); parfried, then cooked uncovered (Turkish)). Description of results in terms of grain firmness, etc.


How to bake in a toaster oven

This is advice for people who don't have access to a big oven, or prefer to use a toaster oven. It behaves differently than a normal oven, so we can list the differences and give tips how to work around them.


Passover Cooking

Cooking for Passover is a complicated task, since many ingredients are forbidden (such as flour, corn, beans, soy, . . . ). This could even be a series of posts on different challenges, such as one on reworking non-Passover recipes, a second on the challenges of baking without using flour (or by substituting matzah meal), and so on.


That's No Ordinary Dish

Ask blog readers to submit one a recipe for an "ordinary" dish that they feel could be better (e.g., here on meta). Pick one, and one or more blog authors attempt the "chef it up". The results—importantly, including the thought process and any failures along the way—get posted.


Ice cream without a machine

I do it all the time and I think that I have found a fairly good method by now. I would like to describe it as a blog post.


Cooking for a large group of people

How can an amateur with a normal kitchen prepare catering for many people? What are the challenges, and how can they be worked around? In the best case, this will be an experience report of one case where the blogger did it.

I don't have experience in this area, but I know some of us do (wink @rfusca)

  • I have some experience doing it as a completely unprepared amateur, but I expect others would be more helpful. – Cascabel Mar 20 '12 at 20:11

International recipes and dishes

Since we are a community on the world wide web and we have members in different countries, I think it would be nice to see something typical from that cuisine and how it's made. Personally, I would prefer this if it involves available ingredients, so that everybody who wants, can recreate it.

  • I'd love to contribute something Mexican/Tex-Mex here! – Cascabel Mar 15 '12 at 16:59
  • I'd love to contribute something Belgian (and not waffles, chocolate or beer) (well, there might be some beer added...). – Mien Mar 15 '12 at 17:05
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    "Lesser-known" seems bizarrely subjective; "international" or "global" would probably be a better word choice. – Aaronut Mar 17 '12 at 20:50
  • I edited accordingly. – Mien Mar 19 '12 at 12:14

Cleaning Tips

Find an easier way to clean up a common or difficult kitchen mess, test it a few times to make sure it works.


Flash infusion cocktails

Using N2O as an infusion technique for alcohol. Experimenting with ingredients. Creating a new cocktail. Kaffir lime, grapefruit vodka; cucumber, mint Bombay Saphire; basil, lemon zest Citadelle (gin) in minutes.


Some common food safety myths

Every now and then, we get some bad arguments in questions about food safety. Some explanation could be a good thing to link to when it happens again. And anyway, the more people know about food safety, the better.

What I would like to see tackled in this post are assumptions like "If A and B have a shelf life of X and Y, then mixing them will have a shelf life of min(X,Y)" or "Cooking sterilizes food".


Mini-interviews: book collection highlights

I'd love to know about the books everyone here values. I think we have some varying approaches to cooking, so it'd be fun to see that in the form of what books people have chosen to purchase and commonly refer to. This could be organized in a few different ways, but any way would be interesting!


From Classic Combination to Many Dishes

Explain how to take a classic combination of ingredients and/or methods and elaborate it into several dishes to show how recipes can be built from fundamentals.


Flowers in the kitchen

For the spring season. How can flowers be used? As aroma (lavender water, rose water), as decoration, as ingredient (candied violets, zucchini blossoms), for tea, for cheese rinds, as molds (brush petals with melted chocolate, then remove the petal to get a chocolate petal). The post can list these culinary uses and add some ideas / recipes.


Kitchen Rants (op-ed)

Convinced—or at least willing to pretend on the Internet—that we're doing it all wrong and that technology will change everything; or alternatively that the cool new thing is a passing fad? Can you make it interesting without distorting the facts too much? Then, it's time to write a kitchen rant.

(Topics for rants would of course have to be inside the site's scope. E.g., no rants about the health effects of genetically modified crops.)

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    It could even be a rant about something that seems to be an accepted part of every kitchen (or kitchen gadget), but that bugs the heck out of you. Like, why do food processors have so many impossible-to-clean nooks and crannies? Who designs those things? – Marti Apr 27 '12 at 23:16
  • I think this would be fun to do once in a while; when I think of a lot of SME blogs I've read in the past, some of their most memorable posts are effectively rants, albeit very well-written rants incorporating a lot of actual subject-matter expertise. As long as it's not done too often, it could attract readers who wouldn't otherwise be interested. – Aaronut Jan 26 '13 at 15:53

Baking two things at the same time

We have had two such questions until now. I don't want to get any more of them, each asking the same thing, but with different temperatures and times needed. Somebody should explain how to calculate the time and temperature, and from then on we can link to this post.

How should I adjust oven temperature/time to have two dishes ready at the same time? and How should I control the time and temperature when baking two dishes? are the questions.

Sadly, I can't be the one to write it, because I have no experience in this area at all.


Non-Sourdough Rye

According to Handbook of Food Science, Technology, And Engineering, Volume 4 rye flour contains an enzyme, α-amylase that degrades starches in the flour, but that enzyme is deactivated at 80°C (176°F). Its activity is also prevented by low pH (as in a sourdough).

So, the question is, if you heat the dry rye flour to 80°C for a few hours, how much is a non-sourdough 50% rye loaf improved?

  • You might have to use rye malt to be sure that there is enough amylase to test. I would also find it useful to see how that compares to wheat malt. – Sobachatina Apr 9 '12 at 21:36

Easter special

The first upcoming big holiday is Easter. There could be a blog article about how to decorate your food according to this day, or give a possible fitting menu (working with seasonal ingredients).

  • 1
    Well, and Passover. Which is much more complicated to cook for. – Martha F. Mar 28 '12 at 19:36
  • @MarthaF. on the other meta topic about the blog, there is an answer about all holidays. You should vote that up! And if you want a blog entry about Passover, put it as an answer here. – Mien Mar 28 '12 at 19:41

Effect of Hydration on Bread: A Cooking Experiment.

Start with a a standard-ish bread flour, 60% water, 1% yeast, 2% salt, machine-knead it for 12 minutes, allow to double, form into loaf, allow to double again, bake.

Repeat with various hydrations. Use the same flour, room temperature, oven temperature, etc.


What is the minimal amount of oil required for a non-crumbly crust?

We had a question, and it has no answers. I can experiment and find out, then post the results.

  • Could you put a link to the original question? – Mien May 8 '12 at 19:54

Uncommon preserves

Normal preserves are boring. If you start combining fruit, nuts, spices and alcohol, you get better results. Should run around July, when there is plenty of fruit around.

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