Salt & Fat

Neven and Jim recount their Independence Day cooking, explore eating at the county fair, and strategize about the best approach to shopping at the farmer's market. Brace yourselves, dear listeners, Jim has a terrible confession to make that will leave you speechless.

It's summer time, everything is blooming and growing, so let's talk salad. From greens to dressing to nuts, Neven and Jim dive in on what makes a salad. Neven asks how a Niçoise salad can be like a rueben sandwich and contemplates the squid of lettuces. You'll be ready to hit the farmer's market and throw out those bottled dressings.

It's summer, so Neven and Jim keep talking about burgers and cooking on the grill. We talk the ideal grill vs. the convenient grill, skewering techniques, and how often you should flip a steak (hint: fewer than 150 times). Neven has a quick recipe for Mexican pickled onions. As an added bonus, we introduce a new segment that brings together two of our favorite things we call 'Eating with Quentin'.

Neven visited San Francisco, where we enjoyed some excellent fare at the recently opened Mission Bowling Club and obsessed about what makes a perfect burger. We discuss the philosophy of spicy foods, how eating a good version of a dish can help you appreciate even mediocre efforts, and Neven nearly quits the show in protest of Jim's blasphemous use of hot sauce on pizza.

Neven talks about his recent travels and how and where to eat (or not) when traveling. Jim goes on an epic rant about Nathan Myhrvold, patent troll and modernist cookbook author. They wrap up with new ways to look at watermelons and a technique for guacamole.

Jim is joined by a special guest, the multi-talented Jay Fanelli. In addition to running Full Stop Interactive and United Pixelworkers, Jay is a dedicated cook and the creative partner in two Pittsburgh restaurants, Union Pig & Chicken and Station Street Hot Dogs. Jay and Jim talk about how culinary education is a lot like design education, treating a hot dog like a piece of foie gras, the superiority of the pig, and barbecue sauce secret ingredients.

You know all about food substitutions but what about food upgrades, the little things worth spending a couple extra bucks on. Neven insists no one ever went broke buying olive oil, we try to inspire an anarchist nut butter movement, Jim unloads on "pizza dabbers", and Neven has more food puns.

Neven and Jim bemoan the fact that they haven't been in the kitchen much lately and explore whether it's possible to actually cook more by cooking less. Plus, microwave snobbery and crab legs on the bus.

Our final episode from the Mule Radio Archives, all the way back from January, we start the new year off right. We'll tackle cooking with our mothers-in-law, cleaning out your pantry and freezer, cooking without shopping, rancid oils and throw down over blue vs. white masking tape. Neven gets philosophical and wonders if our kitchens are aspirational graveyards.

Jim's a little under the weather in this classic episode from the Mule Radio archives. Talk turns from garlic soup to the garlic press and other single use tools. We stock up on rice and break down a few of our favorite cookbooks and sites.

Jim and Neven have very different ideas about what constitute odds and ends in your pantry, from chocolate to beet juice. They live to cook another day as they discuss their many, many culinary mistakes.

It's another one from the Mule Radio archives. Neven dishes on cooking all weekend for your coworkers, making your own worcestershire sauce and why you never *just* quadruple a recipe. We stock up on our namesake, salts and fats, and discuss the joy of cooking with sea water.

This week, we start with a breakdown of fried chicken, what makes it awesome and how to make it best. We'll stock our larders with vinegar while Neven spins exotic tales of flavored drinking vinegars. And finally: food puns!

We butcher the pronunciation of a few regional dishes before diving into one of the best and most basic tools for the dedicated cook: stocks! What it is, where it comes from, how it's different and how to do it yourself.

Another classic from the Mule Radio archives! This week, we talk about the difficulty of cooking for one, making fancy food just for yourself (Neven’s answer will shock and amaze you!), cooking all day and still having nothing to eat, and Achewood’s fried chicken. When it comes to stocking your larder, we’re all about flour.