Meg Sullivan

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Meg Sullivan

Hail fellows! Prithee, take a gander at this bounty, a fare ramble througheth meals of ages gone by... Okay, I can't keep up this medieval speak, but I do love the vibes. And as a food writer, I LOVE thinking about what and how people ate in other time periods. Heritage Images / Getty ImagesIn culinary school, I learned all about the stale bread once used as plates called "trenchers" and the heavy-handed seasoning used to mask the stench of rotting meat — both staples of medieval European dining.

2 weeks ago | buzzfeed.com | Meg Sullivan

"The Food Lab and The Flavor Bible revolutionized my cooking. They got me to the point where recipes are just guidelines for temps, times, and ratios of things I've never made before." "Mise en place (pronounced 'meez-awn plahs') is the French term for this. My little nephew and I like saying it when we’re prepping everything before we cook, because it makes us feel fancy."

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Meg Sullivan

It's wild how something as small as preheating your pan or salting your pasta water properly can make you feel like a chef. I recently fell down a rabbit hole on r/Cooking subreddit, where people were sharing the tiny habits that seriously upgraded their food after Reddit user Sand4sale asked: "What's something small you started doing that improved your cooking?" Some of these tips are genius-level, and I'd never even heard of them before.

2 weeks ago | buzzfeed.com | Meg Sullivan

2 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Meg Sullivan

When I was in culinary school, we learned all kinds of high-brow techniques — quenelles, mille feulle, pate briseé up the wazoo — not all of them practical for everyday cooking. But there's one dessert I actually make over and over again at home, and that's semifreddo. Meg Sullivan^ Me, whipping something up at culinary school. The classic Italian dessert has become my secret to making ice cream at home without an ice cream machine.