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Have you ever taken a bite of something that immediately made your mouth water?

Maybe it had a savory flavor to it? Maybe it tasted meaty even if it wasn’t meat?

What you just had the pleasure of experiencing is the fabled 5th taste: Umami.

It’s talked about a lot and I was a bit confused on where it comes from and, more importantly, how to get it!

So I figured I would do some research on it and I thought that maybe others could benefit from some background on the great 5th taste.

Breaking Down Flavors

When I was learning about the senses in biology class growing up, I remember learning that there were four main flavors that made up the sense of taste: Sweet, Sour, Bitter, and Salty. Any food or flavor that you taste is made up of a combination of those four things.

Whelp, it turns out that my education didn’t just fail me when it came to U.S. history. It also failed me in the taste department.

Turns out there are actually five flavors. Not four.

While Asian cultures have been defining this taste since the early 1900′s, I guess Westerns thought that Asians somehow tasted food differently than we did. We didn’t add the flavor to our list until pretty recently.

What is Umami?

While the four classic flavors are all pretty easy to isolate and describe, the fifth flavor, umami, is a bit harder to pin down.

In Japanese, Umami translates roughly to “Good Flavor” or “Good Taste.” That seems like as good a definition as you can get for it… it’s the flavor of goodness!

Umami is the savory flavor that makes your mouth water. It’s usually a mild taste (unlike bitter or sour foods), but the flavor is long-lasting.

Umami is almost never good except when combined with other flavors. You wouldn’t want to take a spoonful of straight umami flavor… think about doing a shot of fish sauce for example.

Is It Natural?

I think sometimes people confuse Umami with MSG, or mono-sodium glutamate. MSG has a pretty bad reputation,but whether or not you think MSG is dangerous (I, for one, do not) umami is completely different.

It’s true that MSG gives food the umami, savory flavor, but it’s just one way to get that flavor.

There are actually a ton of foods that naturally have the flavor profile built right in. Here are a few completely natural foods that are jam-packed with umami flavor:

• A very ripe tomato
• Almost any kind of meat
• Mushrooms
• Many grains
• Beans

Of course, humans are not known for being cool with natural amounts of things. A lot of the umami flavor that you’ll taste in dishes is actually added to the dish.

Umami Additives

The science behind flavors and taste is pretty complicated and I quickly got in over my head when I was looking into the chemical additives that yield this umami flavor. Basically, it’s been traced back to a few amino acids that, in combination, give that savory flavor.

For over a century now, Asian cuisine has used many different ingredients that are specifically designed to infuse a dish with this umami flavor. For me, I’m just starting to really play around with some of these ingredients while some of them I have been using for years without actually knowing that they were adding this flavor to my dishes.

There are some exotic umami ingredients, but here’s a break down of the things that are readily available that you can add to a dish to get this flavor.

Soy Sauce - Maybe the most popular of umami sauces. The thing about soy sauce is it’s kind of beginners umami. It’s also very heavy in sodium so it’s pretty easy to use.

Worcestershire Sauce - A common marinade type sauce that’s very popular in steakhouses. What most people might not know is where this sauce gets it’s umami flavor from. The answer: anchovies!

Braggs - This is a new product for me that I’m still playing around with (Thanks Sean and Maeve for the intro). It’s basically a concentration of those amino acids that are known to produce the umami flavor. It has some sodium, but a fraction of what’s in soy sauce. I’m learning that this stuff is good on loads of things!

Fish Sauce - This stuff is very popular in Asia, but gets mixed reviews here in the states. I think that’s because people don’t get how to use it. It’s not a sauce that you eat on its own. You cook with it. It’s way to strong to just sip. It’s made from fermented fish and it’s delicious.

Oyster Sauce - A simple sauce that’s basically boiled oysters that’s then mixed with cornstarch and other stuff to thicken it. It’s very flavorful and a small amount of it can gives loads of savory flavor to your dish.

MSG - The long debated seasoning that is basically pure umami. Some people have a sensitivity to it that causes headaches and other adverse health affects, but after a lot of testing, most of these affects have not been able to be linked to MSG in any way. I feel that it’s safe to eat in moderation and I eat it regularly, but if it gives you a headache, then just don’t use it!

Marmite and Vegemite - Very popular in Britain and Australia, these yeast extract products are basically just super-condensed umami spreads. It’s like umami peanut butter.

Dashi - Dashi normally takes the form of a broth made from dried flakes, but there are a bunch of different variations (kelp/sardines/mushrooms/etc). It’s always umami-packed though!

Macheesmo Umami

Here’s a few dishes that I’ve made over the years that are jam-packed with umami flavors.

Kimchi Stir Fry - A simple stir fry with a classic fermented ingredient that is very savory.

Potstickers - While anything meat is normally very umami-filled, the sauce for these guys just kicks it up a notch.

Bourbon Glaze - I made this just last week and while it has some sweet flavors, the Braggs gives it lots of savory goodness.

Viatnamese Noodle Salad - I love this salad for so many reasons, but one of them is because it’s got a lot of umami flavor.

Mushroom Meatloaf - No Asian flavors here, but anytime you cram this many mushrooms into one dish, you’ll be blessed with umami.

What’s your favorite Umami dish or ingredient? Leave a comment!

Ok. So I’m not really a baby stealer. And I might lie on occasion, but never to you lovely readers.

It’s very possible that I’m a hypocrite though.

Allow me to explain. A few days ago a very astute reader commented on an old post:

I think it’s funny that the cook spouts so much fanatical anti-can propaganda and then procedes to produce a recipe that requires two cans (or one can and one foil lined box.) Make up your mind. Either make your meal from scratch or don’t, but don’t preach about not using canned soup and then use canned broth and vegetables.

After I pulled my shriveled ego out from under my desk, I thought to myself that this reader is actually correct.

I’m not sure that I would call my normal Macheesmo writings “propaganda”, but it’s very true that I sometimes contradict my own advice.

I’m a big believer in airing grievances so this post is my attempt at a defense!

What is From Scratch?

There are multiple recipes on Macheesmo that I claim to make something from scratch.

What does that mean though? Depending on who you are talking to it could mean very different things. A dairy farmer might think that you have to churn your own butter to make something from scratch. Maybe it means you grind your own flour?

Maybe to call something “from scratch” you have to grow and make every single aspect of the dinner including smelting and forging your own cast iron pans!

Of course, I do none of that. So what do I mean when I say something is from scratch?

I define from scratch as anytime you cook something using mostly raw or minimally processed ingredients.

Using this definition, I can cook something with canned tomatoes and still call it from scratch. I don’t think this is a travesty. Canning tomatoes is just a way to preserve them so they can be easily used when they aren’t in season. In fact, I think it’s better to used canned things like tomatoes when they are out of season.

There’s a big difference between preserved tomatoes and cream of mushroom soup. Even if both of them come packaged in cans.

The Gray Zone

Obviously, there is a huge amount of gray zone with this definition. Depending on your experience and skill, you might have a completely different definition of what from scratch means. Here’s a few examples of things that I think are in the gray zone:

Chicken/Veggie Stock - If you are used to making homemade stock often, you might think that you must make your own stock if you call something from scratch. Others might consider store-bought stock a perfectly acceptable ingredient.

Pasta - Pasta is definitely something that’s possible to make at home, but it’s also a pain in the butt! Some people might be better at it than others and think of it as a necessity for some meals. Some people have never made homemade pasta, will never make homemade pasta, and do not consider it necessary to do so.

Bread - If a recipe calls for bread, do you need to make that bread on your own or can you sub in store-bought bread? Again, I think it depends on your experiences and level of cooking.

Where I Went Wrong

The thing that I think the above comment nailed is that I did use store-bought stock in a recipe that I called “from scratch“. For a dude who raves about homemade stock as much as I do, that was maybe a stretch.

The only defense I have is that I was focusing on the normal preparation of the meal in question, beef stroganoff, which involves noodles, beef, and a few cans of cream of mushroom soup.

I didn’t make the noodles from scratch and used store-bought stock instead of homemade. Instead of the cream of mushroom soup, I made a simple pan sauce with fresh mushrooms, cream, and a few other simple ingredients.

In my mind, I basically thought that since I wasn’t using the canned soup that it was from scratch.

I’m not sure that that is correct. I can tell you that it tasted better, but I’m not sure on the from scratch issue.

Macheesmo the Human

Sometimes I get carried away with making homemade pasta and stock and all that stuff. I enjoy doing that stuff and I think the results can be worth it.

That doesn’t mean that I do it all the time. This is an important distinction.

I have a job, a wife who would like to see me outside of the kitchen occasionally, two needy animals, and some sort of feeble social life.

So I don’t make all my own pasta. I try to make stock and freeze it, but sometimes I’m out. I love making homemade bread, but sometimes I still buy the sliced stuff.

Basically, I’m busy like most of my readers. I prioritize a lot of time and money toward cooking good meals because it’s important to me, but I’m very far from perfect.

I take shortcuts on occasion.

The Macheesmo Goal

The goal with Macheesmo has always been, since day one, to find ways to inspire people to cook more. I don’t want people to think that if they don’t have the time to cook everything from scratch then they might as well just order take-out.

There’s a middle ground and that middle ground is huge. And delicious.

I’m thrilled to death when someone tells me that they have tried one of my recipes. Honestly, I don’t care if they change it or substitute store-bought stock for homemade stock.

You have to make the recipes your own and make them fit your life.

So yes. You’ll occasionally see me use store-bought stock in recipes. This doesn’t mean that I don’t fully realize that homemade is better. It means that I just plain didn’t have time to make any!

It’s not my goal to be a hypocrite, but I can see how I might come off as one on occasion.

What do you think?

What makes a meal from scratch? More importantly, do you think I’m a horrible person on par with baby stealers?

I’m kind of a stat nerd and I love compiling all of the stats at the end of the year and figuring out which posts were most popular.

I thought it’d be fun to let you guys check out the list of the most popular posts from the last year. In addition, I gave my 10 favorite posts that weren’t already mentioned.

Most Popular Posts

Out of the over three hundred posts that I wrote for Macheesmo last year, these were the ten posts that had the most traffic. Some of these really surprised me actually.

Click on the title or photo to read the whole post.

10) Breakfast Baked Peaches

I wasn’t too surprised to see this in the list. It turned out really pretty and was delicious. When peaches were in season a lot of people had this on their “to-make” list I think.

9) Spinach Artichoke Cups

I’ve made these a few times since posting them for parties and stuff. They are always a hit.

8) Rainbow Wheat Berry Salad

I kind of forgot about this post! Betsy and I ate this for lunch a few weeks in a row because it was so good, but I was shocked to see it high up in the stats.

7) Margarita Shrimp Tacos

These were really tasty and simple to make. Not surprised that these were popular.

6) Lemon Drop Jello Shots

From my attempts at making super-fancy jello shots. Not too bad if I do say so myself.

5) Repairing a Cast Iron Skillet

Possibly the most useful post I wrote all year… bring that old rusty skillet back to life!

4) Crockpot Yogurt

Not too surprised that this was high up on the list. Making your own yogurt is pretty easy and you don’t need a fancy yogurt maker. A crockpot will do the trick.

3) Bacon Bourbon

Any time you want a page to get a lot of traffic, just put bacon on it. It’s a recipe for internet success. I try not to fall into the trap of just throwing bacon into things for the heck of it, but sometimes it just makes sense.

2) Cast Iron Pizza

People loved this recipe. I loved this recipe. Quite honestly one of the best pizzas I’ve ever made.

1) Four Homemade Cleaners

It figures that the post with the most traffic from 2011 wasn’t even my idea. I have to give Betsy credit for this one. Maybe she should start a blog…

Nick’s Favorite Posts

Some of the posts that were popular overlap with posts that I thought turned out the best, but only a few. Most of my favorite posts from 2011 weren’t even close to making the list. Funny how that works.

Here were my 10 favorite posts from the last year in no particular order.

Crispy Tempeh Tacos

I’m not really sure why I thought this would be a good combo, but it turned out to be an amazing combo! The texture of these tacos is really awesome.

Green Chile Mac and Cheese

I had a dish like this in Austin and the first thing I did when I got home was try to re-create it. Turned out fantastic and still something that I like to make for a crowd.

Three Dry Rubs

This is more of a resource post than a recipe post. Everybody should have a few good recipes for rubs in their spice arsenal.

Short Rib Ragu

I think this was probably Betsy’s favorite thing that I made this year. With good reason… it’s a really hard dish to beat and would be great on a cold winter night.

Homemade Mayo

I was blown away at how much more flavor homemade mayo had over the store-bought stuff. I still make homemade mayo pretty regularly.

Spicy Pickled Okra

I liked this post a lot because it was my first attempt at pickling something and it turned out fantastic. These tasted better than the pickled okra you buy at the store for $5/jar and they cost me way less than that to make.

Shredded Chicken Hard Tacos

The filling for these tacos isn’t as important as the technique. Making hard tacos like this is pretty easy and makes a much better taco than if you were to grab a box of the pre-formed hard taco shells.

The NickRib

The idea of a BBQ pork sandwich is a good one. The idea of freezing them so you can have one anytime is even better. Plus, these are cheaper than the McD’s version.

Cashew Dip

This dip kind of stunned me! It’s really simple to make and is really addictive.

Sweetbread Po’ Boys

Offal? Check. Fried stuff? Check. Sriracha? Check. My dream food.

I’m really happy with how 2011 turned out on Macheesmo. I feel like I learned a lot and tried a lot of new dishes. Hopefully, 2012 brings even more delicious food!

If you have a favorite recipe or post from 2011 (from any website), leave a comment!

I have the kind of mind that will just wonder aimlessly without straightforward goals so setting resolutions helps me more than it might help others.

I also like to make them public. It keeps me honest and also might even give you a few ideas for resolutions this year.

So here’s a quick post with my resolutions for the next year and also a review of my 2011 resolutions!

Last Year’s Resolutions

I set 5 goals for 2011 and I would give myself a solid B on accomplishing these. Let’s go through them one by one.

Brew a Batch of Beer. I used to love brewing beer and I hadn’t done it in a few years so I really wanted to try to get back into it this year. I brewed exactly one batch. It exploded. I have yet to try again. So I technically met this resolution, but I don’t think I really met the spirit of this resolution.

Do Some Canning. I rocked this one. I had two really successful canning attempts. My pickled okra turned out amazing. I just have one or two jars left. My peach jalapeno jam was also a success. It wasn’t as spicy as I would’ve liked, but that’s just personal preference. I feel pretty confident about basic canning now and am excited to try more.

Grow a Garden. Not only did I grow a garden, I built a garden! I grew all kinds of stuff… some of it succeeded and some of it failed. My garden this year will be a lot better after having a year of experience under my belt.

Freelance Articles. I wanted to write a bunch more freelance articles in 2011 and I sort of succeeded. I wrote almost an article a week for Tablespoon, but I wasn’t able to get any writing assignments outside of that. I wrote a few query letters, but no bites. I’ll try again this year though.

Hit and Maintain 175. This was a half success. I’ve definitely lost weight this year. I hover around 180 now. The good news though is that I think I’ve built a lot of muscle. I’ve been exercising a lot and Betsy and I are just generally more active these days than when we lived in DC. Betsy told me recently that she thinks I’m in the best shape she has seen me in since we started dating. I’ll take that as a WIN.

 2012 Resolutions

Ok. Now for the fun part. Here’s a few fairly ambitious resolutions for next year!

Making Croissants - I’ve tried to make croissants about half a dozen times in the past. I’ve never been able to produce anything that even half-resembles a croissant. I’m not saying that I will succeed at this, but I’ll try a few times. Bring on the butter!

Self-publish a Book - This is actually in the works. It’s a project that I’ve been working on for about 9 months now and is almost done. I’m really excited to tell you all more about it, but I need another month or two to put on some finishing touches.

YouTube It - I’ve never really figured out a good way to do Macheesmo in video format. Frankly, I like writing and taking photos and that’s what works best for this site in my opinion. That said, I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a separate project on Youtube. It would be food-related, but not really coincide exactly with the stuff on Macheesmo.

Run the Holy Cross Trail - I’ve been doing a lot of trail running this year and I’m sort of addicted to it. I’ve never been a huge runner, but I really love the varied terrain of a trail. Plus I get to bring the dog.

Holy Cross is a pretty tough mountain biking trail near us. I’ve biked it before and it’s very difficult. I think it’s a bit under 10K distance-wise but it also has a 700 feet elevation change so I think it would be a challenging run.

Organs! - I love cooking with offal, but I’m pretty inexperienced with most types. I want to keep experimenting and try a few different and new types in 2012. In fact, I’m posting a really delicious offal dish TOMORROW. So check back for that!

That’s my hopeful 2012 in a nutshell!

Do you have any resolutions for 2012, cooking or otherwise? Leave a comment!

Great croissant photo by Rofi.

“Can this dish be frozen?!”

I try not to respond with a snark-ridden reply:

“NOPE! This food is impervious to ice and freezing. It will never freeze!”

Of course, all foods will technically freeze, but that doesn’t mean that you should freeze them all.

So I figured I would lay out my freezer philosophy. What do I freeze and how do I do it?

What To Freeze

Any food will freeze and almost all foods can be frozen successfully assuming you do it correctly. There’s a few guidelines that I like to use though when I’m considering freezing a food.

No Cans or Eggs - The two foods that you don’t want to freeze under any circumstances is anything canned and eggs in their shells. When you freeze food they expand and you could end up with exploding cans and/or eggs.

Raw Meat Over Cooked Meat - It’s not bad to freeze cooked meat (I did for my NickRibs). It freezes fine, but I think it does degrade faster than if you freeze the meat raw. If I freeze meat that’s cooked, I try to use it within a few months. Raw meat though can theoretically be frozen for years without issue assuming it’s packaged correctly.

Fresh is Best - I’ve seen people clean out their fridge and freeze all of the almost rotten vegetables thinking that it will extend their shelf life. Technically it will, but when you thaw the food out, it’ll be gross. If you’re freezing raw food, try to freeze it as early in its shelf life as possible.

This is why food manufacturers flash freeze vegetables as soon as they are picked.

No Emulsion Sauces - Some sauces freeze beautifully. Anything stock-based will freeze fine. Creamy sauces though that are a careful suspension of oil and water don’t freeze well. Things like mayonnaise and hollandaise are better left in the fridge and then discarded.

No Fresh Greens - I’ve never actually tried this, but I’m pretty sure freezing fresh greens is a bad idea. They will lose their crunch when you thaw them. Things like lettuce, arugula, or raw spinach are better left out of the freezer.

Casseroles For the Win - Any baked casserole can almost definitely be frozen with very little quality loss. Things like lasagna are made to be frozen. In most cases you can freeze them before or after baking.

Stocks and Soups - Like casseroles, almost any stock or soup can be frozen perfectly. I like to even freeze these in individual serving sizes so it makes it easy to thaw out just one meal.

Stick to Large Quantities - Personally, I don’t like to bother with one or two servings of a dish. I’ve tried to freeze a small amount of something and I always forget about it and it ends up lost in the freezer maze. When I have just a few servings of something, I store it in the fridge and just plan on using it within the week as leftovers.

How to Freeze

I think when most people ask me “Can I freeze it?” they want to know specifically how to freeze it.

If you find yourself freezing a lot of food, I highly recommend getting a vacuum pack sealer which removes all the air from the packaging and creates a really clean seal. Food that is vacuum-sealed can stay frozen for years with almost no degradation.

I don’t freeze enough these days to warrant one of these guys, but I think if/when Betsy and I have kids, and I start cooking more in bulk, I’ll probably splurge for one.

Have no fear though. You don’t need one of those fancy things to freeze food effectively.

Here’s the process I use:

1) Cool it Down. Probably the most important step of freezing food is to cool it down before freezing it. Under no circumstances should you ever put something that’s still hot, or even warm, in your freezer. For one, it will heat up your freezer and possibly thaw out items around it which is very unsafe. Secondly, it will take forever to freeze something that’s hot which could lead to a bacteria breeding ground.

You can either just leave the item at room temperature until it’s cool or, if it’s a liquid, you can submerge the liquid in a large bowl or pot with ice water in it. The surrounding ice bath will rapidly cool the food.

2) Wrap it Well. If you’re using plastic bags to freeze in, make sure they are specifically freezer-safe. I usually go a step further and wrap my items prior to putting them in freezer safe bags. Normally, I’ll wrap the food in plastic wrap, then in foil, then store them in freezer bags. The goal is to keep as much air away from the food as possible.

3) Label It! Labeling is very important in the freezer world. If you don’t label stuff well you’ll end up with rows and rows of random foil blocks. It’ll be impossible to tell what anything is and you’ll end up not ever using the stuff. A Sharpie marker is your friend.

4) Freeze it Fast. The faster you can freeze the food, the better off you’ll be. If you can split up your food into smaller portions, it’ll freeze faster and also thaw faster.

Thaw It

Hopefully, if you’ve frozen something, you’ll eventually thaw the thing and actually eat it. It’s my hypothesis that a lot of frozen food gets thrown away because it isn’t frozen correctly so the quality degrades far enough that it’s not worth eating.

Assuming you do freeze it correctly though, you’ll want to thaw it. According to the USDA, there’s only three safe ways to thaw food that’s been frozen:

1) Fridge. You can move frozen food to the fridge to thaw without worry. This is the best way to thaw food in my opinion but depending on the size of what you are thawing, it will probably take a day or two to thaw.

2) Cold Water. You can submerge your food in cold water until it’s thawed. This will take a few hours most likely. Don’t put your food in hot water. That will actually start cooking it as it thaws and could cause bacteria to grow.

3) Microwave. While I don’t love to thaw food in the microwave, if you do it slowly (low power) and carefully, it can be done with success.

Five Great Freezer Dishes

Here’s a few dishes I’ve posted over the years that are made to freeze:

The Nickrib - My take on the McDonald’s sandwich. These reheat really well actually and are great for a hardy sandwich.

Breakfast Sandwiches - One of my more popular posts ever actually. Instructions on how to quickly and easily make and freeze breakfast sandwiches.

Frozen Pizzas - If a food company can make decent frozen pizza, so can you.

Leftover Bounty - This is what I did with my huge amount of turkey leftovers last year: Turkey Burritos and Turkey Rice Soup.

Kidney Bean Soup - Most soups freeze perfectly, but this is one that Betsy and I froze and ate for months. Just as good as on day one!

Your Tips and Dishes

I know there are more than a few Macheesmo readers out there who are freezing experts. If you have tips for freezing food successfully or dishes that you think work great frozen and re-heated. LEAVE A COMMENT!

Photo by magnetisch.

I hope everyone is able to spend it with family and friends and eat some good food.

On Friday, after the food coma has worn off, I encourage you to make this:

It’s a really simple turkey melt with leftover turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, and mozzarella cheese.

It’s a great sandwich.

I’m going to take tomorrow off also, but will be back on Saturday with a fresh brunch dish as usual.

If you need some ideas to get rid of all those turkey leftovers, be sure to try out my turkey fajitas, mashed potato gnocchi, or browse through ingredients page to find some new ideas!

Have a great day everyone!

Note from Nick: Today I’m posting a guest post from Bethany over at Bake or Buy. Her posts are similar to my homemade trials posts where I try to figure out whether it makes sense to make something from scratch or not. She tackles a big holiday side item today: Cranberry sauce. She included a recipe for a simple and tasty homemade version also.

I thought this was a really interesting post just because I know people who will choose canned cranberry sauce over a delicious homemade version every single time.

Anyway, take it away Bethany!

I know… I’m just asking to make some enemies with this one. There is a clear line between those who like their sauce from a can (still in the shape of it even) or chunky and fresh.

Basic Cranberry Sauce

Yield: Makes about 2 cups.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1 bag cranberries (12 ounce)
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/6 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup orange juice
pinch cinnamon

Directions:

1) Combine all the ingredients in a medium pot over medium-high heat and cook for 15-20 minutes. Use a spatula to smash the berries to help them cook down.

2) Once the mixture is cooked down and thick, let it cool and either at room temperature or chill it for a thicker sauce.

The Store Brand

Ocean Spray – I bought both Jellied and Whole Berry.

Making the Sauce

Homemade cranberry sauce is surprisingly easy to make. Put all the ingredients in a pan and just let them cook down over medium heat for about 15 minutes. I was using fresh oranges, but I realized my oranges didn’t have quite enough juice, so I ended up using half store bought juice.

And once it’s all said and done you’ll be left with a nice thick sauce that you can either serve at room temperature or chilled (mine’s on the right):

And if you have to have the can shape:

The Breakdown

Interestingly enough, the whole berry and jellied cranberry sauce had the exact same ingredients – cranberries, high fructose corn syrup, and corn syrup. One is just emulsified and one’s not.

So I win nutrition right there.

As far as taste and consistency goes, my cranberry sauce actually jelled up a lot more than I thought it would as it cooled.

It was really thick and delicious. I bet you could even use a hand blender and shape it like a can if you had to!

The actual canned jellied version is totally out – I knew that was true for me, I need the chunk.

Head-to-head on the whole berry version? Homemade crushes the taste category. It’s fresh and tart, and the hint of citrus makes it. Period.

The canned was oversweetened, so you didn’t even get a good feel for the tartness of the cranberries.

And the cost? Here’s the breakdown!

Ok. So it actually costs more to make your own. But aside from Thanksgiving, how often do you have cranberry sauce? Treat your guests for the holiday!

So, Bake or Buy? BAKE!

Bonus Recipe

On a side note, what did I do with all that cranberry sauce? I’m still trying to get rid of an influx of apples, so I made cran-apple crisp. Mix a batch of that fresh cranberry sauce with 4 sliced apples and top with your favorite crisp topping (my recipe for crisp topping: 1/2 cup oatmeal, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 4 tablespoons butter)!

Fork the crisp ingredients together and spread over the top of the apple/cranberry mixture. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Eat warm! Wish I would have shot a picture of this – it’s just GORGEOUS! :)

Note from Nick: I’m a freakin’ huge homemade cranberry sauce fan, but it can definitely be a contentious issue. I know people that define Thanksgiving by having a can of cranberry sauce on the table. It’s not even debatable.

Where do you stand? Homemade or store bought? Leave a comment!

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen a huge amount of advertisements for a new brand of cookie called “WhoNu?” They make a few different varieties of cookies that are supposedly much more nutritious than other brands of store cookies.

I thought it would be fun to see what the deal is with these guys. Are all the nutritious claims true? Do they taste good? Is there a catch? (Hint: yes)

Before I get too far into the post, I think it’s important to remind everyone that I don’t get paid for these types of posts. If I ever do get compensation for a post (or if a company sends me free stuff to review), I’ll disclose that first thing.

In this case, I paid my own hard-earned bucks for this bright orange box of cookies that I’ll never eat.

All for you.

Marketing Geniuses

Before I even get to the actual cookies, I think it’s worth noting that the marketing team behind these cookies is firing on all cylinders. The box that the cookies are in is bright orange and stands out in the cookie aisle.

They also modeled each cookie off of already popular cookies. So when you’re standing in the aisle, there are Oreos and these right next to each other. That’s on purpose.

They want to go head-to-head with other cookie makers.

Nutritional Claims

All over the box and in the commercials for these cookies, they shout about how nutritious these things are. Besides the above statements, here’s some other that are found all over the box:

- As much Vitamin A as an 8 ounce glass of tomato juice
- As much Vitamin B12 as a cup of cottage cheese and fruit
- As much Vitamin E as two cups of carrot juice
- As much Iron as a cup of spinach

The list really does go on.

I checked on all of their nutritional facts and here’s a few things I noticed.

1) They are all true. I verified all of the nutritional claims that they have on the box and they are all true. This didn’t really shock me. They wouldn’t print a blatant lie on a new national product like this when people are obviously going to fact check them.

2) Oatmeal is a stretch. The one nutritional claim that I was super-skeptical about was the oatmeal claim. Oatmeal has a lot of fiber in it. A serving of these cookies has three grams of fiber, about 12%. At first I thought I caught them in a lie because a serving of real rolled oats (the oatmeal I use) has 8 grams per serving, almost 40% of your daily needs.

After some thinking though, I realized that they are probably talking about instant oatmeal. Sure enough, instant oatmeal has three grams of fiber. So they aren’t lying, but it’s a big stretch.

I really think they shouldn’t be able to claim this has the same fiber as oatmeal. They should have to say that it’s the instant variety because the health differences between real oats and instant oatmeal are huge.

3) Right foods. Wrong reasons. After looking up all of their facts, I realized what they are doing. For the most part, they are taking a food that we associate with health, and matching up one of the lower amounts of vitamins in that food.

For example, they say as much Vitamin E as carrot juice. Carrot juice is super-healthy, but it doesn’t have a lot of Vitamin E. It has a HUGE amount of Vitamin A. This goes for pretty much all of their comparisons.

Nutritional Facts

As always, when I’m evaluating a food product, I check out nutritional panel first.

Here’s what I noticed:

- These have 10 calories less than a serving of Oreo Cookies.

- These have .5g less saturated fat than Oreo Cookies.

- These have 1g less of sugar than Oreo Cookies.

So these are basically just slightly healthier Oreo cookies.

The Taste Test

I’m not a huge cookie guy although I’m occasionally a sucker for a chocolate chip pretzel cookie.

I have to be honest though, these tasted exactly like an Oreo cookie. I can’t imagine that anyone would be able to tell the difference in a blind taste test unless you are an Oreo aficionado.

If you like Oreos, you’ll like these. I’m assuming that their other cookies are probably equally good as other mass produced cookies.

They do not, however, make a double stuffed variety. But you can make your own I guess.

More Nutritional Comparisons

I thought it would be fun to do some of my own nutritional comparisons on these cookies since they seem to be so big on comparisons.

A serving of WhoNu? Cookies has:

• The same Sodium content as two slices of bacon.
• More sugar than a Jolly Rancher candy.
• More calories than a 12 ounce can of Coca-Cola.
• More fat than a Twinkie.

A Cookie is a Cookie

The super-important thing to remember about these is that you’re still eating a cookie. Don’t get blown away by their marketing department and sub-par nutritional comparisons. You can’t eat 6 servings of these cookies every day and think you are good to go on nutrition.

It’s still a cookie and should be treated as what it is… a dessert.

At the end of the day, just take a daily vitamin and then you can straight-up ignore all of their nutritional claims and see it for what it is: A cookie.

Why I Don’t Like WhoNu?

I don’t like this brand because they are capitalizing on uneducated Americans. I absolutely guarantee you that there are people feeding these cookies to their kids for breakfast thinking that it’s the same as a bowl of oatmeal.

We don’t need any more confusion in the grocery store aisles. We need clarity. Making healthy cookies isn’t going to cure our obesity problems. In fact, I think it will make them worse.

I like a cookie every once in awhile (WhoDoesnt?), but I don’t need my cookies to have some weird amount of Vitamin K.

I want my cookies to have butter. And Chocolate. And be worth it.

Feel free to eat cookies, but don’t think that by eating these new “nutrition rich” cookies that you are somehow doing your body a favor.

It’s crazy to think that three years ago (pre-Macheesmo), I was a hesitant cook. I mean, I knew a few things, but I stuck to my staples and only occasionally tried new things.

These days it’s a completely different story. I cook with new stuff every week and am constantly trying out new recipes and ideas.

I don’t know everything, by a long shot, but I’m not scared to try new stuff which is one of the reasons I started this website.

To go with that idea, a few weeks ago, Betsy and I ventured to Boulder to help a friend cater his wedding. I’ve never cooked for that many people before (~120) and I’ve definitely never catered a wedding before. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, but at the same time, I had confidence that we could pull it off.

I thought I’d take a post, share the menu that I came up with, and also talk about a few of the things I learned from the experience. Sorry, there’s not too many photos from the wedding. I was too busy running around to snap a bunch of photos.

The Menu

Written by the kiddos.

To be honest, I think this is where you could go horribly wrong if you’re planning on catering your own wedding.

We were planning for a kind of “upscale BBQ” feel so I spent a lot of time thinking about a mix of dishes that would work well. I aimed to put dishes on the menu that would be good at room temperature or cold and also things that had a lot of flexibility. I knew stuff like steaks or seafood would be a failure just because I had no way to control their cooking time correctly.

Here’s what I came up with:

Appetizers:
Cheese and Crudite Tray: Diced up cheeses and veggies. Homemade dips: Ranch, Blue Cheese, Hummus.
Roasted Salsa Roja and Verde: Two salsas with tortilla chips.
Butternut Squash Dip: This was the only appetizer that needed to be warm which made it easy to plan appetizers.

Main Dishes:
Smoked Brisket: Dry rubbed and hickory smoked brisket. We did about 35 pounds of brisket (4 whole briskets) and smoked them for 13 hours.
Pulled Pork Sandwiches: Dry rubbed pork butts slowly cooked over charcoal. We cooked about 40 pounds of pork butt 20 hours overnight and they were amazing. Probably the best pulled pork I’ve ever made.
Grilled Veggies: Marinated and grilled asparagus, peppers, and mushrooms.

Side Dishes:
Rooster Potato Salad: I made a huge amount of my grilled potato salad and mixed in a spicy chili mayonnaise.
Green Chile Mac and Cheese: Roasted peppers mixed in cheese sauce with black beans and corn. This was the only side dish that needed to be warm.
Roasted Beet Salad: A classic fall salad with pistachios, beets, and goat cheese that was easy to throw together although peeling 40 beets wasn’t the best time.

Luckily, I didn’t have to handle desserts so that was nice.

The Plan

20 hours of work...

Day-to-day, I’m not much of a planner. I kind of wing things, especially when it comes to kitchen things. But this was not the time for that. I developed a very intense schedule for work that had to be done each day, broken down by task. Even my Type-A wife was super-impressed.

The wedding was on Saturday and the plan was to eat around 4PM. I started prep on Thursday and cooked for pretty much 48 hours straight. I was able to do a lot of the prep in advance which was great. Even though it seems like a fairly straightforward menu, there was a lot to get done. Anytime your multiplying recipes by 20, the hours can quickly disappear.

Luckily, I did have a few friends (like the guy that came up with this genius recipe) helping me out and Betsy was a fantastic help also.

I won’t give you the full schedule, but here was my tasks to do just on Friday:

Pick up meats
Roast and peel beets
Make pita chips (for squash dip)
Make Potato salad (included peeling, grilling and dicing 40 pounds of potatoes and lots of other veggies)
Make sop for briskets (for spraying while cooking, basically a mix of apple cider vinegar and beer)
Prep grills and smoker (we were working with three different grills (2 charcoal and 1 gas) and an electric smoker.
Make squash dips for baking the next day
Roast chilis for mac and cheese
Make homemade ranch, blue cheese, and hummus
Rub meats and let rest
Start meats

This all took pretty much an entire day, but it was really fun work actually. I got to hang out with some good friends, have a few beers, and cook up a storm.

The Problems

As you might guess, it’s impossible for stuff to go 100% right when you’re cooking this much stuff. Especially if you don’t have a professional kitchen and you aren’t a professional chef. Luckily, the stuff that did go wrong was pretty minor. Here’s a list.

Missing the Fat! Turns out that two of my briskets had the fat removed from them. This may not sound like a big deal, but it made it hard to cook all of them together and those two ended up being drier than I would’ve liked. Should’ve checked it before we left the butcher.

Fridge Space! We should’ve spent a bit more time planning out fridge space. Luckily, the wedding was on a cool October day, so we were able to store a lot of the stuff in coolers in “Nature’s refrigerator”.

Temperamental Grills!  I was using two Weber charcoal grills to cook 4 huge pork butts. Ideally, I would be able to maintain the heat in these grills at a solid 250 degrees. I was mostly able to succeed but it meant checking on them every hour or so for 20 hours. So I didn’t get much sleep, but the pork came out fantastic so I can’t complain too much about it.

People from Texas! I’m kidding. But I did realize once we were at the wedding that most of the people there were from Texas and I was making salsa and smoked briskets. This upped my stress levels pretty significantly because Texans know their freakin’ brisket. I knew I’d be called out if it wasn’t decent when I could probably slide by if everyone was from any other state.

In the great scheme of things, these were not major issues and everything was easily solved. I got pretty lucky.

Tips and Tricks

So you want to cater your own wedding or help out a friend? Here’s a few tips.

Cooking Space. Nail down your cooking space before you get too far in the process. If you’re grilling, make sure you know what grills you’re using. Make sure you have ovens that work and enough counter space to do what you need to do. You can never have too much counter space!

Helpful Hands. Accept all the help you can get. Don’t try to be proud and think you can do it all on your own. You can’t. On the flip side though, be sure you’re okay with delegating and leading. Give people specific tasks so they are helping and not just getting in the way.

Use your Recipes. I didn’t cook anything for this wedding that I hadn’t cooked before. Now is not the time to get experimental.

Be Flexible. Sometimes you need to change plans based on what’s happening. You might need to grill something instead of roast it. You might need to bail on the idea of making 4 gallons of homemade mayo. You might need to rig a quick hot box with coolers, foil, and towels because your briskets finish 5 hours before you thought they would.

Have Internet Access. You’ll need it. Also, a good stereo and a decent six pack of beer doesn’t hurt.

Have Confidence. People will question things you are doing. This is good. They might point out glaring issues that you didn’t realize, but 90% of the time you will be right if you put in the necessary planning time. Be confident enough to execute the plan.

A Caterer is Born?

A ton of people asked me if I was going to open a catering business after the meal. Actually, a fair amount of people thought I was an actual caterer. I took this as a great compliment, but I don’t think the life is for me.

I was really happy to help a friend and it was a lot of fun, but it’s not something I could see myself doing every weekend for the rest of my life.

I love to cook, but I’m not sure I would love to cater!

That said, Betsy and I did look pretty good in matching black T-shirts.

Have you cooked for a lot of people before? If you have any tips or stories, leave a comment!