Basics

This is how you make crème fraîche—the French cultured cream that’s richer than sour cream and more versatile than yogurt. Heavy cream mixed with buttermilk, left at room temperature for 12-24 hours, then chilled. That’s it. The live cultures in the buttermilk ferment the cream and thicken it into something tangy, rich, and luxurious. The…

This is how you make compound butter—the secret weapon in every professional kitchen. Softened butter mixed with herbs, cheese, aromatics, or bacon, then rolled into a log and chilled. Slice off a round, melt it over steak, fish, vegetables, or bread. Instant sauce. Instant elevation. Compound butter is pure technique. The butter is the vehicle….

This is how you pickle vegetables—both ways. Quick pickles when you want crisp, tangy vegetables in 24 hours with zero fuss. French traditional pickles when you want shelf-stable jars that look and taste like you know what you’re doing. Both methods use the same vegetables, the same wide-mouth pint Mason jars. The difference is technique…

These aren’t your basic croutons. These are proper French croutons made with beurre noisette—brown butter. When you brown butter, the milk solids caramelize and create this nutty, toasted flavor that transforms everything it touches. Toss cubes of day-old French bread in that brown butter with fresh herbs, bake them until they’re golden and crispy, and…

What are Caramelized Onions? Caramelized onions are slowly cooked onions that transform into sweet, jammy, deeply golden strands through patient low-heat cooking. Raw onions are sharp and pungent. Caramelized onions are sweet, complex, and rich. The slow cooking breaks down the natural sugars and turns them into deep caramel flavor. This is not sautéed onions….