Cooking For Engineers®

Recently, I received a wireless thermometer from Thermoworks to try out. Their newest product is called Smoke and is specifically designed to help people barbecue and smoke food at home. Smoke has two parts - a base unit (which takes two of Thermoworks standardized Pro-Series probes) and a wireless receiver unit - which lets the user track the air temperature and the food temperature without going outside to the smoker.
Thermoworks is selling the Smoke at $99 and this would definitely welcome tool for anyone who likes to slow cook food outside.

These days when I reach for a spatula to turn food in a pan, I've been finding myself grabbing the GastroMax Slotted Turner more often than not. Tina bought this spatula for me after months (or maybe years) of listening to me complain about our various spatulas. After buying the GastroMax Turner, my complaining has stopped.

A couple months ago, Andrea from the University of Michigan wrote me an e-mail to let me know of a product that she likes to use when baking brownies and breads. This product, the Baker's Edge, is a pan with additional interior walls to ensure there are no center pieces to a baked good - every piece has at least two edges. After getting my own pan, I set out to see how it stacked up against a traditional pan while baking brownies.

The knives in your kitchen come in all sizes and shapes. Some are for dining, chopping, slicing, carving, and tearing. But which knives are made for what purpose and which are essential to have in your kitchen? In this article, I'll look at some popular knives and discuss what each type of knife is designed for (and some unconventional uses for them).