Accessibility links
Food Stories on food, nutrition, recipes, cooking, cookbook reviews, and health. Download Food and Hidden Kitchen podcasts and subscribe to RSS feeds.

Food

Monday

Remembering Marcella Hazan, Who Brought A Taste Of Italy To America

Marcella Polini and Victor Hazan in 1952, pictured in her hometown of Cesenatico, Italy, shortly after they met. Gotham Books hide caption

toggle caption
Gotham Books

The Salt

Remembering Marcella Hazan, Who Brought A Taste Of Italy To America

Hazan, who died Sunday at age 89, helped revolutionize how Americans cook and appreciate Italian food. Ironically, Hazan — a biologist by training — had little interest in cooking until she met her husband, who became an indispensable partner in crafting her cookbooks.

Remembering Marcella Hazan, Who Brought A Taste Of Italy To America

Listen · 4:37
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/227855007/227874428" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Kombucha: Magical Health Elixir Or Just Funky Tea?

Kombucha made by artisan tea brewer Bill Bond in Akron, Ohio, comes in an array of flavors, such as lemongrass, ginger, blueberry and watermelon. Peggy Turbett/The Plain Dealer /Landov hide caption

toggle caption
Peggy Turbett/The Plain Dealer /Landov

The Salt

Kombucha: Magical Health Elixir Or Just Funky Tea?

It smells like vinegar and tastes like spoiled cider. But fans of the fermented tea say that kombucha helps fight off diseases and aging. Sounds fantastical? Well, it probably is. At this point, scientists still know little about kombucha's health effects.

Kombucha: Magical Health Elixir Or Just Funky Tea?

Listen · 3:51
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/226531998/227699525" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
To Get The Benefits Of Olive Oil, Fresh May Be Best

Experts say lots of factors determine how quickly an oil deteriorates — from the variety of the olives, to how the oil is produced and stored. Matthias Schrader/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Matthias Schrader/AP

The Salt

To Get The Benefits Of Olive Oil, Fresh May Be Best

Increasingly, high quality oils have a harvest date stamped on the label. Why? Olive oil goes rancid and loses many of the beneficial compounds in just a few months. If the oil stings the back of your throat, the beneficial compounds are there, experts say.

To Get The Benefits Of Olive Oil, Fresh May Be Best

Listen · 5:04
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/226844915/227699524" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Saturday

Birch For Breakfast? Meet Maple Syrup's Long-Lost Cousins

Beyond maple: Sap drips from a pine tree. Around the nation, producers are making syrup from the sap of pine, birch, even black walnut trees. iStockphoto hide caption

toggle caption
iStockphoto

The Salt

Birch For Breakfast? Meet Maple Syrup's Long-Lost Cousins

Want to top your pancakes with something other than maple? The alternatives vary, depending on the types of trees in a region. There's Kahiltna birch syrup made in Alaska, blue spruce pine syrup from Utah and Georgian black walnut syrup.

Friday

Students Win Seed Money To Make Flour From Insects

MBA students from McGill University in Montreal are building a company to mass produce grasshoppers, seen here at a market in Oaxaca, Mexico. William Neuheisel/Flickr hide caption

toggle caption
William Neuheisel/Flickr

The Salt

Students Win Seed Money To Make Flour From Insects

The students plan to make the nutritious "power flour" with grasshoppers, weevils and caterpillars. Their goal is to make insect-based food products available year-round to people living in some of the world's poorest slums.

Food Fermentation: The Science of Sausage and Cheese

Fermentation is one of the oldest methods of preserving foods. How does acid affect sausage and cheese? What role do microbes play in determining texture and flavor? We'll discuss the science behind these fermented foods.

Food Fermentation: The Science of Sausage and Cheese

Listen · 17:28
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/226837810/226837800" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript

Thursday

McDonald's Says Bye-Bye To Sugary Sodas In Happy Meals

Goodbye, Sodas. McDonald's says it will now market and promote Happy Meals only with milk, water or juice. Bill Parrish Photography/PR Newswire/AP hide caption

toggle caption
Bill Parrish Photography/PR Newswire/AP

The Salt

McDonald's Says Bye-Bye To Sugary Sodas In Happy Meals

From now on, the fast-food giant says, it will only market and promote milk, water or juice with its children's meals — though parents can still choose to order sodas for their children. The change comes as part of a larger plan to promote more healthful choices.

Doctors Say Changes In Wheat Do Not Explain Rise Of Celiac Disease

About 40 years ago wheat breeders introduced new varieties of wheat that helped farmers increase their grain yields. But scientists say those varieties aren't linked to the rise in celiac disease. Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption
Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

The Salt

Doctors Say Changes In Wheat Do Not Explain Rise Of Celiac Disease

Doctors have other ways to explain why wheat makes some people sick, like the hygiene hypothesis.

Doctors Say Changes In Wheat Do Not Explain Rise Of Celiac Disease

Listen · 4:55
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/226510988/226493786" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Hash Browns To Soothe Any Homesick Midwesterner

If someone asked for onions and green peppers fried into his hash browns, the crunchy grated spuds became "glorified." Amy Thielen shared a recipe for All Things Considered's Found Recipe series. Amy Thielen for NPR hide caption

toggle caption
Amy Thielen for NPR

Found Recipes

Hash Browns To Soothe Any Homesick Midwesterner

Amy Thielen knows hash browns. The Minnesotan is a former grill cook who spent many hours flipping those grated potatoes and making sure they had the prefect crisp edge. For today's Found Recipes, Thielen shares the story behind her Glorified Hash Browns, "glorified" because they're accompanied by grilled peppers.

Hash Browns To Soothe Any Homesick Midwesterner

Listen · 3:59
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/226254260/226577070" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Are Chefs On Competitive Diets Good Public Health Messengers?

Chef Mike Isabella, who owns three restaurants in Washington, D.C., came up with the Fit for Hope weight loss challenge for his peers in the restaurant industry. Donald Bowers/Getty Images Entertainment hide caption

toggle caption
Donald Bowers/Getty Images Entertainment

The Salt

Are Chefs On Competitive Diets Good Public Health Messengers?

Chefs are the masterminds behind restaurants that enable and celebrate indulgence and gluttony. So when they do weight loss challenges, the messages are mixed.

Why Can't Fish Oil Supplements Keep Our Brains Sharp?

If you eat fish, rather than take a fish-oil supplement, is there more likely to be a benefit? There's more than a suggestion that this is indeed the case. Verena J Matthew/iStockphoto hide caption

toggle caption
Verena J Matthew/iStockphoto

The Salt

Why Can't Fish Oil Supplements Keep Our Brains Sharp?

Contrary to earlier studies, new research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids may not stave off cognitive decline. We look at why this is hard to pin down — and examine the body of evidence that finds supplements may not be as effective as eating fish meals in protecting brain health.

Wednesday

Pork Politics: Why Some Danes Want Pig Meat Required On Menus

A traditional Danish pork roast, common for Christmas dinner in Denmark. Pork finds its way into most Danish meals. SNSK2010/via flickr hide caption

toggle caption
SNSK2010/via flickr

The Salt

Pork Politics: Why Some Danes Want Pig Meat Required On Menus

No traditional Danish meal is complete without a piece of pork tucked in somewhere — which helps explain the outrage that followed after some Danish day cares dropped pork to accommodate Muslims. The battle over menus is the latest sign of Denmark's struggle with multiculturalism.

That's The Spirit: Why Indians Prefer Strong Beer, Liquor

A bartender pours Haywards 5000 strong beer into a glass at a restaurant in Mumbai. Strong beer, with alcohol content of 5 to 8 percent, accounted for 83 percent of all beer sold in India last year, according to research firm Mintel. Danish Siddiqui/Reuters /Landov hide caption

toggle caption
Danish Siddiqui/Reuters /Landov

Parallels

That's The Spirit: Why Indians Prefer Strong Beer, Liquor

Indians traditionally don't drink much compared with many other countries. But they are imbibing more these days and they do like the strong stuff. Liquor and strong beer dominate the market.

Rooftop Farming Is Getting Off The Ground

Stacey Kimmons and Audra Lewicki harvest lettuce at the Chicago Botanic Garden's 20,000-square-foot vegetable garden atop McCormick Place West in Chicago. Courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden

The Salt

Rooftop Farming Is Getting Off The Ground

Urban farmers are eyeing rooftops that are already green as potential sites to grow food. But there are big obstacles to rooftop farming — from permitting to transporting water and soil to the top of a building.