Sauced

Nobody agrees on barbecue. Memphis wants a dry rub, the Carolinas want vinegar, Kansas City wants a thick sweet sauce, and Texas thinks the conversation should be about beef. This week we listened to every region, picked apart what each one gets right, and then did the one thing two New Yorkers could honestly do: we poured a Manhattan into the sauce. We also trace how ribs went from a discarded cu...

Most cooking woods are fuel. For Jerk Chicken, pimento is the seasoning — it's the smoke, not just the marinade, that gives this dish its defining flavor. This week, we dig into the Maroon origin in smokeless underground pits to evade British patrols, the scotch bonnet vs habanero deep-dive, the Boston Bay tradition that dates to the 1940s, and why Red Stripe — not rum — earns its spot in the mari...

Drunken Noodles is misnamed twice. There's no booze in the dish, and the original version had no noodles either. The only word in the name that's accurate is the eater. This week, four etymology theories, the noodle-less origin, the holy basil vs Thai basil debate, the wok hei science, the LA pastrami variant — and why we ended up with no booze in the dish. Two cocktails: The Krapow — gin, lime, p...

This is a bonus episode that first went out to our premium subscribers in March. We're dropping it in the public feed today so you can hear what bonus episodes are like. They typically feature deep dives into a single technique, ingredient, or side dish, and the subject of this episode is garlic. Garlic changes more dramatically based on how you process it than almost anything else in the kitchen...

Bananas Foster was invented in a single night in 1951 to honor a man fighting French Quarter police corruption, inspired by an Irish-American breakfast, and made with a banana that vanished from American supermarkets in the 1960s. Seventy-five years later, Brennan's still flambés 35,000 pounds of bananas a year for it. This week, we dig into the Big Mike-to-Cavendish swap that quietly rewrote what...

The name says shrimp twice — except it doesn't. "Scampi" is Italian for langoustine, making shrimp scampi a translation accident that's been hiding in plain sight on every red sauce joint menu in America. This week, we unpack the dish that Italian immigrants rebuilt with a different crustacean in a new country. The real identity behind the name, why the sauce is actually a beurre blanc, the salt-a...

Carne Asada isn't a recipe — it's a verb, a noun, and an event, and in Northern Mexico and Southern California the gathering IS the dish. This week, we dig into the communal fire ritual that built its own language. Why "asada" is feminine and Mexican while "asado" is masculine and Argentine, the flap steak cut that beats skirt, the two-agent marinade that uses beer and mezcal as flavor delivery, c...

A Flemish dish with a French name. A stew named for coal, where nothing is cooked over fire. And a thickening technique that involves floating mustard-slathered gingerbread on top of the pot. Carbonnade Flamande is Belgium's answer to Beef Bourguignon — same method, different drink, entirely different class. This week, we break down the beer-braised stew that fueled Flemish laborers for centuries...

In 15th-century Nuremberg, adulterating saffron was punishable by death. Three centuries later, an apprentice glass maker poured that same spice into wedding rice as a prank, and Milan claimed the dish as its own. This week, we break down Risotto alla Milanese — the simplest great dish in Italian cooking — and explore: why Carnaroli beats Arborio, the three Italian techniques that define every pot...

The most iconic dish in British cuisine was invented by a 13-year-old Jewish refugee, popularized by Italian immigrants in Scotland, and served with vinegar that — at most chip shops — is almost certainly fake. Fish and Chips is an immigrant masterpiece, and the real story is wilder than anyone gives it credit for. This week, we dig into the batter science that makes everything shatter: rice flour...

There are Chili competitions — and there are Chili opinions. One bean and you're disqualified. One wrong take and you'll hear about it. This week, we wade into all of it. We trace Chili from the Chili Queens of San Antonio's Military Plaza in the 1860s through William Gebhardt's chili powder revolution, Lady Bird Johnson's White House recipe cards, and the legendary Terlingua cookoff that sparked...

A storm forced an English merchant into a Sicilian port in 1773. The wine he discovered there ended up defining one of Italian America's most iconic dishes. This week we trace Chicken Marsala from that shipwrecked merchant to the red sauce joints of New York, unpacking how a fortified wine became the backbone of a one-pan classic. We break down Marsala's DOC classifications, debate why pounding ch...

Bouillabaisse might be the most argued-over dish in the French canon — and in 1980, a group of Marseille restaurateurs signed an actual charter to settle the debate. This week, we dig into the fisherman's stew that became a prince's feast: the origins on the rocky Calanques, the science behind that creamy golden broth (with no cream involved), and why your fishmonger matters more than any recipe....

A 1974 Italian cookbook, a Bologna nightclub, and a dish that earned the nickname "disco pasta" — Penne alla Vodka has no codified recipe, no agreed-upon ingredient list, and was once called "disgusting" by the president of the Italian Academy of Cuisine. So why does it persist? This week, we're tracing the dish from its murky Italian origins to its Italian-American identity crisis — and devising...

Once called the "soup of drunkards," French onion soup was born in the shadow of Les Halles — Paris's legendary night market — where butchers and aristocrats ate elbow to elbow at 3 AM. The original version? No booze at all. This week, we're changing that. We commit to two versions of the recipe — one built on bourbon and dry French vermouth, the other on Cognac and Amontillado sherry. Along the w...

A secret recipe, a snail shortage, and the richest man who ever lived — that's how Oysters Rockefeller came to be. This week, we're tracing the dish back to 1899 New Orleans and Antoine's, the oldest family-run restaurant in America, where Jules Alciatore swapped escargot for Gulf oysters and created something iconic. We're committing to our own version of the secret recipe — compound butter loade...

How much do you really know about America's favorite finger food? This week, Tim and Sother break down the contested origins of the buffalo wing — from the Anchor Bar's 1964 creation story to the overlooked counter-narrative of John Young's Wings and Things. They examine Calvin Trillin's landmark 1980 New Yorker piece and what it reveals about how food history gets written. Then it's on to techniq...

Coq au vin — rooster in wine — is one of those dishes that sounds fancy but started as peasant cooking. A tough old bird, past its prime, slow-braised until tender in wine with bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions. This week, we trace the dish from Julius Caesar's alleged power play against a Gallic chief to Julia Child's 1961 cookbook that made it a global sensation. We debate whether the "vin" mus...

Butter, batter, booze — and a whole lot of theatre. In this episode, we unpack Crêpes Suzette, the legendary French dessert that turns paper-thin pancakes into tableside spectacle. We dig into the (possibly apocryphal) origin story involving a 14-year-old waiter, the Prince of Wales, and an allegedly accidental flambé. Then we get into the real stuff: how to achieve that elusive crêpe consistency,...

A big, steaming bowl of mussels — simple, fast, and impossibly satisfying. In this episode of Sauced, Tim McKirdy and Sother Teague break down Moules Marinière: the classic bistro dish that proves you don't need lots of time or effort to create something beautiful. We cover why PEI mussels are the move (and why green lips aren't), the proper way to clean and debeard, why shallots matter more than...

The ultimate marriage of beef and red wine — the very dish that inspired this show. For the debut of Sauced, Tim McKirdy and Sother Teague — two former chefs turned cocktail nerds — break down Beef Bourguignon and explore everything beyond the recipe that you need to consider to perfect this dish. In this episode, we tackle the big questions: Why you should skip the Burgundy for cooking. Why you b...

What happens when two former chefs — now leading voices in the drinks world — turn the mic on their favorite topic: cooking with booze and drinking with food? Introducing Sauced , a brand new weekly podcast from Tim McKirdy and Sother Teague. Each week, Tim and Sother unpack a single dish: its history, the techniques that make it sing, and the drinks that belong alongside it. From Beef Bourguignon...