SALT PIG

Welcome to SALT PIG! After analyzing all sorts of home-cooking topics over these last 22 episodes (!), we marvel at how often we neglect certain basics and niceties when cooking day in and day out. As cookbook professionals, we are devoted to the details of our clients and our work; but when left to own devices, we can really phone it in and forget/refuse to make cooking as pleasant and fulfilling...

Bean tribe, unite! This week, we have a very special guest joining us: Steve Sando, founder of everyone’s favorite heirloom bean company Rancho Gordo and author (or publisher) of nearly a dozen books on the topic . We get philosophical: What is actual simplicity in cooking (and can it exist in cookbook publishing)? We get genre-bendy: Is there a connection between making fashion choices and eating...

Sometimes having people over can be kind of stressful. But as they say, you have to make the community you want, right? And we want dinner parties. We share the successes, the mishaps, the too-small chicken pot pie, the desserts to remember. We debate if it’s better to apologize for your own shortcomings or just zip it and hope no one notices. What can be done to make an evening no-fuss, tasty, an...

Welcome to SALT PIG! There comes a time every year when we wonder: is paying for a membership at Costco worth it? Especially given the spectacle of the almost-fistfights in the parking lot, the morality of buying the world’s most giant chicken breasts, the longest lines, the tallest soft serves, the lifetime supply of Zyrtec that might expire before you can take it all, the physical grappling to f...

Welcome to SALT PIG! This week, we are pushing back against the enshittification of Big Food and talking about what veggies are growing on Lukas’ roof and in Ellie’s backyard. Turns out homegrown food has a wide range of highs and lows: mistakenly planting the proliferative yet dull-as-rocks banana pepper, the verdant joy of clipping your own herbs and lettuces, the diverse findings of chili peppe...

Welcome to SALT PIG! This week we are talking about eating food outside of home: from the beach to the park, from a car trip to just about every social interaction during COVID. Lukas extolls the virtues of slab sandwiches wrapped in parchment and individual half-pint containers. Ellie makes orzo salad with giardiniera-brine dressing. And we dissect the difference in appeal between a communal trou...

Welcome to SALT PIG! Buckle your seatbelts everyone, because we are about to break the biggest scandal this side of the East River. Or at least in SALT PIG history, in all three months of its existence. Lukas—cookbook writer extraordinaire, vegetable whisperer, bean club acolyte—has a thing AGAINST lentils. WHaaat? But don’t despair! We break down many ways these sometimes-chalky pulses can be pre...

Welcome to SALT PIG! This week, we go beyond the Tupperware drawer of yore to discuss the food storage realities of our kitchens: what containers are best for freezing our ever-present broth, what jars and packaging we wouldn’t dream of recycling, the appeal versus futility of beeswax wraps, and the best receptacles for pawning off leftovers for our husbands’ lunches. It opens up some big life que...

Welcome to SALT PIG! From a nostalgic walk through of Lukas’ family’s Costco paint can of blue cheese dressing, to the maybe French/maybe made-up habit of Ellie’s family eating salad after the main dish, we break down our early childhood salad experiences. Present day, we love it so: raw, cooked, “signature,” with leaves, with no leaves. Lukas tries to convince Ellie to revisit broccoli salads, El...

Welcome to Salt Pig! Given our perpetual professional exposure to wellness culture, this week we discuss what healthier cooking means in our kitchens on a day-to-day basis. Topics range from food hangovers in your 40s and the power of data from wearables, to the pleasures of raw vegetables and the previously scorned superfoods we now consider everyday ingredients. Even when you are enthusiastic ab...

To mark a dozen episodes(!), this week we have cookbook writer Jenny Rosenstrach joining us as our first ever SALT PIG guest. We discuss all the food we give our friends and family when they have had a baby, are going through something, hosting us, or just because: practical dinners, surprising treats, weird concoctions that need a home, and more. It turns out packaging has a major impact too: Jen...

Welcome to SALT PIG! Where are we on the kitchen cleanliness spectrum? And what actually matters when it comes to keeping the germs at bay? We discuss gloves in the kitchen, festering sponges, dishes in the sink, the folly of designating dishtowels for different purposes, and more. We get deep into Ellie’s scarcity mindset and Lukas’ performative cleaning. Plus when you love a cutting board, (how...

Welcome to Salt Pig! Dinner must be made most nights, but sometimes you have no plan or ingredients lined up. We’re there often! This week, Lukas and Ellie describe some of their solutions to last-minute meals—both the odd and the obvious—and some surprise ingredients that get us over the line. Plus, is it gross or just wildly efficient to squeeze citrus with your bare hands? Asking for a friend. ...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week, we're celebrating the glory of tap water. Ellie and Lukas break down the numerous ways that water is one of the most useful ingredients in our cooking and helpful tool in the kitchen—from controlling temperature in a pan and dispersing flavor, to making the purest-tasting soups, risottos, and more. Plus, catch Ellie’s quick lemon spaghetti and Lukas’ hot take o...

Welcome to Salt Pig! Does our society’s penchant for using recipes broaden the horizons of home cooks, or constrain them? This week, Lukas and Ellie discuss who recipes are written for, what a successful recipe is, and what to do when a finished recipe needs something beyond the page. Plus a hand’s-off technique that is balm to one’s often-overcooked sockeye salmon. Join us, and if you enjoy — ple...

Welcome to Salt Pig! What do Alice Waters, Ellie’s ex-boyfriend, and everybody’s militant neighbor have in common? They all clean their cast iron pans differently than Lukas and Ellie do. We discuss  the ways this versatile pan works for us, from searing and baking, to grilling and camping, and how to get and keep that satiny patina. Also covered: ambitious vacation packing, re-using bacon fat, an...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week, we are talking about coffee culture, tea rituals, and all the surprising hot concoctions we drink now as people in our forties. Tune in for Lukas’ gleeful goodbye to his fancy burr grinder and Ellie’s awkward intro to the Seattle Freeze. Pop quiz: Which enthusiastic teen in a big scarf was the first person in line at the first ever Starbucks in Boise, Idaho?? Join u...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week Ellie and Lukas discuss the convenience foods that we love and the ones we snub. Indian jarred sauces and Trader Joe’s frozen treats are in, but Italian jarred sauces and pre-chopped produce is out. Turns out we are full of contradictions and biased as hell. Plus, are tech companies behind everything? Join us! A Very Good Tomato Sauce (by Alison Roman) Brooklyn Delhi...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week Ellie and Lukas discuss our sourdough bread baking journeys and all the practical and existential questions it provokes: How many starters has Ellie killed? Can you bake sourdough without being consumed with fussiness? How far is too far when experimenting with sourdough discard? What is a “real” baker anyhow?? Join us!  Discussed in this episode: Il Buco: Stories an...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week Lukas and Ellie detail all the ways we love spinach, and all the ways we hate cleaning it. Plus Lukas shares his secret ingredient for smoothies and Ellie discloses her favorite 3-minute home lunch. Join us! For more information and to get in touch, visit saltpig.substack.com. Mentioned in this episode:  Noah Galuten’s Health Sludge Lukas’ Smoothie Formula   Everyone...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week Ellie and Lukas discuss all things dishwashers, which uncovers some personal compulsions. Plus Ellie has a broth disaster and Lukas throws something surprising into the waffle iron for dinner. Join us! For more information and to get in touch, visit saltpig.substack.com. Mentioned in this episode:  Deep Cleaning Your Dishwasher Why running a dishwasher even twice a d...

Welcome to Salt Pig! This week, Lukas and Ellie talk about food waste. We discuss the absurd lengths we go to to repurpose ingredients like milk that was left out overnight, leftover cranberry sauce, or even two precious spoonfuls of restaurant biryani. Plus, we debate the pros and cons of following recipes to a T or going rogue. Join us! For more information and to get in touch, visit saltpig.sub...