Food Guys

Greg and Jon take on palm oil, whose associations with environmental destruction and human-rights abuses are increasing as rapidly as its ubiquity in manufactured foods. Even as a substitute for trans-fats, when consumed in large amounts, palm oil isn't particularly healthy, given that it's saturated. The Food Guys' advice? "Read those labels and when you can, avoid processed foods."

Jon: "Greg, I know you publish a lot of recipes, but falafel? Where'd you come up with falafel?"

Food Guy Greg Patent describes how to roast a 3-5 pound butterflied whole chicken, basted with herb-garlic-butter paste:

Food Guy Jon Jackson has always resented the annual litter of bland little yellow plums on his lawn, a gift from a tree at the top of his driveway. But one Food Guy's trash, it seems, is every Parisian's treasure: these are Mirabelle plums, the coveted stuff of subtle, tangy autumn plum jam.

Cook pork or waterfowl at very low temperature for a long time in fat, and you've got confit, or preserved meat. It's an old specialty of southwest France, where goose, duck or pork confit is often served as part of cassoulet. Food Guys Jon and Greg explain why a cooked goose enveloped in a bed of its own fat is not alarming, but delicious.

Food Guy Jon Jackson recalls the words of cauldron-stirring neighbor Mrs. Minervini, as she prepared for the weekly invasion of an army of neighborhood children: "When you're cooking that marinara sauce, you've got to turn it off at some point and let it sit for awhile. Then you can go on and finish it off before the people come. You want to serve it hot, but it's no good cooking it right straight through."

Food Guy Greg Patent writes: "I've been pizza crazy lately, and I want to share with you a terrific, authentic recipe for Neapolitan Pizza dough, created by Johnny (Gianni) Di Francesco. I happened across a YouTube video of him, and he has so much to say and demonstrate, you just must have a look. But before we do, I want to tell you about this terrific pizza dough."

“It's just that we still have so much of it," said Dorothy Patent about the leafy bunches of spinach filling the fridge a week after Greg's most recent farmers market foray. So Greg got busy with spinach, ham, mustard, macaroni - and one skillet. The results are below.

Food Guys Jon and Greg take Karen Oberlin's recording of the Renee Rosnes & David Hadju song "I Like Pie" as their jumping-off point to discuss huckleberry pie and under what limited circumstances Greg allows ice cream to be served anywhere near his. To make huckleberry pie, he thickens 1.75 pounds of fresh or frozen huckleberries with crystal tapioca inside this pie crust.

If you're keeping tabs on the history of human food - and keeping score on modern American diet books - there's a tuber-sized hole in the founding principle of the Paleo diet, with its avoidance of dairy, legumes, pulses, grains and starches. Apparently, ominivorous Old Stone Age people ate starchy cereals and roots whenever possible, drying tubers and acorns and grinding them into flour. "A lot of Paleo diets talk about health, but by this they mean weight loss. And I can't think of a single human ancestor who wanted to lose weight," says Amanda Henry of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

This is a moist and mildly spicy gingerbread with the taste of cider and applesauce. Served plain, it makes a marvelous snack. When offered along with a spoonful of the cider cream, it would be a welcome dessert after a hearty meal.

You've harbored a stash of cupboard and refrigerated condiments since the last century. Food Guys Jon and Greg suggest novel uses for them.

After seeing Dr. Cate Shanahan on television, Food Guy Greg Patent is all-in with her advice about cooking fats and oils to avoid. Greg gets worked up telling Food Guy Jon Jackson about PUFA*-rich seed oils (*"polyunsaturated fatty acids.") that Shanahan says cause metabolic damage and inflammation.

Greg Patent makes the most of tart cherry season by preserving as much of the fruit as he can while setting aside cherries for this recipe. "Fresh sour pie cherries are as precious as rubies," Greg writes. "Bright and shiny like the gems they resemble, the sour Montmorency cherries have a short season (only 2 to 3 weeks in July) in western Montana, so I always pick some off a neighbor's tree to use fresh and enough to freeze."

The Food Guys, Jon and Greg, discuss cookbooks they returned to while staying home during the spring of 2020. They're all old favorites, loaded with "context," and for Jon, they've reminded him of some tried-and-true but forgotten recipes that he's since resumed making.

Food Guy Greg Patent usually enjoys locally-grown strawberries raw and ungarnished, but he makes an exception for this pie recipe. The kicker? It includes canned pineapple. Read on to find out why this makes the pie not an atrocity, but a winner.

The Food Guys, Greg and Jon, are always grateful for the chance to prowl the farmers markets for vegetables. In June in Montana, they find favorites like pea shoots, garlic scapes, morel mushrooms and baby bok choy. Jon's been busy enjoying vegetable-rich recipes like Bang Bang Cauliflower and 15-Minute Sesame Ginger Noodles.

Frequent baker and Food Guy Greg Patent complains about his fellow locked-down bakers buying up all the flour in March and April 2020. "Sounds like the flour was coming by Conestoga wagon," says Food Guy Jon Jackson.

There's a salmonfly hatch on. The Food Guys, Jon and Greg, reminisce about fishing and cooking the catch.

Salmoriglio (sal-more-EEL-ee-yo) is an Italian lemon and olive oil sauce, marinade and dipping condiment for fish, chicken and practically any vegetable. Once you make it, you'll wonder why you'd never heard of it before. That's what happened to "Food Guy" Greg Patent: he lived for an entire year in Italy without ever learning of salmoriglio.