Fruits
52 Helpful Cooking Tips
Dried Jujubes Are for Snacking and Steeping
Use this versatile fruit as a flavoring or a sweet treat.
Published: January 2022
Four Ways to Use Dried Limes
Limu omani are a staple of the Middle Eastern pantry. Here are some of our staff’s favorite ways to use them.
Published: September 2021
Five Mandarins You Should Have in Your Fruit Bowl
Flavorful, easy-to-peel, and often seedless, mandarins are the ultimate citrus season treat.
Published: September 2021
How to Pit and Peel Peaches
What's the best way to peel a peach? It depends on the fruit's ripeness.
Published: July 2018
Yellow Peaches versus White Peaches
Can white peaches be used interchangeably with yellow peaches?
Published: July 2018
The Fastest Way to Dice Avocados for a Crowd
Making a big batch of guacamole? Use this shortcut.
Published: January 2018
Substituting Meyer Lemons
Can Meyer lemons be used in place of standard lemons? We entered the test kitchen to find out.
Published: January 2018
Can You Refrigerate Tomatoes?
Standard wisdom dictates that ripe tomatoes shouldn’t be refrigerated, but cooking blogs have recently started challenging this thinking. We conducted tests ove…
Published: February 2019
Figuring Out Dried Figs
When shopping for dried figs, you will most often find the following three options: Black Mission, Calimyrna, and Turkish (often labeled Smyrna). The latter two…
Published: July 2017
The Best Way to Store Rhubarb
It turns out that the best method we’ve found for storing celery also works for rhubarb.
Published: May 2017
Putting the Orange Family to Work
We often keep clementines and tangerines around for snacking, and we wondered if they would work as a substitute for oranges in recipes.
Published: January 2017
Oven-Ripened Avocados?
We recently saw a piece online claiming that you can ripen rock-hard avocados by baking them in a low oven, which in theory puts the ripening process into hyper…
Published: January 2017
How to Cut an Apple Without Coring
If you’re cutting just a few apples for a salad or a garnish, it can be easier to skip coring and simply cut the flesh off the core. There’s a little more waste…
Published: September 2016
Baking with Rainier Cherries
Can Rainier cherries be substituted for Bing cherries in recipes?
Published: July 2016
Make Rimmed Baking Sheet Fruit Pie to Serve 20
When baking for a large group, consider scaling up to a slab pie. You can even use the same crust and filling as for a regular 9-inch pie—just bigger batches of…
Published: May 2023
How To Shop For and Store Pears
When it comes to pears, it matters how you shop for them—whether you're cooking them or eating them—and how long you intend to store them.
Published: March 2019
Pitting Cherries Without a Pitter
Cherry pitters make pitting cherries quick and simple. But since not everyone owns such a tool, we looked for alternatives.
Published: July 2015
Removing Pomegranate Seeds
What’s the best way to remove the seeds from a pomegranate?
Published: November 2014
Does Apricot Origin Matter?
Can California and Mediterranean dried apricots be used interchangeably?
Published: March 2014
Sweet Solution to Brown Fruit
We discovered a sweet way to keep cut apples and other fruits from browning.
Published: January 2013
How Citrus Garnishes Impact Cocktails
Do the different ways of using citrus peel to garnish cocktails produce different tastes?
Published: January 2013
Prepping Apples in Advance for Baking
Will it affect the quality of the filling if you cut the apples the day before assembling apple desserts?
Published: November 2012
The Difference Between Green and Orange Papaya
Is the crunchy fruit used to make Thai green papaya salad a different fruit from the soft orange papaya you find at the supermarket?
Published: May 2012
How to Spiral Cut a Pineapple
This method for cutting a pineapple is both attractive and efficient.
Published: March 2012
Mango Varieties
There are often two different kinds of mangos in the produce aisle: one that’s big, round, and reddish green and another that’s small, golden, and kidney-shaped…
Published: March 2012
Coconut-Milk Whipped Cream
Is it possible to create dairy-free whipped "cream" using the thick layer of coconut fat from the top of a can of regular coconut milk?
Published: January 2012
Keeping Zested Lemons Juicy
Zested lemons often become dry, shriveled, and hard before anyone gets a chance to juice them. What’s the best way to store lemons once their zest has been remo…
Published: September 2011
Storing Grapes
Does rinsing grapes before storing them cause them to spoil more quickly?
Published: July 2011
Getting the Best Zest
Should you use a vegetable peeler, channel grater, or rasp-style grater when zesting citrus fruits?
Published: March 2011
Jazz Apples
They might be the first fruit to "go viral," but do jazz apples live up to the hype?
Published: September 2010
The Dissipating Aroma of Banana Bread
Why does my banana bread smell so fragrant and banana-y right out of the oven but lose most of its aroma as it cools? Does it mean that the cool bread will have…
Published: September 2010
The Best Way to Ripen Bananas
Strategies for speeding ripening in bananas abound, but as we worked our way through over eight cases of fruit while developing our Ultimate Banana Bread, we fo…
Published: July 2010