Good morning. We’re wrapping up another great year of The Mouthful. We’re so thankful for your readership, engagement, replies, and photo submissions.

As this newsletter continues to grow, we want to improve and make it as valuable as we can for you. If you have 30 seconds to fill out this poll or shoot us some feedback, we’d greatly appreciate it!

INGREDIENT HIGHLIGHT 🌎

Green sauces around the world

Don’t let missing ingredients or the fear of not recreating an “authentic” recipe ever stop you from cooking.

For instance, people make a fuss about what goes into a “real” Genovese pesto. But if you find yourself with almonds instead of pine nuts, and no parmigiano, and still make the sauce, you’ve actually just made pistou, Southern France’s version.

Herb based condiments are a good example for this. Almost every culture has one. If you don’t have all the ingredients for, say, an Argentinian chimichurri, you likely have something found in a different place, like this finite list of a few examples:

• Zhoug - Think chimichurri plus warming spices and chilies. A spicier, more heavily spiced condiment that transports you to Middle Eastern cuisines.

• Hari Chatni - A cilantro based sauce with ginger, curry spices, and lots of acidity.

• Jiang Cong Jiang - ginger and scallions bloomed in oil. Eastern aroma profile,

• Sauce Verte - Each European country has a version of this versatile green condiment. Can use herbs or leafy greens like spinach, or punch up flavors with capers.

• Persillade - French aromatic booster of parsely and garlic, can be made into a sauce with oil, or dusted dry onto potatoes and meat.

• Pistou - Pesto’s cousin found in Southern France, made without pine nuts and parmigiano, but can be thickened with other nuts like almonds or breadcrumbs.

Why does this matter?

Use green sauces to level up dishes, but don’t get stuck in the same regional flavor profiles, and don’t assume the one or two popular versions of a type of dish are the only valid ones worth replicating.

This concept applies to so much more than green sauces. It goes for almost any every type of recipe. Look to different countries to expand your palette and transport home cooking around the world — but let your pantry and fridge dictate where you go.

RECIPE RECOMMENDATIONS ✅

Our green sauces

If you’re interested in making some of our favorite and versatile green condiments to add flavor to your dishes this week, we’ve put them all in one place here:

FOOD TRENDS 🚀

Should Sloppy Joes come back?

Or are they better off remaining a distant childhood memory…?

Even though we tend to look back on nostalgic foods with fondness (like Spaghetti O’s and Lunchables), Sloppy Joes tend to get a bad rap — perhaps thanks to the canned meat options or the public school cafeteria versions.

We think the ground chili sandwich is polarizing because of it’s texture, not its flavor: the soft meat mixture is served on a soft, white bread bun, which gets even softer after absorbing the saucy juices.

• At least the name is honest and markets towards the sandwich's strengths.

We think the dish is worth keeping around, but perhaps with some improvements. So how do you fix the texture? With some crunch — pickles, raw onions, slaw, perhaps even a sturdier (or toasted) bun.

Enterprising home cooks might might be to add a spread of mayo or a few sheets of lettuce to the bottom bun as a moisture barrier, protecting the structural integrity of at least the bottom bun.

• Of course, you can level up the flavor of the sauce with your own bbq mix or a home blend of chilies and spices.

• You could try breaking up the meat less or even grinding your own for a chunkier texture..

But anything much more than this might be going against the spirit of the dish. At some point, it stops being a sloppy joe altogether, no longer a quick weeknight meal enjoyed by even the pickiest kid. And we need more of those staples. Keep the sloppy joe around.

For more easy, weeknight meals — we’ve got you covered with this collection of sub 20 minute recipes:

READER Q&A 🧠

Creamy queso

Answer: For those not in the American Southwest (or from states that might refer to the Tex-Mex staple as cheese dip), queso is a creamy dipping sauce of cheese, milk, and aromatics like onion, chiles, and tomatoes. Sometimes it gets topped with chorizo, guac, or beans, but it’s always enjoyed with corn tortilla chips.

We’re guessing that the grainy texture is from using a roux, which can emulsify the cheese and liquid ingredients but won’t ever go completely smooth.

For a creamier queso, you have to use a more modern emulsifier like sodium citrate or cornstarch, which can be tossed with the grated cheese to prevent clumping. Sodium citrate — a powerful emulsifier — is what makes processed American cheese products (like ballpark nacho cheese and Velveeta) so velvety without the grainy qualities of old school roux.

• While sodium citrate is commonly available online or even in stores (and definitely in restaurant kitchens), you can achieve a similarly creamy queso by just cutting in a portion of processed cheese, which contains sodium citrate emulsifiers of its own.

Ethan tested this in the mac & cheese science video, and found that just 25% of processed cheese against 75% of a more flavorful cheese can make a super creamy sauce that doesn’t taste like it came from the stadium concession stand — and this ratio should still apply to queso recipes.

• Check out the video for more details on the science.

TLDR: Don’t use a roux, instead swap out 25% of your cheese base for processed American cheese for super smooth queso that isn’t grainy.

Have a culinary question? Reply to send it in for a chance to be featured and get your question answered.

WINNING READER SUBMISSION 🏆

Tilapia & risotto

This week’s dinner winner is Alena J., who pan seared tilapia with salt, cumin and butter and a veggie risotto topped with home-grown basil. Well done.

Reply with your best home-cooked food photos for a chance to win & be featured!

EXTRA HELPINGS 🍽️

A read: I Reviewed Restaurants for 12 Years

In a minute or less: Watermelon Granita

What we’re watching: Fine Dining in a NYC Subway Station

Food science: Food reactions 101: Coagulation

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