Good morning. Later this week, you can expect an email about a product we’ve been working on for the past year (we’re super excited and proud of it).

Newsletter readers will be the first to know. Keep an eye out for the announcement hitting your inbox in a few days.

TECHNIQUE FEATURE 🍳

The bento box protocol

Why bother with bentos?

1 — They’re fun!

Bento boxes are the perfect solution for easily making varied, exciting lunches. They introduce play, agency, and variety to your eating experience:

• You can make every bite different by mixing and matching components.

Creativity can turn meal prepping into a delight, instead of a chore.

2 — They’re practical

No more soggy reheated leftovers. Bento boxes keep your food fresher until you're ready to eat.

• They often have sauce and topping compartments, and multiple layers to separate re-heatable ingredients from fresh ingredients.

A good bento box should have multiple layers, sauce compartments, seal well, and a spot for utensils.

How should you pack a bento lunch?

Try packing your bento with an aesthetic mix of different colors, flavors (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, & umami) or cooking methods (raw, steamed, simmered, grilled, & fried).

• Remember, we eat with eyes and our emotions first.

While we encourage you to create your own bento combinations, here are two of our version to get you started.

1. Salmon Edadame Bento Box

2. Mediterranean Inspired Bento Lunch

KITCHEN TRENDS 🚀

Rice cooker vs pressure cooker

Answer: If you’re not picky about the exact texture of your rice, pressure cookers are a perfectly viable option to cook rice.

Pressure cooker pros 👍:

• They cook rice in much less time.

• Bigger pressure cookers like an Instant pot are great for prepping rice for a crowd.

Pressure cooker cons ❌:

• Rice can come out sticky instead of fluffy.

• Harder to gently keep warm; some pressure cookers are harder to clean.

So why does rice come out differently in a pressure cooker than a rice cooker or stovetop?

• Pressure cookers’ sealed environment create both heat and high pressure to break down ingredients in a fraction of their normal cooking time. While this softens the grains more quickly, it can also slightly alter the texture.

• Rice cookers and stovetop methods cook the rice via steaming, which more gently softens the grains and better vents excess moisture.

Our take: Whichever method helps you cook for yourself at home is valid. We’d rather you get dinner on the table then worry about winning a Michelin star for your home cooked rice. If you don’t own extra appliances and want to nail stovetop rice, check out this video.

READER Q&A 🧠

Is there a best way to cook potatoes?

Answer: There are many ways to skin a cat when it comes to mashed potatoes. Like any dish, the technique you choose depends on your lifestyle constraints (like time, effort, available equipment, etc).

• Here are two ways to think about cooking potatoes before turning them into your go to mash (smooth or chunky, riced or whipped, etc):

Fastest: Dice your potatoes, then boil them

Keep the skin on or off, dice the potatoes, then cook them through in boiling water. The smaller you dice the potatoes, the faster they will be done.

• Pros & cons: This method is easy & fast, but you lose some potato flavor after draining off the cooking water.

Best: Cook potatoes whole with the skin on

Fussier recipes for pomme puree (like Joel Robuchon’s famous version) insist on cooking the potatoes skin-on before mashing them.

Supposedly, this concentrates the potato flavor and keeps the starches inside of the skin instead of draining into boiling water. So for best flavor and texture, keep the potatoes whole, skin on, and then bake, steam, or boil them until cooked through.

• Con: Takes much longer to cook whole potatoes through and peeling the hot skin off potatoes can be a pain.

Our take: Cooking techniques always depend on your personal situation, and you don’t have to be tied to the “ultimate” method of making something. Use the fast method if you’re pressed on time.

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

WINNING READER SUBMISSION 🏆

1st place poke

This week’s dinner winner is Marcus B, who made a tuna poke bowl marinated with soy sauce, oyster sauce, sambal, msg, black pepper, and rice wine vinegar. Learn how to make Ethan’s favorite poke bowl here.

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

EXTRA HELPINGS 🍽️

A read: How to Preserve Wooden Cookware

In a minute or less: Sushi Inspired Salmon Bowl

What we’re watching: Sourdough Discard Recipes

Food science: Alcohol molecule in cooking

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