Issue #200: Fan Favorites

A Milestone Issue, Looking Back on the Most Popular Recipes, Cooking Your Way to Heaven

It’s hard for me to believe this is the 200th issue of Kitchen Sense. Despite an epidemic, frequent travel, moving from an urban to a rural environment, the rise of fascism and antisemitism across America, and work on projects around the globe, I’ve never missed a week in almost four years of writing this newsletter.

I started my Substack after interviewing Emily Nunn (Department of Salad), while I was a guest host on my friend Jennifer’s Tech Bites podcast. Emily made Substack seem rewarding and fun. She is still one of the most successful food writers on the platform, and in addition to her great writing, wicked sense of humor, and delicious recipes, what I admire about her is that she uses her voice not only to help people make better salads, but also for political action. She is relentless in her resistance to the Trump administration’s insanity.

For me, Substack has become a form of journaling, a way to process my week—where I’ve been, whom I’ve seen, what I’ve cooked—and in so doing share a recipe I’ve made that I think others might enjoy.

Cooking (and baking) to nourish oneself and others is something I think everyone should be able to do. Look at my joy over a batch of muffins, captured in this photo by my friend Lauren McGrath.

First and foremost, I write this newsletter because I think everyone should be able to cook well. There is something both rewarding and nourishing that comes from making something delicious to eat, whether you are serving guests or yourself. That doesn’t mean that everyone should be obsessed with trying new recipes or with stocking a global pantry so well that they can make a dish from almost any cuisine on a whim, as I am and do. But it does mean that you should take the time to find a few good recipes and for a little practice so you have some delicious things in your pocket that you can pull out to make you and your people happy.

It just so happens that Jennifer was visiting us in New Hampshire this weekend and we were discussing what I might do to acknowledge my 200th issue. She had several really clever ideas…if I only had more time. For Issue #100, I held a cookbook giveaway of the original Kitchen Sense: More than 600 Recipes to Make You a Great Home Cook and published a top-ten list of the most popular recipes to date. I thought it might be fun to revisit my stats and see which issues and recipes had endured and which had risen above the rest. Turns out only one from that first round-up 100 weeks ago still makes the cut.

If you’d like a free copy of my cookbook Kitchen Sense, become a paid, annual subscriber and I’ll send you one!

So, here’s a countdown of the five most popular Kitchen Sense newsletters from over the years. It’s hard to say whether their popularity is due to the recipes or the subject or the writing. For the purposes of this round-up, I’ll assume it’s the recipes.

THE COUNTDOWN

#5

Issue #173: Recipe for a (Political) Party
2,270 views

Gooey, salty, fudgy brownies aren’t enough to hold our democracy together.

It’s hard for me to say whether the house party my husband Nate and I held for Maggie Goodlander, then the Democratic candidate for Congress from our new New Hampshire district, was the reason she won her seat, but the gooey, salty, fudgy brownies I served must have a played a part.

#4

Issue #67: Rough Puff
2,280 views

Not a bad puff, if a little rough.

After years of watching the Great British Bake Off, which rarely gives contestants enough time to make traditionally laminated pâte feuilletée, I was inspired to get off my arse and make my own rough puff. Basically a standard pie dough with an elevated proportion of butter (equal to the weight of the flour) that’s folded and rolled out to simulate lamination, rough puff is a pretty darn good substitute. I have some in my freezer right now. And this is the only recipe of the lot that was on the original top-ten list 100 issues ago.

#3

Issue #103: Naked in the Kitchen
2,330 views

Perhaps my readers all have dirty minds. Or maybe they thought this was the moment I decided to make some real money off my internet fame and jumped from Substack to Only Fans. No, I wasn’t naked in the kitchen. But I made one of my favorite little Italian dumplings, gnudi, which are “naked” ricotta ravioli, and the recipe was pretty popular.

#2

Issue #43: Puffing Up: Pita Magic in Your Kitchen
2,440 views

You have no idea how exciting it is when your first pita puff until you make them.

Does the popularity of my pita recipe and of my rough puff recipe (#4 above) suggest that my readers are attracted to things that rise magically in the oven? I can say in all honesty that I have sat more than once in front of my range watching in amazement as puff pastry and pita breads rise. Do I know how to have fun? What’s remarkable is how easy it is to make pita, compared to things like sourdough bread. Pull up a chair and give it a try.

#1

Issue #135: Cold Chinese Sesame Noodles
3,530 views

So good.

While most of my most popular issues hover between 2,300 and 2,500 views, the number one most popular issue leaves the pack far behind. These cold Chinese sesame noodles have attracted more than 1,000 more views than any other recipe. Based on my own behavior, I will assume this is because once you make them, you realize how easy and delicious they are, and then you come back whenever you crave Chinese take out. If he cooked, I would say it’s possible my friend Oren may be responsible for at least 500 of these views, given his love of sesame noodles. So, I’m not certain that their popularity represents many more unique readers, rather, it might be the same people coming back to the recipe time and again, as I do. Whatever. Close your Hungry Panda app, click on this link, get in the kitchen, and make them. You won’t be disappointed.

A heartfelt thank you to all of my subscribers, free and paid, for showing your support of this effort. Kitchen Sense is not the biggest or the most important food newsletter on Substack. But to paraphrase my friend Kara, with whom I had dinner in NYC last night, if you teach just three people how to cook, there ought to be a special place reserved for you in heaven.

Please continue to like, share, support and subscribe. Together we will do our part to make the world a more friendly and more delicious place.