Chef Eliza Glaister grew up in New York’s Hudson Valley, where her cooking was influenced by neighboring farmers and wild game purveyors like Quattro’s Farm. This braised rabbit recipe, served over creamy polenta and topped with pan-fried radishes and leek oil, is a summer favorite. “When preparing game with little to no fat, especially rabbit, braising it is a wonderful method,” she says. “Cooking seasonally means working with ingredients that are all growing together at the same time and place. They end up just working well together. The radish and dandelion greens add a big punch of peppery bitterness to this succulent braise.”

 Featured in “Our New Favorite Single Malt Whisky Comes From … New York?” by Shane Mitchell.

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At New York City’s Carbone—and its younger Las Vegas outpost in Aria Resort—Berkshire pork spare ribs from Heritage Foods are brushed with a sweet, garlic glaze, finished over a wood fire, then topped with a mixture of fresh and pickled chiles. “I love this dish because it’s completely non-traditional to the Italian-American menu,” says chef Mario Carbone. “It’s a curveball that we throw, but somehow, once it hits the table, it looks perfectly at home.” 

Fresh cherry peppers come into season in late summer and often can be found at farmers markets and Italian grocery stores. (If you can’t track them down, though, thinly sliced green jalapeños will get the job done.) Pickled cherry peppers are available year-round in well-stocked supermarkets and online. The individual components of this recipe can be made a day or more ahead of time, and the final step is a quick and easy one, making Carbone’s cherry pepper ribs an impressive flex for outdoor entertaining. At his restaurants, the ribs are served over a bed of coleslaw, but any crunchy fresh salad would make a fine accompaniment. — Kat Craddock

Note: Slow cooking the meat in a layer of plastic wrap seals in its flavor and moisture, mimicking the effect of sous vide cooking. However, if you prefer not to cook in plastic, you may also omit this layer and bake only aluminum foil. We tested a plastic-free version and found the ribs still came out tender and juicy. 

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SAVEUR’s chief content officer Kate Berry was born in Southern Vietnam, though she is particularly fond of these Northern-style grilled meatballs, which she tasted for the first time in a restaurant here in the States. According to the classic bun cha recipe, the slightly flattened meatballs are cooked over a wood or charcoal fire, but she finds that a stovetop grill pan is a great substitute for achieving the dish’s requisite char and smoky flavor. 

Bun cha is usually served with a light and brothy dipping sauce; Berry suggests swirling the grilled meatballs directly in the condiment—fortifying it with their flavorful juices—before pouring the liquid liberally over the noodles and topping with fresh herbs. A side of crunchy do chua—Vietnamese carrot-daikon pickle—lends the rich pork an extra layer of freshness and crunch; find our recipe here. If cooking the meatballs on a wide-set grill, thread the meatballs on a skewer to prevent them from falling through the grates.

Do Chua (Vietnamese Carrot Daikon Pickle)

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The late, great American cookbook author Marion Cunningham famously carried with her a photograph of a table loaded with angel food cakes, all slightly different: some tall, some short, some white and fluffy, some in a Bundt shape. The photo was taken at a meeting of the Baker’s Dozen, a group of pro bakers including Alice Medrich and Carol Field who met regularly to exchange problems and solutions. Each of the cakes was baked by the members from the same recipe. “If all our results were this different,” Cunningham sympathized, “think of the plight of the poor home cook.” This recipe in question is this one, from “cookie baker for the stars,” Tom Roach, adapted with a bit of Cunningham’s gentle advice.

This recipe originally ran alongside Christopher Hirsheimer’s 1999 article, Baking Lessons.

Order the SAVEUR Selects Artisan Series Angel Food Cake Pan here.

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This unusual, pastel-pink strawberry risotto recipe is a great way to use up those out-of-season (or past-their-prime) berries kicking around your fruit drawer. The dish was a popular menu item at Italian restaurants in the 80s—and we’re all for its comeback.

Featured in “Can This Berry Be Saved?” by Warren Schultz. 

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Muddled strawberries, fresh mint, and Lillet star in this refreshing, lightly sweet cocktail recipe, which former digital producer Michellina Jones considers the perfect drink for a muggy late summer day. She prefers using a navy strength gin (which has a minimum of 57.1% ABV) with a balanced, restrained flavor profile that won’t overwhelm the other ingredients, while ensuring the boozy flavor doesn’t get lost. Lillet refers to Bordeaux wine that’s been infused with aromatics and spices; the Blanc variety of the aperitif offers citrusy, floral notes with a dry finish. Here, the quintessential summer beverage, with its delicate sweetness, plays well with the gin and berries. Make your own syrup at home with our simple syrup recipe. 

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Snow peas, sugar snap peas, and pea shoots are quick-cooked with a Thai-inspired oyster-fish-soy sauce dressing, along with plenty of garlic and chiles, in this bold and punchy side dish from SAVEUR editor-in-chief Kat Craddock, which she adapted from a Pok Pok recipe by Andy Ricker. Shoots harvested later in the season are tougher in texture—adjust the cook time accordingly.

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Growing up, I always considered backyard grilling a special-occasion activity—reserved for warm-weather long weekends like Memorial Day or the Fourth of July. My parents would invite friends around and dust off our Weber; then we’d marinate drumsticks, ribs, and vegetable skewers and prepare appetizers and drinks before spending the day shepherding platters from the indoor kitchen to the grill to the backyard table. I always loved our cookout days, even though there was a lot of going back and forth between the indoors and outdoors, and not a lot of sitting down to enjoy the summer air.

Recently, I took a road trip from my parents’ house in Northern California down to the Santa Ynez Valley, home to the 10,000-acre Alisal Ranch. In addition to raising horses and maintaining its lakes and golf courses, the ranch hosts “BBQ Bootcamp” events a few times a year, when pitmasters from around the country convene to demonstrate tips and best practices for amateur grillers. As chefs walked us through easy techniques for cooking all kinds of foods, from pizza to puddings, I began to realize that a grill is a far more versatile and forgiving tool than most of us might think. Perhaps using one doesn’t have to be a labor-intensive, all-day affair either, and, with the optimal tools and ingredients, maybe it doesn’t have to be relegated to holiday weekends, or even to dinnertime. “Look at your grill as an outdoor range,” Valerie Gordon, the chef behind Valerie Confections in Los Angeles, told us. “It’s not just steak, ribs, and potatoes. Just about everything can be cooked on the grill.”

“When I’m inside cooking, I’ve got my back to my family,” said Paula Disbrowe, author of the grilling cookbook Thank You for Smoking. Outside, on the other hand, the grill is the center of the entertainment, the hearth around which everyone gathers. For making the most of our backyard grates and cooking outside with ease, here are some of my top takeaways from grilling camp.

Break out the cast-iron skillet. A well-seasoned cast-iron vessel is a practically indestructible cooking tool that’s nonstick to boot. With one of these versatile skillets on the grates, you can make practically anything you’d make on an indoor stovetop—whether it’s scrambled eggs and French toast for breakfast, grilled-cheese sandwiches and shrimp skewers for lunch, or chicken thighs for meal prepping. “The bonus is the proteins absorb the wafting charcoal and wood smoke aromas, [yet] you retain all of the flavorful juices,” said Disbrowe. This means you can even grill dishes that require or produce a good deal of liquid, like a hearty paella or marinated vegetables.

Add woody, herbaceous aromas. Different kinds of wood impart different flavors, so Riker recommends experimenting with a few varieties to find your preferred wood or combination of various types. “Mesquite wood provides a strong smoky flavor, while fruitwoods like cherry or apple offer a milder, sweeter taste,” he explains, adding that his favorite is olive, which imparts a distinctly nutty essence. If you’re using a gas grill, you can still introduce the element of wood via a wood chip box. “Even a small amount of woodsmoke adds tremendous flavor,” advised Disbrowe, whose preferred woods are hickory and oak, both of which provide rich, intense aromas that pair especially well with red meat. Further heighten the flavor by adding fresh herbs directly to the grates: “I love to add sprigs of rosemary or even small stems of fresh bay leaves to the periphery of the fire, so they smolder more slowly,” Disbrowe noted.

Keep an all-purpose spice blend on hand. A simple spice mix is key to grilling efficiently for a crowd—it’s much easier to keep a single shaker on stand-by, rather than a whole line-up of spice jars. Take Santa Maria rub, for example, which is especially popular among tri-tip fans and typically includes salt, black pepper, and garlic powder (though some cooks like to incorporate additional flavors such as paprika, thyme, or cumin). The mild-flavored concoction can be sprinkled over eggs in the morning, rib-eye in the evening, and snacks in between.

Foil it up. Riker’s favorite foolproof technique for cooking delicate foods, like certain seafood and vegetables, is to seal them in packets of foil to keep the ingredients tender and moist. Add a splash of citrus juice and a sprinkling of spices and herbs first, and always crimp the edges of the packet tightly to keep everything contained. (Open it up carefully—nothing ruins a day of backyard fun like a nasty steam burn.) On that note, you should keep foil around anyway, as it’s handy for tenting cooked foods to keep them warm while they rest.

Cook big steaks to feed a crowd. Instead of grilling individual steaks one by one, get big cuts of meat and grill those, then slice them up for guests. “The secret to cooking this meat to perfection is to season it generously,” said Craig Riker, Alisal Ranch’s executive chef. Sprinkle the entire surface with kosher salt, then refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes, or ideally overnight. When you’re ready to grill, let the meat come to room temperature; then, cook the steak over indirect heat, seeking out the cooler parts of the grates, which will promote more even cooking. When the meat is 8–10 degrees away from the desired temperature, move the steak to the hotter parts of the grates and sear for a couple of minutes on each side. Reverse-searing achieves that crisp, brown exterior while keeping the inside juicy and tender. While a tomahawk steak might sound intimidating, Riker promises it’s a great at-home option: “The marbled fat yields melt-in-your-mouth tenderness and a robust flavor,” he said—especially when paired with a rich, herbaceous chimichurri.

Intensify salads by grilling the ingredients first. Try introducing a smoky char to your vegetables before tossing them into a salad, and you might never go back. Sturdy ingredients like asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, okra, squash, and shallots all taste great after a kiss from the flame. Before adding the grilled veg to your raw greens, simply toss them with some fresh herbs, butter, and apple cider vinegar to create what Riker calls “a flavor explosion.” Or, keep it extra simple with a mere three ingredients: “A split romaine, grilled and finished with olive oil and salt, is hard to beat,” suggested Burt Bakman, the pitmaster behind the Los Angeles restaurant Slab Barbecue. And don’t rule out fruit—grilled watermelon salad with feta is another one of his go-to’s.

Grill fruit to make spiked drinks. A brief rendezvous with heat can bring out the jamminess of sturdy fruits like pineapple and stone fruits. “Grilling peaches intensifies their sweetness,” said Riker, who recommends cooking the slices until they have char marks before adding them to a favorite sangria to the whole batch with subtle smoky flavor. (Drinks writer Leslie Pariseau aptly likens the aroma to “the comforting scent of an early evening campfire.”) Alternatively, muddle the grilled fruit with syrup and citrus juice, then shake it in with ice and your liquor of choice to make an icy, slurpable cocktail.

Make boats out of sturdy fruits and vegetables. Nothing’s more fun than an edible bowl, especially for kids, so turn ingredients into boats and fill them with tasty toppings. Riker recommends grilling a few halved, pitted avocados flesh-side down, then topping them with spicy salsa and cotija cheese for a creamy appetizer or side dish. Or, spoon the seeds out of a halved zucchini or eggplant before filling them with cheese and herbs and giving them a blast of heat for a craveable cheese pull. For dessert, try caramelizing halved, pitted peaches, then filling them with whipped cream or mascarpone and sprinkling with cinnamon sugar and granola—an entertaining spin on a peach crisp. The cooking and assembly all happen outside, and guests can top their boats to their liking.

Go ahead, make a pizza. It’s totally feasible—or, dare we say, easy—to make a pizza using your grill. First, stretch out the dough and give it a light sprinkle of flour. “Just a dusting will help prevent the pizza from sticking onto the peel and becoming a calzone,” noted Brendan Smith, co-owner of the Santa Barbara pizzeria Bettina. Place it directly on the grates and par-cook it on both sides; then, when you’re ready to eat, top it with sauce and other add-ons and give it a final grill. According to Smith’s co-owner Rachel Greenspan, if you opt for meats like sausage, they can be placed onto the crust raw: “The fat seeps out as it cooks,” she pointed out. Eggs are also a fun addition, especially for breakfast: use cheese to build a small well in the center of the pizza, then crack in a raw egg for a delectably oozy yolk. Smith also encourages home pizzaiolos to get creative with seasonal veg combinations: during spring, Tutti Frutti peas and mint pesto make a refreshing pair, while in the summer, the pizzeria always makes a peach-and-poblano-pepper pie. Don’t have pizza dough on hand? Swap in flatbreads or pitas for a time-saving alternative.

Make melty, custardy treats. Desserts made from liquidy, quick-cooking batters are great candidates for the grill—think a skillet chocolate-chip cookie, fudgy blondies, and sticky toffee pudding. (Dense batters with a long cook time, like pound cake, won’t perform as well). Make sure to grease any skillet using a pastry brush, and “you will get a crispy edge like you’ve never had in your life,” Gordon promised. “Throw the batter on the grill while you’re eating dinner, and as soon as you’re done eating, dessert is ready.”

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This traditional aïoli recipe comes to us from the inn Relais Notre-Dame in Alpes de Haute Provence. The garlicky sauce perfectly illustrates Provence’s culinary touchstones: simple preparations and local ingredients. Throughout Southern France, the silky, mayo-like condiment is served alongside meats, seafood, and raw or roasted vegetables as the centerpiece of a “grand aïoli.”We find it just as delicious paired with crispy frites. 

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Good strawberries—you know, those crimson, thimble-size gems currently perfuming the air at farm stands—are as ephemeral as spring itself. They can turn to mush in hours, a problem we often solve by tossing them back like popcorn while mosying home from the market. Cooks with more restraint, however, should keep strawberries fresh by storing them in the fridge, spread in a single layer on a paper towel in an airtight container.    

Strawberries make some of the world’s most heavenly sweets, from cool berry tarts to pretty pink cocktails and crowd-pleasing strawberry shortcakes. Rhubarb may be the strawberry’s most ubiquitous bedfellow, but the berry’s heady aromas play wonderfully with citrus, acid, booze, spices, and—yes—salt, as proven by dishes like strawberry-goat cheese hand pies and crackly strawberry focaccia. A dollop of dairy (mascarpone, yogurt, ice cream, what have you) turns them into something altogether ambrosial, as anyone who’s tucked into a bowl of fresh strawberries and cream can attest.

But we have a bone to pick with supermarket strawberries. While useful in a pinch for decorating desserts, they can be watery and tough. That’s because they’re a Chilean American hybrid bred for looks and durability as opposed to flavor. They pale in comparison to our favorite Tristars and Lilliputian fraises des bois, which you’re more likely to encounter at the farmers market—all the more reason to seek out (and, sigh, splurge on) the real deal during the berries’ fleeting season. With these recipes in your back pocket, you’ll be off to a running start.

Strawberry Bread

Swirled with jam and and divoted with whole cooked strawberries, this snacking cake is a brunch knockout. Get the recipe >

Grand Marnier Strawberry Sundaes

Strawberry milkshakes get the adult treatment in this boozy, orange-scented beverage that doubles as dessert. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Rhubarb Pâte de Fruit

These fragrant jelly candies call for a bounty of fresh fruit—which means they’re healthy, right? Right? Get the recipe >

Strawberry Shortcake for a Crowd

Baking a single oversize biscuit instead of laboring over individual ones makes for a marvelously over-the-top presentation of the classic American dessert. Because our favorite strawberry shortcake recipe hinges on peak-season berries, it’s best to hit up your local farm stand for Tristar and other heirloom strawberries (alternatively, fancy-schmancy Oishii berries are sweet all year round). Get the recipe >

Strawberry Rhubarb Hand Pies

It’s two sticky thumbs up to these flaky, fork-crimped beauties perfect for picnicking and potlucks. Get the recipe >

Almond Cheesecake with Macerated Strawberries and Mint

Swirled with jam and and divoted with whole cooked strawberries, this snacking cake is a brunch knockout. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Focaccia with Maple-Balsamic Onions

This sweet-and-salty focaccia that comes together with minimal effort is a welcome springtime twist on the original. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Spritz

Thickened with coconut milk and pepped up with fresh lime juice, the strawberry spritz created at Detroit’s Candy Bar drinks like a tropical vacation. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Ice Cream

It turns out that the secret to great strawberry ice cream is—you guessed it—sweet, overripe farmers-market berries. Get the recipe >

Strawberry-Beet Sorbet

Vibrant fuschia orbs of tart yet earthy sorbet are a refreshing finale to any summer cookout. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Rhubarb Cheesecake

Inspire oohs and aahs with this luxurious strawberry-topped cheesecake spread with smoky, tangy charred rhubarb jam. Get the recipe >

Goat Cheese and Strawberry Breakfast Tarts

This recipe goes out to all the readers who can’t think of a better bagel topping than cream cheese and jam. Get the recipe >

Pavlova

A crackly crown of meringue brimming with colorful berries is the kind of fresh, light dessert we crave when temperatures soar. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Rhubarb Yogurt Pops

Cool off with these homemade pink popsicles that are a hit with kids and adults alike. Get the recipe >

Strawberry Jam

Preserve the summery flavor of fresh berries with this simple preparation. Get the recipe >

Strawberries with Wine

This bright, citrusy dessert from chef José Andrés makes the perfect nightcap to wind down an evening of grilling. Get the recipe >

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