Ryan Whitaker

A roasting rack is a game changer when it comes to cooking a whole turkey. By lifting the bird off the bottom of the pan, a rack lets hot air circulate underneath and around the entire turkey, which gives you more even cooking, crispier skin, and drippings that drop free of the bird so you … Read more

Cooking breakfast for a family is a juggling act. You’ve got pancakes that need even heat, bacon that needs to crisp, and eggs that need a surface wide enough to cook six at once. That is exactly where the best flat griddle pans for breakfast cooking earn their keep on your stovetop. I spent weeks … Read more

I burned my first three crepes on my gas stove. The batter pooled in the center, the edges crisped to black, and I nearly gave up on French-style pancakes forever. After flipping roughly 300 crepes across 8 different pans over the past four months on my Bosch gas range, I finally cracked the code. The … Read more

I’ve cooked in tagines for dinner parties, slow Sunday meals, and friends dropping by unannounced. Nothing else on the table turns a regular chicken and preserved lemon stew into a show. After testing eight authentic Moroccan tagines over the past few months, I have a clear sense of which ones perform for entertaining, not just … Read more

If you love slow-cooked Moroccan flavors but want a vessel that actually survives your oven, a cast iron tagine is the answer. I spent six weeks testing eight of the best cast iron tagines for oven use, braising lamb, simmering chicken with preserved lemons, and even baking no-knead bread inside the conical lids. Some pots … Read more

Last weekend, I pulled a chicken with preserved lemon and olives out of my Emile Henry tagine after three hours on a low gas flame, and the meat fell off the bone. That moment convinced me a great ceramic tagine is the single best investment a home cook with a gas stove can make. Looking … Read more

I pulled my first tagine out of the box, set it on the burner, and within ten minutes heard the crack I had been warned about. That was a clay pot, no diffuser, and a too-hot electric coil. After that expensive lesson, our team spent six weeks testing ten of the best tagines for slow … Read more

I have hosted paella nights for groups of eight, twelve, and once a wild block party for forty. Each time, I learned the same lesson: a stovetop skillet and a regular propane burner cannot deliver the socarrat that guests remember. After burning through trial and error (and a few pans), I built this guide to … Read more

Cooking authentic paella on an induction cooktop used to mean compromising on your pan. Traditional carbon steel pans warp on induction, and stainless steel burns rice before you ever see socarrat. I spent the last three months testing 10 enameled paella pans for induction stoves in my own kitchen, burning through 18 pounds of bomba … Read more

I still remember the day 22 guests arrived at my patio and my 13-inch paella pan ran dry halfway through dinner. Ever since, I have tested carbon steel paella pans in my own kitchen and on outdoor burners to find what actually feeds a crowd. A reliable carbon steel paella pan for large gatherings has … Read more