Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street

10/23/2026

Get the recipe for Tahini Swirl Brownies: https://bit.ly/4dHJRuY

Tahini has become a classic brownie ingredient, and for good reason: it makes chocolate taste more chocolate-y.

But rather than simply stir tahini into a chocolate brownie batter, we took a different approach—making a tahini batter, adding chocolate to half, and swirling the two together. The result is clear, distinct contrasts: slightly bitter, nutty sesame against sweet, fudgy chocolate. It's a more complex, grown-up take on peanut butter brownies, without the peanut butter.

Our director of education Rosie Gill made us a batch.

10/22/2026

Get the recipe for Brazilian Anthill Cake (Bolo Formigueiro): https://bit.ly/4iunTOE

The best recipe you've never heard of is...Brazilian Anthill Cake! It's named for the chocolate sprinkles studded throughout the crumb, which look like ants crawling through a hill of cake. Aside from its catchy name and fun premise, it's also a brilliant use of sprinkles as a baking ingredient. (Chris Kimball doesn't say why he loves it, but he eats two slices every time it comes out of the development kitchen.)

Instead of swirling chocolate into batter, layering it as frosting, or folding in chips that melt into pockets, this cake uses sprinkles as a baking ingredient. Because they don't melt, they hold their shape inside the slice, distributing tiny, distinct bursts of chocolate throughout. It's a more balanced chocolate hit than you'd get from any other method.

We could say that coconut adds a little bit of sweet contrast, but really it just tastes great with chocolate.

10/21/2026

The famed garlic noodles at the Vietnamese restaurants Thanh Long and Crustacean are so good that they’ve become a signature San Francisco dish. And, of course, nobody’s giving out the recipe, so a lot of people have tried to recreate it.

Ours breaks every one of Chris Kimball’s flavor and pasta-making rules, and for some reason, he loves it. TWELVE cloves of garlic—minced, not crushed! Pasta that’s rinsed before saucing. And multiple layers of umami-packed ingredients, which would usually send him out of the kitchen.

And yet, none of that is overpowering, and it’s undeniably delicious.

Get the recipe for Garlic Noodles below.

Garlic noodles are a perennial favorite at Thanh Long and Crustacean, popular family-owned Vietnamese restaurants in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

10/21/2026

Get the recipe for Preserved-Lemon Roasted Chicken and Potatoes: https://bit.ly/47joI6E

Preserved lemons are a foundational ingredient in Moroccan chicken dishes, for good reason. They're not just salty lemons; when lemons ferment, they develop a funky umami flavor in addition mellow, briny, citrus that adds an intensely aromatic punch to chicken. Those are a lot of descriptors because preserved lemons are complex!

Our education director Rosie Gill makes a compound butter with preserved lemon and slathers it over the bird, which roasts on a bed of potatoes that cook in the drippings. At the end, a splash of preserved lemon juice adds a bright top note that freshens the whole dish—saltiness, fat, and citrus in perfect balance.

10/20/2026

Get the recipe for Maple-Walnut Bars: https://bit.ly/47lbBBS

We love blondies, but they can be dry and one-note. Enter Maple-Walnut Bars.

These are our take on a bar from the Freight House Cafe, Chris Kimball's go-to stop when passing through Erving, Massachusetts. They're soft and chewy like blondies, but with richer flavor from toasted walnuts and moister crumb from a generous pour of maple syrup.

The flavor of the bars will be deeper and richer if you use “dark” or “very dark” maple syrup rather than “amber." You can, of course, devour the bars the day of baking, but we think the flavor and texture are even better the day after. In an airtight container at room temperature, they will keep for several days.

10/19/2026

Juicy turkey, tender rolls and three perfect pies.

Whether you need to up your pie game, finesse your rolls, or perfect your approach to the big bird, the Milk Street Cooking School has a class that will help you elevate your Thanksgiving menu.

10/18/2026

Chickpea soup, Italian apple cake, and sweet-and-sour pork.

Milk Street's most popular recipes for the week of October 11, 2026.

10/17/2026

The butter battle continues!

This round, it’s Yotam Ottolenghi (Ottolenghi) vs Chris Kimball. Should salted butter be used for everything, including baked goods? Chris says “yes,” but Yotam disagrees. How can you control the salt in your food if it’s already built-in? Each cook makes their case on Milk Street Radio.

Want more Yotam? Join us for this week’s episode, where he answers your questions and shares some of his best cooking secrets (and personal ones too!) He tells us about the potato chip omelet he makes for his once-picky kids, gives a crash course in leeks, schools us on egg-free mayo, and lets us in on what he really thinks about za’atar.

Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/4zEtB6w
Or on our website: https://bit.ly/4inzUp1

Got a cooking question? Drop us a line at [email protected] for a chance to get it answered on air.

10/16/2026

Get the recipe for Cantonese Chicken and Corn Egg-Drop Soup here: https://bit.ly/47s4RSZ

We wanted to get rich, full flavor from this classic Cantonese corn and chicken egg-drop soup. The quick-cooking ingredients can create a soup that's too watery or insipid; the trick is using corn itself as a thickener.

A portion of the kernels gets blitzed into a smooth puree, which gives the broth a light, creamy body and fresh corn flavor. We cut the chicken broth with water so the corn flavor actually comes through, rather than getting buried, and cook the chicken in the liquid for more body.

Just one garlic clove added plenty of aromatic savoriness, which we boost with a little soy sauce and funky white pepper.

10/15/2026

Get the recipe for Skillet Fettuccine Alfredo: https://bit.ly/4Bbybuy

Everybody’s wrong about fettuccine Alfredo, according to Chris Kimball (at least, many restaurants in America). It's often presented as a gloopy, thick cream sauce with heavy cream, milk, flour, and multiple varieties of cheese.

Instead it’s a lighter, silkier sauce believed to have been invented in the early 20th century at Ristorante Alfredo alla Scrofa. True fettuccine Alfredo contains just five ingredients: fresh egg fettuccine, butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, water and salt. Warmed by the just-cooked pasta, the butter and cheese should melt into a smooth, creamy marriage, a bond held tight by the starchy water in which the fettuccine was cooked.

Inspired by cacio e pepe in Rome, we cook the pasta in a skillet with just enough water to cover, which yields a concentrated, starchy liquid. That starch keeps the cheese from clumping and holds the butter and cheese in a smooth, creamy emulsion—no heavy cream needed.