In their last episode before book-writing hiatus, Deb and Kenji take your questions, about truly satisfying turkey burgers, no recipe recipes, the correct order of operations for burger, fries, and shake at home, and more.

Deb has fifteen recipes for meatballs on Smitten Kitchen, and exactly one for a meat burger. That does not mean Deb lacks for opinions about burgers, oh no no — she goes head to head with Mr. Burger Lab himself, who has published dozens of burger recipes and guides. Kenji and Deb are in agreement about the one burger type that anyone can make at home just as well as a restaurant. Plus, a special announcement.

Recipes Mentioned:

• Fake Shake Burger (Smitten Kitchen)
• The Burger Lab: The World's Best Burger for a Single Man (or Woman) (Serious Eats)
• Classic Smashed Burgers (Serious Eats)
• Oklahoma-Style Onion Burgers Recipe (Serious Eats)
• Mastering the Art of Burger Blending with Eight Cuts of Beef (Serious Eats)

When is it OK to yuck someone’s yum? Garlic and ginger hacks. How to turn your kid into a lifelong cook. Kenji and Deb answer your questions in another mailbag.

Eggs Benedict should really be called Eggs Benedict Arnold, because it will betray any shortcomings you have as a home cook. You should give it a go anyway. (Kenji: “You CAN and SHOULD make Eggs Benedict at home.”) Why? It’s a dish that all but the best restaurants get right, and you have all but three and a half minutes to shovel it in your mouth before the window closes for the perfect bite. So you may as well perfect it at home.

What does perfect look like? Each element is prepared to its ideal temperature at the exact same time. Yolks “a river of liquid gold” while whites are perfectly set (and shaped like a “chaos mop” if you’re like Deb). English muffins are fork split, not sliced. Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion, which means you are trying to mix two ingredients that don’t want to be mixed, so yeah, you are literally fighting nature. Who will break first, you or the sauce? A delicious showdown for the ages.

Recipes Mentioned:

• Foolproof Eggs Benedict (Serious Eats)
• Easy Poached Eggs (Serious Eats)
• How to Make Eggs Benedict the Classic Way (Kenji’s Cooking Show)
• How to Make Eggs Benedict for a Crowd (Kenji’s Cooking Show)
• How to Poach an Egg, Smitten Kitchen-Style (Smitten Kitchen)
• Spinach and Smashed Egg Toast (Smitten Kitchen
• Old-Fashioned, No-Knead English Muffins Recipe (Serious Eats)

Crisp on the outside, custardy on the inside – this week we’re talking French Toast with special guest Christopher Kimball (Milk Street). Chris joins Kenji and Deb to banter about bread for longer than any podcast ever has (not fact checked) – and how each of them perfects this classic breakfast dish. Plus, Kenji dispels a myth about smoke points! 

Recipes Mentioned:

• Carmelized Cinnamon Sugar French Toast (Smitten Kitchen Keepers)
• Perfect quick and easy french toast (Serious Eats)
• French Toast, Perfected (Milk Street)

Deb and Kenji are taking a break this week. Please enjoy this classic episode from our friends at Sidedoor, "America’s Unknown Celebrity Chef". 

For more information, visit Sidedoor's episode page, and subscribe to Sidedoor on your favorite podcast player.

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When Lena Richard cooked her first chicken on television, she beat Julia Child to the screen by over a decade. At a time when most African American women cooks worked behind swinging kitchen doors, Richard claimed her place as a culinary authority, broadcasting in the living rooms of New Orleans’s elite white families. She was an entrepreneur, educator, author, and an icon – and her legacy lives on in her recipes. Today: her improbable rise to prominence, and her famous gumbo.

If the only hummus you’ve ever had came from a cold tub procured at a supermarket, yeah...you haven’t really had hummus. Homemade hummus, served warm, is an experience unto itself, and 1000% a better snack than a dusty protein bar. Deb and Kenji also tell us how they really feel about flavored hummus. 

Recipes Mentioned:

• Ethereally Smooth Hummus (Smitten Kitchen)
• The Food Lab’s Science of Great Hummus (Serious Eats)
• Hummus Heaped with Tomatoes and Cucumbers (Smitten Kitchen)

You’re really only technically eating a vegetable with broccoli cheddar soup — it is insistently not health food, but a giant middle finger to whoever invented the four food groups. It is a “you sure about that?” to the likes of President George HW Bush, who famously and controversially banned broccoli from Air Force One. Plus, we get to the bottom of broccoli vs broccoli rabe vs broccolini, and a broccoli dish to impress.

Recipes Mentioned:

• Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Serious Eats)
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup (Smitten Kitchen)

Crispy chicken cutlets are endlessly adaptable to taste, so it’s no wonder they are a universal crowd pleaser. From Austrian schnitzel to Japanese katsu to Deb’s mother-in-law’s recipe that leaves out a classic ingredient, there are endless permutations of chicken, flour, egg, breadcrumbs + ??? to satisfy the pickiest eater (and most discerning home cook).

Recipes Mentioned:

• Tonkatsu or Chicken Katsu (Serious Eats)
• Crispiest Chicken Cutlets (Smitten Kitchen)
• 5-Ingredient Fried Chicken Sandwiches (Serious Eats)

Brownies are a diabolical(ly) good cross between cake and cookie. They taste sinfully rich and decadent, but they’re an angel in the kitchen (one bowl recipe alertl!) and they make your house smell like heaven. Plus, we hear Deb and Kenji’s recommendations for the best snacks for gossiping or watching reality TV.

Recipes:

• Glossy Fudge Brownies Recipe (Serious Eats)
• Olive Oil Brownies (Smitten Kitchen)
• My Favorite Brownies (Smitten Kitchen)
• Best Cocoa Brownies (Smitten Kitchen)
• Blackout Brownie Waffle Sundae (Smitten Kitchen Every Day)
• Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches (Smitten Kitchen)

Nachos were invented in a Mexican border town for a group of American ladies who lunch, and now they are considered food for the beer-drinking, football-cheering everyman. They can come piled high with twenty ingredients; a plate of nothing more than chips with melted Velveeta are also considered nachos. Whatever floats your tortilla, Kenji and Deb discuss ways to optimize every bite. Also, our Executive Producer Audrey Mardavich gets advice on how to slay the Super Bowl potluck.

Recipes mentioned:

• The Ultimate Fully Loaded Vegan Nachos (Serious Eats)
• Corn and Black Bean Weeknight Nachos (Smitten Kitchen)