Served with mashed cauliflower and mixed vegetables

Serves 8

The leaner flat-cut brisket is the better choice for this recipe. The thicker point cut is much fattier-a good thing on the grill, where the excess fat can drip away, but a disadvantage in a slow cooker, where the fat can make the sauce greasy. If you end up with an especially thick piece of brisket, extend the cooking time to 11 hours.

Serves 4 to 6
Look for salt pork that is roughly 70 percent fat and 30 percent lean meat; leaner salt pork may not render enough fat. If it is difficult to slice, put the salt pork in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm up. Use high-quality imported Pecorino Romano—not the bland domestic cheese labeled “Romano.”

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
To create an authentic-tasting version of Pasta All’Amatriciana we needed an alternative to hard-to-find guanciale, or cured pork jowl. Humble salt pork, though an unlikely solution, provided the rich, clean meatiness we were after. To ensure tender bites of pork throughout, we first simmered it in water to gently cook it and render fat, a step that allowed the meat to quickly turn golden once the water evaporated. Finally, to ensure the grated Pecorino Romano didn’t clump in the hot sauce, we first mixed it with a little cooled rendered pork fat. Now the flavor of pork, tomato, chili flake, and Pecorino shine through in each bite.

Serves 4
To minimize flare-ups, trim excess fat and gristle from the steaks before grilling.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
In order to achieve a respectable crust, the exterior of our Char-Grilled Steaks had to be dry. After trying numerous drying-out methods, including salting and aging, we considered the freezer. The freezer’s intensely dry environment sufficiently dehydrated the steaks’ exteriors, and since we were only freezing them for a short time, the interiors remained tender and juicy.

We rubbed the steaks with a mixture of salt and cornstarch before freezing. The salt assured they were well-seasoned, and cornstarch—a champ at absorbing moisture—allowed us to cut the freezing time in half.

Serves 4

We like this sauce with strip or rib-eye steaks, but it will work with any type of pan-seared steak.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
We love the ultra-rich flavor and glossy consistency that a classic French demi-glace (a savory, full-bodied reduction traditionally made from veal bones and stock) adds to a sauce, but making it is a time-consuming process usually left to the expertise of professional cooks. We wanted to find a shortcut for making demi-glace at home, so that we could use it as the base of a sauce for crusty, pan-seared steaks. Chopping up vegetables (to increase their surface area, thus providing more opportunity for flavorful browning) as well as adding mushrooms, tomato paste, and seasonings to red wine and beef broth was a good start, but it wasn’t enough. To replicate the meaty flavor and unctuous gelatin given up by roasted bones, we sautéed ground beef with the tomato paste and stirred powdered gelatin into the final reduction.