With cooler temperatures comes a primal desire to fire up our kitchens, and this time of year, few recipes warm the bones and help us weather the coming days of winter quite like confit. Almost any food can be confit’ed—our favorite is duck—and yet the technique remains intimidating for many home cooks. Read on to level the playing field and find a new way to use your cast iron.

We delve into the most important attribute of cast-iron cookware.

Imagine this: You’re stuck in the middle of the desert with a broken-down vehicle and nothing to eat but one damn egg. Which would be easier, frying it on the hot glass of your car windshield or the rugged asphalt on which you stand? Simply put, smoothness impacts your cooking, your seasoning, your cleaning. It matters, indeed.

And the fascinating history of its evolution into a modern-day recipe.

What’s in a recipe? There are the ingredients, of course, and the method, too. For most modern humans, this is common knowledge, but there was a time, not that long ago, when that six-letter word that rules our kitchens was something quite different–and, at one point, not even a word at all.

Jean-Paul Bourgeois’ cooking is the best of both worlds. One minute, the classically trained chef is sharing a recipe for cacio e pepe from his days with Danny Meyer’s revered Union Square Hospitality Group in New York, and the next, he’s showing off his downhome Louisiana roots—from crawfish etouffee to wild-game gumbo—as seen on his popular Duck Camp Dinners series from MeatEater. Consider his culinary wisdom as universal, too.

Like many chefs across the country following the COVID-19 pandemic, Spike Gjerde is in the midst of a reinvention. There was a moment when he thought he might throw in the toque for good, as his A Rake’s Progress became a casualty at The Line Hotel in Washington, D.C., and his flagship Woodberry Kitchen pivoted with the times. But now all of that has changed, as he readies to open “a magical little jewel box” with Woodberry Tavern.

D.C. chef Jeremiah Langhorne is on a quest to define Mid-Atlantic cuisine.

By all odds, you could say that Jeremiah Langhorne was destined for this moment. Having just reopened his Michelin-starred The Dabney in Washington, D.C., the McCrady’s, Noma, and French Laundry alum is poised to be one of the next great culinary rock stars, one who is carving out newfound recognition for a regional foodway almost lost to history and deeply rooted in its diverse terroir. “When asked what [the restaurant] would be like,” he says, “my best response has always been, ‘I’ll show you.’”

Come fall, the peppers reach their peak before the first frost and the squash finally arrives, savory and sweet. Get the best of both with this Sichuan-inspired stir-fry from Woodberry Tavern's Spike Gjerde.