Parmesan crisps: 15 minutes to make, seconds to devour...
Also: Shatteringly crisp skin-on pork belly, Korean Army Stew, and the sadist behind the Carolina Reaper pepper
You can buy a less-than-ideal version of the tastiest, cheesiest crackers you’ll ever eat, but honestly, parmesan crisps are much better when homemade and so stupidly easy to make you’ll have to deal with multiple thoughts and emotions warring within yourself the first time you scarf down a batch —
“Why the hell haven’t I made these before?”
“Knowing how easy these delicious fuckers are to make is kinda dangerous”
“I wonder how expensive a whole wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano is?”
“Did I really eat that entire batch already?”
“fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck”
There are dozens of different versions of this recipe online, but honestly, all you need for success are the following:
5 oz shredded or grated parmesan (Parmigiano-Reggiano is obviously ideal here, but anything besides the stuff in the can will likely do. A lot of supermarkets will have refrigerated shredded or grated parm in tubs or pouches — while I normally wouldn’t recommend using this stuff, for this recipe it seems to behave a little better in the finished cracker, as it’s just a little drier — if grating/shredding your own, you can take the optional step and spread your cheese out on a baking sheet to let it dry in the fridge for an hour.)
black pepper
garlic or onion powder
Seriously, that’s it.
Preheat an oven to 400°F, and line 2 baking sheets with Silpat (or parchment paper, but silicone mats are better.)
Using your fingers (if shredded) or a tablespoon (if grated), make 12 roughly 2” discs or piles on the baking sheet with the cheese, leaving plenty of space between. If the parm is shredded, don’t worry about keeping the edges neat, just make sure the pile is even and not too tall. If grated, you can use the spoon to create neat, even circles.
Place baking sheets in oven for 3-10 minutes, checking every 2. (The time range is so wide because everyone’s ovens are different, and honestly, I’ve had these be golden brown and delicious after 4 in one oven and barely done after 8 in another. Just make sure you’re checking regularly.) Switch sheet positions halfway through baking.
When edges are lacy and golden brown, pull sheets from oven. (You can wait until the entire cracker is golden brown, but be careful not to let it go too far, as you can this stuff can burn quickly.) Dust with pepper and just a pinch of garlic and/or onion powder, and let cool. Use a thin spatula or bench scraper to move crisps to whatever plate or container you’re using, though if you’re smart, you’ll put most of the batch DIRECTLY INTO THE FRIDGE, setting aside two or three for an immediate, refined snacking experience.
Or just take the one of the baking sheets directly into the TV room and go HAM while watching The Good Place, you monster, I won’t judge.
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Things you should make:
You may need to talk a butcher or the person at your meat counter into giving you a SKIN-ON pork belly for this crispy roast — but hopefully you can find a slab, and if you don’t skip the drying step, you will get porchetta-level crispiness with a minimum of fuss. (resist the urge to salt/season overnight — you won’t need it for this implementation. Lightly salt the scored skin right before cooking.)
Koreans’ love of Spam is a result of cultural cross-pollination during and after the conflict that tore the nation in two. Army stew — budae jjigae (부대찌개) — is a delicious part of that unfortunate legacy.
Feijoada is porky, funky, zingy, delicious Brazilian comfort food. If you’ve got the time and a neighborhood where you can walk it off afterwards, you should make yourself (and a few of your friends) a platter or two.
More food stuff:
Things you should watch and/or listen to:
Ever wondered what kind of sadist would develop the world’s hottest pepper (and continue to grow and work on breeding even hotter motherforkers?) Meet Ed Currie (yes, the last name is FORKING CURRIE)
A history of, and the science behind the bagel:
Though the bagel is most closely associated with the American Jewish community, its actual origins in Eastern Europe have become the stuff of myth. Competing tales offer explanations as to how, as early as the 1600s in Poland, Jews came to relish the bagel at childbirth, celebrations, and funerals. But, according to Maria Balinska, author of The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread, this most Jewish of breads is likely descended from a German communion bread. The original communion bread was a large, ring-shaped bread that was baked in monasteries and shared among the congregation. “And my theory is that basically what you have is a family tree,” she told Gastropod. “One of the ancestors is the communion bread, and, from that, you have a descendant that becomes the pretzel, but you also have a descendant that becomes the bagel.”