Burn Your Food on Purpose

Burning your food can be a good thing. American cooks tend to be far too timid when it comes to getting some char on there, but a little bit of bitterness can do wonders for a whole bunch of ingredients.

Take alliums for example, specifically leeks and shallots. Both have a mild flavor when sautéed or roasted. But when charred or scorched—a technique common in Mexican and Vietnamese cuisines—you develop smoky depth and a beautiful color. Burnt leeks make up the backbone of our Burnt-Leek Gravy, which is a little earthy, a touch bitter—a perfect contrast to the rich drippings and butter that thicken the gravy.

Our Skillet-Roasted Chicken with Burnt Shallot Jus gets similar color and layers of flavor from garlic and shallots roasted under the bird. The shallots in particular develop scorched outer layers. The browned alliums are simmered with vermouth until the liquid gets thick and syrupy. Chicken broth goes in next, and it’s all reduced together to create a rich, flavorful jus. (Just be sure to run it through a strainer to catch all the little plant fibers.)

Spaghetti is another thing you should be burning. The Italians have a recipe for just this, called Spaghetti all’Assassina—or killer’s spaghetti. The pasta is cooked start to finish in a skillet, and a warm tomato broth is added to the noodles a little at a time, kind of like one does when making risotto. We cook the pasta, undisturbed, in an even layer so it chars and crisps. Instead of a saucy bowl of spaghetti, you get an intensely flavored skillet of chewy noodles with crunchy bits that remind me of the edges of a baked lasagna.

But my favorite thing to burn is sugar. If you’ve ever enjoyed a Crème Brûlée (or Turkish Rice Pudding) that’s been taken a bit past caramelized, you know that the little bit of bitterness can anchor a sugary dessert in a really pleasant way. You get a similar benefits from our Burnt Sugar Apple Upside-Down Cake, which features apples drenched in a sticky, not-so-sweet caramel that offsets the more sugary flavors in the cake.

The Basque-Style Cheesecake takes a similar approach. The crustless cake bakes in a parchment-lined pan in a hot oven—no water bath needed—until the center is just barely set and the top is blistered and burnt. The contrast is heavenly. (To keep the inside cool and creamy while we scorch the exterior, we chill the batter in the fridge overnight.)

If you don’t have time for all that baking, but still want a sweet treat with a burnt edge, you should make some Charred Pineapple and put it on coconut ice cream. Charring fresh pineapple under a broiler brings out roasted, caramel-y notes while making the fruit tender and juicy. (For even more charred goodness, check out our collection of recipes that are Better When Burnt.)

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.