America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated

Miso-glazed salmon promises firm, flavorful fish with a glazed, lacquer-like exterior but takes 3 days to prepare. This version shortens the process, but still achieves the depth of sweet-savory flavor that this dish is known for.

For a classic sourdough bread recipe, we used a mixture of bread flour and whole-wheat flour for complex flavor. Sifting the whole-wheat flour removed excess bran, ensuring a light and airy loaf. For convenience and deep sourdough flavor, we let the shaped loaf proof overnight in the refrigerator. Baking it in a covered Dutch oven trapped steam to provide a crisp, crackling crust. We prefer King Arthur all-purpose flour here; if you can’t find it, you can substitute bread flour. For best results, weigh your ingredients. If you have a banetton or a lined proofing basket, use that rather than the towel-lined colander in step 3. Do not wait until the oven has preheated in step 6 to start timing 30 minutes or the bread will burn. [Ed note: For more advice on sourdough starters, please follow this link for an audio segment with Bridget Lancaster of America's Test Kitchen and a sourdough starter recipe courtesy of Cook's Illustrated. You can also try this recipe for Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread.]

By nurturing a culture of naturally occurring bacteria and yeast, a healthy sourdough starter will leaven bread while also lending it the trademark sour flavor. For a simple, foolproof approach, we began by mixing all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour, which provided extra nutrition for the developing bacteria and yeasts. We then added enough water to form a wet dough and let it sit at room temperature. After a few days, when it showed signs of life in the form of gas bubbles and a pungent aroma, we began a routine of daily feedings, mixing some of the culture with fresh flour and water to refresh the food supply. After 10 to 14 days, we found that the starter smelled pleasantly yeasty and doubled in volume 8 to 12 hours after the last feeding, a sign that it was ready to use to bake bread. We also came up with an easy way to maintain the starter between uses. We found that we could refresh the food supply just once a week by letting the culture sit for 5 hours at room temperature after feeding it and then moving it to the refrigerator for storage. [Ed. note: Try using your new sourdough starter to make the recipes for Classic Sourdough Bread (Pain au Levain) and Almost No-Knead Sourdough Bread, also provided by America's Test Kitchen.]