Everything somebody actually wrote down.

25 min · medium

Æbleskiver

Danish pancake balls without the pan: small batter cakes, berries in the middle, sugar. They should be custardy inside. Don't make muffins.

18 min · easy

Aglio e olio

Pantry-true. Slice garlic, gold not brown, chili if you want heat. Pasta water makes it a sauce instead of oily noodles.

35 min · easy

Ají de gallina

Peruvian shredded chicken in a bread-nut-chili sauce. Yellow chili would be right; chili flakes and a little cheese get you there. It should coat, not soup.

40 min · easy

Ajiaco

Bogotá chicken and potato pot. Corn stays on the cob if you have it. Cream off the heat, avocado at the table.

40 min · easy

Albóndigas soup

Meatballs in a tomato-cumin broth, rice in the balls or the pot. Mint if you have it. Mexican and Spanish both claim a version. Don't make Italian wedding soup.

35 min · easy

Aloo gobi

Dry-ish skillet. Don't add water until the vegetables have color.

25 min · easy

Amatriciana

Guanciale is traditional; bacon is honest. Chili and tomato, pecorino if you have it.

20 min · easy

Anchovy broccoli pasta

The weeknight that converts anchovy skeptics.

8 min · easy

Anchovy butter toast

Anchovy mashed into soft butter an hour ahead if you can. Nobody will name it, everybody will finish it, and it costs about a pound.

12 min · easy

Anchovy egg toast

Hot toast, a melted anchovy, a jammy egg, lemon. Breakfast that tastes like a bar in Rome. Don't make it a Caesar on bread.

18 min · easy

Anchovy garlic pasta

The tin does the salt work. Melt the fillets into the oil until they disappear and nobody will identify them, but everybody notices.

8 min · easy

Anchovy tomato toast

Anchovy melts if the toast is hot.

5 min · easy

Apple yogurt

Sliced apple, yogurt, a thread of honey. Cinnamon if you want pie. It is breakfast, not a parfait project.

8 min · easy

Apple yogurt crunch

Toast the oats and nuts in a dry pan with honey, then let them cool completely before they touch the yogurt or they go soft on contact.

20 min · easy

Arepa skillet

Cornmeal cakes, cheese in the middle. Eggs on top. Not a pancake, not a tortilla.

20 min · easy

Arrabbiata

Angry tomato. Chili and garlic in oil, tomato, pasta water. Parsley. It should hurt a little. Don't make marinara and add a pinch of flakes at the end.

40 min · easy

Arroz con pollo

Chicken and rice in one pot. Sofrito first, rice in the same fat. Peas at the end. It should be a yellow-orange pot, not fried rice.

8 min · easy

Arugula apple salad

Peppery leaves against crisp fruit, dressed at the last second. Arugula collapses faster than any other salad green.

10 min · easy

Arugula eggs on toast

Dress the leaves in a bowl before they go on. Undressed leaves on toast are decoration; dressed ones are the reason the plate works.

8 min · easy

Arugula ham salad

Salty ham, sharp cheese, bitter leaf.

12 min · easy

Asparagus lemon salad

Thin stems raw; thick stems blanched.

20 min · easy

Asparagus parmesan pasta

Asparagus in at the end so it stays green.

15 min · easy

Asparagus skillet eggs

Snap the woody ends. Eggs last.

25 min · easy

Asparagus soup

Tips aside for garnish. Blend the rest.

30 min · medium

Avgolemono soup

Temper the eggs with hot stock so you get silk, not scramble. Lemon last.

15 min · easy

Avocado chicken bowl

Leftover chicken and an avocado on its last day. Season the rice while it is warm, or the bottom of the bowl tastes of nothing.

10 min · easy

Avocado eggs

Toast hard, because everything going on top of it is soft. A fried egg with crisp white edges turns it from a snack into a breakfast.

8 min · easy

Avocado feta toast

Uses the avocado that is already soft.

12 min · easy

Avocado rice bowl

The avocado that will not keep. Season the rice hot — cold rice refuses seasoning — and cut the avocado in at the last minute.

8 min · easy

Avocado toast

The avocado that has gone soft on the counter. Toast harder than you think, season the mash in a bowl and not on the bread, and pile it thick.

10 min · easy

Avocado tuna salad

Mash the avocado, fold the tuna. Lime and onion so it is not baby food. No mayo needed.

40 min · easy

Baba ganoush

Char the eggplant until it collapses. Tahini and lemon, not a food processor marathon.

15 min · easy

Bacon and eggs

The shortest honest breakfast. Render the bacon, eggs in the fat. Don't rush the eggs. Toast if the pan still has room.

8 min · easy

Bagel and lox

Schmear, salmon, a lot of dill, thin onion. Capers if they are there. Open-faced is honest.

15 min · easy

Bagna càuda

Piedmontese hot bath: anchovy and garlic melted into oil and butter. Vegetables and bread to dip. Keep it warm. Don't make Caesar dressing and serve it hot.

40 min · easy

Baked berry oatmeal

A custard with oats in it, which is why it slices. One dish, and it is better reheated tomorrow than it was today.

25 min · easy

Baked feta eggs

The block of feta and a tin of tomatoes. Push the cheese in whole so you get molten pockets, and pull the eggs while the yolks still move.

25 min · easy

Baked feta with tomato

One pan: tomato and oil, feta in the middle, until the cheese slumps. Bread to scoop.

40 min · easy

Baked white beans

Olive oil is not optional here.

40 min · medium

Baklava

No filo box: layered dough, walnuts, cinnamon, butter, honey while hot. Lemon in the syrup so it is not candy. Don't drown it.

20 min · easy

Banana oat pancakes

Mash the banana; it is the sugar.

5 min · easy

Banana peanut smoothie

Breakfast that is also a snack.

25 min · easy

Banana pudding cups

Stovetop custard, sliced banana. Nilla wafers are a bonus, not a requirement.

30 min · easy

Bangers and mash

The onions are a gravy if you let them go jammy. Mash with more butter than you think.

40 min · medium

Barley beef bowl

Brown the beef hard. Barley simmers.

35 min · easy

Barley cucumber salad

Dress the barley while it is still warm so it takes the lemon on. Cold grain absorbs nothing, which is why most grain salads are dull.

40 min · easy

Barley mushroom bowl

Barley wants a simmer and a hard-seared mushroom.

45 min · easy

Barley vegetable soup

Barley is what turns a thin soup into dinner, and it takes forty minutes that cannot be hurried. Start it before anything else.

35 min · easy

Barley with browned onion and mushroom

After Kasha varnishkes

Toasted grain, a pile of onions, mushrooms. Buckwheat would be traditional; barley is the pantry.

10 min · easy

Basil mozzarella scramble

Drain the mozzarella on a towel first. In off the heat so it softens into strands, and the basil goes on at the table, never in the pan.

20 min · easy

Bean tostadas

Crisp the tortillas, smash the beans, pile cabbage. Dinner from cans.

25 min · easy

Beef and peppers skillet

Hard sear. Don't stew the beef unless you mean chili.

60 min · medium

Beef barley stew

Brown the beef. Do not rush the simmer.

40 min · medium

Beef empanada crimp

Cumin onion beef in pastry, an egg wash, olives if you are Argentine about it. Bake until the seam is mahogany. Don't make a hot pocket.

25 min · easy

Beef mushroom skillet

Two umamis. Acid or Worcestershire cuts.

20 min · easy

Beef on rye with mustard and pickle

After Pastrami on rye

Leftover spiced beef, rye-ish bread, mustard, pickled onion. Cheese if you mean a melt. Don't make a roast-beef sandwich and skip the pepper crust.

20 min · easy

Beef rice bowl

Thin beef, sweet-salty onion. A raw egg yolk if you trust your eggs.

55 min · medium

Beef shin braised with wine and tomato

After Osso buco

Shank would be traditional; a thick cut of beef still braises. Gremolata is lemon zest, garlic, parsley at the end. Don't skip the zest.

40 min · easy

Beef stuffed peppers

Hollow the peppers, rice and beef inside, tomato over. Leftover rice is better than raw.

50 min · medium

Beef, bean and spinach pot with lemon

After Ghormeh sabzi

Herb stew without the fenugreek jar. Spinach stands in. Lemon and dried lime would be better; lemon is honest.

45 min · easy

Beet borscht

Beets are the dish. Dill and sour cream at the table, not boiled grey.

10 min · easy

Beet sour cream open sandwich

Herring's vegetarian cousin. Beets, sour cream, dill, thin onion. Rye would be right; the freezer loaf is honest. Don't make a salad on bread.

15 min · easy

Beet yogurt salad

Roast or use pre-cooked beets. Dill and yogurt, not a vinegar bath only.

40 min · easy

Berry cobbler

Fruit plus a rough biscuit top. Frozen berries work if you add a minute.

30 min · easy

Berry cobbler skillet

Peach would be traditional; frozen berries are honest. Lemon so it is not only sweet.

10 min · easy

Berry cream cups

Frozen berries, warm cream, honey, lemon. A five-minute posset cousin. Don't boil the berries into jam unless you mean it.

5 min · easy

Berry yogurt bowl

Frozen berries, yogurt, honey. A pinch of salt. Don't thaw the berries into juice unless you mean a sauce.

8 min · easy

Berry yogurt fool

Crush berries. Fold, don't blend.

5 min · easy

Berry yogurt smoothie

Frozen berries before they frost-burn.

30 min · easy

Bibimbap bowl

Hot rice, a runny egg, gochujang. Vegetables can be whatever is about to turn.

55 min · medium

Birria

A chile-cumin beef stew you dip tortillas into. Consommé is the point.

35 min · easy

Black bean chili

Cumin bloomed, tomato, beans. Chili flakes to taste. Cheddar at the table. It should be a pot, not a soup.

30 min · easy

Black bean soup

Smash some of the beans so the can becomes a pot. Lime at the table. Cumin has to bloom.

18 min · easy

Black bean tacos

Weeknight taco math without a new protein. Warm beans, onion, lime, a tortilla that flexes. Cheddar if it is there.

25 min · easy

Black beans and rice

Pantry core, and cheap enough to be a habit. Bloom the cumin in fat, mash a ladleful against the pot for body, and more lime than feels right.

12 min · easy

Blistered green beans

Blister, then season. Not boiled.

12 min · easy

Blistered green beans with lemon

A side that eats like a snack. Very hot pan, no crowding, and let them blister properly before you move them.

6 min · easy

Airmail

Daiquiri bones lengthened with sparkle. Honey has to dissolve first.

5 min · medium

Alaska

Gin and yellow or green Chartreuse, stirred. Herbal, not a sour.

4 min · easy

Amaretto sour

Amaretto, lemon and egg white. Amaretto is very sweet on its own, so this needs more lemon than a standard sour.

3 min · easy

Amaro and cola

Fernet-and-cola logic on the amaro you have. Lime. Ice. Don't stir the life out of it.

2 min · easy

Amaro coffee

Amaro and coffee, hot or over ice. The bitterness of both stacks rather than clashing, and it is what to serve instead of dessert.

2 min · easy

Amaro highball

Amaro and soda over ice, which is what Italy drinks after dinner and what most people should drink instead of a third glass of wine.

3 min · easy

Amaro orange highball

Bitter, peel, soda. A digestivo you can drink in the sun. Don't hide it in juice. Ice, amaro, orange, soda last.

2 min · easy

Amaro spritz

Amaro, sparkling wine and soda. Darker and more bitter than an Aperol spritz, and the one to make when the spritz has gone too sweet.

2 min · easy

Amaro tonic

Amaro and tonic over plenty of ice. Two kinds of bitterness that turn out to soften each other.

2 min · easy

Americano

Campari, vermouth and soda over ice — the Negroni before gin was added, and about half the strength.

4 min · easy

Aperol mezcal sour

Aperol's bitterness against smoke, with lemon holding them together. Egg white if you want it soft.

4 min · easy

Aperol sour

Aperol carries its own bitterness, so this needs less sugar than a standard sour. Egg white makes it look like sunset.

2 min · easy

Aperol Spritz

Three parts prosecco, two Aperol, one soda, built over a full glass of ice. Too little ice is why yours goes warm and syrupy.

2 min · easy

Aperol tonic

Lighter than a spritz and less sweet, because tonic brings its own bitterness. A good drink for a long afternoon.

5 min · easy

Apple cider Old Fashioned

A little apple, not a mug of cider. Maple and bitters. It should still taste like whiskey.

6 min · easy

Apple cinnamon cooler

Warm spice, cold glass. Don't make it pie filling.

6 min · easy

Apple ginger sparkling

Thin apple slices in the glass are enough.

4 min · easy

Apple whiskey highball

Bourbon, a splash of apple, soda, a cinnamon stick or a pinch. Lemon so it is not cider. Ice. Don't make a punch.

4 min · easy

Army & Navy

Gin, lemon and orgeat. Three ingredients, and it teaches you what orgeat is actually for.

4 min · medium

Aviation

Gin, maraschino and lemon. A little crème de violette turns it pale blue, which is the version everyone photographs.

4 min · easy

Ayran

Turkish yogurt drink. Thin it, lemon, mint, a pinch of salt if you have it, soda for lift. Savory. Don't make a lassi and call it ayran.

3 min · easy

B-52

Coffee liqueur, amaretto and cream layered by density. Pour each over the back of a spoon and it stacks in three visible bands.

5 min · easy

Banana daiquiri

Ripe banana, rum, lime, a little sugar. Shake hard. Frozen is honest if it is blended. Don't make a smoothie and call it a daiquiri.

5 min · easy

Basil gimlet

Clap the basil, don't shred it khaki. A gimlet that went through the garden.

6 min · easy

Basil lemonade

Clap the basil. Don't blend it khaki.

5 min · easy

Batida de coco

Brazilian coconut batida without cachaça: rum, coconut, lime. Shake. Not a piña colada.

2 min · easy

Bay Breeze

Cranberry and pineapple over vodka. Pineapple juice foams when it is shaken, and that head is what makes it look like a cocktail.

4 min · easy

Bee's Knees

Gin, lemon and honey, invented to make bad Prohibition gin drinkable and still excellent with good gin.

8 min · easy

Beet citrus cooler

Earthy-sweet. Citrus has to be loud or it tastes like soil.

6 min · easy

Beet ginger cooler

A slice of cooked beet, not a juice bar. Ginger and lemon do the drinking.

6 min · easy

Beet Mary

A Mary with beet. Lime, heat, Worcestershire. Vodka if you mean a drink; without it it is still brunch. Salt the rim. Don't make soup.

6 min · easy

Berry bourbon smash

A smash with thawed berries. Don't puree into jam. Mint clapped.

6 min · easy

Berry ginger cooler

Muddle a few berries. Not a smoothie.

5 min · easy

Berry vinegar soda

A few drops of vinegar. It should taste bright, not pickled.

5 min · medium

Between the Sheets

Sidecar cousin with rum in the split. Shake hard, small glass.

4 min · medium

Bijou

Gin, Chartreuse and sweet vermouth — jewel-colored and much richer than a Martini. Stir it very cold.

4 min · easy

Bitter lemon soda

Tonic is the bitter. A dash of bitters only if you want it extra.

4 min · easy

Bitter orange tonic

Tonic and bitters, orange peel. A zero-proof aperitivo.

4 min · easy

Bitter orange zero spritz

If you have no aperitif, tonic plus orange peel still reads bitter.

5 min · easy

Black Manhattan

Manhattan with amaro instead of vermouth. Stir until it is cold and a little diluted.

2 min · easy

Black Russian

The same without cream, which makes it a much drier drink and a far better one after dinner.

4 min · medium

Blood and Sand

Equal parts scotch, sweet vermouth, cherry liqueur and orange juice. It should not work with scotch in it, and it does.

6 min · easy

Bloody Mary

Savory, not a juice cocktail. Taste for salt, heat, and acid before you garnish.