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New York Times
7 days ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
Packable Beach and Picnic Recipes
CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. ROSIE: I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show . CHRISTINE: This episode is called: 'Packable Beach and Picnic Recipes.' ROSIE: Hey there, this is Rosie. Earlier this week, we published an episode all about the gear you might want to consider to help you level up your beach experience. We talked about shades, chairs, coolers, and more. But we didn't talk about one super important thing: food! Everyone has their own ideas for what makes a great beach snack. Some ice-cold fruit from the cooler? A delectable lunch of salads and dips? Or maybe just a bag of chips? Well, no matter your style, our friends over at New York Times Cooking have some ideas of ways to elevate your beach-snacking game. And today, we're bringing you a conversation about just that with Tanya Sichynsky. Tanya is an editor at NYT Cooking who writes the weekly newsletter The Veggie, and she recently wrote a piece for The Times that included a bunch of great recipes for a beach day or picnic. CAIRA: Tanya, welcome to the show. TANYA: Hi, guys. Thanks so much for having me. CHRISTINE: We're glad to have you. ROSIE: Thanks for coming. Well, so obviously anyone can bring anything to a beach, a park, a picnic. We know that. What are your general rules, Tanya, for the kinds of recipes and foods you want to pack for a day at the beach, for a picnic? TANYA: Obviously, this is all incredibly subjective, but if you're asking me — which you are — I'm going to tell you, it's trying to avoid really soggy food. You don't want something that's going to get real wet in a cooler or in a tote bag. So nothing super mayonnaise-y with soft bread, like that … to me, it's ripe for sogging. You want stuff that's really, I'll say packable and stackable. Whether you're working with a cooler or a big tote bag, you want stuff that will kind of Tetris into your vessel of choice and not get crushed. So if you're talking potato chips, you actually shouldn't decant your potato chips into a Ziploc bag if you can help it, because all the air in the bag will protect it. That kind of stuff. I think part of it is 'cooler versus tote bag' will tell me what kind of recipes I want to pack. CHRISTINE: So, like, a tote bag, meaning you're not going to keep it cool. TANYA: Well, I'm so glad you asked. I know that we want to talk about no-cooler recipes, but I will implore anybody, if they plan on being outside for a really long time, a great hack is just a water bottle. Put it in the freezer the night before and put it in the bag, because by the time you get to where you're going, the water will be semi-thawed, mostly thawed. You will have insulated the bag in some way by just packing a bunch of stuff into it, and it will keep some element of your meal cool. So if you're going with a couple people, just throw three frozen water bottles in there, and you'll stay hydrated, and your food will stay semi-cool. CHRISTINE: Oh, I love that tip. And also, if someone's going to freeze a water bottle, remember to leave an inch — TANYA: Always. CHRISTINE: — at the top, right? TANYA: Always. CHRISTINE: That is not filled so that the water can expand in the freezer. TANYA: Yes, it's multi-use in some ways. CHRISTINE: There we go. CAIRA: And just throw it in the trash when you're done. TANYA: And just throw it in the trash. And also, a lot of beaches — ROSIE: Recycle. CAIRA: That's what I meant. ROSIE: What are you, nuts? CAIRA: Just don't throw it in the ocean. That was my point. TANYA: No, there, exactly. We're recycling it. And then, really, for me, it's just, like, 'What am I not going to turn my nose up at if it's been outside for two hours?' We are not — at least, I'm not right now — talking about 'Is it adhering to the FDA standards of not outside for more than 90 minutes?' Look, we've all eaten weird stuff off a picnic table that we know that has been there for more than a few hours, more than the window. But won't you feel a little bit icky about eating? So that kind of brings me to the mayonnaise of it all, which is pretty shelf-stable. I don't worry about it too much, but if I'm doing, say, a chickpea salad or a pasta salad, maybe I will cut the mayonnaise down significantly and use more tahini or something like that, something that is okay at room temperature. It's essentially a nut butter. It's a seed butter. So if you're going to lug a peanut butter and jelly, and you feel cool about that, you probably would feel good about tahini or something like that in a chickpea salad. CHRISTINE: I love that. I never think about swapping tahini for mayonnaise, but I should probably do that more often. TANYA: We have over at New York Times Cooking a lot of salad recipes that are, like, chickpea-based salads that have some sort of configuration of tahini, mayonnaise, yogurt, more or less of each. And, really, it's completely … most of those recipes are really amenable, so you can just modify them to your tastes. If you're not really a mayonnaise person, you can do half-and-half yogurt/tahini, that rules. If you don't like tahini or you're allergic to sesame, mayonnaise/yogurt. If you are vegan, maybe you're using a combination of vegan mayonnaise or tahini. I've made vegan mayonnaise before, it's actually quite easy. CHRISTINE: What is it? Just oil? CAIRA: What is it? Yeah. TANYA: You use aquafaba, which is all the stuff at the bottom of a can of chickpeas. Yeah. So let's say you're making a chickpea salad. You have regular mayonnaise that makes you feel icky. You don't want to use yogurt. You have tahini. And you obviously have the can of chickpeas, because you're putting it in the salad. You drain the aquafaba, which is the liquid at the bottom of the can. And with an immersion blender, which I'm sure there is a Wirecutter pick for. CHRISTINE: Oh, we do have a pick. TANYA: Oh yeah. It's just the juice and the chickpeas, white vinegar, salt, sugar, lemon juice, some dry mustard, and then a really neutral oil, so we used a sunflower oil. And I'm telling you, it was like doing a magic trick when we did it. It immediately emulsifies. It tastes like mayonnaise. CHRISTINE: And it sounds like the ingredients in vegan mayonnaise, at least that recipe, those are pretty shelf-stable. You could take those out for a day without them turning bad. TANYA: Absolutely. CHRISTINE: Right. TANYA: Absolutely. And, again, if you have a little bit of a — I'm holding up a water bottle, for the folks at home — an insurance policy of semi-frozen water bottles, it will be cool enough, even if you did want to use regular mayonnaise, which tons of people will take to the beach, and it's never an issue. CAIRA: I'm a salt-and-vinegar-chips girl for life. Is there a salty snack you like to take to the beach? TANYA: Okay. I'm a sucker for BjornQorn. CHRISTINE: Oh, you're telling me all of the things that my kids want to eat. You all should go out on a picnic together. TANYA: I'm taking the kids to the beach. ROSIE: What is BjornQorn? CAIRA: Yeah, what are those? ROSIE: And why do you like it? TANYA: Okay, BjornQorn is vegan, cheesy popped popcorn. Very, very minimal ingredients. So if you are trying to cut down on super ultra-processed foods, this is a, I think, great alternative to something like a white-cheddar popcorn, Smartfood. So BjornQorn is made with nutritional yeast; nutritional yeast is dried, edible yeast. It usually comes in flakes. So good. I will make, frankly, a version at home of a BjornQorn. We have a recipe also on Cooking that is a vegan cheesy popcorn, same kind of combination of flavors. But, yeah, so BjornQorn. Okay, I always have hot dogs — from the editor of The Veggie. ROSIE: You always have hot dogs. TANYA: From the editor of The Veggie. ROSIE: Can you say more about that? TANYA: Yeah. Hebrew National, all-beef hot dogs, live and die by them. I love a hot dog, and I am taking hot dogs to the beach. CHRISTINE: No. TANYA: Yes. Hear me out. Okay, I did this last summer. So I will split-top a hot dog, so, like, butterfly it. I'll griddle it in my little cast iron skillet or on a griddle-top pan. I'll make two hot dogs a person, and then I will put the hot dogs and the buns in little aluminum foil roll-ups. You don't want to crush them. So I'll put them at the top of the bag with everything. If you will eat a ballpark hot dog some guy has been toting around through the stands of MetLife — ROSIE: I mean, fair. TANYA: — you will eat a beach hot dog. CAIRA: But that's not the same. TANYA: No, it is the same. CAIRA: Because a ballpark hot dog is still hot. What are you eating? A cold hot dog on the beach? TANYA: No, it is a — CAIRA: You warm it up in the sun? TANYA: It is room temperature. Sometimes it's still warm. Here's the kicker, though: Because I brought my frozen water bottle in the bag, I am bringing a topping, and the topping is pico de gallo. CHRISTINE: Oh, this is … you're hitting my heart here. I think this sounds like a delicious beach meal. TANYA: This is the perfect beach meal, and you've got the crunchy, crisp freshness of tomatoes and jalapeños, onions. Maybe you want to throw some scallions in there, definitely cilantro on top of the hot dog. Because you've butterflied the hot dog, it holds the pico de gallo in the hot dog. It's not going to just roll off. ROSIE: She's beauty and she's grace. TANYA: I made us put a recipe for this on New York Times Cooking. It is just a hot dog with pico de gallo, and the two tricks are the butterflying of the hot dog … I also put mayonnaise on the bun when I griddle them, so I will griddle the buns too. So also this helps with … if you're worried about your hot dog getting crushed, the outside might get a little crushed, but the inside, if you grill it on a cast iron skillet or a grill top, the inside of the bun will be a little bit harder, and it will protect the dog. CAIRA: Oh, you protect those dogs. ROSIE: Protect the dog. CAIRA: Well, let's say someone's at the beach all day, and they're packing a lunch, but they don't have a cooler. It might get a little warm in here. So what are some lunch ideas that you'd recommend for that and just generally things that won't go bad in the sun? TANYA: So I'm saying hot dog. I'm also saying Andy Baraghani has this extra-green pasta salad that I am obsessed with. It is my lunch today. It's downstairs, not in the fridge, just sitting at my desk. CHRISTINE: What's in this? TANYA: So you're using some short-cut pasta, whether it's rigatoni or a fusilli, but when I say 'short-cut,' I mean short tubes. You don't want a long noodle here. Snap peas, English peas, are the vegetables that are in here. And then the sauce is really, really easy to make, and it's made mostly of greens, so raw spinach, baby spinach or arugula, or a blend of both. And then basil, similar to how you would make a pesto, this is kind of … the sauce is really kind of like a looser pesto. ROSIE: Tanya, I'm looking at your article on The Times about easy recipes to take outside this summer, and I see something called a ham and jam sandwich. Talk about it. TANYA: Oh, absolutely. Okay, ham and jam sandwich, very straightforward. Similar to a French-style ham and butter sandwich that has been beefed up by the addition of some sort of fruit preserve, which is just a nice combination of flavors. It's really, really simple. If you are going to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or, I don't know, a turkey and cheese sandwich, the ham and jam sandwich is just like its kind of sexy, dignified cousin. It just feels like a fancy thing to eat at the beach, when really it's just, like, ham and cherry jam and some butter and a nice baguette. ROSIE: Let's say people have taken our advice to heart, Kit's advice to heart, and gotten a great cooler. What recipes do you recommend if we're lugging a big old cooler to the beach? TANYA: Yeah, I think this is where you're going crazy with the pasta salads and the dips. Any sort of dairy-based dips, a yogurt-based dip. We've got this great fresh ranch dip from Naz Deravian, which is really just like zhuzhed-up yogurt. So smart, great use of pantry seasonings, fresh chives. Ali Slagle also has a dill-pickled tzatziki, which is really fun. I don't know, I feel like pickles are so summery. ROSIE: We are a big pickle family. TANYA: Yeah, you got to get on the dill-pickled tzatziki train. It's just garlic, Greek yogurt, olive oil, finely chopped dill, and then a ton of grated pickles. CAIRA: So I know we talked about the popcorn, which is always a good, healthy snack, but what are some other things that you love to bring to the beach that won't get soggy or crunched, but is also still healthy? TANYA: Okay. Fruit feels like a cop-out answer, but I love a frozen grape. CAIRA: Oh my God. TANYA: So a Tupperware of frozen grapes, a little Baggie of frozen grapes. I'm popping them in the freezer. If you put a little lime juice, citric acid — CAIRA: Citric acid is my go-to. TANYA: — that is a really great — CHRISTINE: Wait, you guys, stop. What is citric acid, and why are you putting it on your grapes? TANYA: Okay, citric acid is a powder that looks just like granulated sugar, but it is a powder version of the naturally occurring acid that exists in citrus fruits. So it is a fine dusting powder that you could cover grapes with. This is what brings pucker to a Sour Patch Kid. So imagine frozen grapes tossed with a little citric acid, maybe a little bit of sugar. ROSIE: Do you put sugar on yours too? TANYA: Yes. ROSIE: You just do sugar? TANYA: Yeah. Okay. CHRISTINE: Hardcore. TANYA: So that is, like … and, I mean, the grapes are already sweet, so they don't really need any extra sugar. But yeah, toss those in citric acid. By the time you get to the beach, the grapes probably won't be frozen grapes anymore. If you are packing them in a cooler with ice, they might stay frozen. But if you're using them as the cooling element by just tossing them into a tote bag, they'll thaw by then. But they'll still be delicious, and they will hold some of their shape because they'd been frozen for most of the time. But that's a really, really easy, simple, healthy snack. I mean, again, fruit, okay. You didn't bring me on here to tell you to eat fruit, but that's a fun — CAIRA: That's a fruit in a fun way. CHRISTINE: That is delicious. TANYA: That's fruit in a fun way. ROSIE: Tanya Sichynsky, you are a legend. Thank you so much for being on our show. TANYA: This was so fun. ROSIE: This was really fun. TANYA: This ruled. ROSIE: Have fun at the beach, everybody. TANYA: Thanks. ROSIE: If you want to try out any of the recipes Tanya talked about today, you can find them in our show notes, or on the New York Times Cooking website. And if you want more of Tanya's recommendations, you can subscribe to the weekly newsletter The Veggie . That's it for us. Thanks for listening. The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel. Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Today's episode was mixed by Catherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. ROSIE: And I'm Rosie Guerin. Thanks for listening.
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Go Forth and Fourth
The Fourth of July party I go to every summer never varies (thankfully). Rain or shine, we sip Fish House punch in my friends' backyard, eat grilled lamb tacos and bean salads, and, for a rousing finale, take turns dramatically reading snippets of the Declaration of Independence or other rebellious manifestoes before breaking for pie. It's a jolly time. Do you have a festive tradition or recipe for the Fourth that you look forward to all year long? I want to hear about it: hellomelissa@ I love a peek at other people's tables. If you're still figuring out your menu, we have plenty of ideas for you here, including Yasmin Fahr's grilled tahini-honey chicken thighs. Made with pantry staples, this humble gathering of tahini, lemon and honey alchemizes into dinner party gold: gorgeously charred pieces of chicken with a nutty, caramelized flavor brightened by citrus. If you don't have access to a grill (or if it's being rained on), these are just as good cooked in the oven or in a skillet. It's a perfect last-minute party dish for Independence Day and days beyond. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Grilled tofu: More grilled goodness, this time meatless, can be found in Kay Chun's garlicky, gingery, soy-glazed grilled tofu slices. Heating the marinade before pouring it on the tofu slices gives you an especially deep, complex flavor. And if grilling isn't in the cards, you can make this, like Yasmin's chicken, in a cast-iron pan on the stove. Greek salad: Lidey Heuck's less-is-more Greek salad features a minimalist mix of juicy tomatoes, sweet red onions, plenty of olives and a slab of salty, creamy feta cheese. Use the best olive oil you have here. In this easy, versatile beauty, every ingredient counts. Succotash with sausage and shrimp: This jubilant dish by Vallery Lomas puts a new spin on the succotash staples of sweet corn and lima beans. By fortifying the mix with spicy andouille sausage and shrimp and adding okra and basil for texture and freshness, she turns a classic side dish into a satisfying meal. Pasta with corn, mint and red onions: Depending on where you live, local fresh corn may still be a few weeks away. But when it arrives, greet it with this colorful pasta dish, which crowns seasonal produce and cavatelli with dollops of creamy ricotta. Buttermilk chess pie: Every party needs a dessert, and to me the Fourth calls for pie, preferably one topped with a windfall of seasonal berries. Pile them all up on Lisa Donovan's tangy chess pie with its jiggly, soft custard nestled in a crisp, buttery crust. It's the only fireworks I need. To get these and all the other summery, celebratory recipes at New York Times Cooking, you'll want to subscribe. If you're hit by some kind of a technical snafu, email the smart people at cookingcare@ for help. Happy Independence Day! I'll see you on Monday.
Buzz Feed
29-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Buzz Feed
People Are Sharing Food Trends That Live Up To The Hype
If you spend any time on TikTok, Instagram, or pretty much any social media, you've probably seen your fair share of popular food trends. And some are certainly better than others. Redditor BreezyBlossomDrift asked, "What cooking trends are actually worth the hype?" Here's what people said. "The dense bean salads on TikTok. Calling them dense is a bit odd, but they are easy, healthy, and store well for meal prep." Edith_Putski "The TikTok breakfast wrap. Use a pan that's the same size as your tortilla. Preheat oiled pan, scramble two eggs in a bowl, add eggs to hot oiled pan, lay tortilla on top of uncooked eggs, when eggs are firm, flip, add cheese in a line down the middle, trifold sides over cheese, cook til cheese melts and tortilla to desired crispiness." Barely_Makin_It "Instant Pot meals. Pressure cookers are handy as heck in general, and making them electric and easy to use has really gotten people into them again." chickfilamoo "The Emily Mariko salmon bowls. They're a staple in our house that my kid is obsessed with." mrsbrattyb "Chili crisp in oil. Is it trendy? Yes. Is it delicious on almost everything savory? Also, yes." SisyphusRocks7 "Airfryers in general. I thought they were just a gimmick that would take up counter space that I'd never end up using. Then I got one for Christmas, and I use it at least four times a week. Want to heat up leftovers? Air fryer. Want to make a side or a dinner for one without heating up your whole oven/house? Airfryer. Want something crispy fast? Airfryer." Classic-Option4526 "No knead bread. The Mark Bittman / New York Times no-knead bread is basically 95% as good as most of the loaves you could get from artisan bakeries." john_tartufo "Charcuterie everything. I've started doing 'charcuterie' for breakfast, and it's been a game changer. Just some crackers with good cheese and balsamic glaze, plus some fruit and nuts. Have it with a protein shake mixed with coffee,e and it's between 40-50 grams of protein plus some fiber. And it doesn't get boring because you can mix up all the flavors." SaltandVinegarBae "Frozen veggies. Frozen veggies are the real MVP. They have the same nutrients as fresh, zero guilt, and they don't judge you for forgetting them in the fridge for ten days." "I've noticed Eric Kim on New York Times Cooking has been punching out a lot of super simple recipes that feature one powerhouse condiment/seasoning as the star of the show (gochujang, miso, hoisin, etc) with only a couple of other ingredients and a base like noodles or rice. They are so easy to bulk up with some steamed/sauteed greens and a protein without spending more than 15 minutes in the kitchen, and they are pretty cheap. It's great to see examples of how cooking doesn't have to be elaborate with ten or more ingredients and a 30-plus minute commitment. I have been cooking that way for a while, but I have seen a lot of people who don't have the intuition for it and get overwhelmed with trendy cookbooks and blog recipes." fakesaucisse "Pizza beans. I saw them all over Instagram, but they have become a favorite dinner when my husband is away. Protein and fiber-rich, filling, and cozy." Foreign_Owl_8425 "The TikTok pasta with tomatoes, feta, olive oil, and pasta. It's so good for how simple and easy it is, it's the one recipe I have committed to memory, I've made it so many times." justforthehellofit "Flaky maldon salt. It seems silly to pay that much for salt until you use it. It makes everything better." taylorthestang "That Dubai chocolate (milk chocolate with pistachio filling) is actually really awesome." blanched_almond "Overnight oats! I eat them cold in the summer and l can heat them up in the microwave for the winter. And l can change the toppings every morning to add texture." snailjuice "Mason jar salads. I make eight salads for the week and put them into mason jars. Yes, you have to dump them in a bowl. The mason jars keep the salad fresh for four or five days. I can prep lunches for my family and not have to make salads every morning." metalliclegend76 "Personally, I'm all for the 'lazy girl dinner' movement. They are realistic meals that don't require 30 ingredients or two hours of prep." BreezyBlossomDrift "Cream cheese recipes. Cream cheese is awesome and can be added to Crockpot or Instant Pot meals to make them creamy. Cream or milk splits, so using cream cheese is a smart substitute." "Lasagna soup. My kids love it, my husband loves it. It takes 30 minutes and minimal effort to put together, and it's warm and cozy on cold nights!" throwaway24749434 "The viral Parmesan crusted potatoes. Honestly, I could eat those every day for the rest of my life. They are pure heaven." alwaysonmybike Do you have something to add? What is a recent food trend you've tried that was (or wasn't) worth the hype? Tell us about it in the comments or in this anonymous form.
New York Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Wirecutter Show Episode 41: Grill, Baby, Grill!
CAIRA: What is the difference between a barbecue and a cookout? SAM: Well, that's a whole episode. CAIRA: Oh. SAM: I think at a barbecue, you're actually going to barbecue. You're going to cook meat for a long time and serve it to a large number of people. At a cookout, Chad's going to just do the hot dogs. CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. ROSIE: I'm Rosie Guerin, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show . CAIRA: This episode is called Grill, Baby, Grill ROSIE: Hey, Caira. Hey, Christine. CAIRA: Hi. CHRISTINE: Hello. ROSIE: Another Wednesday, another Wirecutter Show. CHRISTINE: Again, this has become a regular thing for us. ROSIE: Today we're going to talk about grills and grilling. CHRISTINE: 'Tis the season. ROSIE: 'Tis the season. Are you grilling people? CAIRA: I want to be. ROSIE: Aspirational griller? CHRISTINE: Aspirational. I do not currently have an outdoor space that I can grill at, but when I am somewhere where I can grill, I do grill. And on the site, we do have recommendations for gas grills, for charcoal grills, and I have got to tell you all that it is kind of wild testing grills in New York City, I think we're going to get into that in this episode, but it is a massive task to figure out places that you can actually grill. We can't do it at our offices. There's no outdoor space to do it. Our landlord will not let us do it there, and so we've had to get very creative over the years. ROSIE: The kitchen team had to put together something wild. CHRISTINE: Yeah, they really did. And we're going to get into that in a little bit. CAIRA: I loved what they ended up doing and I want to do it again. First up today, we're talking with Lesley Stockton, who's a senior staff writer on the kitchen team to talk to us about all of the unexpected things that she uses to cook and keep her grill clean. And then later we're going to have Sam Sifton, assistant managing editor at NYT and co-founder of New York Times Cooking, talk to us about some of the recipes he's excited to cook on his grill this summer, and, of course, his famous hosting tips for a blowout barbeque. CHRISTINE: I am really looking forward to that. ROSIE: Sam is the best. CHRISTINE: Okay, we're going to take a quick break and when we're back we'll talk with Lesley Stockton about tips and tools for becoming a better grill cook. We'll be right back. CAIRA: Welcome back. With us now is Lesley Stockton, who is a senior kitchen writer at the kitchen team at Wirecutter, and she's worked as a professional chef for over 20 years. And one of her very first jobs was working as a sous chef at a restaurant that cooked over a wood burning grill, and she had to do the maintenance for all of that, which is so impressive. CHRISTINE: Lesley. I love that. Welcome back to the show. LESLEY: I love being here. CHRISTINE: Lesley, you've been testing grills and grill tools for Wirecutter for many years, and most recently you finished this really huge grill test where we rented an entire brownstone in Brooklyn to test a bunch of grills. Tell us a little bit about that. LESLEY: Okay, so first of all, I did start this coverage eight years ago in my backyard. So this time around, since I don't have that backyard anymore, because living in New York can be perilous, we rented a backyard in Clinton Hill. And you're covered in grease, you're sweating, you're swapping out propane tanks, there's meat. It's so much. CHRISTINE: And just to paint a picture, because I went to this house and checked it out, you had over a dozen grills in this backyard, right? LESLEY: Grills and griddles. CHRISTINE: Right. So you had gas grills, you had griddles. Were you doing any LESLEY: Charcoal? LESLEY: There was one charcoal grill in the backyard, which is our top pick, the Weber 22 inch kettle. I was using that because I was testing griddle inserts for Weber grills, which is just kind of like a flat piece of metal that you can cook pancakes on, and bacon, and shrimp, and things like that. CHRISTINE: And bacon, bacon and eggs, french toast. You can use it as a plancha. Of course. Wonderful. CAIRA: That's what the deli guys used at the bodegas, right? CHRISTINE: Yeah! And also just for listeners who might not be aware, I mean it is a really big deal to be able to test grills in a backyard. Like you mentioned earlier, the first time we did this was in your backyard in Brooklyn, took weeks, and this time it took weeks also. So we spent two weeks testing grills in this backyard, which is a huge, huge task. ROSIE: So when you're doing grilling testing, big picture. I know we're going to zoom into some of the specifics about tools and about setups, but big picture grill testing, what are some of the criteria you are using to judge grills? LESLEY: So for propane grills, what you're looking for is a cast aluminum firebox because that reflects heat the best, and aluminum is not corrosive the way steel is, so it won't succumb to the elements. You also want a grill that doesn't flare up a lot. Every grill is going to flare up a little bit, but you just don't want a bunch of flare-ups. You want it to heat relatively evenly. Now with every single gas grill, the very front of the grates, like the part that's closest to you, is always going to be the coldest. That's just what it is. We can't do anything about it. But how cold is it up there and how hot is in the back corners? Do the grates give you a good sear? Does it get hot enough to give you a good sear in good color or does it get too hot where everything just comes out with a layer of carbon? It has a lot to do with user-friendliness. So Weber has been our pick and we're not shills for Weber, but the thing is about Weber is that it heats evenly. It has the fewest amount of flare-ups and I think it's the most user-friendly grill for your average home cook. CAIRA: So why would people be upset about that? I feel like Weber- LESLEY: Because all our picks are Weber. CAIRA: But that's because I feel like I don't know anything about a grill, but I tried to use a Weber grill last week and it felt like I was using a stove, like a gas-burning stove. LESLEY: Yeah, and you still get a really good end result. You get great sear marks, you get great flavor, you get good searing. I've tested so many dang grills, trust me on this one. CAIRA: I like that. So Lesley, what I really want to know is what is the easiest, simplest way to really level up your current grilling experience? LESLEY: The best way to do that is to spend some time really focusing on cleaning and oiling your grates in the beginning. Let me expand on that. So, there are a couple of different schools of thought on this, but as someone who did work over a grill, what I do is, I turn on the grill, I let it get hot, and then I come back, and I scrape the grates with a wire brush. Now I know this is controversial because people are like, 'but you can get a wire stuck in your soft palate.' There are more steps to this. You scrape those grates clean, you get all the food debris from the last cook off, by the time the grill is hot, they have turned to carbon, so they're really easy to get off. Now next, you go over it with a damp rag and when you look at that rag, it's going to be sooty that would've been on your food, right? Use tongs. Don't wipe a hot grill with a damp rag- CHRISTINE: And your hands. LESLEY: And your hands. CHRISTINE: It's not going to feel good. LESLEY: Use tongs. And then, last step, with a paper towel with some vegetable oil on it, oil those grates, now it is ready to cook CHRISTINE: And that's what you should be doing every time before you grill. Right? LESLEY: Yes. CHRISTINE: Because I know some people will leave their grill on for a little while after they're done grilling to burn off any food. Great as a rodent deterrent. CAIRA: Oh, okay, good. ROSIE: Well that's always good. CHRISTINE: What about cleaning the rest of your grill? I was actually at a friend's house a couple summers ago and they hadn't cleaned their grill in a couple years. They have a propane grill. And they had a grease fire and they had to put it out with a fire extinguisher. LESLEY: Yeah. Mm-hmm, that happens. Uh-huh. CHRISTINE: How important is it to clean your grill and deeper clean and how often? LESLEY: Yeah, so let's say you're going to grill, and you turn it on to heat it up and you come back and you see some smoke coming out of the firebox. And what I mean by coming out of the firebox, is smoke is coming out from underneath the flame ports. That's when I get, I don't know what is it is a spackle knife or a paint scraper, like one of those big spatulas that people used to fill holes with walls with spackle? Spackle knife. CHRISTINE: Like a metal version of that. LESLEY: Yeah, a metal version of that. And, make note, after this grill cools down, I'm going to remove the grates, take the flame port protectors off, and I'm going to get in there with this metal spackle knife, and I'm going to just scrape all the grease and crud out from the bottom of the firebox, direct it toward the grease trap, and change out that grease trap, wash it, whatever. So I would say once in the middle of grilling season, and then definitely at the end. CHRISTINE: Because you don't want that grease just sitting there all winter, right? LESLEY: Yeah, getting rancid and rodents. CAIRA: How can you tell if there isn't a live rat just crawling around in your grill? LESLEY: Droppings. CAIRA: How do you know the difference between charred bits of food and droppings? LESLEY: I mean... Look, if you're that paranoid, just get in there with some simple green and a scrub. And let it burn off for a solid 20 to 30 minutes. CAIRA: Okay. ROSIE: So back to the grill brush. That is a hot topic. You mentioned the metal bristles can get into food, it can get stuck in your body. Is that what you actually recommend to clean the grill? LESLEY: We do. We also have a recommendation for, oh gosh, it's called the grill rescue brush, and it's kind of cool. It's like a plastic red handle, and it's made with this fire retardant fabric that firefighters use or something, and you get it wet and while the grill is hot, it just kind of steam cleans the grates. CHRISTINE: So you don't need the bristles. It acts like the bristles because it's got some kind of texture on it. LESLEY: And the wipe of the damp rag afterwards. It works pretty well. Does it give you a really good scrape, like a wire brush? No. ROSIE: Two follow up questions. Why are you not worried about the metal bristles? LESLEY: I am not worried about the metal bristles because I'm going over it with that damp rag that picks up soot and everything else off of the top of those grates, and then I'm going over it again with an oiled paper towel, and so that's two wipes. When you hear about those horror stories of like, 'my five-year-old got a wire bristle stuck in their soft palate,' they didn't wipe it afterwards and that's always my first question. Why did they wipe down the grates? They didn't wipe down the grates, because if they did, this would not be a story. ROSIE: Got it. And then my second question is, I admittedly know exactly nothing about grilling, but I have heard that some people opt to use like an onion. Is that a thing? Is that a myth? LESLEY: No, it's not a myth. I honestly just use a balled up foil ball. The onion has... One, it's a waste of an onion. CHRISTINE: Yeah, grill that onion, eat that onion. LESLEY: Exactly. Two, it's going to deposit sugar, so you're not really cleaning it. Does that make any sense? ROSIE: Yeah, yeah, it makes sense to me. LESLEY: Yeah, it just doesn't sit right with me. CHRISTINE: I want to talk a little bit about tools. And I know that there's a pretty wide span of quality for grill tools. I think most people probably have a grill kit that maybe they got it as a gift, or it came with their grill. It's got a set of tongs and a spatula. Is this what you would recommend for people, or are there other things or unexpected tools that you think people should really know about? LESLEY: I find those kits, well aesthetically pleasing are not great. They're heavy. The tongs are always difficult to use. CHRISTINE: Yeah, they never squeeze right, I don't know if you notice they don't spring back very well. LESLEY: They spring back to two and a half inches and it- ROSIE: It makes me feel like a child holding the tongs because they're so massive. CHRISTINE: They're so big. ROSIE: And you can't quite, you have to use two hands. LESLEY: Because they're man tongs. CHRISTINE: I think, yeah, they're supposed to be man tongs. For sure. LESLEY: Man tongs. And I always find those spatulas to be awkward to use. Again, they're absurdly long. What I like to use, if we're talking about tongs, WinCo, restaurant tongs 12 inch- CHRISTINE: Just those metal, they're cheap, they're just the metal kind, right? LESLEY: The metal kind. We're not even talking about any silicone grips. The metal tongs you get at the restaurant supply store or on Amazon, and they're very inexpensive, and they last a long time, and they're dishwasher safe. I recommend WinCo tongs in many sizes. If we're talking spatulas, there's a very large fish spatula made by Mercer, and it's called Hell's handle, so if you want something manly, there it is. CAIRA: What's a fish spatula? What's the difference? LESLEY: A fish spatula is it's long and it flares out towards it tapers towards the handle and it flares out as it goes out. It's angled at the end and it's slotted, so it's just kind of the perfect spatula for almost anything, any type of flipping. I say almost, because it's not great for a griddle, but it's great in the kitchen. It's great on the grill. I love a fish spatula. CHRISTINE: It's come up before. I think Marilyn, our kitchen senior editor also loves a fish spatula. Are there any other, beyond tongs and the spatula, what else would you recommend for a grill? LESLEY: Get yourself a basting brush. I know we recommend a silicon brush and the one we recommend I think is the only one I will tolerate. I think it's OXO. It's easy to clean. Again, you can throw it in the dishwasher. CHRISTINE: What about, my mom has a grill basket she swears by it. Do you like those? LESLEY: Oh, grill baskets. I was such a hater for a very long time, but I'm into it now. ROSIE: What is a grill basket? LESLEY: So a grill basket is a steel perforated square basket with handles, and you just put it on your grill and you can grill cut up vegetables, anything that's small, like shrimp, anything that you don't want to put on a skewer you can do in a grill basket. I don't know about y'all, but I think skewers are kind of a pain in the butt. CAIRA: What? CHRISTINE: 1000%. LESLEY: Thank you. ROSIE: I don't want to waste the time to shove something on a skewer CHRISTINE: And soak the skewers if you're using the wood ones. LESLEY: But also things don't cook at the same rate and so people put eggplant and squash, and what are other popular things to put on a vegetable skewer? CHRISTINE: Peppers. CAIRA: Bell peppers. ROSIE: Onions, yeah. LESLEY: And then, every single time that eggplant is spongy and undercooked. Look, I'm not subtweeting anyone here. That is just how it goes. CHRISTINE: And so you would recommend putting all the things you would put on a skewer into a grill basket instead? LESLEY: Yes. If you must skewer, if you must, put all the same thing on one skewer. CHRISTINE: All the chicken. LESLEY: Yeah. CHRISTINE: All the pineapple. ROSIE: Keep it homogenous. LESLEY: And then people can just get what they want off the skewer, and keep it pushing. ROSIE: Lesley, so much good information here about how to really level up your backyard grill. What I'm taking away most of all is clean it. Deep clean at the end of the season, and then really clean for maintenance, that process you mentioned, whereby you're scrubbing it down with the metal bristles, you're taking a wet cloth to it and then you're taking a lightly oiled paper towel to it, and that's going to really help level up the performance of your grill if you're using it on any kind of regular basis. LESLEY: You should not have any or very few problems with food sticking to your grates if you do that process. ROSIE: The other takeaway I think is, you can go for those prepackaged grill kits if you want your tools, or you can make your own and maybe get a fish spatula, maybe get a grill basket. Play around. LESLEY: I honestly think you'll save some money too. ROSIE: And save some money. …Why do people grill? LESLEY: Let me tell you why we grilled when I was a kid, and why I continued to grill as adult is because, I grew up in Houston, and it's hot. You're fighting for your life cooling down your house in July, August, September. Your AC unit is working overtime, and so when you can turn on the heat source outside, and then keep your kitchen cool, that's everything. ROSIE: So that's the practical reason. What's the romantic reason? LESLEY: Cooking over fire, I don't know. Cosplaying struggle? ROSIE: Yeah. Is it tapping into, is it tapping into the hunter gatherer? LESLEY: I think so. I just think it's like a different way of cooking. It's like, we don't braise everything, we don't fry everything, we don't bake everything. It's like sometimes you want to switch it up. CAIRA: So there seems to be this eternal debate around the grilling community about gas versus charcoal. After years of your experience, Lesley, what is your take? Are you team gas or team charcoal? LESLEY: Let me tell you something. These charcoal folks have no leg to stand on, because I cooked over mesquite wood for years in this restaurant, and that is a whole other thing. If you want flavor, start with wood. I find that, mostly men, are resistant to propane grills because to them that's kind of like the outdoor cooking version of getting a minivan, and it's not sexy, it's way too practical. But another thing I noticed is that, when men finally do get the minivan, they love the minivan. CHRISTINE: I'll attest to this, we rented a minivan this summer and my husband totally loved it. CAIRA: So, it's not sexy, but it works. LESLEY: It works and it just frees you up. I love charcoal grilling. I do. But do I just want to rely on a charcoal grill to fire it up in the middle of the week because it's too hot to cook in my kitchen, and yada yada yada? No, I don't want to start that chimney starter full of coals just so I can cook myself some dinner really quick. That's why the propane grill is awesome. CHRISTINE: Lesley, it is always a pleasure to have you on the show. We want to have you back soon. We are going to take a quick break, and when we're back we're going to talk with Sam Sifton, who is the founder of New York Times Cooking, and he's going to talk about how to dial in your grilling, what summer recipes you might want to do, and the burning question that I think all of us want to know. How much booze should you serve at your summer barbecue? CAIRA: Yeah, he had a hot take about Thanksgiving, so. CHRISTINE: Oh my gosh. CAIRA: We'll get into it. CHRISTINE: All right, we'll be right back. CAIRA: Welcome back. We're here in the studio with New York Times' assistant managing editor, co-founder of NYT cooking, and grill-enthusiast Sam Sifton. CHRISTINE: Sam, welcome back to the show. SAM: Thanks. Thanks for having me. CHRISTINE: It's so great to have you. So you're basically an honorary Wirecutter staffer at this point. You have tested grills with us. I think the first time we tested grills almost eight years ago, you joined us in the backyard of our writer Lesley Stockton's backyard, and you helped us test a bunch of grills. So I got to know, are you team charcoal or Team Gas Grill? SAM: I'm Team Grill. CHRISTINE: You're just Team Grill. Basically what she said. SAM: I just want to be clear about something. I have a lot of grills. CHRISTINE: Oh really? ROSIE: What is a lot of grills? CAIRA: How many? SAM: Listen, I have a gas grill because I think a gas grill is an incredibly useful tool. It's my outdoor kitchen all summer long and I love it. I love it. I love it. I have a charcoal grill because sometimes you want that kind of heat, you want that kind of char, that kind of flavor. I have other grills that I don't want to get into. It just marks me as a lunatic. But I am not on team charcoal or team propane. I'm on Team Grill. CHRISTINE: Okay. ROSIE: I'm not a griller. Who is the person? Who is this person who grills? Is this like- SAM: The grill guy? ROSIE: Yeah. Is it primordial? What is it about grill? Is it meat and fire? Why are we doing it? SAM: This is my culture. ROSIE: Tell me, talk to me. Who are you? SAM: I mean look, there's big dad energy to it, for sure. There is something about being outside. For me, in particular, I like cooking outside. I like the inventiveness that comes along with it. The sort of experimentation that leads to big reveals, and I just enjoy it. I guess it is. It's big dad energy, man. ROSIE: Big dad energy. So not team gas, not team charcoal. Your team grill. What does that mean for you? I mean not everyone obviously is going to be able to have multiple grills, so if someone's trying to get into it, what are you guiding them toward? SAM: I think that the easiest way in as a gas grill, because it's essentially, it's just an outdoor stove. You're not going to get a great steak out of it, but there are a lot of things that you can do on a gas grill that'll give you the fundamentals that you can transfer to live fire. As for live fire, if you're charcoal curious, head to your local park where there's often grills there, you can cook on them and learn, 'is this for me? Do I like this? Do I want to do more with this?' If you are moved to purchase a charcoal grill first, and obviously Wirecutter recommends you get the Weber Kettle Grill, which we knew going into the testing was going to win it's a superior product. CHRISTINE: It's obvious. Yes. SAM: Yeah. It's just a superior product. Get the one we recommend, the big one. Don't get the little one that looks like a football helmet. That's not going to help you in any regard. CAIRA: Sam, I know that you've written about this in your newsletter, but I want to talk a little bit about understanding the zones on a grill. As somebody who also isn't really a griller, that seems pretty intimidating to me. Just knowing where to put things, and when to take it off. What exactly does it mean to have zones in your grill? SAM: Yeah, people freak out. I don't get it, man. Do you freak out when you have zones with an air conditioner? Nobody's like, this room is cool, this room is cooler, this room is cold, okay? Those are zones. Ooh, I'm freaked out. So let's start with a charcoal grill. That's where the zone issue becomes most complicated. When you're lighting the fire at the very beginning of the process, when you dump that charcoal out, if you put it right in the middle, and then kind of push it out and everything's equal at the bottom of the grill, you have no zones. It's all uniform. However, if you pour them off, I'm right-handed so I usually pour them off to the left side, and it's sort of mounded on the left side and there's nothing on the right side, now you have a hot zone, which is right above where the top of the mound is, a kind of medium zone where it's slightly farther away, and a cooler zone off to the right where there are no coals at all. And I could put a chicken in that so-called cool zone, put the top on the Weber and let convection heat do its work and I got a nice smoked roasted chicken in about an hour. Zones! CHRISTINE: There we go. The zones. The zones. CAIRA: Don't be scared. CHRISTINE: Well, if somebody just feels kind of intimidated and they haven't had a lot of wins on the grill, what do you suggest they do? Obviously practice makes perfect, but do you have any strategies for just becoming better at grilling in general? SAM: Yeah, grill. CHRISTINE: Yeah, practice. Practice. SAM: Honestly, the more you do it, the more you're going to figure it out. Commit to the grill. You bought a grill, you spent the money on the Wirecutter pick for the best grill. Now you have it. Now you got to use it. And are you going to have some losses? Yes you are. I remember once cooking for a dinner party on a grill that was not my own, and I thought that the burner on the left was off, and that's where I had the chickens and I was kind of smoking them, and I came back and that burner was actually on, and my chickens were incinerated. I threw them in the trash and grilled some more vegetables and we had a big vegetarian feast, and nobody missed the chicken because I never told them that they were getting chicken in the first place. CAIRA: Well, I got some advice, just as a novice, if I find myself fidgeting around too much with stuff on the grill, then I'm probably doing something wrong. What do you think? SAM: Yeah, definitely. Why are you touching that? Stop touching that. Yeah, let's say I have a boneless skinless, or no, I'll give it skin. Let's say we have a boneless, eh, why am I taking the bone out? We have a chicken thigh. Okay? I've salted it. There's a little oil on there. I don't want it to stick to the grate and I put it down on the medium zone, and I'm not going to touch it. I need enough fat to render that it's going to release from the grate. If you go in there too soon and pick it up, it's sticking to the grate, it's ripping and I'm losing this delicious skin that I want to render out and have be a crisp exterior. So don't touch too much. CAIRA: But what if it's charring too much in the medium? SAM: Then move it! For sure. CAIRA: Okay. SAM: You know what I mean? Touch for a reason. CAIRA: Okay. SAM: Don't touch for no reason, don't touch for nervous. Get a fidget spinner if that's what you need, but... CHRISTINE: Get a drink, help somebody else in the kitchen. SAM: Yeah, be careful on the drinks. ROSIE: We're we're going to get you the drink in just a second. Before that, what are some of the recipes that you think in terms of input versus outsized payoff? What are you thinking? SAM: I mentioned chicken thighs before. I think chicken thighs are a really, really good protein for the grill. There's a lot of fat on them, they don't dry out the way chicken breasts often do. For the big boy proteins, your hams, your pulled porks and stuff, your briskets, your beef ribs. You should feel pretty confident before you tackle those. CHRISTINE: These are advanced. SAM: Yeah. That's not for freshmen. CHRISTINE: Okay. Yeah. Is fish for freshmen? SAM: Oh, that's a great question. So, one of the extras that I have applied to my gas grill, and this is really easily done, is I have a piece of steel that can go over the grill and create this kind of... Create. It is a flat metal surface on which I can cook. The plancha is the perfect thing to cook fish on, because it's not going to stick to the grates, you can get plenty of oil on there or grease or fat or whatever you want for your flavor. You're going to get some taste of smoke. Because you could do this on a charcoal grill as well. That's the best way to cook fish the first few times until you kind of got it figured out. Like a whole fish say. But man, it's great with scallops, with shrimp, nothing's falling through the grates. ROSIE: Sam, what's your recommendation for someone who is trying to cook non-meat options, and maybe wants to impress a little bit? SAM: All the vegetables are available to you this summer, and they all do really well on the grill. Even tomatoes do well on the grill, but if you want fast track to success, get corn on there, let it get a little caramelized, put some cool toppings on it, you'll do great. Another great thing on the grill, I find, is tofu. If you press it for a while and get as much liquid as you can out of it, planks up pretty nicely and can kind of do well on the grill, especially if you don't move it too quickly, let it develop a sear, and then flip it over and then get it into a sauce. It just sucks up the sauce deliciously, you don't need meat to grill. CHRISTINE: That's right. SAM: But it helps. CAIRA: Sam, what are some recipes that you're excited to try this summer on the grill? SAM: Well, I am going to attack some of the kind of larger format proteins, a pork butt on the grill, slowly smoke roasted for hours and hours. If you take the Times recipe for the bossam that used to be served at Momofuku here in New York and do that in a charcoal grill or in a gas grill with a smoker tube attached. It's already outrageously good, and now it's like three x outrageously good. So I'll do that a bunch. I'll probably smoke a lot of bluefish. I fish a lot, so we pick up these little snapper bluefish, but darker and some would say oilier. I think that oil lends itself particularly well to smoking. On the gas grill, I use a smoke tube, this perforated tube filled with wood pellets. I love doing that. On the charcoal grill. I'm getting a moderate amount of smoke just from the charcoal briquettes, but when I'm being an advanced guy, I'm not using charcoal. I'm cooking over wood, so my Weber is now filled with wood, and I'm letting that cook down into coals, and you get some really good smoke flavor from that. CAIRA: How long does that take? SAM: Are you asking for a friend? Are you asking for my wife? ROSIE: We're hosting a barbecue this summer, let's say, we're going to bring out the grill or the grills. What are your best tips for hosting? SAM: I know I'm going to be serving some long roasted meat. We're going to have these ribs are coming or whatever, and so I want a lot of other things there that people can munch on while we're waiting for those ribs to come off. They don't need to be hot, but in contrast to what we do at Thanksgiving, where we kind of keep them hungry until the last minute, I really, really like to have some quickly cooked hot dogs, or brats, or sausages of some kind, that I can just get out there. Everybody can eat a couple hot dogs and still grind some ribs when they're ready. CHRISTINE: In November, when you joined us to talk about Thanksgiving, you shared your guidance about how much alcohol to have on hand at a Thanksgiving dinner, and I believe it was something like two bottles of wine per guest plus some spirits. I'm wondering what your guidance is for grilling? SAM: I want to dial that wave. The reason why I ask for so much alcohol at Thanksgiving is because you might need it. At a barbecue, I don't think you do seeing spirits at a barbecue before dark- CHRISTINE: It's trouble. SAM: There's trouble. There's trouble. So I think just you want a bunch of cold beer, and some seltzers or hard seltzers, or soda pop or whatever it is that you're interested in. I have to say my go-to beer at barbecues lately has been N.A. Beer from a company called Athletic. CHRISTINE: Oh yeah, SAM: Athletic, makes a really killer N.A. ROSIE: Sam Sifton, thank you so much. SAM: Thank you for having me as always. Thanks. ROSIE: Thanks. CHRISTINE: All right, you guys. Sam- ROSIE: Another All-Star episode. CHRISTINE: Another All-Star episode. CAIRA: So good. CHRISTINE: Lesley, Sam, I learned so much about grilling today. CAIRA: Me too. ROSIE: For something I've had almost next to zero interest in, I am intrigued. CHRISTINE: Are you intrigued enough to go down to Home Depot this weekend and get yourself a grill? ROSIE: Hard no, but I will say perhaps one time this summer I will ask to grill at someone's house if they'll let me. CAIRA: That's a big step forward. ROSIE: And well, one of my takeaways is what Sam talked about in terms of moving the food, don't move the food. CAIRA: Yeah. Mine is also kind of related to that. I think the reason that I was so fidgety over the grill previously, is because I didn't understand the zoning properly. I would just turn on all the burners, so the grill would just be way too hot. But now I know that you can turn on one side and then you have a hot medium and then cool, and then your food won't burn, and you won't be frantically moving it around. CHRISTINE: That's right. You've got options on that grill. CAIRA: Yeah. CHRISTINE: I think my little party trick for the summer when I'm at my mom's house where she has a grill, or at a friend's house with a grill is I'm going to go out and clean the grill. As long as it's not rude to the person that's grilling. Yeah, I'm going to scrub it down with the brush. I'm going to take the tongs and I'm going to wipe it down with the wet cloth, and then I'm going to oil that baby afterwards. And if I ever am in a situation again where I have a grill, personally, I'm going to make sure and keep it clean because I think that's something people oftentimes overlook. ROSIE: I love it. If you want to find out more about Wirecutter's coverage of grills, if you want to see footage of the team at the Grill House or if you want to check out the products we recommended today, check out our Instagram, check out our website. And of course, you can peruse any and all of the brilliant Sam Sifton's Grill recipes at NYT Cooking. That's it for us. Thanks so much for listening. Peace. CAIRA: Bye. ROSIE: The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by me, Rosie Guerin, and produced by Abigail Keele, engineering support from Maddy Mazziello and Nick Pittman. Today's episode was mixed by Katherine Anderson. Original music by Dan Powell, Marian Lozano, Alicia by Etube, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter's deputy publisher is Cliff Levy. Ben Fruman is Wirecutter's editor-in-chief. CAIRA: I'm Caira Blackwell. CHRISTINE: I'm Christine Cyr Clisset. ROSIE: And I'm Rosie Guerin. Thank you for listening. ROSIE: Another grill tool in your proverbial basket. Huh? Christine, what do you think of that? CHRISTINE: Wait, sorry, what? I'm losing the thread. I'm sorry. Wait, what? ROSIE: It was a joke.
Miami Herald
06-05-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Instacart invites itself to the party with new group-ordering delivery app
Business Instacart invites itself to the party with new group-ordering delivery app Dive Brief: Instacart announced Tuesday the launch of Fizz, a separate app for delivery orders of snacks and drinks. Event platform Partiful has integrated Fizz into its virtual invites for hosts and guests, according to the press release. With Fizz, customers ages 21 and older can access a $5 flat rate delivery fee, group ordering and automatic payment splitting, allowing people to place a consolidated order for one address. The launch gives Instacart a stronger foothold in the party-planning space as the grocery technology company continues to expand its reach in e-commerce. Dive Insight: From smart fridges to New York Times Cooking, Instacart has worked to expand its grocery e-commerce presence beyond its app and the websites it powers for retailers. Fizz is Instacart's latest venture to meet consumers where they're already at. The standalone app not only indicates the grocery technology company sees considerable opportunity in the party planning space but also that the needs of party goers and hosts call for a tailored e-commerce experience. Instacart said the app aims to allow a group of people - not just the host - to prep for an upcoming event. The app also comes with perks and discounts. Every new user gets $5 in Snack Bucks, and when people buy drinks, they earn Snack Bucks to use for discounts on the price of snacks. Instacart said Fizz does not require a membership to use. While Fizz is a separate app, the inventory connects to the retailers already partnered with Instacart. After someone starts a "party cart" on Fizz's app or website, they can share the link in a group chat so that others can add items and view what's in the cart. On Partiful, the app allows hosts to toggle on the group ordering feature and automatically link to a Fizz cart for the event page. Each person who orders alcohol must be 21 or older and enter their birthday in the app. The host, who is charged the flat $5 delivery fee, decides when to place the order and whether to have a scheduled or on-demand delivery. When the order is placed, people get charged for only the items they added, according to the announcement. Each participant in the group cart must hit a $10 order minimum per person, Instacart said in an email. The tailored focus of Fizz allows key categories like beer, seltzer, chips, dip and party supplies to be front and center, Instacart noted in the announcement, adding that the selection and retailers showcased are based on the delivery address for the order. The party supplies category includes items like games, decor, gift supplies and table-setting items. Instacart said in an email that it might explore adding more categories to Fizz based on user demands. This story was originally published on Grocery Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Grocery Dive newsletter. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved. This story was originally published May 6, 2025 at 9:00 AM.
