Reviews of various food related products accumulated over the years (some of these my be fairly old). These include both kitchen gadgets and devices and actual food items. Most of the reviews come from Consumer Reports, Serious Eats (aka Food Lab), Washington Post (often from their "Voraciously" feature), or the New York Times. In the case of the NY Times, the newer reviews are from their "Wirecutter" division which was a company they bought in 2016.
Product reviews are an "iffy" thing, the variables involved are many - no one company can review every product across a category, they can't review every aspect of a product (longevity especially), availability of products is an issue (they'll top-rate a food item that's only available on the East Coast), and there are legitimate concerns about bias and independence from manufacturers. It's even worse for reviewing food items, since that is highly a matter of personal taste. One of the funniest things I read was from a review in Consumer Reports of peanut butters; the two top rated brands were "Jiffy" and "Skip", and in their writeup they admitted that in the blind taste-tests it turned out that the tasters chose the brand they'd grown up with. Anyway out of the sources I list above, Wirecutter is the one I think is least reliable; I have bought products they recommended and seriously wondered what the heck they were thinking.
Regardless, if nothing else product reviews from sources like these are a good starting point when you're looking to buy something and especially something you know nothing about. They're certainly better than the user product reviews like on Amazon which have reached the point of being totally worthless.
In the reviews below I've tried to show the source of the reviews; however, I've been accumulating these for some time and in the past didn't always keep track of the source. Many of these are links to the review articles.
Ingredients every cook should have (from Serious Eats)
This is a link to an article listing miscellaneous items that they feel are important. I'm including it because they list preferred brand names. The specific ingredients are:
Nutella Spreads (Serious Eats)
"Nutella" is actually a brand name, so more accurately they rated chocolate-hazelnut spreads. As of this writing I have never used "Nutella" and I didn't even know there were other brands of the stuff. Anyway, here's their ratings in order. The lower-rated ones were usually downgraded for being too sweet, in the food world it's sort of "in" these days to complain about stuff being overly sweet, even dessert items. :
Best Olive Oils from Consumer Reports
Best Butters from Consumer Reports
Best Boxed Chocolates from Wirecutter: Here's a link to the original article (paywall). If the only boxed chocolates you've ever had are the stuff bought in a grocery store or something, then trying a really high-end product will be an amazing experience. The good stuff is incredible, amazing flavors and textures. They are, however, really really expensive.
Best Coconut Rums (according to WP): Koloa, Cotton & Reed, and Thrashers
Best Places to Buy Spices Online
Best Canned Tomatoes (WireCutter)
Bianco DiNapoli Organic Whole Peeled Tomatoes (canned with a sprig of Basil)
San Merican (SMT) Whole Peeled Tomatoes
Food Lab
Favorite supermarket dark chocolate bars for baking.
Favorite supermarket chocolate chips (Note: their best chocolate chip cookie recipe actually recommends buying bar chocolate and hand-chopping it).
Favorite vanilla extracts.
Cook's Illustrated
Dry Vermouth - Dry vermouth can be substituted for white wine in any recipe. An opened bottole of vermouth lasts much longer in the refrigerator than white wine. CI's favorites are Dolin Dry Vermouth De Chambery and Gallo Extra Dry.
Chili Powder Reviews
Cheddar Cheese Reviews
Balsamic Vinegar Reviews
Roaster Chicken Reviews
Parmesan Cheese Reviews
Best Frozen Dumplings (Consumer Reports, Feb 9, 2024)
They're talking Chinese style dumplings, aka potstickers. Until I read this article it never even occurred to me to buy frozen Chinese dumplings. The brands they looked at were all intended to be pan-fried. As usual they noted that personal preference plays a big part. They ranked these on a scale of one to five, the highest ranking one was 3.8; here are all the ones that ranked 3.0 or higher. Some of these are actually available at ordinary supermarkets.
Best Tortilla Chips (Washington Post, Aug 6, 2020)
They ranked 14 brands, here are the top 5 in order of "Best":
Good Boxed Wines (NY Times May 4, 2023)
This is from an article in New York Times but not their Wirecutter division; it was written by their wine expert Eric Asimov. This is not really a "product review", just a list of, well, good boxed wines. Boxed wines have always had a stigma about them due to crappy wines but they're somewhat on the upswing now. Boxed wines have at least 2 huge advantages over bottled:
1) The standard size of a boxed wine is three liters which is the equivalent of four bottles, making them cheaper (often far cheaper) than bottled.
2) This is really huge: when you pour wine out of a bottle, fresh air enters the bottle and causes the wine to deteriorate; an opened bottle will only be good for a couple days to a week. For boxed wines, the wine is in a plastic liner that shrinks as the wine is poured out (well, more like a tap than pouring). As a result no air enters the liner and the wine can last a month or more. This is really important for me because I can't drink an entire bottle in one sitting, and although I like wine I don't drink it very often these days so I may not be able to finish off a bottle before it crosses over. I really like the idea of just pouring out a single glass for dinner.
Asimov points out one downside - the plastic bag is not impervious to air so boxed wines aren't appropriate for wines intended to be aged more than a year or so.
Here's his list of ten wines that he likes. As usual (especially with wines), local availability is a huge problem. In some cases he provided information on where to get it, and some of these have links to the winery. Regarding the pricing, some of these look expensive but keep in mind they're usually the equivalent of four bottles of wine and in fact are very cheap on a per-bottle basis. I've included some of his notes on each wine. .
Ryme Cellars Mendocino Fox Hill Vineyard Sangiovese-Friulano 2020, 12.3 percent, $72
A Sangiovese American wine, fragrant, strong enough to stand up to chili, grilled beef or red pasta.
Neleman Valencia Good Wine Book Red 2020, 13.5 percent, $29
Spanish red wine. Sounder Imports, Staten Island, N.Y.
Schplïnk! Austria Grüner Veltliner 2021, 12.5 percent, $29
A white wine using the grüner veltliner grape which I have never heard of. Communal Brands, New York.
Hérisson Côteaux Bourguignons Vin Rouge 2021, 13 percent, $39
Somewhat light-bodied red, blend of pinot noir and gamay from France. Chill lightly, serve with anything. Communal Brands.
From the Tank Vin de France Rosé NV, 13 percent, $30
Easy drinking rose from France. Importers Jenny & François Selections, New York are an early proponent of boxed wines.
Sandy Giovese Italy Vino Rosso NV, 12 percent, $30
A sangiovese from Italy. He says "simple and fresh made for drinking not thinking". Sandy Wines/Massanois Imports, New York
Wineberry Château Moulin de la Roquille Bordeaux Côtes de France 2018, 14 percent, $47
French Bordeaux. Easy drinking with "charcuterie or burgers". Wineberry America, Valley Cottage, N.Y.
Caspri & Co Rosso Toscano Rosso No. 3 NV, 13.5 percent, $42
Tuscan red wine. Field Blend Selections, New York.
Cedric Vin de France Malbec 2020, 14 percent, $39
Malbec red. Communal Brands.
Powers Washington State Chardonnay NV, 13 percent, $21
Chardonnay, Columbia Valley. Geez, $5.25 a bottle.
Super Savory Picks
Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp
Kari Kari Chili Crisp
OO'mämē Szechuan Chinese Chile Crisp
Milu Chili Crisp
Momofuku Chili Crunch
Me's Way Classic Chili Sauce
Mr. Bings Chili Crisp
For Garlic Heads
Mama Teav's Hot Garlic
Liquid Gold
S&B Chili Oil with Crunchy Garlic
For Hot Heads
Junzi Original Chili Oil
Bowlcut Spicy Chili Crisp
Sichuan-Inspired Picks
Hot Jiang Mama's Chili Crisp OG Spicy
Boon Sauce
Blank Slate Sichuan Chili Oil
Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp
Chili Crisp with a Twist
Tasting India Bombay Chili Crunch
Onino Chili Crisp
Little Truc Roasted Chili Oil
