Your grandma’s brownies, the scent of rain on a pine forest, a whiff of cardamom — smells can be powerful time machines, unlocking memories almost like magic and transporting you to specific moments more vividly than vision or hearing. But just like vision and hearing, our sense of smell diminishes with age (and as a…
When the chef Lerone Mullin opened the Jerk Grill, his fast-casual restaurant in Redlands, Calif., in 2021, customers told him they loved his Caribbean classics, like brown stew chicken, and his Caribbean-Mexican mash-ups, like a jerk chicken burrito. But they asked for one addition. “Everybody just wanted oxtail,” he said, adding, “I didn’t even know…
The sodas come in fun flavors like Cherry Vanilla and Orange Cream, and carry an alluring claim: They’re good for your gut. That pitch has helped prebiotic soft drink brands like Poppi and Olipop stand out in the soda aisle. The drinks contain prebiotics, or dietary fibers that can’t be digested by humans, but can…
After a hard workout, soaking in a hot tub or sitting in a steam room can be transcendent. A heating pad pressed on a particularly tight area of your lower back can help it feel looser after a long day of lifting boxes or hunching at your computer. “I go to the sauna myself,” said…
Many weeks before tomato seedlings can be safely transplanted outside — or almost any freshly seed-sown vegetables dare break the surface of the slowly warming soil — harvest is underway in John Forti’s Maine garden. When you grow a range of perennial edibles, you have what Mr. Forti calls “the shoulder seasons” covered, and then…
Americans aren’t particularly enthusiastic about seafood. We eat less than half of what a Japanese or Indonesian person does. Less than a third of the average Icelander. But there is one big exception: shrimp. Our appetite for the fat little crustacean has increased for decades, with the average American now eating almost six pounds per…
That carton of eggs has been sitting in the fridge for a while. You check the expiration date, and you’re a few days past. Are they still OK to eat? It’s the stuff of common domestic disagreements, frantic internet searches and self-doubt. How long do eggs really last, anyway? According to the United States Department…
Hello! Mia here. Melissa Clark and I swapped days this week, and she’ll be with you on Saturday with a very special Cooking newsletter. My colleague Priya Krishna has a wonderful new article for The New York Times, writing about how cooking has connected her and her mother. Priya writes: “There’s something about cooking together…
Since late last month, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota has been the subject of fierce bipartisan attacks for her decision to shoot and kill her family dog, a 14-month-old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket. Ms. Noem has repeatedly defended her actions, which are detailed in her forthcoming memoir, in which she says the dog…
For decades, the idea of standing properly upright carried considerable political and social baggage. Slouching was considered a sign of decay. In the early 20th century, posture exams became mainstays in the military, the workplace and schools, thanks in part to the American Posture League, a group of physicians, educators and health officials that formed…
