You know we’ll always tell you that cooking from scratch is better. And it is. Making something yourself is more satisfying than opening a can or tearing open a box. Except … well, sometimes you may wonder if that’s true.
Convenience products have such amplified flavors — so much sodium, so many flavor enhancers, so many shortcuts. We thought about three dishes that ought to be special, but aren’t always: chicken noodle soup that tastes watery, pasta salad that comes out gummy and bland, and brownies that aren’t as chocolatey as the ones from a box.
Then we asked three very experienced cooks — executive food director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Lucinda Scala Quinn, New York Times columnist David Tanis and baked goods author Dorie Greenspan — to help us come up with tricks to make them better.
To find out their tips, read Wednesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Food section.