🍗 Seven States, One Stove
Cook seven regional American classics in your own kitchen, from a Louisiana gumbo to a Florida Keys pie, and learn the technique that defines each one.
American cooking isn't one cuisine, it's a map of stubborn local habits. This challenge pulls seven of them onto your home stove: a roux stirred until it smells like toasted nuts, a pizza baked in a steel pan until the cheese crusts at the edges, a chili spiced with cinnamon and cocoa.
Each dish comes from a specific place and hinges on one technique or ingredient that's worth getting right. You'll need a few real-deal supplies, like brick cheese, dried chile pods, and jumbo lump crab, but no professional equipment. Cook them over a few weekends, invite people over, and get a little competitive about the details.
Milestones
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Stir a dark roux for gumbo
Cook flour and oil to the color of milk chocolate, then build a Louisiana chicken and andouille gumbo on top of it.
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Bake a Detroit-style pizza
Press the dough into a rectangular steel pan and pack Wisconsin brick cheese to the edges so it fries into a lacy, caramelized crust.
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Order it "three-way"
Simmer a Cincinnati-style chili scented with cinnamon and allspice, then ladle it over spaghetti and a mound of shredded cheddar.
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Make red chile from whole pods
Toast and rehydrate dried New Mexico chile pods, blend them into a smooth sauce, and use it for stacked enchiladas.
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Keep the crab cakes honest
Bind jumbo lump crab with just enough mayonnaise and Old Bay to hold it, Maryland-style, then broil until golden.
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Fry Nashville hot chicken
Brush crisp fried chicken with a cayenne paste made from hot frying fat and serve it on white bread with pickles.
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Key lime pie
Squeeze real Key limes into a custard of condensed milk and egg yolks, set in a graham cracker crust and served cold.