How to Use Zestful Kitchen

Zestful Kitchen was founded by Culinary Food Scientist and Journalist, Lauren Grant. Lauren has worked in food media for more than 10 years and has worked for many national publications including America’s Test Kitchen, Better Homes & Gardens, Eating Well, Taste of Home and many more.

Learn more about Lauren, her career and experience in recipe development and food writing.

Check out the full list of features and published work from Lauren as well.

About The Recipes

Every recipe on this site has been tirelessly tested, written and edited for your success. If you ever have any questions about a specific recipe, leave a comment and we will get back to ASAP.

If you’re not sure what “testing a recipe” means, here’s what it’s like to work in a test kitchen and how I to develop recipes.

photograph of recipe development notes — Recipe research for Boston Cream Pie

Tips for Cooking My Recipes

I develop recipes using Morton Kosher Salt. There are many reasons why I use this kosher salt, but you can easily substitute with whatever salt you prefer and have on hand, just make sure you know the difference between types of salts.

Follow this rule for substituting table salt and kosher salt: 1 teaspoon table salt = 1 ½ teaspoons Morton kosher salt = 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Table Salt	Morton	Diamond Crystal
¾ tsp	1 tsp	1 ¾ tsp
1 tsp	1 ½ tsp	2 tsp
1 Tbsp	1 Tbsp + 1 tsp	2 Tbsp

How I Measure Flour

First and foremost, if you’re an avid baker, I highly recommend purchasing a food scale. Measuring by weight instead of cup measurement it always more accurate and is a foolproof way to get the same results every time.

In the case that you do not have a food scale, it’s imperative to know how the recipe developer measures flour—which isn’t always easy to know. Some people simply scoop the cup through the flour and sweep to level it off. Others spoon and sweep. In the test kitchen we fluff, spoon and sweep. Here’s what that looks like:

Fluff the flour with a spoon or whisk. This aerates the flour and lightens it up.
Use a large spoon to spoon the flour from the storage bin to the measuring cup.
Sweep a flat edge, such as the back of a knife, along the top of the measuring cup to level the flour.

Shop Our Favorite Kitchen Equipment

Food Scale

Instant Read Thermometer

Chefs Knife

Microplabe

How to Use The Site

Be sure to stop by the recipe archive page. You can find quick links to main recipe categories as well as search for a specific recipe. If you aren’t quite sure what you want to make, but have an idea, make use of our category drop down menu.

red arrow pointing to category drop down menu on website

You can also toggle back and forth between “popular” and “newest” recipes in our archives.

red arrow showing how to toggle from popular to new in archive

Once you find a recipe to make, be sure to read the article—it’s packed with helpful information for cooking the recipe and answers to the most common questions.