Cooking blog on Aaron Massicotte

Perfect Fried Eggs

Sat, 01 Aug 2026 10:05:58 +0200

Fried eggs go wrong in one of two ways: the pan is hot enough to crisp the edges brown before the white sets, or it is cool enough to leave the white raw and sliding. Water and a lid solve both. The pan stays on medium, the steam sets the top of the white without touching the yolk, and how long the lid stays on decides exactly how fluid the yolk ends up

Beef Bowls II

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:12:06 +0200

The blended marinade from Marinating beef II finally cooked. Amounts for the marinade are in the recipe: Asian beef marinade. The pan got overcrowded and the beef steamed instead of searing, which turned out to be the best thing that happened. Findings at the bottom

The line-up

Beef out of the fridge and the cast iron on to heat. Quinoa already cooked, edamame and corn waiting, red cabbage and cucumber to cut

Marinating Beef II

Wed, 29 Jul 2026 22:04:00 +0200

Same marinade as last time and the same amounts: Asian beef marinade. One change. The whisk stays in the drawer and an immersion blender goes into the cup

Slice and salt

Whole steaks again rather than anything pre-cut, sliced thin against the grain. Salt on the board straight away, then the beef waits while the marinade gets built

Freestyle Salmon

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:10:04 +0200

No recipe and no plan. Salmon veggie bowls was the general idea. Nothing weighed and everything done on the fly

Sweet potato first

They take the longest, so they go in before anything else is even decided. Peeled, cut small enough to roast fast, oiled in the bowl rather than on the tray

Red Vinaigrette II

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 17:45:34 +0200

The dressing that split in Sauce and sear, rebuilt with the same ingredients. The diagnosis there was incomplete: shear was only half the problem. A vinaigrette is oil droplets suspended in vinegar, and building it oil-first asks the small water phase to swallow a pool of oil at once. This time everything water-friendly goes in first and the oil comes last. Findings at the bottom

A split dressing also tastes wrong, not just looks wrong. Paprika’s heat and the herb oils are fat-soluble and sit in the oil layer; the salt and acid sit below. Every spoonful is either greasy or sharp. The emulsion is what makes one bite taste like one thing

Blueberry Pancakes

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 11:11:17 +0200

The pancake recipe with one experiment, 405 flour, and the usual blueberries folded in. The batter takes about a quarter of an hour; after that it is roughly four minutes a side, and the clock chips stop there since the pace was leisurely with fruit cut between flips

Everything on the scale

One bowl on the scale for the dry, a glass one waiting for the wet, and the whole cast lined up behind

Sauce and Sear

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 19:23:07 +0200

Second half of the red marinade. The dressing gets built in the same unwashed cup the marinade came out of, then the turkey goes into cast iron. Two things did not go to plan and both are worth writing down

The same cup

Nothing gets washed. The marinade left a red film all over the measuring cup and that is free flavour, so the vinaigrette goes straight in on top of it. Olive oil first, then red wine vinegar

Red Marinade

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:48:11 +0200

The red comes from tomato paste and two paprikas rather than anything exotic. Everything in it is a hard herb with heat-stable oils, which is what makes it a marinade for searing rather than something you spoon over at the end. It was written for chicken and works exactly the same on turkey, which is what was in the fridge

Building the marinade is this post. The dressing that goes with it and the sear itself are in Sauce and sear

Scrambled Eggs II

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 10:09:26 +0200

Everything the first attempt got wrong was a process problem, not a recipe problem. Same eggs, same salt-and-rest, two changes: a nonstick pan, and the aromatics going into the butter in the pan instead of into the eggs. Still tagged experimental, the ratios want a few more runs before they settle

Everything out first

Eggs, butter, salt, thyme, dill and chives, the scale and the mortar. Six eggs into the bowl and 3 g of salt weighed straight in. The salt loosens the protein so the curds set softer, and it wants ten minutes or so to work

Deviled Eggs II

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 08:20:44 +0200

Second run at deviled eggs, and still experimental. This time the filling was built on whole spices ground fresh: mustard seed, coriander and white pepper in the mortar, with lemon over the top. Delicious, but strong and salty. Findings at the bottom

Everything out first

Eggs, the scale, the mortar and the spice jars: mustard seed, coriander and white pepper, with the Löwensenf and salt standing by

Marinating Beef

Tue, 21 Jul 2026 23:34:20 +0200

Just the beef and the marinade this time, no sides and no searing. The full amounts are written up as a recipe: Asian beef marinade

Slice and salt

Whole fillet steaks rather than anything pre-cut, sliced thin against the grain. Salt goes on straight away and the beef sits while the marinade gets built. Salting first and marinating second means the salt actually gets into the meat instead of sitting in the sauce

Cast-Iron Burgers

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 14:48:30 +0200

Today was about heat control. A thick patty cooked all the way through without burning the outside or squeezing out all the juice is a genuinely tricky thing to get right. The usual way here is the BBQ; this was the indoor version, on cast iron

In the bowl

Cold ground beef with salt, pepper, paprika, a little cayenne and cumin ground fresh in the mortar, plus garlic and onion. A big onion is out on the board, but only a small amount actually goes in, less than half of it. The full amounts are written up as a recipe: Beef hamburger patties

Scrambled Eggs

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 11:07:49 +0200

Tagged experimental because a few lessons came out of it. The eggs themselves landed at 10/10 from across the table, the pan choice and the toast are where the notes are

Salt the eggs first, then wait

Six eggs into a bowl and salted straight away. Salt breaks down some of the protein so the eggs bond less tightly, and after ten to fifteen minutes they scramble far softer and hold onto their water. No milk, no cream, the salt does all of the work

Spinach Feta Parcels

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 10:10:55 +0200

I forgot to grab a setup shot, so this picks up maybe ten minutes in. They came out doughy, heavy on the feta, and the filling was a touch flat. Notes for the next batch are at the bottom

The filling

Spinach wrung out until it is properly dry, then mixed with feta, garlic, ground nutmeg and pepper. Getting the spinach dry is the whole game: a wet filling steams the pastry from underneath and leaves a raw, grey bottom instead of layers

Deviled Eggs

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 19:39:25 +0200

The eggs

Eggs boiled hard, cooled and peeled. Each one halved, the yolks dropped into a bowl and the whites set out on a plate

start +2 min +5 min

Building the filling

Everything for the filling comes out: mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, paprika, cayenne and salt. Garlic minced fine and a lemon halved

Rosemary Garlic Salmon

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:04:43 +0200

The fish

Four thick fillets, skin on, patted dry and salted, while the pan comes up to heat with a knob of butter

start +6 min

Into the pan

Skin-side down first, left alone to crisp and release, then flipped once

Asian Beef Rice Bowls

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:30:00 +0200

It started as a scribble on a sheet of paper: a sweet, savoury marinade for thin-sliced beef. The full amounts are written up as a recipe: Asian beef marinade

Aromatics

Ginger and garlic, peeled and minced fine

start +3 min

Building the marinade

Everything goes into a measuring cup on the scale, weighed in one after another: sesame oil, white miso, soy sauce, maple syrup and a little brown sugar

Garlic Rosemary Toast

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 11:01:28 +0200

A quick one: homemade sourdough crisped in a cast iron pan with garlic, rosemary and lemon zest.

The oil

Garlic, rosemary and lemon zest warm gently in olive oil until fragrant, while a couple of thick slices come off a homemade sourdough loaf