5 Reasons to Get Excited About Fall Cooking
Sad that summer is ending? We get it. When there’s a chill in the air and the days shorten, it can feel like the weekend is over—but on a grand scale. Happily, there’s a silver lining for cooks: Fall is the absolute best time to cook.
When there’s something simmering on the stovetop, you know you’re in peak autumn (cue the pumpkin spice lattés). Gather your Dutch oven and your stockpot, your apron and your cutting board, because we’ve got reasons to love autumnal cooking that may make you wish the season would never end.
5 REASONS TO GET EXCITED ABOUT FALL COOKING
1. PRIMO PRODUCE
Regular cooks know that every season holds treasures: Winter has its long-simmering stews and holiday delights; spring bursts forth with jewel-toned sugar snaps and berries; summer offers a cartoonish bounty of tender lettuces, ripe melons and heirloom tomatoes. But let’s be real: Fall is truly the best season for cooking. Vegetables we associate with summer like corn, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and summer squash still line market stalls, while heartier ingredients like butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and Concord grapes have entered the picture. You get the best picks of the year, combined in one, yet the days are cool enough to justify long-roasted vegetables or a batch of creamy mac ‘n’ cheese.
2. PROJECT NERD-FRIENDLY
“It’s nice coming off the summer season when the cooking is faster and fresher,” says HexClad Food Director, Laura Rege. “Fall allows us to rotate into longer cooking and more developed flavors.” Rege loves to grab her Dutch oven for braises like Rosemary Beef Stew or her 4.5-Quart Deep Sauté Pan for an easy weeknight chili. While regularly baking bread might sound insane in the summer, come fall, getting that sourdough starter going for homemade loaves of bread starts to sound a lot more appealing.
3. IT'S FEAST SEASON
There’s a reason harvest festivals are such a big deal in many cultures. With Halloween and Thanksgiving tucked into autumn, this time of year is food-lovers' heaven. It’s the time of year when everyone thinks eating a roast turkey is a good idea, sure, but most importantly, it’s stuffing season. (If you can’t wait to get started planning for Thanksgiving, we’ve got you covered: How To Build The Perfect Thanksgiving Menu.)
4. COOLER TEMPS = BETTER BAKING
After temperatures too high to roll out pie dough, fall is here, begging you to whip up any number of seasonal pies, from apple to pumpkin to pecan. Blackberry and apple turnovers? Yes, please. Peanut Butter Swirl Skillet Brownies a La Mode? Of course. Finally trying your hand at a layer cake is a great way to spend a rainy November weekend (and for dreaming up your next act: opening a bakery.)
5. COMFORT TASTES BETTER RIGHT NOW
Okay, this one isn’t quite objective, but there’s something about digging into your go-to nostalgia classics on a crisp fall day that makes them taste that much better. For Rege, that is a meaty ragù or another long-simmered pasta sauce.
“Growing up,” she said, “we always had a marinara going that had a piece of chuck braised in it for flavor.” Whether your dream is recreating the Philly Cheesesteak Sandwich of your childhood, getting unreasonably good at a classic smash burger, or tucking into a steaming bowl of spicy Tteokbokki Mafaldine, this is the perfect time.
Basically, there’s no universal definition of what makes something comfort food, but there is a universal rule that it tastes doubly good in fall.
GET READY FOR AUTUMNAL COOKING WITH THESE DELICIOUS RECIPES:
