food

Brewing coffee is a neverending science project, according to barista Sam Penix, owner of Everyman Espresso in New York City. Grind-size, brew method, coffee beans (which are really seeds), water temperature can all affect the flavors that end up in your cup. Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking, explains some of the chemistry of coffee.

The Lee bothers, Matt and Ted, have written two cookbooks about Southern cuisine, but now they've turned their attention to a more specific region: Charleston, the city they grew up in. Their new book contains recipes and stories from a seafood-centric community with a rich culinary history.

Reporting in Nature Medicine, researchers write that a chemical in red meat, L-carnitine, may up the risk of heart disease in people and mice--but only in frequent red-meat eaters. Study author Stanley Hazen of the Cleveland Clinic explains how diet changes the gut's bacterial flora, and how that can affect heart health.

Cities are finding beneficial and lucrative ways to dispose of solid waste, while also helping farmers. But a lot of sewage still ends up in landfills or being processed at big, industrial incinerators.

The Minnesota delegation held its third annual "hotdish off" cooking competition. Nine lawmakers entered, but only one could bring home the trophy. Rep. Tim Walz won handily with a casserole made of cheddar cheese, tater tots and bratwurst.

Atlantic Beach Pie is a salty and citrusy staple of the coast. Katie Workman, author of The Mom 100 Cookbook, shared the recipe for All Things Considered's Found Recipe series.

Fuchsia Dunlop shares a "Found Recipe" for stir-fried snow vegetable with green soybeans, a dish she enjoyed in the countryside near Shanghai.

Fast-food workers in New York City are on strike for the second time in six months, demanding higher wages that they can live on. Workers complain that $7.25 an hour, New York's current minimum wage, is not enough to live in the city.

A British couple believes they've come across a hot cross bun that was baked more than 200 years ago. Host Scott Simon explains.

Francine Segan, author of Dolci: Italy's Sweets, discovered the unusual treat while traveling in Tuscany.

Instead, say it's from the "Outer Coastal Plain." (It's part of a plan to kick the state's reputation for making cheap wine.)

A government sugar subsidy program is often criticized for keeping sugar prices too high. But now prices are falling and the government may buy 400,000 tons of sugar to help struggling sugar processors. Critics say the government's involvement in the sugar business should end.