Perk up your salads

America’s Test Kitchen refines recipe preparation. Match ingredients to cooking method.

If you’ve ever complained (silently or otherwise) about the time it takes to chop ingredients for a salad, then you’ll probably have some sympathy for Jack Bishop.

He’s the editorial director of America’s Test Kitchen and the tasting lab expert on the magazine’s public television cooking show with the same name.

“In the test kitchen, we prepare the average recipe 40 times during the development process,” Bishop said. “Even after 20 years of doing this, I can’t always predict how a recipe is going to progress.”

Memorial Day officially ushers in the start of summer cooking. For the next three months, we’ll all be looking for ways to stay cool and eat light without sacrificing flavor.

All too often, though, our summer salads end up a little disappointing. They’re missing the spark that elevates a dish from good enough to great. “Most cooks don’t understand how little changes can make a big difference in a finished dish,” Bishop said.

His kitchen’s painstaking testing process has resulted in some great tips for your summer cooking. ways cut the vegetables to bite size after they’ve finished cooking.

Don’t be in a hurry. Don’t cook your vegetables over a roaring fire. Don’t think, “I’m cooking my steaks over a real- ly hot fire and the vegetables will be just fine,” Bishop said. The vegetables should be nicely browned but not blackened. Plan for about 15 minutes to get them to the right stage.

On a gas grill, cook the vegetables first over medium heat, then let them sit while you crank up the heat and grill your steak or burger. For charcoal, you will want to cook the vegetables while the grill is heating up, or after you’ve cooked your protein and the coals are dying down.

Grilled vegetables are best served warm or at room temperature.

Your dressing needs to be more than a simple oil and vinegar — that’s fine for delicate greens.

“This is the place to go for robust and potent. Bring out the mustards, the fresh herbs, the grated lemon zest and even a little bit of raw garlic,” Bishop said.

On potato salads

“Where do we start?” Bishop asked. “There are so many potato choices and so many dressing choices.”

First, do you want intact pieces of potato in your salad? Then go for a red potato.

Do you want a more cohesive potato salad with crumbly bits of potato? Then use a russet.

No matter which type you choose, the key is to cook the potatoes and then dress them

Salads Recipes

Three salads from America’s Test Kitchen. F4

A light hand is desirable when it comes to dressing salads that feature fruit such as mangoes.