Meatballs span cultures and come in all shapes, sizes, and sauces. Lan, Bryan, Nik, and Lidey try three recipes from around the world and ask: What makes the perfect meatball? 

Recipes eaten in episode:

Meatballs and Marinara

Lion’s Head Meatballs

Albóndigas (Spanish-Style Meatballs in Almond Sauce)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most people say a sandwich is filling stuffed between two layers of bread. But what about hotdogs, or a loaded pocket of pita bread? Lan, Bryan, Nik, and Lidey get into a heated debate about what exactly defines a sandwich on this week’s episode of In the Test Kitchen. 

Recipes Eaten in episode:

Italian Sub

Diner-Style Sheet-Pan Tuna Melts

Ultimate Grilled Vegetable Sandwich

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Salads often get a bad wrap as the thing you have to eat before the rest of the meal. In today’s episode of In the Test Kitchen: Lan, Bryan, Nik, and Lidey finally give salads their due, and reveal how to make them the star of the show.

Recipes Mentioned:

Ultimate Wedge Salad

Horiatiki Salata

Neorm Sach Moan

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Making muffins used to be a rite of passage for test cooks and applicants who applied to work at America’s Test Kitchen. So we’ve eaten a lot of them; sweet, savory, and everything in between. In this episode, Lan, Bryan, Nik, and Lidey take on the debate: What is a muffin, and what makes it great? 

Recipes and reviews mentioned:

Best Blueberry Muffins

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Muffins

Sausage-Herb Stuffing Muffin

Achieving generously sized bakery-style muffins

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ask 10 people what their favorite kind of pizza is, and you’ll get 10 different answers. This week on In the Test Kitchen: Lan, Bryan, Nik, and Lidey dive into the regional differences, Italian vs. American preferences, and the elements that go into making a great pie. 

Recipes Mentioned:

Neapolitan pizza

Thin-Crust Pizza

Detroit-Style Pizza

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can you make a good fried chicken recipe at home? Lan, Bryan, Nik and Lidey say yes as they deconstruct 3 different recipes that represent three different styles of fried chicken. Plus, the quad reveals some fun KFC history, and discuss the difference between crunchy and crispy fried chicken.

Recipes Mentioned: One-Batch Fried Chicken, Super Crunchy Buttermilk Fried Chicken, Chile Fried Chicken

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What is your ideal burger? In this episode, Lan, Bryan, Nik and Lidey debate which burger type–smash, pub, or meatloaf burger–reins supreme. Plus, what are the best burger fixings? Is it better to use high-end meats? Find out on this week’s In the Test Kitchen. 

ATK Recipes Mentioned in today's episode: Smashed Burgers, Juicy Pub-Style Burgers with Crispy Shallots and Blue Cheese with Pub-Style Burger Sauce, Meatloaf Burgers

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Test Kitchen is back with new hosts and a new show!

In this premiere episode, hosts Lan Lam, Bryan Roof, Nik Sharma, and Lidey Heuck, dive into all things chocolate chip cookies. They chat about texture, size, and cookie thickness and ask: What makes the best chocolate chip cookie? Along the way, the quad taste tests 3 separate chocolate chip cookie recipes while dissecting the history, science, and nerdy aspects of recipe development. 

ATK Recipes Mentioned in today's episode: Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Levain-Style Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Test Kitchen will be back on Thursday, February 26 with new hosts and a new concept!

Follow Lan Lam, Bryan Roof, Nik Sharma, and Lidey Heuck, as they take you behind the scenes into the meaty, nerdy, and zeitgeist-y conversations that happen at America's Test Kitchen. Each episode revolves around a dish as the quad debate about ingredients, dig into the science, and learn about the history behind the dish. And of course, there are taste tests along the way as the cast dissect what went into the 3 recipes that appear throughout the show.

The first episode of In the Test Kitchen will be on February 26 on Netflix and wherever you find podcasts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some new podcasts from America’s Test Kitchen are on the horizon! Here's a special preview of The Side Dish, hosted by Bridget Lancaster and Julia Collin Davison. Off-duty and unfiltered, they swap kitchen hacks, play games, and answer listener questions.

Today’s episode is all about romance, because love (and great food) is always in the air.

Subscribe to The Side Dish on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. You can also watch The Side Dish on Netflix. Please consider leaving a commend and rating -- it helps other people find the show!

And stay tuned... there’s a big announcement coming next week on the feed.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices