The whiskey distilleries worth planning a trip around across the Northeast, Kentucky excluded on purpose. Third installment of an annual series — with an honest count for the thinner states.

The newest American whiskey category — Scotch's grain, bourbon's oak, and, as of 2024, its own rules. Here's what to know.

The 2026 Van Winkle Whiskey Collection is here: six expressions aged 10 to 23 years, with prices, tasting notes, and the century-long family story behind bourbon's most chased release.

No barbecue region changes as much within its own borders as the Carolinas. Here's the century-old sauce rivalry between Eastern NC, Lexington, and South Carolina.

From snout to hock, a plain-English walk through every primal cut on a whole hog, and what each one becomes once it hits the smoker.

A dry Thanksgiving turkey almost always comes down to one missed step, not bad cooking — the science of why resting your turkey, brisket, or pork tenderloin actually decides how the first cut turns out.

Falling off the bone means ribs are overcooked. Here's what pitmasters actually judge — the clean bite — and how 80s-90s chain marketing sold the opposite.

A 500-year-old sherry-house trick where no barrel is ever fully emptied — and the same process a new Blade and Bow release is about to put to its toughest test yet.

If you've spent any time in a bourbon aisle, you've probably noticed two labels that seem to mean the same thing: "barrel proof" and "cask strength." They show up on different bottles, sometimes from the same distillery, and nothing on the label explains why one bottle picked one word and another bottle picked the other.

A sauce born out of postwar scarcity and discrimination became the flavor that built an entire restaurant category. The offal grills, the naming fight nobody wanted, and the sweet-savory dip that made Japanese BBQ its own thing.

The whiskey distilleries worth planning a trip around across the West, Kentucky excluded on purpose. Fourth and final installment of this year's annual series.

“Rye” isn't one flavor — it's a legal category with very different accents inside it. Here's how to tell them apart.

The turkey brine kits, pork rubs, and prep gear that actually earned a spot on the counter this season — organized the way the day actually unfolds, from prep to rest.

Long before bourbon took over, American whiskey's real home was the rye fields of Pennsylvania and Maryland. Here's that history, plus the brand new 2025 rule that defined American single malt.

A sticky red sauce born on Chicago's South Side became the unofficial taste of Washington, DC. The carryout password, the light-vs-dark debate, and the trademark war over BBQ sauce's best-traveled cousin.

The single most useful thing on a bourbon label isn't the age or the proof — it's the mash bill. Here's how to read it.

The 15 best American whiskeys of 2026 actually worth your money — bourbon and rye you can find and afford, from bottled-in-bond bargains to high-rye pours.

I wrote bourbon off at seventeen. Years later it clicked. Here's what bourbon actually tastes like — caramel, vanilla, oak, and spice — where those flavors come from, and how to taste every layer in the glass.

In 1984 Elmer T. Lee bottled one barrel by itself and accidentally invented modern bourbon hunting. The history behind Blanton's, Warehouse H, and the stoppers.

Wrap your brisket at 160–170°F — when the bark sets, not when the clock says. The stall temp, butcher paper vs. foil, and the 3 a.m. mistake that cost me my bark.