Soy sauce. Seems simple, right? But did you know there were dozens, maybe hundreds of types of soy sauce.

Let's step away from the ordinary in many North American Chinese and Japanese restaurants to explore the condiment that is most highly prized all over the world and a centerpiece of many regional cuisines.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three dozen (and counting!) cookbooks. We love to share our passion for food and cooking with you. Join us and let's talk about a condiment that can change the way you cook.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[01:11] Our one-minute cooking tip: Keep the lid on the pot to boil water more quickly.

[02:57] Let's talk about soy sauce. We'll focus on three basic types: Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, as well as the various subsets under those categories.

[23:09] What’s making us happy in food this week: an Indonesian cookbook (SAMBAL & COCONUT) and sweet red chili sauce.

A lot of people have pretty set menus when it comes to Thanksgiving and the winter holidays ahead. But what do you serve to drink?

A long-standing question! And we've got some answers. We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three dozen (and counting!) cookbooks. We've developed and published tens of thousands of recipes in our career--which started out with gigs at WINE SPECTATOR. We've got lots of ideas about what to serve with your holiday meal.

Thanks for joining us. Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:57] Our one-minute cooking tip: Start planning now for what you want to serve. Watch for sales now and catch things you can freeze while those things are cheap.

[03:42] Our guide for what to drink at Thanksgiving. We know the standard wine answer: Pinot Noir. But there's so much more. Even mocktails.

[13:35] What’s making us happy in food this week? Chocolate almond horns (look for them on Instagram reels or our TikTok channel) and new, small ice cream stores!

Tree syrups. Did you know there are many more than just maple syrup? We love them because they're versatile and tasty. So we're doing a taste-test of tree syrups.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three dozen cookbooks and countless published recipes. We've written about syrups for the old GOURMET magazine and we want to share the passion we developed in that article with you.

So let's talk tree syrups!

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK;

[00:39] Our-minute cooking tip: add a little maple syrup to bottled salad dressings, barbecue sauces, and marinades for a flavor boost. Or stir maple syrup into softened butter.

[02:33] All about tree syrups: maple, black walnut, birch, and beech. A true treat. We'll share our tasting notes with you. If you sign up for our newsletter at cookingwithbruceandmark.com, you can find our about our favorite producers.

[18:42] What’s making us happy in food this week: whitefish salad and beef daube.

It's fall in our part of the world . . . which means it's apple season. We love picking apples. And we want to share our passion for apples with you.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three dozen cookbooks (plus another on the way). We've published tens of thousands of recipes. We've got a passion for food and cooking. Thanks for coming along with us!

These are the segments to this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:58] Our one-minute cooking tip: Refresh glazed donuts in a little butter in a skillet.

[03:13] Let's talk about apples, the great fall treat.

[15:09] What’s making us happy in food this week: chestnuts and rice + kimchi.

Mustard or ketchup? Which camp are you in? Or are you some sort of envoy between the camps?

We're talking about mustard and ketchup, a culinary showdown in many North American homes.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of three-dozen cookbooks (and counting). We've developed over ten thousand original recipes in our career. And we've been contributing editors for old-school publications like EATING WELL and COOKING LIGHT.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:46] Our one-minute cooking tip: Make ketchup more interesting by spicing it with five-spice powder, prepared horseradish, tamari sauce, or another savory condiment.

[02:20] Our mustard-ketchup showdown! We're talking about our personal histories with these condiments as well as their cultural history. Which camp are you in?

[19:29] What’s making us happy in food this week: lemon-pear oat cookies and kasha varnishkes.

Pizza. Seems easy enough. Except it's not. So many choices . . . which lead to so many debates. Thick v. thin. Tomato sauce v. pesto. Meat or not. Parm cheese or not.

We've even written a pizza book: PIZZA: GRILL IT, BAKE IT, LOVE IT! It's a collection of recipes in which everyone is made for both the grill and the oven. If you want to see that book, you can check it out here.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough, authors of thirty-six cookbooks, plus two knitting books (from Bruce), plus a memoir (from Mark), and yet more cookbooks in the works. We're delighted to share our passion about food and cooking with you. Thanks for joining us.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[01:03] Our one-minute cooking tip: Ignore the TikTok trend of washing ground beef.

[04:22] The great pizza debate: crust, toppings, origins, the whole thing!

[18:32] What’s making us happy in food this week: sake and fresh-caught tuna.

If you're as old as we are, you grew up with a slow cooker on the counter during the day as dinner got made over the long haul. Slow cookers: a history, not just the ways they've come in and out of style, but what's happened mechanically to the machines over the years.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We've written over three dozen cookbooks, including THE GREAT AMERICAN SLOW COOKER BOOK, which was a giant hit on QVC. If you'd like to check out that book, click this link.

We're talking about slow cookers: their history, their ins and outs, and the changes that have happened to them over the years.

[00:51] Our one-minute cooking tip: Save the olive oil from tins of sardines and anchovies for the base of a stew.

[02:22] How did the slow cooker come about? (Invented by Western Electric's first Jewish engineer.) How did they come to be called "crock pots"? And what's happened to them over the years, including the mechanical changes to them nowadays?

[18:16] What’s making us happy in food this week: lamb kofta and lemon marmalade.

Who doesn't love donuts? They're the treat many of us crave. But they do have a storied history. And they do inspire a great debate: glazed (or yeast-raised) vs. cake donuts.

We're Bruce Weinstein & Mark Scarbrough. We want to talk about all things donuts! We want to hear your favorites, too. We've also got a one-minute cooking tip about simple syrup. And we'll tell you what's making us happy in food this week.

Here are the segments for this episode of COOKING WITH BRUCE & MARK:

[00:46] Our one-minute cooking tip: Consider simple syrup your go-to sweetener for drinks.

[02:44] The history of donuts and the debates they inspire: glazed vs. cake donuts.

[16:45] What’s making us happy in food this week: fresh corn and plum tomatoes.