10,000 salt recipes

Cherry pie topped with a golden coconut-almond macaroon instead of a second crust. The two-stage bake gives you sweet cherry filling under a chewy, toasted almond-coconut layer.

Homemade animal crackers made with ground oatmeal, buttermilk, honey, and butter. Crispy, lightly sweet, and fun to make with kids. Just 7 simple ingredients.

Grecian chicken and potatoes baked in a lemon-oregano-garlic marinade, with sliced red potatoes roasted over onions in buttery lemon broth. Classic taverna-style Sunday dinner.

Southern-style buttermilk cornbread with only 1 tablespoon of sugar. A traditional savory cornbread, lower in sugar and fat, that pairs with chili, beans, and barbecue.

Sour cream apple pie with a cinnamon-spiced shortbread crust and a buttery walnut streusel top. McIntosh apples bake into a custardy filling that sets up creamy under the crunchy walnut topping.

Single-crust pastry pie shell with margarine, blind-baked at high heat until golden in 10 minutes. A basic flaky pastry that works as a base for cream pies, custards, and fruit fillings.

Tennessee black walnut cake builds a tall, airy sponge with whipped egg whites, molasses, and warm spice. Crowned with cinnamon cream frosting and toasted walnut halves.

Homemade barbecue sauce with tomato juice, vinegar, Worcestershire, dry mustard, paprika, and cayenne. Simmers in 15 minutes. Enough to coat 3 pounds of ribs. A family original.

Old-fashioned griddle cakes made with sour milk and sour cream for an extra-tender, tangy pancake. Just six ingredients, no sugar needed. Makes 16 in about 25 minutes.

Crispy deep-fried samosas with spiced curried meat filling wrapped in homemade pastry. Seasoned with garam masala, fresh ginger, and mint, these golden triangles shatter at first bite.

Old-fashioned cucumber and onion salad: paper-thin cucumber and onion slices marinated overnight in a sweet-tart vinegar brine. The crisp Midwestern picnic side that gets better as it sits.

Pesto Toscano made with fresh kale, garlic, and olive oil instead of traditional basil. A robust Tuscan pesto with just 4 ingredients, no nuts, and no cheese required.

Creamy clam and corn chowder with bacon, potatoes, and milk thickened with a butter-flour paste. A hearty Pacific Northwest-style chowder topped with cracker crumbs.

Master chef puff pastry made with classic French lamination and six single turns, building hundreds of buttery flaky layers. Restaurant-quality dough for tarts, vol-au-vents, napoleons, and palmiers.

If you run out of preserved lemons, or decide on just a few day's notice to cook a chicken, lamb, or fish dish with lemons and olives and need preserved lemons in a hurry, you can use this quick five-day method taught to me by a Moroccan diplomat's wife. Lemons preserved this way will not keep, but are perfectly acceptable in an emergency.

Whole bananas baked in their skins until caramelized and tender, then split and loaded with butter, salt, and pepper. Three ingredients, 20 minutes, pure Brazilian comfort.