CURRENT ISSUE
June 2012
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Features
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How the Chicken Conquered the World
The epic begins 10,000 years ago in an Asian jungle and ends today in kitchens all over the world—the mighty little bird that powers modern civilization
The Chicken and the Egg
A new poem
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The Perfect Egg
Chefs and scientists try to track the ultimate culinary puzzle
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The Unified Theory of Gumbo
If Mrs. Elie’s Creole gumbo was on the table, God was in His heaven and all was right with the universe. Then, the universe cracked
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Mrs. Elie's Creole Gumbo
Serves 12
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Salts of the Earth
The most ancient and common seasoning in the world, the only rock we eat, has suddenly become the latest gourmet obsession
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Sur La Table
Julia Child changed the way Americans eat with her version of classic French cuisine. But she had a very modern recipe for marriage
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Those (Waxed Fruit) Times
The artist pays tribute to a family centerpiece that was both inedible and indelible
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Heaven on the Half Shell
America's greatest storyteller was also a famous gourmand. And when Mark Twain lived in San Francisco, nothing struck his fancy like a heaping plate of Olympia oysters. Here’s the raw truth about the fall and rise of Twain's beloved bivalve
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A Wine and a Prayer
The San Antonio Winery survived Prohibition because of an exemption for sacramental wine, but it has prospered by blending the sacred with the secular
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Can Technology Save Breakfast?
Giant food companies have been vilified for decades for starting our day with heaping bowls of sugar. But now they are using science to "re-nature" food and make it less processed. Are they creating the champion of breakfast?
Departments
Panama Exposed
The ongoing expansion of the waterway has given Smithsonian researchers a chance to find new fossils
Shelter
America is the world's shelter, says the renowned author of the celebrated memoir Infidel, who found refuge here from persecution
The Multiverse of Love
Rosanne Cash sings about love, science and the deep space between men and women
Remember the Raisin!
The battle cry of the War of 1812, along with almost everything else about it, has been forgotten for far too long. On the war's 200th anniversary, it's all coming back to us
When the Earth Moved
One hundred years ago, a German scientist advanced the shocking idea that the continents were adrift, and the giants of geology ridiculed him. But nobody’s laughing now