David McCowan
The Takeout
Chicago, IL, United States
Contact David
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by David:
Why do sausages scream and explode in the microwave?
There’s a video making the rounds on the internet that will haunt your dreams. On mute, it looks like a typical clip of breakfast sausages frying away. Turn the volume up, and ear-piercing screams of tortured pig souls call out from the great beyond. My breakfast links never seem to cook up quite so horrifically, but those looking to recreate the unsettling soundtrack at home have found that the… → Read More
How to revive stale bread
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
Why have Americans stopped eating turtle?
America has a food diversity problem. Chicken, pork, and beef account for many of the animal proteins found on our dinner table—the product of decades of agricultural industrialization—and this has left us with cheaper but more limited options at the butcher’s counter. Once a year we all sit down to eat turkey, but when was the last time you had snipe, mutton, or rabbit? → Read More
Why bottles advertising “pure water” are pure hokum
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
How to minimize crying when chopping onions
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
Is it safe to eat food that’s been freezer burnt?
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
What's the real difference between margarine and butter?
So what’s the difference between butter and margarine? → Read More
I can believe it’s not butter: The rise and fall of margarine
You may not have seen the commercial in years, but you’d recognize the setup instantly. Sweeping chords play and a day-dreaming, bespectacled housewife sighs as the screen does that fuzzy flashback fade. There are quick shots of vaguely fairy tale locales—an Italian palazzo, stately fountains, a rose garden straight out of Beauty And The Beast—and our suburban soccer mom reappears in flowing… → Read More
Everything you need to know to saber a Champagne
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
Do you really need to refrigerate your eggs?
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
Is it safe to eat deli meats with that metallic sheen?
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
Why have Americans stopped eating turtle?
Outside of pockets in Louisiana and Pennsylvania, turtle has almost completely disappeared from our diet. → Read More
Why do onions make you cry?
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food.We think of onions as harmless root vegetables, but they’re actually clever bulbed bombs ready to defend themselves against all would-be consumers → Read More
Climb up the pine tree of pleasure: Gin
Welcome to Gateways To Drinkery, where The A.V. Club offers an entry-level course on our favorite libations, and some suggestions on where to start drinking them.GinThe lowdown: Winston Churchill’s martinis were nothing more than chilled tumblers of gin, and James Bond called for a shaken rendition → Read More
How WWI food propaganda forever changed the way Americans eat
Meatless Mondays. Local is best. Eat less wheat. These sound like food fads plucked from 2017’s buzziest blog headlines but are in fact from 100 years ago. → Read More
How WWI food propaganda forever changed the way Americans eat
Meatless Mondays. Local is best. Eat less wheat. These sound like food fads plucked from 2017’s buzziest blog headlines but are in fact from 100 years ago. Each was a campaign from the U.S. Food Administration during World War I, and the food propaganda it represented was as important to the war effort as Uncle Sam’s “I want YOU for the U.S. Army.” As young men fought in the trenches of Europe,… → Read More
A brief compendium of all the ways your food can kill you
Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food. → Read More
Where to start with brandy, the drink of aristocrats and rappers alike
Welcome to Gateways To Drinkery, where The A.V. Club offers an entry-level course on our favorite libations, and some suggestions on where to start drinking them.BrandyThe lowdown: Among base spirits, brandy suffers an identity crisis. For some, it’s the quintessential quaff of the gentry class—ciga → Read More
How do you revive soggy French fries?
In Food Science, Dave McCowan from the University Of Chicago’s Department Of Physics answers our confounding questions about the mysterious world of food.Those fries you picked up last night on the way home from the bar hit the spot—golden, crispy outsides and fluffy, soft insides. But the leftovers → Read More