What is it about the weekend that makes us overly ambitious about trying to accomplish something we’ve never done before? You know what we’re talking about—the “I saw it on Pinterest” DIY craft projects that are inevitably always left as a pile of supplies with the thought that one day I’ll get around to finishing that.
So, what’s a better way for the motivated and enterprising to spend their weekends? Big cooking projects! We’re talking about overnight-brining delicious cuts of meat, making your own pickles, or nursing a sourdough starter for homemade bread. If you’re going to take on a big weekend project, we think it should at least be something you can eat at the end, even if it doesn’t turn out perfect.
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For a true sense of kitchen accomplishment, here’s a collection of the big cooking projects that we think are the best way to spend a weekend, or even just a couple of hours.
Perfect Croissants Recipe
Layered, flaky pastry can be intimidating, but give this classic croissant recipe a try and eventually you’ll be able to add “laminating dough” to your list of culinary skills.
Homemade Gravlax Recipe
Homemade lox is easier than you think. You don’t even have to know how to butcher a fish, and the curing process requires zero skill on your part—just a lot of patience.
Goat Curry with Sweet Potato Gnocchi Recipe
If you get validation from checking tasks off a to-do list, chef Nina Compton’s goat curry recipe is for you. You’ll be brining goat overnight, roasting it, and making your own sweet gnocchi, so this definitely isn’t a weeknight meal, but it’s perfect for a cold weekend.
Confit and Grilled Octopus Recipe
It takes a while to confit a whole octopus, but it’s actually a pretty hands-off endeavor. Pop it in the oven, and pick up another cooking project while you wait.
Homemade Soba Noodles Recipe
A word to the wise: You’ll want to read this recipe for homemade soba noodles a few times before getting started. Once you get through it, though, you’ll find the process is soothing, like the adult equivalent of messing around with Play-Doh.
Brined Pork Chop Recipe
This project is for the non-believer who needs to prove to themselves that pork doesn’t always have to taste like cardboard. Dry brining this pork chop will give you a deliciously juicy piece of meat, but you’ve gotta start 12 hours in advance.
Braised Pork Belly Adobo Recipe
Chef Leah Cohen’s Filipino-inspired pork belly adobo has to braise for quite a while before you let it rest in the refrigerator overnight and then fry it up the next day. The wait is worth it.
Pickled Peppers and Tomatoes Recipe
Getting ready to have friends over some time next week? Make a quick refrigerator pickle spread for appetizers on Saturday, and they’ll be ready to eat by Tuesday.
Weed Butter Recipe
What better time to stock up your freezer with weed-infused butter than while you have a free Sunday afternoon? (How’s that for meal prep?) While you’re at it, stock up your whole cannabis pantry with infused olive oil and sugar, too.
Homemade Grapefruit Bitters Recipe
Now’s the chance to DIY your bar cart as well. Peruse whatever herbs and botanicals the farmers’ market has on Saturday morning and make your own bitters, or maybe even a homemade vermouth.
Casero-Style Tamales Recipe
Watch chef Wes Avila of LA’s Guerrilla Tacos stuff and steam his squash- and cheese-filled tamales, then give it a try yourself. Assembling them is the most satisfying part. Well, that and eating them.
Homemade Pasta Dough Recipe
Homemade pasta dough is an obvious choice for a weekend cooking activity, and the best part is the low risk involved: flour and eggs are very inexpensive, so if you screw up once or twice, it’s no big deal. When you get it right, use this dough recipe to give these ricotta and pesto pansotti a try.
Spinach Pasta Dough Recipe
Perhaps you’ve done plain pasta before and you’re looking for a way to zhuzh it up. Look no further than the fully handmade spinach pasta dough from chef Evan Funke of LA’s Felix Trattoria. It’ll look damn good on your Instagram feed, too.
Homemade Soft Pretzels Recipe
Despite what your teenage self would say, there are better places for homemade soft pretzels than the mall food court. Making them at home sure is a process, but what else are you gonna do with your weekend?
Homemade Couscous Recipe
Homemade couscous is one of the more intimidating cooking projects you could take on this weekend, but think of this as learning a new cooking skill and getting some meditation practice. Couscous takes a lot of patience.
Matty Matheson’s Cassoulet Recipe
Our friend Matty Matheson’s version of cassoulet doesn’t require you to confit your own duck legs, which cuts down the whole process by quite a bit of time (whew). That said, you’ll need to give yourself most of the afternoon to let the meat and beans cook until they’re super tender.
Tepache (Fermented Pineapple Drink) Cocktail Recipe
So, this is slightly deceptive, sorry—if you start this cocktail recipe on Saturday, you won’t get to enjoy this cocktail until about Tuesday. The base liquid, tepache, takes a few days to naturally ferment. But hey, Thirsty Tuesdays can be a thing if you really want it to be.
Rustic Pane Pugliese Recipe
If you’ve never baked bread from scratch before, it’s easy to get lost in a rabbit hole of internet research—or you could just follow James Beard award-winning baker Zachary Golper’s pane Pugliese recipe, a rustic yeasted white bread that’s a great entrypoint into bread baking.
Classic Pork Bao Recipe
If you gave that pane Pugliese a try and you’re looking for another style of bread to tackle next, might we suggest learning to steam your own bao? Follow that up with a filling of glazed pork belly, of course.
Timballo di Pasta Recipe
Put Big Night on for inspiration while you go through the many painstaking steps of making this hefty timballo di pasta, which includes recipes for homemade marinara and béchamel sauce. It’s like a marathon, except you’ll carbo-load at the end of it all.
Scallion Pancake Beef Wraps Recipe
This recipe is really three parts: first, you braise the beef; then, you make the scallion pancakes; and finally, you turn it all into scallion pancake beef wrap. When you’re pressed for time, however, the scallion pancakes are great on their own.
Pork Soup Dumplings Recipe
We promise you’ll love soup dumplings even more when you finally realize and appreciate all the work that goes into making them. Stock up on the ingredients right before a big snowstorm, and you’ll have the perfect way to spend a day-and-a-half stuck inside.
Filipino Chicken Empanadas Recipe
The secret to Filipino empanadas is the slightly sweet dough that pairs perfectly with a spicy vinegar dipping sauce. Cooking projects don’t have to be a solo affair, so employ a friend to help you assemble them.
Perfect Chocolate Babka Recipe
Between all the kneading and the rolling and the spreading and the braiding, it’s fine if your first attempt at homemade chocolate babka doesn’t end up looking picture-perfect. That just gives you another excuse to try it again next week.
Chocolate Cookie and Peanut Butter Icebox Cake Recipe
All the time that goes into this absolutely perfect icebox cake is totally worth it because you can keep it in the freezer for weeks and eat it bit by bit. (Still, we highly doubt it’ll last more than a day.)
Sufganiyot (Yeasted Doughnuts) Recipe
Learning to bake sweet things with a yeasted dough is a fun project in and of itself, but learning to fry a doughnut to the just-right golden brown is the useful secondary skill you’ll gain by giving these homemade doughnuts a try.
Boston Cream Doughnut Recipe
Boston cream doughnuts might just be one of the best recipes for a budding baker. Not only do you learn to make a fluffy yeasted dough, but you also get to practice your custard and chocolate glaze skills—all things that translate easily into other desserts.
Cantaloupe and Citrus Sorbet Recipe
This citrus sorbet doesn’t even take that long, but we’re assuming you don’t have an ice cream maker on hand, so you’ll have to do this the old fashioned way: shaking it up by hand. It’s also a great way to take advantage of citrus season.
Banoffee Pie-Paella Recipe
A classic seafood paella is a fun weekend cooking project, but this banoffee pie-paella hybrid from pastry chef Dominique Ansel will keep you occupied for a few hours, too.
Classic Chocolate Layer Cake Recipe
Making a frosted layer cake requires a lot of starts and stops. You gotta bake the cakes, then let them cool, then make the frosting, then apply it in layers, letting it chill in the fridge occasionally so the final coating looks nice and smooth. But when you’re all done, you get to pretend you’re Bruce in Matilda and eat the whole dang thing yourself.
Chongos Zamoranos Recipe
Chongos zamoranos are a popular Mexican dessert of caramelized milk curds, and as they cook down with cinnamon sticks for around five hours, your kitchen will smell just like the best dessert-scented candle—except you get to eat the end result.
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