Growing up, I thought there was only one way to make a chocolate chip cookie. You started with the yellow bag of Nestlé Toll House chocolate morsels, followed the directions on the back, and nine to 11 minutes later you were rewarded with a tray of warm cookies. Simple as that.

Fast forward 20 years, and there are now more recipes for chocolate chip cookies than I’d ever have a chance to make in my lifetime (although I’d be down to try). To distinguish themselves from the competition, they all claim to be the best, whether that’s because they’re the easiest, or the most flavorful, or the chewiest, or the softest.

Some have even gone viral. There’s the version adapted from Jacques Torres in the New York Times, which was so thoroughly researched and tested that it likely is the most “perfect” chocolate chip cookie, although you have to wait for it (and pay for it), because science says a chill time of 36 hours yields the best cookie, as does 1 1/4 pounds of bittersweet chocolate disks.

Then there’s Alison Roman’s salted chocolate chunk shortbread cookies (aka #thecookies), in which she took all her favorite parts of the classic dessert and created something new altogether — a buttery, crumbly, salty concoction that proved just how far we’ve come since Toll House. Another Instagram favorite? The giant crinkled chocolate chip cookies from cookbook author Sarah Kieffer, featuring the unique (yet incredibly noisy) technique of banging your cookie sheet on the oven rack as the dough bakes.

But traditionalists, fear not, because some of the internet’s most popular chocolate chip cookies — from Alton Brown, Martha Stewart, and Joanna Gaines — don’t stray too far from classic versions. (We also tossed Toll House into the competition, to act as our control cookie.) There are no chocolate disks or flaky salt, no overnight chill or pan-banging — these are just good old-fashioned chocolate chip cookies. For consistency’s sake, I tested each with King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour, Nestlé Toll House semi-sweet morsels, and Domino sugar, and baked them all in the same oven, on the same cookie sheet, on the same day.

Here’s how they ranked, from my least favorite to the very best.

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Around the World in 30 Soups: This month we’re collaborating with chefs, cookbook authors, and our own Kitchn crew to share a globetrotting adventure in soups from countries and cuisines around the world. Today’s stop: Thailand.

Tom kha kai is easy to make. If you can smash things, cut things, and boil water, you can pull off this classic on the first try. The hardest part? Getting your hands on the essential fresh seasonings. Galangal (the ‘kha’ in tom kha kai), kaffir lime leaves, and lemongrass have come to define tom kha kai. Some people will tell you that you can substitute ginger for the galangal, but that is not the case. In fact, the two ingredients are not even close to being interchangeable in the minds of Thai cooks.

But if you cannot find the fresh galangal and kaffir lime leaves, either locally or online, you can use tom kha paste, which comes in small glass jars. Any brand from Thailand will do. Just follow the directions on the label. Most of the time, making the broth involves dissolving the paste in the coconut milk.

—Leela Punyaratabandhu, author of Simple Thai Food: Classic Recipes from the Thai Home Kitchen

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Growing up, my mom kept the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies on hand at all times, so that on snow days or sick days, we could grab the bag of Nestlé Toll House chocolate morsels and have warm cookies on the table in less than 30 minutes. I never even considered using a recipe other than the one on the bag. In fact, I just assumed that was the only way to make chocolate chip cookies.

In a bake-off against the most popular chocolate chip cookie recipes, I knew Toll House would win points for nostalgia. But when it came to the most important criteria — taste, texture, dough-to-chocolate ratio — would they be able to hold their own? Here’s what I found out.

Get the recipe: Original Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip cookies

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Kitchn’s Delicious Links column highlights recipes we’re excited about from the bloggers we love. Follow along every weekday as we post our favorites.

When I have friends coming over for dinner, I find it difficult to get excited because I worry that they won’t enjoy my food. That’s why I’m always on the lookout for no-fail dishes that are both easy to make (I don’t need to stress out over the cooking process, too!) and guaranteed crowd-pleasers.

I’m definitely adding this creamy chicken tetrazzini to my list.

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Last night on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the host got to live the dream: he spent an afternoon day-drinking with the Barefoot Contessa herself. Seth gets drunk (or, at least, stage drunk), and Ina remains her composed, lovely self while crushing Seth at the drinking games he challenges her to and dropping info like what her favorite cocktail is.

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If you’re currently following a high-protein diet, perhaps you’ve hit a chicken breast rut. How about a little weekend Power Hour session to break out of your routine and set yourself up for a week of feel-good meals?

This Power Hour Meal Prep Plan requires no more than two hours of your Sunday, and leaves you with a week’s worth of high-protein breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. What do we mean by high-protein? The average amount of protein most people need in a day is 50 grams. This meal plan sets you up with roughly double that — about 100 grams per day — divided between three daily meals.

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PSA: You have a little more than a week to get your menu together for Valentine’s Day. Maybe you already have dinner planned for your sweet thang (please, ditch the restaurant this year), and maybe you’ve already decided to pick up some flowers. But what about desserts? Sure steak is great, but dessert is essential on this beloved holiday.

If you’re stuck in the dessert department, Costco has your answer to love day bliss: heart-shaped macarons. Provided by Le Chic Pâtissier, you can have 25 of those classic delicate, almond-y cookies that melt in your mouth for only $12.49 at Costco. In comparison, a box of 24 cookies from the legendary Ladurée costs $73, so this Costco find is a total steal.

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It’s no secret that Ina and Jeffrey are pretty much everyone’s relationship goals, so obviously when it comes to finding ways to celebrate our own love on February 14, we want to try to copy our barefoot queen as much as possible — and she’s happy to make that just a little easier on us: this morning she announced on Instagram that she’d published her playlist of the best romantic love songs of all time. Go ahead and find yourself a Jeffrey!

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Here at Kitchn, we talk a lot about all the ways that your Instant Pot is surprisingly useful. It can make yogurt! It can make Ree Drummond’s chocolate lava cake! But it can also help out with those everyday tasks that could be even easier than they already are — like boiling an egg.

Now, boiling an egg is not the toughest kitchen task out there, but it does have its pitfalls: One common mistake people make is that they often overcook the egg, which gives it a gray-ish tint and thoroughly unappetizing sulphuric odor. If you have an Instant Pot, turns out there’s an ingenious hack for making sure your hard-boiled eggs turn out just right: It’s called the 5-5-5 method.

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Back in the early spring of 2016 I tore down a little house my family had purchased 18 years earlier and, taking it on as finally my own and with money that I inherited when my father passed away, I rebuilt it from the ground up (actually below the ground, up) with the help of three wonderfully skilled people, John Berg (architect), Peter Germano (contractor) and Rebecca Robertson (interior designer). The project took nearly two years, allowing me to move in by Christmas 2018. I documented every step of the way (here’s where I left off in July 2017), BUT had to stop when it got close to the end so I wouldn’t spoil the final reveal AND so I could get it photographed by House Beautiful, which gave the team props. NOW, however, I can show everything in great detail, so please come with me as I roll out the whole finished house in a number of posts, starting with this one, which features….

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