How to Create the Best Pecan Pie
The DailyYou’re reading The New Yorker’s daily newsletter, a guide to our top stories, featuring exclusive insights from our writers and editors. Sign up to receive it in your in-box.In today’s newsletter, a favorite winter dessert. And then, Dhruv Khullar on the year in which profits trumped people in the health-care industry. Plus:Inside Syria’s most fearsome prisonLeos Carax’s whirligig self-portrait filmThe forgotten works of Caroline BlackwoodPhotograph by Philip Gould / GettyMolly FischerStaff writerI’m a year-round sucker for nut-based sweets, but winter is when they get their true chance to shine. They’re rich; they’re chewy; they aren’t subject to the vagaries of produce. It’s the season to indulge in pecan pie—a dish that separates the dessert dilettantes from the true treat freaks. Are you the kind of person who takes to the comment section of online cookie recipes to lament that you “had to cut the sugar by half”? Walk along and eat an apple: pecan pie is not for you. I’m loyal to the filling in Deb Perelman’s recipe, which replaces corn syrup with golden syrup—a toasty, slightly salty British import that’s become more widely available in the years I’ve been making this pie. For the crust, though, I follow Carla Lalli Music’s method, which combines the butter and flour using a rolling pin. Before trying her approach, I was too scared to make pie crust; since finding success with it, I’ve been too scared to try anything else. But, if pastry remains intimidating, there’s always Jesse Szewczyk’s chewy, flourless pistachio cookies—festively green and (if you’ve got a food processor) miraculously easy.Further reading: Molly Fischer has profiled food stars such as Laila Gohar and Ina Garten.Editor’s PickIllustration by Sean DongThe Gilded Age of Medicine Is HereIn 2010, a private-equity firm purchased six Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, under the condition that the hospitals stay open and their workers remain employed for a five-year review period. Mere months after that period ended, the land where the hospitals stood was sold, forcing the facilities to pay rent. According to a recent report, the financial strain led to disinvestment in staffing, surgical equipment, elevator repairs, and even clean linens. Patients increasingly languished in emergency rooms, and mortality rates for common conditions rose. The firm realized an over-all profit of seven hundred and ninety million dollars.More than four hundred and fifty hospitals in the United States are now owned by private-equity firms. As Dhruv Khullar notes, “Health care is where the money is.” In the course of the past few years, corporations have learned to gamify the system in order to reap payments from the government, while simultaneously making necessary care more expensive for patients. “2024 was arguably the year that the mortal dangers of corporate medicine finally became undeniable and inescapable,” Khullar writes, in a stunning and astute reflection on the year in medicine. Read the story »More Top StoriesSearching for Loved Ones in a Newly Liberated Syrian PrisonLeos Carax’s Self-Portrait Film “It’s Not Me” Is So HimThe Mordant Observations of a Legendary MuseDaily Cartoon“Which destinations are also shifting to fascism, so I can respond to their jabs by laughing at their hypocrisy?”Cartoon by Maddie DaiCopy link to cartoonCopy link to cartoonLink copiedShopShopMore Fun & GamesPlay today’s smallish puzzle. A clue: Solo piece for Jessye Norman or Renée Fleming. Four letters.Shouts & Murmurs: The Hater’s LamentP.S. The British spy novelist—and former spy—John le Carré died on this day four years ago. A posthumously published volume of letters revealed that “literature was le Carré’s great cause,” Jennifer Wilson writes. “He considered being a writer of spy fiction a serious responsibility and knew intimately how the genre could lure people into illusions about the way the world, and the job itself, worked.”
In today’s newsletter, a favorite winter dessert. And then, Dhruv Khullar on the year in which profits trumped people in the health-care industry. Plus:
- Inside Syria’s most fearsome prison
- Leos Carax’s whirligig self-portrait film
- The forgotten works of Caroline Blackwood
Molly Fischer
Staff writer
I’m a year-round sucker for nut-based sweets, but winter is when they get their true chance to shine. They’re rich; they’re chewy; they aren’t subject to the vagaries of produce. It’s the season to indulge in pecan pie—a dish that separates the dessert dilettantes from the true treat freaks. Are you the kind of person who takes to the comment section of online cookie recipes to lament that you “had to cut the sugar by half”? Walk along and eat an apple: pecan pie is not for you. I’m loyal to the filling in Deb Perelman’s recipe, which replaces corn syrup with golden syrup—a toasty, slightly salty British import that’s become more widely available in the years I’ve been making this pie. For the crust, though, I follow Carla Lalli Music’s method, which combines the butter and flour using a rolling pin. Before trying her approach, I was too scared to make pie crust; since finding success with it, I’ve been too scared to try anything else. But, if pastry remains intimidating, there’s always Jesse Szewczyk’s chewy, flourless pistachio cookies—festively green and (if you’ve got a food processor) miraculously easy.
Further reading: Molly Fischer has profiled food stars such as Laila Gohar and Ina Garten.
Editor’s Pick
The Gilded Age of Medicine Is Here
In 2010, a private-equity firm purchased six Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts, under the condition that the hospitals stay open and their workers remain employed for a five-year review period. Mere months after that period ended, the land where the hospitals stood was sold, forcing the facilities to pay rent. According to a recent report, the financial strain led to disinvestment in staffing, surgical equipment, elevator repairs, and even clean linens. Patients increasingly languished in emergency rooms, and mortality rates for common conditions rose. The firm realized an over-all profit of seven hundred and ninety million dollars.
More than four hundred and fifty hospitals in the United States are now owned by private-equity firms. As Dhruv Khullar notes, “Health care is where the money is.” In the course of the past few years, corporations have learned to gamify the system in order to reap payments from the government, while simultaneously making necessary care more expensive for patients. “2024 was arguably the year that the mortal dangers of corporate medicine finally became undeniable and inescapable,” Khullar writes, in a stunning and astute reflection on the year in medicine. Read the story »
- Searching for Loved Ones in a Newly Liberated Syrian Prison
- Leos Carax’s Self-Portrait Film “It’s Not Me” Is So Him
- The Mordant Observations of a Legendary Muse
Daily Cartoon
- Play today’s smallish puzzle. A clue: Solo piece for Jessye Norman or Renée Fleming. Four letters.
- Shouts & Murmurs: The Hater’s Lament
P.S. The British spy novelist—and former spy—John le Carré died on this day four years ago. A posthumously published volume of letters revealed that “literature was le Carré’s great cause,” Jennifer Wilson writes. “He considered being a writer of spy fiction a serious responsibility and knew intimately how the genre could lure people into illusions about the way the world, and the job itself, worked.”
