Top 10 recipes of 2008 (plus five runners-up):

Naked ribs Some people like barbecue for the sauce; purists like it for the pork.

Breakfast is making a comeback in Southern California restaurants -- even in places you might not expect it.

Old-fashioned custard pies seem to have gone the way of Sunday suppers and country roads, but if you want to learn what you’re missing, it only takes only a piece of this fabulous walnut-raisin pie from Patty Pinner’s cookbook “Sweety Pies: An Uncommon Collection of Womanish Observations, With Pie.”

Some exotic mushrooms may be becoming commonplace.

Chicken breasts have a bad reputation -- too often they’re considered nothing but diet food, and dried-out diet food at that.

Happiness, writes frequent contributor Liz Pearson, is a dinner that just about cooks itself -- and also leaves plenty of leftovers to carry you through the week.

Total time: 3 hours, 15 minutes Panforte is kind of like the Italian version of fruitcake -- a dense, chewy fruitcake at that.

There are few combinations in cooking more natural and flexible than beans and greens.

Former Test Kitchen director Donna Deane, who retired this year, was one of the best bakers we’ve ever known.

Total time: 1 hour, 40 minutes There’s more to do with pumpkin than put it in a pie, Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter found during the Thanksgiving holidays.

Dario Cecchini, the Tuscan meat-cutter who may just be the most famous butcher in the world, came to Los Angeles this year to visit friends.

Subtler than smoked salmon, gravlax has a velvety texture and a delicate taste, particularly when it’s scented with notes of anise and licorice the way Amy Scattergood prepared it for a story on brunches.

To put it mildly, Test Kitchen manager Noelle Carter has a thing for bacon.

Canned tuna is so commonplace you might think it’s crazy to make your own.

Total time: 45 minutes Is romesco becoming the new pesto?