One of the wildcards in the 2016 presidential election is the possibility of an "October surprise": some damning revelation from the Democratic National Committee's hacked emails that could doom the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. So far nothing too unsavory has emerged. In fact, quite the opposite: we now have solid risotto tips from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, which have been circulating on Twitter this afternoon.

In 2015 Podesta received an email from Peter Huffman, a Merrill Lynch financial adviser who's done work for the Clinton Foundation, with a question regarding why one has to add broth to the famous Italian rice dish gradually, rather than all at once. "Why can't you just add one or two cups of stock at a time b/c the arborio rice will eventually absorb it anyway, right?" Peter asked.

Oy. For the love of Marcella.

Still, Podesta (who is on record as being a skilled operator in the kitchen) patiently schooled Huffman on this most basic principle of risotto cooking ([sic] throughout): "Yes it with absorb the liquid, but no that's not what you want to do. The slower add process and stirring causes the rice to give up it's starch which gives the risotto it's creamy consistency."

The Clinton campaign: wrong on apostrophes, right on risotto.