Dipping cookies makes them taste better

March 24, 2013 by
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NPR at The Salt recently asked one of the food world's most crucial question: Do Cookies Really Taste Better Dipped in Tea? This is the quandary no less an expert than Heston Blumenthal "recently set out to discover on his TV show, Heston's Fantastical Food. With the help of a high-tech gadget inserted up the nose, he found that a chocolate-covered… read more

Which food words make you laugh?

March 22, 2013 by
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Kerry Acker at Epicurious wrote a column yesterday - Food Words are Funny! which certainly sent us into the weekend with a smile:  "I woke up this morning and laughed out loud. Why? Because, for some inexplicable reason, the first thing I thought about as I crawled out of bed was the word pumpernickel. Seriously, is there a funnier word out… read more

Do you really need Kosher salt?

March 21, 2013 by
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Kenji Alt over at The Food Lab (nominated as a James Beard finalist - congrats!) recently addressed the question: Do I Need to Use Kosher Salt? After acknowledging that there is no difference chemically among table, Kosher, and fine sea salts, he goes on to compare the three for texture and flavor, ultimately explaining why he keeps Kosher salt for cooking and fine sea… read more

Two tirades against food television

March 20, 2013 by
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Every time that the Food Channel eliminates cooking shows in favor of a contest or non-cooking related channel, there are rumbles from the media. But two recent rants caught our attention as particularly well-written, including both insightfulness and thoroughness. Both are well worth the time to read; here are just a few of the highlights. Andy Greenwald in Grantland titles… read more

Are you a supertaster?

March 19, 2013 by
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The Wall Street Journal has an interesting video that discusses the challenges facing  "supertasters."  A supertaster not only tastes things more intensely, they have stronger feelings about what foods they like and they don't like. And there are good reasons to determine if you are one - in fact, many supertasters may be at risk for certain illnesses like colon… read more

“Table” vs. “Kitchen”

March 18, 2013 by
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A funny thing is going on at Marketing Department, c/o Cookbook Publisher, Industry St., Anytown USA.  I was just perusing the titles of cookbooks published in the last 30 days, and it seemed to me (I stress the unscientific nature of this impression) that practically half the titles contained either the word "kitchen" or the word "table".  Here are a few… read more

James Beard Finalists Announced

March 18, 2013 by
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The James Beard Foundation just announced its cookbook finalists for 2013. (For other awards, see our blog Cookbook award season is here!.) So who made the list? You can view the entire list here, but here are some of the more popular categories. First, however, are the two who won the most prestigious achievement awards: Humanitarian: Emeril Lagasse Lifetime Achievement:… read more

Refrigerating regular or sweet potatoes – yes or no?

March 17, 2013 by
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Potatoes are an appropriate topic for St. Patrick's Day, so we thought we'd highlight a simple question that Food Republic recently asked: Do you need to refrigerate potatoes? And here's the simple answer: No. Potatoes don't spoil, and, in fact, if put into a refrigerator they will develop a bitter taste. The best way to store potatoes is also simple, "Potatoes should… read more

The Bloomberg – the “sugariest drink in the world”

March 15, 2013 by
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Since Friday is a good day to clean up loose ends, we thought we'd finally note the death - or at least the coma - of Mayor Bloomberg's attempts to ban the sale of mega-sodas in New York City. And the most creative coda to this story  has come from a surprising source, NPR, which invented The Bloomberg - the… read more

How colors affect taste

March 14, 2013 by
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Two recent articles struck us as working together in a somewhat ironic fashion. FoodBuzz has 24 Foods That Shouldn't Celebrate St. Patrick's Day while The Guardian reports on How we taste different colours. The former is a compilation of foods that have been dyed green - and definitely never should have been.  Their photos of bacon, steak, eggs, grilled cheese, mashed potatoes,… read more

Tea services – traditional vs. modern vs. basic

March 12, 2013 by
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In the U.S., the final show of Downton Abbey was shown a few weeks ago. And it seems that an entire continent is going through withdrawal (we know those of you in Great Britain experienced this a few months ago). So just in time to provide an emergency proper English fix,  Serious Eats has published, "A Short Introduction to Afternoon… read more

Let your canned goods get old – and better

March 12, 2013 by
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A few months ago, we wrote a blog on how long food can last. In Don't throw out that food  we noted that expiry dates don't need to be religiously followed - rather it's your nose that should be. Now one of the best known food scientists, Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking,  has weighed in on the… read more

Database cookbooks

March 12, 2013 by
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Correction: Since this post was published, ATK has contacted me to clarify that some cookbooks (like Slow Cooker Revolution) consist of brand-new content, and others (like Cooking for Two) use database recipes as only a starting point.  So the answer is perhaps not as simple as I thought!  My point, however, stands: a database remains a critical element in a publishing… read more

The ten best TV food shows

March 11, 2013 by
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Just because we like to stir up a bit of controversy every now and then, we wanted to note this article by The Guardian, "The ten best TV food shows." Some of the names may not be familiar in the U.S., but some will be, and this list could help our U.S. viewers keep a look out for some new… read more

New look for Eat Your Books

March 10, 2013 by
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    We have a site redesign released today. We have dropped the left navigation - all links are now from the tabs across the top.  This has allowed us to increase the size of the images of book covers and recipes.  There is now also a images view for books and recipes - read more in our Help topic. You… read more

The fate of the family dinner

March 10, 2013 by
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The demise of the family dinner has been forecast since at least the 1950's, when TV dinners and tables became popular. So we were a little surprised that NPR brought the subject up again in "Family Dinner: Treasured Tradition or Bygone Ideal." But we wanted to hear if they said anything new. Well, kind of. As a result of a… read more

Can you eat bread that’s five-months old?

March 8, 2013 by
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In elementary school science classes, a favorite experiment was to grow mold on bread and then study the mold under a microcope. But it appears that modern-day science has put a damper on this experiment, at least for store-bought bread. In this article from Epicurious, "How Fresh is Five-Month-Old Bread?" the author recounts how a loaf of bread became lost… read more

An homage to the artichoke

March 7, 2013 by
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Artichokes are among our favorite vegetables - on our first visit to Italy, it was so exciting to discover they actually put them on pizza! But given artichokes' regionality and the challenge of eating them, many people avoid getting acquainted. So we wanted to give a shout out to this article from the L.A. Times: Let artichoke possibilities flower. You… read more

Choosing the best heavy-duty kitchen scale

March 5, 2013 by
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Over at America's Test Kitchen, they've been evaluating heavy-duty kitchen scales. In Heavyweight Champion: The OXO Good Grips 22-lb Food Scale,  they acknowledge that the bigger sibling of their favorite smaller scale takes the prize. As Lisa McManus writes, "It's durable, easy to read, and stores away very neatly since it's flat. With this scale in the ring, other models… read more

Which edition of Joy of Cooking is the best?

March 5, 2013 by
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Given the number of members who own a copy of Joy of Cooking (well over 3000), we're assuming that this iconic cookbook needs no introduction. Since it was first published in 1931 by Irma Rombauer, assisted by her daugher Marion Becker, there have been eight editions of Joy, and some have been accepted eagerly and some with controversy. Given how… read more

Buying a cookbook, asking the right questions…

March 5, 2013 by
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So this weekend, I was making a quick visit to Manhattan with my son, and we needed a place to rest our sidewalk-weary feet.  We ended up taking refuge in the Union Sq. Barnes & Noble, as I have done so many times before.  As Noah rode the escalators of the 4-story building, I wondered what the cookbooks section would… read more

The new English diet craze vs. the Mediterranean diet craze

March 4, 2013 by
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It's always fun when themes develop in the food press because they can provide such interesting contrasts. For example, a few days ago, there was a lot of fuss about a new Spanish study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, that claimed the Mediterranean Diet dramatically decreases the chance of heart disease. Lost in the clamor, however, were… read more

Five creative cheese tips

March 3, 2013 by
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Most of us cook with cheese, so tips on managing cheese are always appreciated. Here are five tips from Cook's Illustrated on handling cheese (check out the article for full illustrations): Fit round cheese slices on a square slice of bread by breaking the cheese slices into quarters. Grate and store cheese in one easy step - and keep your… read more

Four beer myths – Is Bud watered down? Does Bud have fewer calories than Guinness? And more…

March 1, 2013 by
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With St. Patrick's Day approaching, our thoughts are turning to beer. In particular, there has recently been a big fuss about Budweiser beer. A recent lawsuit alleged that Budweiser has been watering down its beer to save money. The suit says that the label on a can of Budweiser alleges a 5% alcohol content, when it is actually 4.7%. But… read more

February 2013 cookbook roundup

February 27, 2013 by
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This month we're introducing a new feature to the EYB website - a cookbook roundup. Every month Susie Chang will be reviewing new releases and noting trends. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook." We're arranging for similar roundups like Susie's for books published in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, but until we formally… read more
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