And the $1,000,000 recipe winner is…

® The annual Pillsbury Bake Off® - which long ago stopped involving just baked goods - just announced its 2013 winners - awarding $1,000,000 to the winning recipe. We always think it's interesting to see what wins. This year, the winner is an appetizer, Loaded Potato Pinwheels: "Loaded Potato Pinwheels are a great, versatile appetizer," said Jann Atkins, Bake-Off Kitchens Manager.… read more

The new simple.

It's not like "simple" is new.  Cookbook authors have been touting the ease and speed of their authors presumably for as long as there have been cookbooks.  But these days, I get the sense that ease and speed are a means, more than an end. By that, I mean that "simple" has become an aesthetic. Maybe it all started with… read more

Is one type of cinnamon really better than the other? Plus 263 ways to use it

If you had to choose one spice to be associated with the holidays, it would have to be cinnamon. From pies to squash to drinks to candles, it's omnipresent. So we thought we'd highlight some recent articles that add a bit to our common knowledge, or possibly our common confusion. On Epicurious, we have True Cinnamon, which explains that there… read more

Do you judge people by what they’re eating?

In their article, Why do we judge people by the food they eat?, The Guardian provided some interesting material to think about. In particular, the idea of food profiling struck a chord. Back in the day (way back in the day) if someone ate muesli, they were immediately identified as a counter-revolutionary hippie - ditto for brown rice, soy beans, and… read more

Buy 1 EYB Gift Voucher get 1 Free!

Limited time only We think that you deserve a break this holiday season so the team here at Eat Your Books have been whipping up a little treat for you!   Buy your gift certificate before November 30th and you'll be in the drawing to win Nathan Myhrvold's fabulous new book, The Photography of Modernist Cuisine. Valued at $120, your… read more

Take 50,000 recipes and derive 25 amazing facts

Before we get to our regularly scheduled content, we wanted to announce a special holiday treat from EYB: Buy 1 EYB Gift Voucher, and Get 1 Free! Plus you'll be in the drawing to win Nathan Myhrvold's fabulous new book, The Photography of Modernist Cuisine.  Check out all the details here. _________________________________________________________________________ Whenever Wired  tackles food-related items, it's always fascinating, and… read more

For your consideration – a list of the 25 best food memoirs

Now is the time we're all compiling lists of books to request for the holidays, so I wanted to post this list from Grub Street  of The Top 25 Must-Read Food Memoirs of All Time for your consideration. No cookbooks here, and only one book per author, but still intriguing. Here's their criteria: "The list itself is comprised of picks… read more

EYB member wins world record!

You may remember a post in our new feature My and My Cookbooks where Sue Jimenez, EYB member  Manycookbooks shared details of her collection.  She mentioned that she was applying to the Guinness Book of Records for the Largest Collection of Cookbooks in the USA/Canada.  Well, she did it!  You can see the  details on the Guinness site.  Sue also posted about it … read more

Why microwaving kale, carrots, or other vegies can create sparks

We're going into the holiday season, so it's nice to have a collection of healthy, quick snacks and appetizers to go along with the more traditional ones. And kale chips definitely fit the bill. However, making kale chips in the oven can be tricky as they either never dry out or can burn - in any event, they take an… read more

Comparing 8 famous roast chickens to determine the tastiest bird

Personally, I would die a happy person if the Zuni Cafe's Roast Chicken was my last meal. However, I do know people who swear by Thomas Keller's and Julia Child's versions. So I was really excited to read about the great roast chicken cookoff that BuzzFeedFood just ran. Essentially, they took 8 famous roast chickens and had them compete in… read more

Saying farewell to Charlie Trotter

Charlie Trotter, who passed away today, was one of those chefs that everybody had on their bucket list. Those who ate what he cooked were lucky and could always recall their meal in detail; those who never had the opportunity regretted the lost opportunity. We're honoring his impact on the food world by noting two different items. First, his legacy,… read more

Make way for chocolate!

It's been a while since we saw much in the way of serious chocolate books. For a while, the same chocolate book seemed to be published over and over: an introduction featuring the history of cacao's discovery and complicated processing and manufacturing, followed by well-photographed recipes of more-or-less average quality. But this year's books are, without question, distinct from both… read more

The Thanksgivvukah face-off: The two final recipes

Last month, we announced that two of our favorite online food sites were entering into a culinary joust to create recipes for the unique holiday of Thanksgivvukah (see our blog description if you're in the dark about this holiday). Food52 challenged Serious Eats  to come up with the ultimate Thanksgivvukah recipe. Both sides responded and the two final recipes have just been announced - they're creative… read more

John Besh describes the unique touches in his 10 signature dishes

We have a special soft spot in our culinary hearts for New Orleans cuisine - and we've found John Besh to be a worthy successor to such illustrious forces as Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse. So his essay from In First We Feast, The 10 Dishes That Made My Career, struck us as a worthy read. After all, there aren't many… read more

Converting a recipe to a slow cooker

Food52 recently published a useful article on how to change a recipe so that it can be made in a slow cooker. Here are some of the areas the article discusses - you can read the entire list and further description at How to Adapt Recipes to a Slow Cooker: Determine size of your slow cooker See if it has… read more

Five essentials and 50 foods for sensual home cooking

When you've been around the food world for awhile, you discover some less-publicized but strongly admired food authors. Certainly not as famous as Alice Waters or Rachael Ray, these are authors who publish newsletters or write books not so much for the fame or money, but to please themselves and as an outlet for their food-related passions. Their publications are… read more

EYB survey: Read our results

In a recent survey we asked you to tell us what you thought of Eat Your Books and how you used it - we were delighted with the number that responded. It's your feedback and support that will help us continue to improve the site. We wanted to share with you some of the responses. How you heard about EYB:… read more

October 2013 Cookbook Roundup

Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends in the United States. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook."    And for our non-U.S. members, Jane and Fiona provide similar reviews for new U.K., Australia, and New Zealand releases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- United States: The fall onslaught continues, with publishers releasing one would-be hit… read more

The Thanksgivvukah face-off: Food 52 vs. Serious Eats

  Two of our favorite online food sites are potentially entering into quite a culinary joust. To create recipes for the unique holiday of Thanksgivvukah (see our blog description if you're in the dark about this holiday), Food52 has challenged Serious Eats  to come up with the ultimate Thanksgivvukah recipe. The Food 52 campaign: In asking their members to help, Food… read more

Me and my cookbooks – October 2013

We're hearing from a lot of you that you've enjoyed meeting some of our EYB members through our Me and my Cookbooks Monthly feature. We'd love to introduce as many as we can -  If you'd like to be featured, just email us at info@eatyourbooks.com. Our featured EYB member this month is Sandra Thorman (EYB member sandyt1408). Sandra is from Australia,… read more

What’s a winter cookbook?

The summer cookbook has always been a pretty identifiable creature: cocktails, grilling, entertaining, the odd picnic or camping book.  But although you could argue that people enjoy cooking more in cold weather, I've never been specifically sure what a winter cookbook should look like.  There are, of course, dozens of slow cooker cookbooks, but a lot of them seem -… read more

Unearthing Halloween Inspiration

With Halloween coming on Thursday, we thought we'd help out anyone looking for different ideas. We have over 150 pins on our Halloween Pinterest board   -  unique recipes all gathered in one convenient location. And there aren't just sweets -  savory ideas are included as well  (including the Pumpkin cheese ball, with over 50 repins) and an especially strong selection… read more

New publishing trend: Cookbooks with impossible recipes to execute

  The Telegraph recently issued a bit of a diatribe against Heston Blumethal's new book, Historic Heston. In the article, Heston Blumenthal's new book: These faux cookbooks leave me simmering, they write, "The book itself is beautifully designed, bound, slip-cased and illustrated. As must be evident, you can't really use it to cook from at home. Not only is the domestic… read more

Martha and the bloggers

There's been a lot of fuss in the food blogosphere recently which can be summed up as the story of Martha and the bloggers. It is not about a new singing group (though that is a great name) but about an interview Martha Stewart gave to Bloomberg TV in which she is quoted as saying about bloggers, ""They're not trained… read more

Chip flavors have now truly jumped the shark

As something of a purist when it comes to chips, it's been a little difficult looking down the snack aisle in the grocery store and seeing bag after bag of weirder and weirder flavors (chicken and waffle chips? ) But now it appears that even those flavors have become too dull and common. According to The Daily Meal, Pringles now… read more
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