Reference vs. selection in cookbooks

July 8, 2014 by
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Today, I opened a book package and found a square-formatted paperback entitled, simply, Shake.  Without looking at the title, the flap, the press release, or the back cover, I started thumbing through the pages (sometimes I just plunge in cold like that, to avoid any preconceptions I might get from the marketing). "That's odd," I thought to myself.  There was something… read more

Unripe and ready

July 7, 2014 by
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Everyone awaits the first tomato of summer with eager anticipation. The same holds true for most fruits and vegetables, but toward the end of the season one often encounters a glut of produce that must be harvested before a frost hits or before the heat wilts the plants, even though the fruits may not yet be ready. Over the years,… read more

Andy Ricker’s top 10

July 6, 2014 by
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Pok Pok by Andy Ricker is a popular and highly-rated book among EYB members. Now Ricker's fans can learn more about the dishes that inspired his career in this First We Feast interview. A native of Vermont, Ricker started cooking at a young age. But it wasn't until he opened Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon that his popularity soared. He… read more

The power of three

July 5, 2014 by
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What flavors define a cuisine? Given the nearly endless array of possible herbs, spices and other flavoring agents, one might think it impossible to distill the essentials of a cuisine to only a handful of ingredients. But as FoodBeast reports, the folks at DataDial have attempted to do just that. They've created an infographic that lists the three essential "spices"… read more

How sweet it is

July 4, 2014 by
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While hot tea may be associated with English tradition, iced tea is closely linked to Southern hospitality. In restaurants across the Southern U.S., iced tea (almost always served sweetened) is revered. The importance of the beverage to the South can be summed up by a quote from the movie Steel Magnolias: Dolly Parton's character calls sweet tea "the house wine… read more

Featured Cookbooks & Recipes

July 3, 2014 by
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Whether they are from cookbooks, magazines, or blogs, all the recipes we feature in these weekly round-ups have online links so you can add any of them to your Bookshelf. Even if you have a free membership! But the recipes shown here are just the beginning. The EYB Library has over 143,000 online recipes to choose from including over 21,000… read more

History to chew on

July 3, 2014 by
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When people think of Vietnamese food, one of the first things that comes to mind is banh mi. While many people love these sandwiches, they may only know a smidgen of the history behind them. Lucky for us, Andrea Nguyen knows the fascinating history of the sandwich that inspired her latest cookbook, The Banh Mi Handbook. (You can enter our… read more

Cookbook giveaway – The Banh Mi Handbook

July 3, 2014 by
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Andrea Nguyen, cookbook author and contributing editor at Saveur, has penned a new book celebrating banh mi, the Vietnamese sandwich that owes its unique combination of flavors and textures to the influences of several cultures. (You can learn more about the history of banh mi in our author article.) The Banh Mi Handbook offers over 50 recipes for everything from… read more

Buckle, Betty, and boy bait: learn all about cobbler-like desserts

July 2, 2014 by
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What do grunts, slumps, pandowdys, buckles, and Bettys all have in common? They are all colorful regional names for baked fruit and dough creations, sometimes put in the category of "cobbler-like" desserts. (Not to be confused with cobblers that are drinks.) If you have a hard time telling these various treats apart, indexed blog Serious Eats offers an in-depth guide to these desserts. While… read more

Summer on a stick

July 1, 2014 by
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Something about summer just calls for food on a stick. Maybe it's all of the fairs and festivals that try to outdo each other in novelty foods: deep fried butter on a stick and hot dish on a stick. Or perhaps it's because we spend a lot of time cooking and eating outdoors and want to minimize the use of… read more

What’s an hour worth?

July 1, 2014 by
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It's summer here in the northern hemisphere, and the days are long.  Well, they may not actually be longer - most of us are still awake roughly 16 hours of the day - but they feel longer because the sun's with us for so much of that time.  It feels like there's plenty of time for interesting projects and creative endeavors.  It… read more

Cast party

June 30, 2014 by
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Those of us who have a well-seasoned cast iron skillet likely use it frequently. There are many reasons to love a cast iron pan, which is good news for Lodge, the Tennessee company which is the last American cast iron cookware company. They've outlasted their U.S. competitors and have seen an increase in demand for their cookware that they can't… read more

Spuds slump

June 29, 2014 by
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Potatoes are losing popularity as other starches, such as rice, become more favored (and presumably as many people cut out carbs from their diets). The Guardian reports that potato sales in England are down "by more than 8% during the past year as shoppers opted for alternatives." It's interesting to note that this doesn't seem to reflect a conscious decision… read more

The trick to making great sorbet

June 28, 2014 by
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Sorbets are wonderful: they are simple to make, can meet almost everyone's dietary requirements, and there are hundreds of flavor options available. They can be fickle, however: too much sugar and they become a soupy mess, too little sugar and they will turn out icy and hard. So how can you tell if a recipe has the right amount of… read more

Featured Cookbooks & Recipes

June 27, 2014 by
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Whether they are from cookbooks, magazines, or blogs, all the recipes we feature in these weekly round-ups have online links so you can add any of them to your Bookshelf. Even if you have a free membership! But the recipes shown here are just the beginning. The EYB Library has over 142,000 online recipes to choose from including over 21,000… read more

The science of food has never looked this good

June 27, 2014 by
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Have you ever wondered why chocolate is bad for dogs or how grapefruit interacts with drugs? Perhaps you thought the science behind these answers would be boring and complex. Andy Brunning, a chemistry teacher from the U.K., plans to change your mind. He has developed simple visual charts that provide these answers and more, as reported today by NPR. As you… read more

Become a cheese whiz

June 26, 2014 by
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Parmagiano Reggiano. Emmenthaler Swiss. Aged sharp cheddar. All of these delicious treats are hard cheeses, yet they all taste very different from one another. Why is that? Serious Eats has the answers in an article that explains the mysteries of hard cheese flavors. Different processing methods combined with unique aging procedures and times are the keys to each cheese's flavor. There are different… read more

Cookbook giveaway – The Great New Zealand Cookbook

June 25, 2014 by
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Eighty of New Zealand's finest cooks, chefs and bakers have contributed over 200 recipes to The Great New Zealand Cookbook, a wonderful celebration of New Zealand's ethnic diversity and fresh local produce. Peter Gordon, Josh Emett and Lauraine Jacobs let us into their homes and their hearts as they share their favourite recipes they make for people they love. Each… read more

Enter to win a free Lifetime Membership!

June 25, 2014 by
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Eat Your Books is a unique way to search for recipes across your entire collection all in one place -- cookbooks, magazines, blogs, online recipes, & personal recipes can all be added to your Bookshelf. Thousands of EYB members are discovering new recipes they didn't know they owned. Help spread the word and win a Lifetime Membership by entering our… read more

June 2014 cookbook roundup

June 24, 2014 by
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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 Canada, U.K., Australia, and New Zealand releases. US Continuing the indulgent trend we saw in last month's list, June's… read more

To market, to market!

June 24, 2014 by
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Shopping at the farmers' market isn't like shopping anywhere else.  You have a sense of what will be there, but you can't be sure that what you want will still be available.  Or you might make an impulse purchase.  You could arrive with a list that says rhubarb, fingerlings and baby beets and you'll leave with none of those -… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Eating with the Chefs

June 23, 2014 by
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Per-Anders Jorgensen is a photographer, and Co-Editor in Chief (and founder, together with his wife Lotta Jorgensen, who also is the Art Director) of Fool Magazine, a culinary publication that is billed as "food, insanity, brilliance, and love." The inspiration for the magazine's name is a combination of the words food and foolishness. As Jorgensen says, "You realize working in this world that… read more

Healthy food porn?

June 22, 2014 by
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It seems that only yesterday Jamie Oliver was scooting around London on The Naked Chef. But now he's not just a TV chef or cookbook author (incidentally, at the top of the EYB Library), but sits at the heart of an empire with over 8,000 employees. His latest focus is on his YouTube channel, FoodTube. The Observer explores Oliver's ambitious… read more

Everything’s better with butter

June 21, 2014 by
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Butter is back. From gracing the cover of Time Magazine to starting new crazes (getting whipped into coffee), butter has returned to glory, overcoming its former reputation as one of the "bad fats." Now indexed magazine Food & Wine sings the praises of butter with five unexpected foods we should be buttering. The first item on Food & Wine's list… read more

The best place to store every type of flour

June 20, 2014 by
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Once upon a time, flour wasn't fancy. Maybe two or three types graced the shelves of small, neighborhood grocery stores. But now, you can find flours from every grain, nut, and legume imaginable. It's great to have this kind of variety, but it rasies the question: do different flours require different storage solutions? The answer is yes, and indexed blog… read more
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