Food news antipasto

As we enter peak holiday baking season, even people who don’t bake a lot will be firing up their ovens to make the festive cookies, cakes, and pies of the season. This will involve copious amounts of butter, flour, eggs, and sugar. The last ingredient comes in many different forms, including granulated, powdered, various shades of brown, and even as corn syrup. If you’re new to baking and want to learn more about the various types of sugar – including invert sugar and fondant sugar – head over to Baking Innovation, which has a primer on the 7 basic types of sugar, and their applications.

Speaking of baked goods, plenty of us will be preparing care packages of goodies to send to friends and family who we won’t be able to visit in person. Packaging cookies, bars, and cakes so that they arrive fresh and intact takes care, and Epicurious is here to help ensure the delivery goes as planned.

I have a small collection of vintage waffle irons, both electric ones and the kind you use on the stovetop. This means I’m always on the lookout for a good twist on the classic. Having waffle irons that are over 100 years old got me wondering about the history of waffles, and then serendipity took over as I spied an article about that very subject over at Gastro Obscura. Did you know that the first known waffle recipe dates to 1393? The article contains that interesting tidbit plus other fascinating history.

At the end of each year, Google does a ‘year in search’, listing the biggest trends in searches for many categories, one of which is recipes. This is not a “top search” ranking, because Google is looking for items that had the most growth year over year, so some items that are perennially popular don’t make the cut. Topping the list of trending recipe searches, was sugo, a tomato-based pasta sauce typically made with tomatoes, basil, olive oil, onions, and garlic. Other recipes that spurred users to search for them included were Cincinnati chili, mango pie, marry me chicken, and The Bear spaghetti.

Chef Fergus Henderson, known for promoting ‘head to tail’ cooking, has a lot of opinions about food. He recently shared many of them with The Guardian, discussing his favorite childhood foods, his most memorable dining experience, one thing he hates to eat, and spouting off about food trends, which he despises. “The idea of trends in food is tragic – by their very nature they are impermanent, elevating bad foods where they don’t deserve it or consigning good foods to history,” he says, noting that “good food should be permanent.”

The egg is more than just a kitchen staple, it is a symbol of fertility, hope, purity, and the circle of life. A new collaboration between Taschen and The Gourmand celebrates the link between food and culture in a visual and literary exploration of this powerful symbol.  The Gourmand’s Egg: A Collection of Stories and Recipes contains original essays, ‘archetype’ recipes, and is filled with illustrations from acclaimed still-life photographers, plus images of works from renowned artists like Salvador Dalí and Frida Kahlo.