Counting down the top recipes of the year

December 30, 2023 by
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With the end of the year comes retrospection, and food websites are no exception. Every other post in my feeds is a countdown of the most popular or most saved recipes from different websites. I am sharing some of these lists because it's always interesting to see what others are cooking - sometimes inspiration will strike. We'll start off with… read more

Italy by Ingredient, Recipe Kit Box & Class Giveaway

December 30, 2023 by
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Enter our US giveaway below to win an Italy by Ingredient prize package which includes a copy of Italy by Ingredient, a kit from Casa de Case that features one of the recipes from this title and a 1-hour private online class with Viola (date and time to be mutually agreed upon). Italy by Ingredient: Artisanal Foods, Modern Recipes by… read more

What’s going on with butter?

December 28, 2023 by
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Every year since the early 2000s, I have made multiple batches of English toffee to give away during the holidays. For only the second time ever in this time span I encountered total toffee failure: the emulsion split, leaving me with a grainy caramel sitting in pools of fat. I chalked up the outcome to rushing the process and/or stirring… read more

Batali attempts a comeback

December 27, 2023 by
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Back in October, Mario Batali resurfaced on Instagram and hinted at a comeback with a message that said "virtual events coming soon." This week, Batali made good on his announcement, hosting a livestreamed, $50 per person cooking demo last week that featured cacio e pepe and bucatini all' Amatriciana. Batali hosted the show from his home in a tiny Michigan… read more

A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China (But Still Really Chinese) – Cookbook Review & Giveaway

December 27, 2023 by
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Enter our US/CA giveaway below to win one of three copies of A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China (But Still Really Chinese) by Kevin Pang and Jeffrey Pang and America's Test Kitchen. A Very Chinese Cookbook: 100 Recipes from China and Not China (But Still Really Chinese) by Kevin and Jeffrey Pang and America’s Test Kitchen… read more

Chef and author Bill Granger has died at 54

December 26, 2023 by
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Today we learned the sad news that Australian chef, television presenter. and author Bill Granger died on Christmas Day at the far too young age of 54. His family reported that he passed away peacefully, with his wife, Natalie Elliott, and three daughters, Edie, Inès and Bunny, by his side. According to the New Zealand Herald, it is believed that… read more

The surprising history of gingerbread

December 24, 2023 by
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Since food news has been thin this week, I am skipping the usual antipasto and instead featuring a holiday classic: gingerbread, a hallmark of the holiday season. While gingerbread in cookie or cake form traces its ancestry back hundreds of years, decorated gingerbread houses are much more modern, according to a deep dive into the history of gingerbread by Anne… read more

Kitchen product trends for 2024

December 23, 2023 by
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Now that we know the food trends (or lack thereof) for 2024, let's turn our sights to the kitchen product trends. In the past few years we have moved from Instant Pots to air fryers to home composting machines, so what is the next big product on the horizon? Food and Wine makes their predictions on which items are going… read more

The best books of 2023 by the experts

December 22, 2023 by
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Who knows cookbooks better than the owners of specialist cookbook stores? They stock and sell thousands of cookbooks and because their stores are focused on food and drink books, they are true experts. They read the books, cook from them and then share their knowledge with their customers. When shopping for cookbook gifts this holiday season, please think about supporting… read more

2024 food trends: anything, everything, and SPAM

December 21, 2023 by
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After perusing several articles proclaiming to know what the food trends for 2024 will be, I found it amusing that despite millions (perhaps billions) of dollars spent on consumer surveys, AI development, and statistical analysis, the predictions seem to hold as much weight as a restaurant fortune cookie. A prediction of "personalized tastes, global cuisines, as well as nostalgia and… read more

December 2023 New Cookbook Review

December 21, 2023 by
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December has arrived and is nearly vanished. This month's books are few in number with many related to health and weight loss which is typically what we see in January as well. Recently, I published the preliminary 2024 Cookbook Preview and don’t forget that you can create a wishlist and share it with your loved ones. Our December 2023 EYB Cookbook Club Summary and January… read more

Keep that fancy wine out of the fridge, say experts

December 20, 2023 by
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Because most of us don't have the space or money to install a dedicated wine cellar, we resort to storing at least some of the wine we buy in a refrigerator. If the fridge is one meant to store wine that's okay, but if you just popping the bottles into your regular refrigerator, you could be harming the wine, says… read more

The Curry Guy One Pot – Cookbook Giveaway

December 18, 2023 by
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Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Curry Guy One Pot: Over 150 Curries and Other Deliciously Spiced Dishes from Around the World by Dan Toombs. Curry Guy One Pot: Over 150 Curries and Other Deliciously Spiced Dishes from Around the World by Dan Toombs pulls together over 150 recipes from a lifetime of global travels, spending… read more

Food news antipasto

December 17, 2023 by
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Fans of Mark Bittman probably already know this, but he has moved The Bittman Project from Substack to a new website. The site houses a new, recipe archive that offers searching and notes features (although far from as robust as what we have on EYB). Bittman promises that "what's now a database of almost 400 recipes will soon be thousands." We… read more

How important is the tablescape to your holiday dinner?

December 15, 2023 by
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Holiday meals when I was a child included a cacophony of conversation, crowded tables, mismatched chairs and silverware, and a gluttonous amount of food set amidst a halo of cigarette smoke. If the table contained decorations, none of them were memorable enough to recall, although I doubt there was room for anything among the bowls piled high with goose, ham,… read more

December 2023 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

December 14, 2023 by
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Each month we offer at least four cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. This month we cooked from: Cookbook: Milk Street Simple or Any Milk Street Kitchen cookbook or Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to Warm the Soul by Diana HenryOnline: Any Milk Street kitchen online recipe or any Diana Henry online recipeBaking: Any holiday baking – share a photo and where the recipe is from.Veg Option:… read more

Sizing up ingredients

December 14, 2023 by
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A thread on the EYB Member Forum about differences between metric and Imperial measures got me thinking about how recipe writers (along with editors and publishers) treat the measurement of ingredients. I do a lot of baking and have appreciated the trend to include weights in recipes because it leads to more consistent results. I understand, however, that some editors… read more

Savoring every bite

December 12, 2023 by
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You would expect someone who has hundreds of cookbooks and writes about food nearly every day to linger over meals, relishing each and every bite of food, reveling in the joys of wonderful kitchen aromas, and generally enjoying food to the max. I fit the first part of the description but not the last. Many times dinner is a bowl… read more

January 2024 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary

December 12, 2023 by
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As our members know, each month we offer several cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. There are other fun cookbook clubs around the interwebs and we’d like to highlight those for those members who might want to cook or bake something other than our choices.  We want to get this information out to you so you can prepare… read more

Food news antipasto

December 10, 2023 by
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'Tis the season to make lists. Vice brings us its list of the best cookbooks of 2023, The Guardian's Rachel Roddy chimes in with her picks for the top five food books of the year, and food writer and chef Kathy Gunst weighs in on her choices for the three best cookbooks released in 2023 (with recipes from each). The… read more

DIY holiday gifts

December 10, 2023 by
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Every year my holiday wish list gets smaller but my holiday treats list grows. I love making cookies, candies, pickles, condiments, and other handmade items for friends and family. I am not alone in this sentiment – for avid cooks and bakers, creating unique and delicious food is cathartic and rewarding in itself, but sharing these treats with others is… read more

Which came first, the chicken or the recipe?

December 8, 2023 by
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There are two types of people in this world: those who go grocery shopping armed with a meticulously developed list because they have all their meals for the next week perfectly planned, and those who shop based on sales, whims, and random thoughts, who have no idea what they are making for their next meal, let alone the rest of… read more

Croatian Savoury Baking Cookbook Giveaway

December 8, 2023 by
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Enter our worldwide giveaway to win a copy of Croatian Savoury Baking: 50 Traditional Recipes for Bread, Burek, Pies and Pastries by Andrea Pisac. Croatian Savoury Baking: 50 Traditional Recipes for Bread, Burek, Pies and Pastries by Andrea Pisac, the author of Croatian Desserts: 50 Authentic Recipes to Make at Home, (see review of latter title) and Croatian Classics: 100 Savoury Dishes to… read more

The Hanukkah latke story

December 7, 2023 by
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Tonight is the first night of Hanukkah, which continues to December 15. Fried foods feature prominently in Hanukkah celebrations, and potato latkes are popular expressions of the tradition. They are one of the foods that represent the Hanukkah miracle where a one-day supply of oil to light the menorah miraculously lasted eight days. Potato latkes from Taste of Home Magazine… read more

What’s in that supermarket sourdough?

December 6, 2023 by
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When you purchase a loaf of sourdough bread at the grocery store, are you sure that is actually what you are getting? It might be labeled as sourdough, but apparently that may be a misnomer, at least according to the folks at the Real Bread Campaign. They have been campaigning to get major retailers such as Lidl to rename their… read more
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