In praise of the microwave

February 16, 2022 by
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Avid home cooks eagerly embrace the latest technology: think sous vide, air fryers, and Instant Pots. You can't swing a stick on Facebook without running into a group posting recipes for one of those popular appliances. What you don't see, however, are groups singing the praises of the humble microwave, which is often dismissed by serious cooks. That's too bad,… read more

Red velvet: is it time to move on?

February 14, 2022 by
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With its vivid coloring, red velvet cake is often the top choice for a Valentine's Day dessert. The cake - once a relatively obscure Southern specialty - rose to prominence in the late 90s and soon 'red velvet' found its way into a host of other foods from bagels to cinnamon rolls. The phrase become "secondhand for luxury, decadence, and… read more

Food news antipasto

February 13, 2022 by
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Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. If you are not the type to plan ahead, don't worry, we have your back. Good Food (Aus) has 22 last-minute Valentine's recipes that are simple yet impressive. Likewise, The Guardian features a bevy of recipes that are sure to impress. One of my favorite food shows of the late 90s/early 00s was Two Fat Ladies.… read more

André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2021 Shortlist

February 11, 2022 by
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And just like that, it's cookbook award season, with the announcement of the shortlist of the André Simon Food and Drink Book Awards 2021. Simon was the charismatic leader of the English wine trade for almost all of the first half of the 20th century, and the grand old man of literate connoisseurship for a further 20 years. In 66 years… read more

On saving a restaurant

February 10, 2022 by
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Over the past two years we have written many stories that involved the pandemic: the Dalgona coffee craze, the spike in sourdough baking, the effects of lockdown cooking fatigue, and more. We also covered the struggles facing restaurants around the world. Most of those articles involved grim statistics and were written from a detached, industry-wide viewpoint. When reading abstract numbers… read more

Celebrate National Pizza Day

February 9, 2022 by
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This one almost slipped by me, but once I saw that it was National Pizza Day I could not let it go unmentioned. Pizza, after all, was what got me through my college years - literally, because I worked my way through school at two different pizza joints. In my heyday, I could toss pizza dough with flair, although enough… read more

How much do you know about flour?

February 7, 2022 by
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Even if you are not an avid baker, you probably have a bag of flour in your cupboard. Until the pandemic turned us all into sourdough fanatics and supermarket shelves were swept bare, few people gave a second thought to this ubiquitous pantry staple. While we understand that flour is the product of milling wheat, how much do we really… read more

Food news antipasto

February 6, 2022 by
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The next time you sit down to drink a refreshing Pimm's Cup or cool and soothing martini, you should take a moment to thank the people who invented cocktails. The history of this craft is murky, but David Wondrich (author of the amazing Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails) dives deep into lore and vintage newspaper clippings alike to unearth… read more

Get ready for SuperBowl Sunday

February 5, 2022 by
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In just over a week, the larges sporting event in the United States will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, as the Cincinnati Bengals face off against the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI. Not only is Super Bowl Sunday an important day for sports fans, it’s also the second biggest food event in the nation behind Thanksgiving. Watching… read more

Save on an e-book bundle and support a charity

February 3, 2022 by
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I just discovered a great deal on a bundle of amazing e-books that has the bonus of raising money for two deserving charities. The Humble Book Bundle features 30 great books from Chronicle, including Season by Nik Sharma, American Sfoglino by Evan Funke (winner of a James Beard Award for photography), Flour by Joanne Chang, Ruhlman's Twenty by Michael Ruhlman,… read more

Epicurious installs a paywall

February 2, 2022 by
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We have just learned that the Epicurious website (a Condé Nast venture), which hosts recipe archives from the late Gourmet Magazine as well as Bon Appétit Magazine, has put up a paywall for all of the site's recipes. Epicurious is offering access to recipes for an introductory rate of $30 USD per year, with the rate going to $40/year thereafter. It… read more

Which food phrases or words would you like to see gone?

January 31, 2022 by
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The New York Times Kim Severson recently tweeted a provocative question: asking which food writing words and phrases people would like to ban. She started with calling a restaurant an eatery (I'm guilty of that one) and calling vegetables 'veggies' (which I avoid doing). Several other food writers chimed in with words they would like to see disappear. David Wondrich… read more

Food news antipasto

January 30, 2022 by
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Last week Jenny compiled yet another amazing gift guide, this time for Valentine's Day. In the spirit of fairness, I am going to post a gift guide from another source, Epicurious. They gathered a list of 27 "actually good" gifts for cooks instead of the same old, same old things like flowers or lingerie. Jenny's guide is arguably better not… read more

Building a barbecue trail

January 29, 2022 by
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The Southern Foodways Alliance has long been an important resource for chronicling the diverse food cultures of the American South. It has assembled oral histories on different topics that function as a culinary map for food lovers. Two of these projects, which can be accessed through the Alliance's free app, SFA Stories, are the tamale trail in the Mississippi Delta and… read more

What’s your cooking phobia?

January 26, 2022 by
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Even the most intrepid cooks have a dish or two that strikes fear in their hearts. For some it's pie crust, for others it's certain cuts of meat, or it could be a kitchen tool that terrifies them. Whether it's due to past failures, injuries, or just a deep-seated fear of disappointing dinner guests, most cooks have a dish that… read more

Celebrate Burns Night with these foods

January 24, 2022 by
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While we can't possibly post about each and every celebratory food day, some occasions do call for recognition. One of these is Burns Night, which honors the January 25 birthday of revered Scottish poet Robert Burns. (It's also the day before my birthday so I have extra reason to celebrate my fellow Aquarian.) Delicious Magazine (UK) recently posted their perfect… read more

Food news antipasto

January 23, 2022 by
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In 2021, Kay Featherstone and Kate Allinson's Pinch of Nom Comfort Food was a runaway bestseller, and remains in the #1 position on Amazon UK's sales chart for nonfiction books. In general, cookbook sales are still going strong worldwide, but the distribution of sales is uneven, at best. According to The Sunday Times (possible paywall), while some books like the… read more

All about 00 flour

January 20, 2022 by
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"It's all about the grind, not the grain." That's what the founders of an artisanal grain mill near me have to say about their products, and it's also a partial answer to the question "what, exactly, is 00 flour?" Renowned chef Alice Waters tackles this question over at MasterClass, regaling us with the ins and outs of this Italian flour.… read more

Get ready to celebrate the year of the tiger

January 19, 2022 by
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February 2 ushers in the Chinese New Year as well as new year's celebrations in other Asian countries including Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Chinese calendar is a lunar/solar calendar and other names for this festival – the most important in the Chinese calendar – are the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival. The celebration begins on the… read more

How much attention do you pay to food awards?

January 17, 2022 by
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The shelves in large supermarkets carry dizzying arrays of products. The hot sauce selection at the modestly-sized grocery store in my medium sized town takes up several feet of shelf space containing dozens of varieties, and the jams and preserves span an even larger area. Trying to decide which item to buy can be a time-consuming exercise. To simplify things,… read more

Food news antipasto

January 16, 2022 by
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Another free online cookbook landed in my inbox this week, this time from Rancho Gordo, the West Coast bean purveyor who has changed the game when it comes to legumes. The short cookbook - really more like a pamphlet - is by Jill Nussinow, a culinary educator, registered dietician, and self-described "bad blogger." Best Caesar from Canadian Living As the… read more

Ready, set, organize!

January 15, 2022 by
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A couple of weeks ago I said that one of my goals for the new year was to organize my (still not finished) new kitchen and pantry. Epicurious must have been paying attention, because they recently published a comprehensive guide on how to organize your kitchen. This feature has segments for creating cooking stations, tips from experts, the best way… read more

Getting credit for the recipe

January 13, 2022 by
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The origins of recipes are often murky at best - think pasta carbonara and the $250 Neiman Marcus cookie - and eerily similar recipes pop up from cookbook to cookbook with little or no explanation of the recipe's history. The issue of recipe plagiarism aside, the concept of who should get credit for a decades-old recipe that has been shared… read more

Tips on food photography

January 12, 2022 by
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We like to encourage our Members to submit photographs of the food they make to accompany the recipes in the EYB Library, but we understand that some people might be hesitant to add photos because they feel like they aren't good enough. We want you to banish those thoughts, because even imperfect shots can add a lot of context to… read more

Do you have what it takes to make the Queen’s pudding?

January 10, 2022 by
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Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning British monarch, is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee this year. Numerous celebrations will take place to mark the occasion, and to coincide with the summer's festivities, the royals - in partnership with Fortnum & Mason - are asking citizens to create a special pudding in honor of the anniversary. Summer berry pudding with vanilla fromage frais… read more
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