Caramel knowledge

April 5, 2014 by
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As we've discussed before, there is a "food holiday" nearly every day of the year, especially in the U.S. Today's holiday bears mention because it celebrates caramel, that fantastic transformation of a nondescription pantry staple into an exotic treat. Caramel has been part of the cooking lexicon since medieval times, if not before, and with good reason. The dark and… read more

Amazing amari

March 30, 2014 by
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Until fairly recently, only dedicated cocktail enthusiasts, or perhaps those who had traveled to Italy, knew much about amari, bittersweet herbal liqueurs often served as an aperitif. If you did know an amaro, it was probably the popular Campari, one of the keys to the Negroni cocktail. But lately, amari of all types have exploded onto the cocktail scene. And,… read more

Extreme Makeover: fruit edition

March 26, 2014 by
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The kiwifruit is an iconic symbol of New Zealand as well as an important export for the country. But some people think the exotic fruit is held back from greater success by its furry brown wrapping. The most popular fruits in the world are very convenient to transport and consume: think bananas, apples, and grapes. So scientists in New Zealand, sponsored by taxpayer… read more

Chocolate for breakfast

March 21, 2014 by
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Eating chocolate for breakfast is both decadent and delicious. Better yet: it may even be good for you. Fine Cooking just tweeted the delicious chocolate-hazelnut waffles with a Frangelico-brown butter syrup pictured above. But that is far from the only breakfast food you can find that prominently features chocolate. Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking adds beer to the equation with… read more

Down the rabbit hole

March 19, 2014 by
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When you first learn to cook, it's exciting to learn how to make from scratch things that you used to buy ready-made. It begins with simple items like chicken stock and hummus, and quickly progresses to pie crusts, cakes, and bread. You branch out to dairy, starting with yogurt and crème fraiche and graduating to cheese. Channeling your forebears, you learn… read more

Happy Pi(e) Day!

March 14, 2014 by
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Today is the perfect day for bakers to celebrate both pi (the mathematical constant) and pie (the tasty food with endless variants both savory and sweet) because of the natural synergy between the two. Bakers use pi when scaling pie and cake recipes to determine the proper pan size, and of course bakers love to make pies, whether filled with… read more

Ready, set, breakfast!

March 10, 2014 by
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Over at The Kitchn they're discussing must-haves to keep at your desk for emergency lunches. I was glad to see the shout-out for nut butter: a jar of peanut butter lives in my desk drawer for just such situations. I would add tuna pouches to their list. But even if I have last-minute lunches well in hand, I continually struggle… read more

Creating the next “it” food

March 6, 2014 by
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In 2013, the cronut hit the NYC food scene like the Beatles descending on the States in 1964. People waited in line for hours to sample this hybrid croissant/donut, the brainchild of Chef Dominique Ansel. The sensation even resulted in cronuts being scalped on Craigslist and, as one might expect, spawned a host of imitators. In this age of internet… read more

Et tu, bratwurst?

March 5, 2014 by
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It seems that every other week a new report is published on what foods are good or bad for you. Often, these reports conflict with earlier research. First coffee is bad, then it is good, and so it goes with other products. It's enough to drive a food lover crazy. Now the culprits seem to be meat and cheese: a… read more

Pro Pho

March 4, 2014 by
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  Difficult for many people to pronounce--is it fuh? foe? (find the answer here), pho is a dish that defines a country. Even though Vietnamese cooking is varied and complex, pho is probably the food most familiar to foreigners. I fondly recall my first bowl of pho, slurped at a cozy neighborhood restaurant in Seattle. The aromatic broth combined with a dizzying… read more

Sizing up the situation

March 3, 2014 by
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 Over at Food52, award-winning cookbook author Alice Medrich is dishing out excellent advice on using a kitchen scale instead of measuring cups. Ms. Medrich points out the obvious advantages that weighing is faster, easier, and less messy than using measuring cups. It can turn a complicated cake recipe into a one-bowl affair. While using a scale returns the biggest benefits in… read more

When good wine goes bad

March 2, 2014 by
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Sometimes it's difficult to know if the wine you bought is really bad, or if it started out good but became flawed. This recently happened to me when I was celebrating with colleagues at an Italian restaurant. Because I mentioned that I was a fan of Italian reds, I was given the assignment of ordering the wine. I'm no oenophile,… read more

Scene stealers

March 1, 2014 by
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The Oscars are tomorrow, which provides the perfect opportunity to wax nostalgic about our favorite movie scenes involving food. Leite's Culinaria solicited readers to share their favorite or most memorable movie food scenes. Not surprisingly, movies like Babette's Feast, Julie and Julia, Big Night, Chocolat, and Eat Drink Man Woman were frequently mentioned. Even though these food movies are great,… read more

The core of the matter

February 28, 2014 by
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Ben & Jerry's new ice cream flavors created a lot of buzz this week. Ever wanted two ice cream flavors and a swirl in one convenient container? Well, your dreams have now become a reality with Ben & Jerry's Cores. While E! online claims that Ben and Jerry's has "changed the ice cream game forever," I'm not convinced this is… read more

Curds and whey

February 24, 2014 by
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It's a good thing I am not lactose intolerant, because I have been on a dairy kick recently. First it was cultured butter, and now it's homemade ricotta cheese. It amazes me that something this simple can produce such fantastic results. Two of my more recent cookbook purchases have been Home Cheese Making: Recipes for 75 Homemade Cheeses by Ricki… read more

The past is a foreign kitchen

February 23, 2014 by
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Recently The Australian held a contest to find the worst recipes. This search was inspired by food columnist John Lethlean after he discovered a recipe for lamb salad soufflé with lime jelly crystals and mayonnaise in the 1971 New Zealand Women's Weekly Cookbook. To make the soufflé, "First, you dissolve your jelly crystals, lime or lemon; then you stir in… read more

Every day is a celebration

February 22, 2014 by
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Today is National Margarita Day in the United States. This is, of course, not an official holiday, but a quick Google search turns up a plethora of similar food celebration days in the US and the UK. (My search for specific UK food holidays was hampered by the different use of the word holiday in these countries. I guess the… read more

Inconvenient truths

February 20, 2014 by
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Since I grew up in an agricultural area and spent a lot of time on my grandparent's farm, I was not surprised that a Huffington Post article on "disturbing" food facts noted that peanut butter may contain rodent hair. If you have ever seen field crops being harvested, you realize that many insects are extracted from the field along with… read more

Expose yourself to culture

February 18, 2014 by
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The Telegraph recently proclaimed that butter is "suddenly back in fashion," but for many of us butter never went out of style. Rich, creamy, and decadently delicious, butter has always been an essential ingredient in pastries, cakes and sauces, as well as being our preferred spread for bread, scones, and more. Most of the butter sold outside of continental Europe… read more

Guess who’s coming to dinner?

February 17, 2014 by
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People who love to cook frequently like to host dinner parties. It provides an opportunity to share one's cooking passion with friends in a relaxed, intimate setting. Cooking clubs have been popular for decades, with dedicated members who alternate hosting and cooking duties. The advent of the internet greatly expanded opportunities for like-minded people to get together. In the last… read more

The Piglet is here!

February 16, 2014 by
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For the past several years, Food52, inspired by The Morning News' Tournament of Books, has presided over The Piglet, a tournament of cookbooks. Sixteen notable cookbooks compete head to head in a bracket, each winner advancing to the next level, until a champion in crowned. Previous winners of the competition include A Girl and Her Pig by April Bloomfield and… read more

Use your noodle

February 5, 2014 by
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  Perhaps weather extremes have triggered comfort food cravings, or maybe it's just because pasta is delicious, but something has prompted a flood of pasta posts on news feeds everywhere. Food52, in collaboration with Mario Batali's How To Tuesdays, recently demonstrated how to make garganelli pasta. Garganelli is rustic pasta that resembles a cross between penne and tagliatelle, and appears… read more

Making time for food

February 3, 2014 by
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From salt to sausage, ice to ice cream, this fascinating food timeline traces the origins of many different foods and recipes. Some entries are surprising - the timeline states that popcorn predates olive oil by about 1,000 years. The left side of the timeline lists the approximate date of introduction or discovery of various foods, while the right side indicates the… read more

Bowled over? Here are game day alternatives

February 2, 2014 by
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  In the United States, many people are busy preparing for their Super Bowl parties, making dips, chili, snacks and even entire stadiums made out of food in anticipation of today's championship football game. Meanwhile, across either ocean, people are scratching their heads wondering why Americans (and Canadians) call this sport, which mainly uses hands and a "ball" that is… read more

Clearing up sausage confusion

January 30, 2014 by
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Unless you're a real sausage fan, it's likely that at some time you've faced a  recipe quandary - sausage types. How do you tell a bratwurst from a kielbasa? Here's a handy guide from Eatocracy  (check out the article for further details, buying suggestions from the Test Kitchen, as well as possible substitutes and uses): Frankfurter, aka Hot Dog: Beef… read more
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