R.I.P. Cupcakes

April 19, 2013 by
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We're sad to announce the demise of one of our favorie food fads - the cupcake. Three separate news sources have published obituaries.  The first is from no less an unimpeachable source than The Wall Street Journal. In Forget Gold, the Gourmet Cupcake Market Is Crashing they note that the publicly traded cupcake company "Crumbs" has gone from $13/share to $1.70.… read more

Julia Child comes to life in a new, different type of app

April 17, 2013 by
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Since many of you enjoy our occasional notices of interesting food-related apps, we wanted to alert you to one that Random House, the long time publisher for Julia Child, has  issued - it's a unique app that is far more than just a cooking app. In AppStorm's just-published review of the app Mastering the Art of French Cooking, they describe this… read more

Some of the best food moments in movies

April 16, 2013 by
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Awhile ago we published a blog on The best food movies and movie scenes, which proved to be quite popular. We had a lot of nice responses from our readers about their favorite scenes, including the escargot moment in Pretty Woman, the Solent Green jelly moment, and this scene from Tampopo. So when we saw this blog on Serious Eats, Staff Picks:… read more

Do you need a spice therapist?

April 10, 2013 by
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The New York Times recently published their special magazine food and drink issue and one article struck us as especially interesting. In The Transformational Power of the Right Spice  they interview a spice purveyor (Lev Sercarz) whom restauranteurs call "a magician" and who  himself considers spices to be both a vocation and a mission. His talent in the former role was… read more

It’s time to harvest the spaghetti crop

April 7, 2013 by
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Recently, a member of a very erudite cooking bulletin board raised the  fact that it is now the spaghetti harvest season in Switzerland. The Swiss have, to a large extent,  convinced the rest of the world that spaghetti is made in Italy from a wheat dough, but true food cognescenti are aware that spaghetti is actually grown on trees. Like… read more

Trying to understand umami

April 4, 2013 by
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  We recently just made our first batch of dashi - the Japanese soup stock made with kombu (dried kelp) - one of the purest sources of umami . So it was fortuitous that one of our readers, Ken, brought our attention to this recent Wall Street Journal article, Understanding Umami. It's relatively easy to understand the other four taste… read more

Busting common food myths

March 30, 2013 by
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Angela Keller, writing for the Daily Meal, took on some common food myths and busted them all. Here's a short list of the kitchen myths she refuted - you can check out all the myths and the full details in Busting the Most Common Kitchen Myths: Salting water makes water boil faster Never rinse your mushrooms Store coffee in the… read more

Weird British foods we must try

March 25, 2013 by
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How could we resist an article called "18 Weird and Wonderful British Foods You Need to Try"? Given our global membership we're all for creating a community of food, so pointing out this article provides a public service.  According to BuzzFeed UK here are some of the dishes our UK brethren are keeping to themselves, but shouldn't: Bedfordshire Clanger Cranachan… read more

Do you really need Kosher salt?

March 21, 2013 by
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Kenji Alt over at The Food Lab (nominated as a James Beard finalist - congrats!) recently addressed the question: Do I Need to Use Kosher Salt? After acknowledging that there is no difference chemically among table, Kosher, and fine sea salts, he goes on to compare the three for texture and flavor, ultimately explaining why he keeps Kosher salt for cooking and fine sea… read more

Two tirades against food television

March 20, 2013 by
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Every time that the Food Channel eliminates cooking shows in favor of a contest or non-cooking related channel, there are rumbles from the media. But two recent rants caught our attention as particularly well-written, including both insightfulness and thoroughness. Both are well worth the time to read; here are just a few of the highlights. Andy Greenwald in Grantland titles… read more

Refrigerating regular or sweet potatoes – yes or no?

March 17, 2013 by
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Potatoes are an appropriate topic for St. Patrick's Day, so we thought we'd highlight a simple question that Food Republic recently asked: Do you need to refrigerate potatoes? And here's the simple answer: No. Potatoes don't spoil, and, in fact, if put into a refrigerator they will develop a bitter taste. The best way to store potatoes is also simple, "Potatoes should… read more

The Bloomberg – the “sugariest drink in the world”

March 15, 2013 by
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Since Friday is a good day to clean up loose ends, we thought we'd finally note the death - or at least the coma - of Mayor Bloomberg's attempts to ban the sale of mega-sodas in New York City. And the most creative coda to this story  has come from a surprising source, NPR, which invented The Bloomberg - the… read more

How colors affect taste

March 14, 2013 by
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Two recent articles struck us as working together in a somewhat ironic fashion. FoodBuzz has 24 Foods That Shouldn't Celebrate St. Patrick's Day while The Guardian reports on How we taste different colours. The former is a compilation of foods that have been dyed green - and definitely never should have been.  Their photos of bacon, steak, eggs, grilled cheese, mashed potatoes,… read more

Tea services – traditional vs. modern vs. basic

March 12, 2013 by
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In the U.S., the final show of Downton Abbey was shown a few weeks ago. And it seems that an entire continent is going through withdrawal (we know those of you in Great Britain experienced this a few months ago). So just in time to provide an emergency proper English fix,  Serious Eats has published, "A Short Introduction to Afternoon… read more

Let your canned goods get old – and better

March 12, 2013 by
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A few months ago, we wrote a blog on how long food can last. In Don't throw out that food  we noted that expiry dates don't need to be religiously followed - rather it's your nose that should be. Now one of the best known food scientists, Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking,  has weighed in on the… read more

Can you eat bread that’s five-months old?

March 8, 2013 by
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In elementary school science classes, a favorite experiment was to grow mold on bread and then study the mold under a microcope. But it appears that modern-day science has put a damper on this experiment, at least for store-bought bread. In this article from Epicurious, "How Fresh is Five-Month-Old Bread?" the author recounts how a loaf of bread became lost… read more

An homage to the artichoke

March 7, 2013 by
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Artichokes are among our favorite vegetables - on our first visit to Italy, it was so exciting to discover they actually put them on pizza! But given artichokes' regionality and the challenge of eating them, many people avoid getting acquainted. So we wanted to give a shout out to this article from the L.A. Times: Let artichoke possibilities flower. You… read more

Five creative cheese tips

March 3, 2013 by
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Most of us cook with cheese, so tips on managing cheese are always appreciated. Here are five tips from Cook's Illustrated on handling cheese (check out the article for full illustrations): Fit round cheese slices on a square slice of bread by breaking the cheese slices into quarters. Grate and store cheese in one easy step - and keep your… read more

Garlic meets the microwave – quickly peeling or roasting a head of garlic

February 25, 2013 by
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Here's a quick tip from Chow for a Monday morning. Heat a head of garlic in a microwave for about 20 seconds and the cloves will slide right out of their skins  - no mess and no sticky problem. This video demonstrates. And while we're on the subject of microwaving garlic, check out the Kitchn's tip for roasting garlic in… read more

Pies in the face and James Bond

February 24, 2013 by
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This weekend we're honoring the Oscars with great food-related movie moments. Yesterday we wrote about The best food movies and movie scenes. Today we're presenting memorable food fights and a tribute to 50 years of James Bond. Food Republic recently published 10 of Our Favorite Movie Foodfights, inviting readers to "get ready to get dirty." Here's their list: Homicidal tomatoes… read more

The best food movies and movie scenes

February 23, 2013 by
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We're doing a two-part food and movie blog this weekend in honor of the Oscars. Today we're looking at two compilations - from Serious Eats  of  their favorite food movies  and Boston.com's collection of chefs's favorite movie scenes. In 12 of Our Favorite Food Movies, Serious Eats lists movies that are either about food or have great food scenes. Here's… read more

Sous vide – is it more than just boil-in-a-bag?

February 21, 2013 by
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Sous vide has been a restaurant cooking technique for many years. For anyone who is not sure what sous vide is, it's a process of cooking food in a vacuum-sealed bag.  The food is then cooked in a precise temperature-controlled water bath. There are several advantages: reliability - the same moist results every time; cooking to the exact desired temperature -… read more

The best way to store lemons

February 18, 2013 by
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America's Test Kitchen Feed recently  tackled one of the kitchen's basic questions: How to best store lemons? It's tempting (and cheaper) to buy lemons in bulk, but then how to keep them juicy? In We Prove It: The Best Way To Store Lemons, they compared the results between storing whole lemons in an unsealed container,  in a zipper-lock bag with 1/4… read more

Jell-O never ceases to amaze

February 14, 2013 by
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What's not to love about Jell-O? Well, awhile ago we wrote a blog about the ways people have abused Jell-O over the years (see Abusing Jell-O vs. respecting it) but this week (International Jell-O week) we wanted to join with BuzzFeed in celebrating all the ways - many unexpected - that Jell-O have contributed to our lives. Here are a… read more

Truly awful cooking results

February 13, 2013 by
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We've all had kitchen disasters, but hopefully never as bad as the ones that BuzzFeed so graphically illustrates in 37 People Who Are Worse At Cooking Than You Are. Here are a few of our favorites - check them all out for reassurance that your kitchen disasters can - and have - been surpassed: (Check out yesterday's blog, Tips for easy… read more
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