December 2024 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

Each month we previously offered at least four cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. This summer we cooked our favorite recipe from any cookbook, magazine, blog or online option and had a huge increase in participation and after a poll in the group we have decided to allow posting from all cookbooks and to offer one featured cookbook.… read more

What are the best pieces from a 157-piece Le Creuset set?

Do you remember last October when Costco offered a huge set of Le Creuset for about $4,500 USD? Jane and I had questions about who would purchase this massive set, where they would store all 157 pieces, and whether they would use them all. We now have some answers, as Food and Wine recently interviewed one woman who received the… read more

Top 2024 cookbooks added to Member Bookshelves by region

On December 9th, I shared this year's list of top books added to Member bookshelves in 2024. That list included 56 titles as I included a few additional books that were on 100 Bookshelves. A few Members asked if I could do a similar breakdown of those books by country and like the U.S. Postal Service, "we deliver for you."… read more

Food trends for 2025

pork and cabbage dumplings on a patterned blue and white rectangular platter. A pair of red chopsticks rests at an angle in the upper left corner of the platter
At the end of the year it's common to look back at what happened in 2024 (best cookbooks lists coming up soon!) and also to predict what food trends will happen in 2025. To that end, Martha Stewart's website has five trends to look for in the coming year. Pork and Chinese cabbage dumplings from Chinese Soul Food by Hsiao-Ching… read more

The Golden Wok – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of three copies of The Golden Wok: Mastering the Art of Wok Cooking by Diana Chan. The Golden Wok: Mastering the Art of Wok Cooking by Diana Chan is the cookbook that shows you that a wok isn’t just a cooking utensil, it’s the pride of any Chinese kitchen and the most versatile pan… read more

The Giveaway Roundup

All of our current giveaways are now on one convenient roundup which will be continually updated! If you are having any difficulties with entering our giveaways, please see our step-by-step help post. Giveaways are tagged by the countries the contests are open to. Bookmark the searches below for easy reference! To enter our contests click on the blue link beneath the… read more

January 2025 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary

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

With coffee prices on the rise, is it time to find an alternative?

Coffee prices climbed sharply this year, with arabica beans up 80% as of Tuesday to an all-time high. Even the less popular robusta beans - the kind used most often in instant coffee - have doubled in price. While much of this is due to weather-related damage to crops, another factor is at play: more coffee farmers are finally being… read more

The Food Lab celebrates a huge milestone

I missed this news when Kenji López-Alt announced it a couple of weeks ago but it is worth mentioning - his first solo cookbook, The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, recently ticked past 1 million copies sold. In addition to selling a lot of copies, The Food Lab has earned a James Beard Award, was a NYT bestseller,… read more

Les Halles Special Edition and Typhoid Mary by Anthony Bourdain- Giveaway

Enter our US/Canada giveaway to win one of two sets of Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking and Typhoid Mary - An Urban Historical. Bloomsbury USA has released a special 20th Anniversary edition of Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook: Strategies, Recipes, and Techniques of Classic Bistro Cooking as well as a paperback edition of… read more

Top fifty-six cookbooks published in 2024 added to EYB Member Bookshelves

A few years ago I created a list of top cookbooks that Members added to their Bookshelves in that particular year. This year's list includes 56 titles as I included a few additional books that were on 100 Bookshelves. Please note this list does not include those books that are labeled as ckbk as those numbers are higher due to… read more

Food news antipasto

Closeup of a pan of folded. golden brown Parker House rolls sprinkled with flaky salt
When Christmas rolls around, even people who normally don't cook much pull out all the stops and make a large feast for family and friends. For most, the idea of going out to dinner for this holiday is unthinkable. Yet there is something to be said for letting others do the cooking, says restaurant critic Jay Rayner. "I have cooked a… read more

Layoffs hit Eater and Thrillist

The union that represents writers for Eater, Thrillist, and other entities under the Vox Media brand announced Thursday that it was "blindsided" by layoffs and restructuring that affected many of its members. The company confirmed the layoffs to The Wrap, with CEO Jim Bankoff saying that the company was “implementing role eliminations and organizational changes across our lifestyle brands (Thrillist,… read more

Nordic baking, recipes, EYBD Previews and more

Please don't hate me because I love baking. Baking, especially at this time of year, is therapy for my soul. To add to my ever-growing list of obsessions, I have now added all things Nordic. Nordic Christmas decorations are coming into the house as fast as I can order them. Recently, I even ordered an Advent Star for my window… read more

Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook recommendations for 2024

collage of six cookbooks: The Cake Bible 35th Anniversary Edition by Rose Levy Beranbaum, Africali by Kiano Moju, Kalaya's Southern Thai Kitchen by Nok Suntaranon, Pass the Plate by Carolina Gelen, Julia Child's Kitchen by Paula Johnson, and Sweet Tooth by Sarah Fennel
The inimitable Dorie Greenspan just published her favorite cookbooks of 2024 and I'm passing along the recommendations to our Members. I feel like no one will believe me when I state (for the nth year in a row) that the releases this year are even better than before, but Dorie agrees, saying "This year’s crop is more exciting than ever.… read more

Sensory subterfuge

a wooden bowl filled with lemons sits next to two whole and two halves of lemons on a wooden surface
It is no secret that marketers find all manner of ways to encourage (some might say trick) us into purchasing their products. This of course extends to the world of food, where packaging is studiously designed to make you want to grab that particular item off the shelf. There's one marketing trick that I had never even considered until I… read more

Do you have love for gloves?

gloved hands arranging food on a blue plate with lettuce, tomatoes, and hardboiled eggs
Food content creators often wear disposable gloves in their videos, with black nitrile gloves being the most popular choice. Wearing gloves is seen as a best practice to ensure food safety, but not everyone agrees that this is the best way to avoid contamination, including this baker on Instagram. She believes that gloves offer a false sense of security with… read more

Jenny’s Best Books of 2024

My list of best books will be more concise than those before. At Eat Your Books we feature books from around the world, so my typical list is always far longer than others. With time being at a shortage this year, I wanted to share some of the books that I personally thought were particularly outstanding this year. There are… read more

Food news antipasto

Our first bit of news belongs in the "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" category. Pizza Hut recently announced that it is offering a wine made from tomatoes and basil that is supposed to taste like a pizza. "The holidays are a time for many gatherings, but often, the gift of a bottle of wine can feel expected.… read more

The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – The Finale 2024

And it is over!!! Grab your tissues and start marking off the dates until next year. The three remaining bakers are Dylan, the 20 year old flavour prince who acquired three Hollywood handshakes and was awarded star baker twice. Georgie, the home baker, who was the most consistent baker and who received the first ever Hollywood pat and two star… read more

Using the leftovers

three sugar-dusted cake donuts sitting in a bed of sugar
Yesterday, I wrote Relax, you’ve got this and am following up with ideas for using up leftovers. The guests have left, the dishes are done, the kitchen floor is swept, and the food is put away. Unless you enjoy eating the same thing for several days on repeat, tomorrow you will be thinking of ways to use the leftover turkey,… read more

Relax, you’ve got this

My social media feed has been nonstop Thanksgiving prep the past couple of days. Our gathering will be smaller than usual, so I'm throwing out the rulebook (with one exception: there will be mashed potatoes), going with prime rib instead of turkey, and ending with tarte Tatin and Bourbon butterscotch ice cream for dessert. It's late in the evening here,… read more

Move over turkey, there’s a new Thanksgiving entree in town

a square of traditional lasagna bolognese on an off-white plate. A fork rests to the right of the lasagna.
For millions of Americans, Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be complete without a turkey. It's by far the most popular main dish on holiday tables, but for a growing number of people turkey has been supplanted by another dish: lasagna. As Khushbu Shah writes in The New York Times, this may seem surprising on the surface, but there are logical reasons for… read more

Food news antipasto

Closeup of a dark golden brown pecan pie with pecan halves on the top and a loosely crimped crust.
A stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes just doesn't seem right without a drizzle of maple syrup, and the sweet substance has a long and rich culinary history that dates back centuries. In recent years, maple sap production, which relies on a specific variance between daytime and nighttime temperatures, has plummeted due to changes in the weather. With reserves at an… read more

The Great British Bake Off/Baking Show – Week 9 – Patisserie Week 2024

This week was patisserie week for the semi-final round. Even our strong bakers were nervous wanting to achieve the ultimate goal of reaching the finals. Signature challenge: Two batches of eight laminated breakfast pastries with one batch being filled or topped. For the first time - the bakers had one hour to prepare their dough so that it could rest… read more
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