September 2024 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

Why washing your produce may not be good enough

Most of us wash our produce before prepping it for eating or cooking. We've been told that not only does it protect us from foodborne illness, but that it also helps remove residual pesticide residue. While the former may be true, a new study reveals that the latter is almost certainly false. We might want to dig out the good… read more

Why the UK is katsu crazy

Food trends are often cyclical - one era's craze spawns a multitude of copycats, dies down, and then gets resurrected years or even decades later. This happened with the Cosmopolitan cocktail, and as chef and cookbook author Tim Anderson writes in an article for Vittles, it is currently happening with katsu curry in the UK, which he is calling the "Katsuification"… read more

Cucina del Veneto and a Quick Bites with Ursula Ferrigno

Enter our US/UK/CA giveaway to win one of three copies of Cucina del Veneto: Delicious Recipes from Northeastern Italy and the Region's Capital Venice by Ursula Ferrigno. The Veneto is a northern Italian region, lying between the base of the Alps and the Adriatic to the south. It has rich soil, a good climate, and as a result, produces rice,… read more

Cookbook Deals

I will update this post when time permits– new additions are always at the top of each bulleted list below. If no update is available, be sure to check the publisher links and "cookbook deals" links under each region as they are updated periodically. If you spot a deal that isn't in the links below (publishers and or separate entries) please… read more

Food news antipasto

Here is a sentence I never thought I would write: Pamela Anderson is coming out with a cookbook later this year. You might say that is no surprise, but this is not the wonderful Pam Anderson who has several well-regarded books to her name. This is blonde bombshell and former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson. The cookbook is titled I Love… read more

When only the worst will do

I've been a confessed coffee snob for years, seeking out the best coffee shops near my work, ordering luxe brands to be delivered to my house, and investing in a high-quality espresso machine and grinder setup for my home. Despite this, I still have a soft spot in my heart for instant coffee. I don't mean the new offerings that… read more

Foods that fuel Olympians (but maybe not in the way you think)

While most of the buzz about food and the Olympics revolves around what's happening in the Olympic Village restaurants, there is another food nexus to the Games. That connection comes in the form of sponsorships for athletes. Making it to the Olympics takes a ton of time, training and effort, and all of that requires a lot of money. While… read more

Tarts Anon Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of three copies of Tarts Anon: Sweet and Savoury Tart Brilliance by Gareth Whitton and Catherine Way. Gareth Whitton was the head pastry chef at Dinner By Heston Blumenthal before launching Tarts Anon as an online side hustle during Covid lockdowns. It soon snowballed into a hit retail store in inner-city Melbourne, Australia… read more

Saveur’s Q&A with Sara Moulton

Sara Moulton's culinary career is long and storied. After graduating top of her class at the Culinary Institute of America, Sara worked in fine dining restaurants, cooked for Julia Child, and was the food editor of ABC’s Good Morning America and was Gourmet magazine’s executive chef before the magazine shuttered. She's also written several successful cookbooks. Somehow I missed an… read more

Honoring the man who invented tiramisu

Today I learned that I might be older than tiramisu. The most widely agreed upon origin story for this popular Italian dessert is that it was invented in Treviso, Italy in the early 1970s at restaurant Le Beccherie by pastry chef Roberto Linguanotto. Linguanotto died last week at the age of 81. Pastry chefs around the world offered their condolences,… read more

Good Eggs – Ed Smith

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of three copies of Good Eggs: 100 Cracking Ways to Cook and Elevate Eggs by Ed Smith. Ed Smith is the author of a number of cookbooks including The Borough Market Cookbook, On the Side: A Sourcebook of Inspiring Side Dishes and Crave: Recipes Arranged by Flavour, to Suit Your Mood and Appetite.… read more

Food news antipasto

The notion of eating something stuffed between pieces of bread predates the 4th Earl of Sandwich, but it is he for whom the food was named in the mid-1700s. Since then countless sandwiches have been eaten, but only a few of them are iconic. Writing for Vittles, Hester van Hensbergen gives us a timeline of iconic London sandwiches from the… read more

What kind of grocery shopper are you?

When you go grocery shopping, you probably follow the same steps each time you go. Some people like to make lists and menu plans, others wing it and decide what to make by seeing what's looking good in the produce and meat aisles. There are careful label readers who evaluate the nutritional value and others who never look at the… read more

EYB is 15 years old, Rick Rodgers guided tours to Austria and Budapest, EYBD Previews, recipes and more

Our friend, prolific cookbook author and culinary instructor, Rick Rodgers is adding another notch to his belt - tour guide. Next May 2025, Rick will be leading tours in Austria (May 8-18th) with a Budapest extension (May 18-22nd) featuring his favorite haunts from his stellar cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague. Through Global… read more

How to care for wooden kitchen tools

One of my favorite kitchen items is a hefty Boos cutting board I received as a gift over 15 years ago. It has seen nearly daily use and even, if I'm being honest, some abuse. Despite being in constant use next to my cooktop, it is still going strong while a few plastic cutting boards have come and gone during… read more

Happy Birthday to us!

Today is the 15th anniversary of the launch of Eat Your Books. Here is the first post I put up on the blog on our launch day - rather optimistically since on that day our only members were friends and family. Looking back at that day I really didn't imagine I'd still be doing this 15 years later - not… read more

Celebrate National Avocado Day

Today was National Avocado Day, and a few companies in the US were celebrating by offering things like free avocado toast (Panera) or free guacamole (Chipotle). I didn't get the news in time to snag any of those deals, but I was able to crack open some store-bought guac (please picture Ina Garten saying store bought is fine) to enjoy… read more

The growing world of Substack newsletters

As the world continues its shift to digital publishing, new media crop up to replace the old guard, and that is especially true with newspapers and magazines. Long-form online stories reminiscent of the early days of blogging are rapidly replacing printed media (thankfully with the exception of cookbooks!) via newsletter tools like Substack, Ghost, Medium, Buttondown, and Beehiiv. Of these,… read more

Around Our Table – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of three copies of Around Our Table: Wholesome Recipes to Feed Your Family and Friends by Sara Forte. Around Our Table is Sara Forte’s third and most personal cookbook. It comes from years of work on the Sprouted Kitchen blog (add this indexed blog to your Bookshelf for 355 additional recipes) and Cooking… read more

Food news antipasto

Although we reported on food issues plaguing the Paris Olympics, the news from the Games is not all bad. For starters, Simone Biles shook off an apparent injury to qualify for the all-around gymnastics competition - not too shabby for the oldest American gymnast to qualify for the Olympics since 1952. Then there is cookbook author extraordinaire Ina Garten, who… read more

Olympic food venues face problems

The 2024 Olympics are underway in Paris, and there is already controversy over the food being served to the athletes, or rather, the lack of food. Teams are saying that the four restaurants serving the athletes' village are running out of food, especially high protein items like eggs and chicken. There are also reports that some of the meat being… read more

Catching up with Asma Khan

Asma Khan is the creator of Darjeeling Express, a London restaurant that began fifteen years ago as a dinner for 12 guests at home - Indian food, lovingly cooked from family recipes going back generations. The restaurant is run by an all-female staff, and Khan eschews the traditional authoritarian style of kitchen brigades, opting instead for a quieter, more collaborative… read more

July 2024 New Cookbook Review

Here we are at the end of July where the number of cookbooks published have dwindled - but have no fear, August through November will more than make up the numbers. You can keep track of what is coming this year with our 2024 Cookbook Preview and don’t forget that you can create a wishlist and share it with your loved ones. Our July 2024… read more

Some good news about coffee

It can seem like every article about climate change and agriculture is doom and gloom about the effects of severe weather events like droughts, floods, extreme heat, insect infestations, diseases, and so on. However, among the negativity there exist a few bright spots. Recently that happened with reports of a new experiment on how it may be possible to "climate-proof"… read more
Seen anything interesting? Let us know & we'll share it!