Is milk bad for you?

July 17, 2012 by
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In a New York Times column, "Got Milk? You Don't Need It" Mark Bittman recently attacked the premise that drinking milk is healthy. After suffering a lifetime of acid reflux and heartburn, Bittman cured his problem in just 24 hours by going off dairy products. But Bittman doesn't just argue against dairy consumption by those who have heartburn. He goes… read more

Lazy about lunch

July 16, 2012 by
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I just realized today while once again punting on lunch--a quarter of a honeydew, a chicken-apple sausage, and an iced decaf--that while I use recipes almost every night for dinner, I almost never crack a cookbook for lunch.  And I'm fairly willing to bet that you don't either. It's not really surprising.  Some of us are working when lunch arrives,… read more

Diverse and fun reading

July 16, 2012 by
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We've mentioned before that one of the great joys of being involved with Eat Your Books is the pretense that we need to stay up-to-date with food writing as part of our job. And another joy is the ability this blog offers to share some of our more under-the-radar finds with our readers. This morning we offer two books and… read more

Just for laughs: Top 10 funny food graphs

July 15, 2012 by
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The Huffington Post recently composed a list of the top ten food graphs - based on their amusement rather than scientific value - from GraphJam. Here are the chart titles; take a look for a quick laugh and maybe some food for thought: The four food groups of the recent college grad What I learned from the Food Network Probability of… read more

A hot drink like tea will actually cool you down

July 13, 2012 by
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It's fairly well known that eating spicy food actually cools you down. However, as this NPR report states, the same science works for hot beverages. Whether you're in the middle of a heat wave or experiencing cool comfort, there's no reason not to enjoy your afternoon cup of tea or morning cup of coffee. In fact, it will both heat… read more

Wine helps prevent bone loss & thank you Marion Cunningham

July 12, 2012 by
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Two news items recently caught our attention  - one good news (for many of us, at least) and one sad. On the good news front, Salt at NPR reports that drinking a moderate amount of wine helps women prevent bone loss: "A new study of women in their 50s and early 60s finds that moderate alcohol consumption may help prevent bone loss.… read more

Silicone spatulas: Should you buy one?

July 11, 2012 by
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Every cook needs a spatula for so many things - cooking, scraping out bowls, gentle folding. And this wide variety of tasks that it's called on to perform often means you need a wide variety of spatulas - a firm, heat-proof one for scraping a pan, a plastic one to use on a nonstick pan to stir eggs, a large… read more

Beer Can Chicken is just a waste of beer

July 10, 2012 by
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Over at the Huffington Post, Meathead (aka Dr. Greg Blonder) tackles one of the major barbecue legends - that grilling a whole chicken on top of an open beer can produce succulent, moist, delicious chicken. Using quite a scientific approach, he praises Beer Can Chicken for succulent skin but then proves wrong all the other supposed advantages.  Among the items… read more

Don’t Try This At Home. On Second Thought, Go Ahead!

July 9, 2012 by
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In 2005, Jane and Michael Stern published Roadfood, an adoring and adorable guide to dives and obscure eateries across America.  I loved the Sterns' vision of a life lived driving from one delicious thing to the next (although as they revealed in their memoir, it's not as easy as it looks).  They are no longer together, but I'll always have… read more

Somebody has to bring home the bacon

July 9, 2012 by
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There's a new food magazine that's creating a lot of attention. Lucky Peach is a quarterly magazine about food and writing, described on their website as follows: " Lucky Peach is a new journal of food writing, published on a quarterly basis by McSweeney's. It is a mélange of travelogue, essays, art, photography, rants, and recipes in a full-color, meticulously designed format.… read more

The revival of English food

July 8, 2012 by
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In the Guardian Sybil Kapoor recently discussed a reissuance of  Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food, a history of English food in the last century. She couldn't help but notice the similarity between a particularly attractive period  - the 1920s and 30s - and today's British food renaissance. As she writes, "In this classic, Boxer depicts English food of the 1920s and… read more

Are you overdoing prep work in the kitchen?

July 7, 2012 by
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On Sara Moulton's website, she has an interesting article that's creating some buzz in the food world.  Whereas cookbooks, videos, and blogs have - at least for the last 10 years - argued that home cooks should always  prep and measure ingredients before starting to cook (a practice professional chefs call "mise en place"), Sara has decided this practice is… read more

EYB’s favorite cookbook authors

July 6, 2012 by
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In a recent blog, we posted Food52's top 10 essential cookbooks. The posting inspired us to look at our own site and statistics. However, we ranked cookbooks by authors, looking at how many of our members owned a cookbook by a certain author. Here are the lists and our comments (links are to the authors' pages in the EYB library): EYB's top… read more

Everything you wanted to know about hot dogs

July 4, 2012 by
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Hot dogs are synonymous with summer - at least here in the United States - but sausages are also world-wide, so we thought this article from Leslie Hatfield at the Huffington Post, All About Hot Dogs: Kosher Controversy, Label Confusion, Regional Flavors and More would appeal both to those of us celebrating summer and the 4th of July and those… read more

Independence, locavore style

July 3, 2012 by
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Kitchen Gardeners International, the terrific local-food organization whose advocacy helped to establish the White House vegetable garden, used to run a wonderful event called Food Independence Day.  Folks from all over the country would participate online and pledge to eat all or part of their Independence Day meal from local sources.  On an interactive map, you could see who was… read more

Top chefs say that sometimes supermarket brands are best

July 3, 2012 by
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The New York Times has a recent article, 'When Local Sourcing Means Aisle 12' that helps bring some perspective to the constant media drumbeat to buy all local, all organic, all farmers' market, all the time. They interviewed a variety of well-known chefs who each confessed to sometimes just needing, wanting, or indulging in a good old-fashioned supermarket item. As… read more

Love Whole Foods or loathe it?

July 2, 2012 by
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Over at Food Republic they've reprinted an essay from the New Yorker, How Whole Foods Created A New Breed of Shopper. As Tom Roston writes,  "In my darker moments, I imagine what it might be like to live through an alien invasion. I'm not a War of the Worlds, death-and-destruction kind of guy; I am more prone to creepier visions of the Invasion… read more

How to make a better peanut butter and jelly sandwich

July 1, 2012 by
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Many of us sometimes crave a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but the actual sandwich just never seems to match expectations. In this video from Chow, Keena Tallman from the restaurant, "PBJ's," offers some savvy advice on how to keep a PB&J sandwich from disappointing. It's not complicated - just a question of balance and ingredients. And also be sure… read more

Mobile version of Eat Your Books

June 30, 2012 by
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  We are delighted to announce our new mobile phone version. It's so simple to use - next time you access Eat Your Books on your phone, the mobile version will automatically load in a readable format. The mobile version makes it easier to access your book and recipe search results when you're out and about. We will continue to… read more

When mold on food is OK

June 29, 2012 by
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We all have had that disconcerting moment - there's a bit of mold on a food item that, ordinarily, we'd be reluctant to toss. What to do...? In this article on the HuffPost, 4 Moldy Foods You Can Eat (Plus Which Foods to Toss), EatingWell gives some useful advice - we found it both interesting and ironic that you can keep… read more

Remembering Nora Ephron

June 28, 2012 by
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Nora Ephron's death reminded us of the pleasure that she brought with such movies as Julie and Julie, Sleepless in Seattle, and You've Got Mail. And, of course, if for nothing else we'll remember her for teaching us how to make great vinaigrette in Heartburn. In this interview at Epicurious she talks about childhood dishes, favorite cookbooks, and food. And the Huffington Post… read more

Food52’s final list of 10 essential cookbooks

June 27, 2012 by
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A few weeks ago we posted a blog noting that Food52 had put out a call to all their readers for a list of their 10 essential cookbooks. The contest has ended and Food 52 just posted the finals. Any - or all! - of these would make a great gift for a graduate or new married couple. And remember… read more

Popular vs. timeless

June 26, 2012 by
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Just because it's fun to check in with the rest of the world from time to time, here's the 5 best-selling cookbooks on Amazon today.  (I'll just list the titles, on the principle that sometimes it's OK to judge a book by its cover.) The Skinny Rules: The Simple, Nonnegotiable Principles for Getting to Thin Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat,… read more

Is there too much sanctimony in today’s food writing?

June 26, 2012 by
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Stephen Budiansky in The Wall Street Journal has a thought-provoking article about today's food writing. Among the disturbing traits he notices is the use of the word "preferably," as in "1 teaspoon paprika, preferably sweet Spanish pimentón dulce"  -  a sure sign of pretentiousness. And there's the hectoring that accompanies too many recipes, "½ cup brown sugar, preferably fair-trade organic."… read more

Making crème fraîche at home

June 25, 2012 by
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Food52 has a nice lesson in making crème fraîche at home, using 1 cup of pasteurized heavy cream and 2 tablespoons buttermilk. It only takes a day to thicken and then will be available for up to two weeks in the refrigerator. Check out the recipe here. The only drawback may be that the recipe leaves you with a good supply of… read more
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