24 kitchen tips that are really worth knowing

August 30, 2013 by
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Over at Serious Eats, Kenji Alt - their Chief Creative Officer who writes The Food Lab column - has posted 24 Essential Kitchen Tricks and Tips. We were once colleagues at Cook's Illustrated, and, having watched Kenji in action, it's not surprising that all of these are well-worth knowing and merit a look. Here are two that were new to… read more

The great chicken debate – to rinse or not to rinse

August 29, 2013 by
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Recently, NPR reported on a controversy regarding why rinsing a chicken ahead of cooking is inadvisable.  In Julia Child Was Wrong: Don't Wash Your Raw Chicken, Folks, they point out that not only does rinsing raw chicken not make it safer, but it's actually more dangerous: "because washing increases the chances that you'll spread the foodborne pathogens that are almost… read more

Pick a region, pick a diet, pick a subject…

August 27, 2013 by
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While attending to the (never-ending) task of culling and organizing the cookbook library today, it struck me that publishing output in a number of categories is shifting. There seem to be fewer big-ticket restaurant books this year (think Noma, Faviken, El Bulli). And for me at least, many trade reference single-subjects (the kind of book that's a glossary of 200… read more

August 2013 cookbook roundup

August 27, 2013 by
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Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends in the United States. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook."   And for our non-U.S. members, Jane and Fiona provide similar reviews for new U.K., Australia, and New Zealand releases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Believe it or not, summer's over! as far as cookbook publishers are… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook

August 26, 2013 by
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   Here at EYB we're all for encouraging our members to indulge their passion for cookbooks. To that end, we've created a program to give our members a chance to win a copy of new, exciting cookbooks that have just been published. To see all the contests, just look in the right-hand category column on any blog page and click… read more

Interview with Joe Yonan

August 26, 2013 by
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Joe Yonan - a transplanted Texan -  is the Food and Travel editor of The Washington Post, where he's been since 2006 after moving from Boston.  At the Post he authors the "Cooking for One" column, which formed the basis for his first cookbook, Serve Yourself: Nightly Adventures in Cooking for One. Since then, he's found himself becoming almost entirely vegetarian.… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Kitchen Pantry Cookbook: How to Make Your Own Condiments and Essentials

August 25, 2013 by
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Here at EYB we're all for encouraging our members to indulge their passion for cookbooks. To that end, we've created a program to give our members a chance to win a copy of new, exciting cookbooks that have just been published. To see all the contests, just look in the right-hand category column on any blog page and click on… read more

Author Interview: Michael Ruhlman

August 23, 2013 by
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This may be one of the few occasions where an author's book subject matter needs more introduction than the author. Michael Ruhlman's first book was the ground-breaking "The Making of a Chef" about his experience as a reporter at the Culinary Institute of America, which was followed by a similar journalistic endeavor, The Soul of a Chef. Since then, besides… read more

Cookbook giveaway – The Book of Schmaltz

August 23, 2013 by
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Here at EYB we're all for encouraging our members to indulge their passion for cookbooks. To that end, we've created a program to give our members a chance to win a copy of new, exciting cookbooks that have just been published. To see all the contests, just look in the right-hand category column on any blog page and click on… read more

Are “Double-Stuf” Oreos really double?

August 22, 2013 by
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Not being noted as a great math scholar, as a child we often asked "why is math important?" Well, here's one answer for any parent that hears that question. Are you being duped when you buy a package of "Double Stuf" oreos thinking you get twice the filling you would in a normal Oreo? If you think this isn't important,… read more

It’s official – Do not marinade food until after it’s finished grilling

August 21, 2013 by
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If we accept the New York Times as an authoritative source, their lead food article today, Flavor Is Only Skin Deep:  Welcome to the Post-Marinade Era of Grilling serves as an obtituary for the concept of marinading food to be grilled. John Willoughby and Chris Schlesinger, two experts who have written numerous cookbooks together on meat and grilling,  have bitten the… read more

What’s hot in Manhattan

August 20, 2013 by
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Actually, everything's hot in New York this week. It's in the upper 80's, and as usual the steaming sidewalks, midtown traffic, and ever-present faint smell of garbage makes it feel even hotter. Nevertheless, business is hopping at the Union Square Barnes & Noble, helped along by the farmer's market. I stop by the Cookbooks section to find out what's selling… read more

An homage to pigs

August 20, 2013 by
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After all the food fads, crazes, fashions, and just plain absurdities, it's nice every now and then to consider those things that are always steady and true. And that's why this article from the Guardian, Pigs: a very British obsession, is worthy of note.  Besides their very obvious culinary uses - it is now fashionable to boast of being able… read more

Mark Bittman’s surprisingly positive view on industrial tomatoes arouses debate

August 19, 2013 by
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In his NY Times column, The Opinionator, Mark Bittman recently wrote of a visit he took to California to scope out why industrial canned tomatoes can taste better than even the "heirloom" tomatoes he buys at the grocery store. His article, Not All Industrial Food is Evil, starts out with no pretense that he isn't skeptical: "So, fearing the worst… read more

Keeping guacamole fresh w.o. pits, plastic wrap, or more lime juice

August 18, 2013 by
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The Kitchn recently appears to have solved one of those very annoying kitchen issues - how to keep guacamole from turning grey. In The Best Way to Keep Guacamole Green, they reveal that: "All you do is cover the guacamole with a thin layer of water.  OK, you say, this sounds weird - maybe even gross. Water on the guacamole? But water… read more

Me and my cookbooks – August 2013

August 16, 2013 by
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At a time when the press relentlessly insists that no one is interested in cooking at home anymore, there is great joy in realizing that there are many others ( EYB members) who enjoy the creativity and pleasure of sharing good food. So we wanted to celebrate our members by regularly publishing vignettes about members and their cookbooks. If you'd… read more

Honoring Julia Child’s birthday

August 15, 2013 by
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Today, Julia Child would have been 101 years old. So we thought we'd pause from all those weighty issues we normally discuss and take a moment to appreciate the grande dame of cooking. And what better way to do so than actually watch her at work? So if any of you have a moment, here's one of our favorite videos… read more

Can you really bake a doughnut?

August 14, 2013 by
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It's the end of summer, really, that makes you think you might even contemplate making doughnuts.  The weather's getting just a little cooler.  Your days of leisure are coming to an end.  You think to yourself, "I might - I just might - have time for one more cooking project before the year starts up again...even if it is a sweaty… read more

The dirt about “superfoods”

August 14, 2013 by
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We're on a bit of a nomenclature binge, discussing the definition of the word "pizza" yesterday, noting the now legal definition of "gluten-free" last week,  and today taking a look at the word "superfood."  This is a word that's been used quite a lot recently and ostensibly means a food that is packed with nutrients, vitamins, or other beneficial attributes,… read more

Is it a pizza or isn’t it?

August 13, 2013 by
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We know it's August and in much of the world there's not a lot of heavy mental lifting going on. so we wanted to nudge the brain cells a little with this crucial question, posed by the kitchn, "When Is a Pizza Not a Pizza?" Does it have to have a traditional crust? A traditional crust with sauce? A traditional… read more

The link between food and rituals

August 12, 2013 by
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The New York Times has a fascinating article called Rituals Make Our Food More Flavorful  that provides incentive to mull over how we eat, as opposed to what we eat. Studies published in Psychological Science found that "rituals appeared capable of enhancing the enjoyment not just of treats like chocolate or lemonade but even baby carrots." Examples of rituals include… read more

Is food writing sexist?

August 9, 2013 by
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Here's something to mull over on the weekend: Is food writing sexist? Frankly, we had never thought about this question, but  L.V. Anderson over at Slate has a decisivie article called Hey Food Writers, Stop Comparing Food to Women in which she maintains that it is indeed sexist and has to stop. Anderson started on this track by noticing an Alan… read more

Great prosciutto doesn’t have to come from Italy

August 8, 2013 by
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Having posted yesterday about lab-grown hamburgers, we wanted to bring the discussion around full circle, and this New York Times article about a small Iowa farm producing prosciutto that rivals that from Parma does the trick. In Some Prosciutto Fans Turn to Iowa, they ask the question: "Would people buy prosciutto from a guy named Herb from Iowa?" The answer… read more

Unveiling laboratory-grown hamburgers

August 7, 2013 by
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The biggest news this week is the unveiling and testing of the first laboratory-grown hamburger - you can read all the details in NPR's Long Awaited Lab-Grown Burger Is Unveiled in London. In a nutshell Google cofounder Sergei Brin donated $300,000 to fund the growth of a hamburger from a few stem cells extracted from a cow's shoulder muscle. After… read more

Recipe keepers, journals, and diaries

August 6, 2013 by
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It's the peaceful, slow part of the year. Let's step away from cookbooks for just a moment and look at an often-overlooked corner of the recipe market.  Did you know that there's a whole niche of publishing devoted to recipe journals and diaries? They come in all different shapes and sizes, and designed for all different levels of engagement. A… read more
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