Aggravating mistakes in printed recipes

January 14, 2014 by
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Given the number of cookbooks represented on this site, we thought an Epicurious article about The Biggest Mistakes Recipes Writers Make might hit a familiar note with our Members. So as assurance that you're not alone when you fume over a poorly written recipe, here's a summary of the Epicurious' list of all-too-common recipe mistakes, with our comments, plus a… read more

Out-of-season cookbooks

January 14, 2014 by
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Today's post is brought to you by The Weather.  Here in New England, we're enduring a cold, heavy rain.  It's slowly eroding the mountains of gritty snow piled next to driveways and parking lots, but it's not quite warm enough to melt the underfoot ice that sends you sprawling after one ill-judged step.  It's slow cooker weather, cocoa weather, roast… read more

Four quick, out-of-the-ordinary tips from restaurant chefs

January 13, 2014 by
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Over at Oprah.com, they recently printed 4 Things Restaurant Chefs Wish They Could Tell You. The selection was interesting because it includes some advice not usually mentioned in similar lists. Specifically, they were: Use cheap mushrooms for most recipes, instead of  paying more for porcini or chanterelles. Stop using your knife so much: it's inefficient, and can even be damaging… read more

The EU and Danish governments are protecting consumers against…cinnamon!

January 12, 2014 by
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Under the general heading of "Huh?" comes this story. It turns out that Danish bakers, when baking the classic Danish pastry treats "kanelsnegel" (cinnamon roll) and "kanelstang" (cinnamon twist) during the Christmas season violated a European Union rule against too much cinnamon. According to a widely printed Associated Press report, Danish cinnamon rolls too spicy for EU rules, "The Danish Veterinary… read more

One million recipes indexed on EYB!

January 10, 2014 by
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One million recipes - and every one added by a human being not a bot.  Because EYB is a database, not a word search, every recipe has to be entered manually.  For cookbooks and magazines, all details are typed in by an indexer.  I wouldn't like to calculate how many keystrokes a million recipes required but let's just say it's… read more

Are these 21 vintage recipes really “upsetting”?

January 10, 2014 by
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I've seen a couple of references around the web to a recent Buzz Feed Food feature called 21 Truly Upsetting Vintage Recipes - obviously, these recipes have hit a nerve for many. But I wonder about the use of "upsetting." The youth among us may be able to be objective about these recipes - and, frankly, given the art of… read more

Featured Cookbooks & Recipes

January 9, 2014 by
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For the new year, we're starting a weekly post here on the blog compiling some of the recipes and cookbooks we've recently featured on Facebook and Twitter. Many of the recipes are samples from recently indexed cookbooks, so even if you don't have the book (yet!), they can give you an idea of what each one has to offer. We… read more

Eating in Antarctica is for the truly tough

January 9, 2014 by
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We apologize to our friends down under, and others not as affected by the recent record low temperatures in the U.S. and Canada, but we're a little obsessed with cold right now. Those of us who live in these areas have learned far more about something called the "polar vortex" ( a large cold storm that is only rarely pushed south… read more

Take 5 famous chefs and put them in office cubicles….

January 8, 2014 by
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We have to applaud Food & Wine's latest video, which Braiser is previewing. Narrated by their Editor-in-Chief, Dana Cowin, it follows five famous chefs - Mario Batali, Eric Ripert, David Chang, Hugh Acheson, and Grant Achatz - as they become chefs-in-residence at the F&W offices. It's only 5 minutes long, but if you've ever worked in an office or cubicle,… read more

Understanding the Cookbook Tree of Life

January 7, 2014 by
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In an intriguing blog recently on Zester, Anne Willan wrote about her most recent culinary project:  "I was lying in bed, thinking about the family tree hanging in my closet, when I hit on the concept of The Cookbook Tree of Life. Just four cookbooks are the ancestors of all the cookbooks that are on our shelves today. Would it work? Were… read more

Summing it up

January 7, 2014 by
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2013 seems to have been an anthropological moment in American food: two ambitious tomes devoted to the subject came out, and each attempted to sum up a dauntingly diverse population of eaters in a slightly different way.   Colman Andrews takes a defiantly idiosyncratic path in  The Taste of America (Phaidon, $29.95), which features 250 US-produced goods ranging from the local… read more

When other cooking appliances fail, can you turn to your hair dryer?

January 6, 2014 by
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What to do if your stove doesn't work? The grill is out of gas or you've run out of charcoal?  Well, it turns out that many of us have been overlooking an important cooking appliance - the hairdryer. According to NPR's recent article, Hair Dryer Cooking: From S'mores To Crispy Duck,  Marcella Hazan pioneered hair dryer cooking back in the 1970's.… read more

Tip: Rolling a Burrito or sandwich wrap so it stays intact

January 5, 2014 by
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It may not be the biggest kitchen issue, but learning to wrap a burrito so it doesn't fall apart is not only a useful bit of information, but surprisingly useful in other ways - it works for sandwich wraps, enchiladas, and other items as well. So thanks to the Kitchn for realizing that there should be a tutorial on How… read more

Bringing out the best of 7 Fall and Winter vegies

January 3, 2014 by
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Continuing our theme of healthy eating, we thought we'd bring you some advice on roasting winter vegetables, courtesy of Kenji Lopez-Alt over at Serious Eats. In his article The Food Lab: How to Roast Fall and Winter Vegetables, he does acknowledge that there is a simple approach, "Now, you can roast vegetables the easy way: just toss everything with oil,… read more

2013-2014 slow cooker books

January 2, 2014 by
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I've written about slow cookers before here, but they are so popular and published in such volume that I think it might be worth doing an annual review of the genre each January. Personally, I love my slow cooker, especially at this time of year.  Although it sits unused for months on end, it comes out with the snow about… read more

It’s time to focus on healthy snacking

January 2, 2014 by
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It's somewhat of a cliché to focus on healthy eating after the holidays, but let's face it - it's not a bad idea. So here, from the New York Times, is advice on Snacking Your Way to Better Health. And the gist of the article - eat more nuts. As Jane Brody writes: "I know what you're thinking: Aren't nuts fattening?… read more
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