Cheese lovers breathe a sigh of relief

June 11, 2014 by
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News feeds across the U.S. began buzzing when word came out that the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was moving to ban the aging of cheese on wooden boards. Wood has been the medium of choice for cheese aging for centuries, as the wood both helps to absorb excess moisture and hosts beneficial bacteria that create the surface mold essential… read more

Distressing news about shrimp

June 10, 2014 by
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A couple of months ago we reported on high shrimp prices, but that seems inconsequential compared to today's report by The Guardian on the shrimp industry. The news was both shocking and appalling. An investigation by the paper found "that the world's largest prawn farmer, the Thailand-based Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, buys fishmeal, which it feeds to its farmed prawns,… read more

Kids in the Kitchen!

June 10, 2014 by
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Every once in a while I like to catch up with what's going on with kids' cookbooks. I've looked at cookbooks for little kids (both story-based and picture-based) and cookbooks meant for teens.  And, of course, family cookbooks, which tend to keep a laserlike focus on Getting It Done on a Weeknight. Yet for a long time, I wasn't finding that… read more

Much better than a tie

June 9, 2014 by
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On Sunday, fathers in many countries will open the obligatory Father's Day present and pull out a tie, a set of golf club covers, or maybe a new tool with an LED light on it. Being good-natured, loving fathers, they will profusely thank their sons and daughters, hang the tie in the closet with the dozen other ties received as gifts,… read more

Food rivalries

June 8, 2014 by
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June 7 was National Doughnut Day in the U.S., with many bakeries offering free doughnuts to customers. This food "holiday" prompted Food & Wine magazine to discuss a long-standing debate: which is the better doughnut, yeasted or cake? The arguments pro and con were that yeast doughnuts "are airy and fluffy with a pleasant squish. They are so delicate that… read more

The rating game

June 7, 2014 by
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Yesterday's post about Nate Silver's quest to find the best burrito in the U.S., and through that process gain insight on how much we should rely on crowdsourced reviews, brings up the subject of trust. Many of us consult online reviews before purchasing household goods or (more to the point of this blog) making recipes. The question remains: how much… read more

Finding the best burrito just got serious

June 6, 2014 by
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Nate Silver, probably best known for accurately predicting the results of the 2012 U.S. presidential election, has turned the sights of his analytical website FiveThirtyEight to food. Burritos, to be precise. Yesterday the site announced the creation of a 64-restaurant "Burrito Bracket" to find the best burritos in the U.S.  The impetus for this competition traces to Silver's move to a Wicker… read more

Featured Cookbooks & Recipes

June 5, 2014 by
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Whether they are from cookbooks, magazines, or blogs, all the recipes we feature in these weekly round-ups have online links so you can add any of them to your Bookshelf. Even if you have a free membership! The EYB Library has over 140,000 online recipes that are easily accessible even if you are away from home and can't consult your physical… read more

Delicious tomatoes in the winter: more than just a fantasy?

June 5, 2014 by
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Supermarkets teem with produce year-round, with crops shipped from as far away as another hemisphere allowing apples, grapes, peppers, and other foods to be purchased during any season. Greenhouse-grown vegetables also make the seasons less of an issue. But some vegetables defy these methods and the quality difference between an in-season, locally-grown variety and the greenhouse or commercial product is stark. The tomato is… read more

Gin it up this summer

June 4, 2014 by
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Just as some foods are good matches for a particular season--hearty stews in winter, cool salads in summer--some liquors also feel right at certain times of the year. Warm weather calls for light, refreshing drinks, and gin fits the bill, as demonstrated in a recent Telegraph article highlighting unique gin cocktails perfect for summer sipping. The pretty City in Bloom, pictured above,… read more

Stalemate – is the fridge bad for bread?

June 3, 2014 by
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Freshly baked bread - it's one of the simple pleasures in life. It's also one of the most ephemeral, since the best breads are also the ones that go stale the quickest. Usually we turn to the refrigerator to help keep food fresh, but in this case the go-to appliance turns out to be the no-no one instead, as Serious Eats'… read more

Summer make-ahead food

June 3, 2014 by
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So I've discovered a new favorite summer breakfast!  I found it in The Family Cooks, which is the latest adorably packaged, make-your-family-eat-better idea book.  It's "Fresh, Fruity Summer Porridge" - basically a kind of muesli - and there's nothing to it.  You just grate an apple in some yogurt, add some oats and layer in some fruit and something sweet… read more

Chefs’ first food memories

June 2, 2014 by
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If you think that many chefs had poignant or powerful experiences with food when they were young that influenced their career path, you would be correct. Thanks to this short video from The Guardian, you can learn about the first food memories of some of the UK's best chefs, many of whom have cookbooks in the EYB Library. In the video, Ruth Rogers from… read more

Cookbook giveaway – The Homemade Flour Cookbook

June 2, 2014 by
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How many times have you been excited about a recipe, only to discover that it called for a type of flour that you didn't have? Or perhaps you picked up a bag of a nut or legume flour in the market and then wondered what to make with it. If so, you may be interested in The Homemade Flour Cookbook by… read more

Ice cream – summer’s dessert

June 1, 2014 by
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June is Dairy Month in the U.S. Dairy month is celebrated proudly in the Upper Midwest, where states like Wisconsin (known as America's Dairyland) have a long tradition of small family dairy farms. Dairy encompasses such a broad array of foods that it would be nearly impossible to catalog all of them in one blog post, so today we'll concentrate… read more
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