The Swiss cheese of your dreams

December 7, 2016 by
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  Gruyère  lovers, this post is for you. Saveur Magazine has just published a lovely article on a rare Swiss cheese that is produced using only very traditional Gruyere methods that date back centuries. Known as L'Etivaz, it is such a special cheese that it has and A.O.P. (appellation d'origine protégée) status bestowed by the Swiss government. When you read the romantic… read more

Iron Chef America coming back to Food Network

December 6, 2016 by
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  Fans of the television series Iron Chef America will be happy to learn that the show, which left Food Network in 2014, is returning in spring 2017. The reboot of the show includes a new name: the new program will be called Iron Chef Gauntlet.  Reports indicate that Alton Brown will be reprising his role as host of the competition. It's… read more

Quick and easy dinners for the hectic holiday season

December 5, 2016 by
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  Between the parties, cookie baking, shopping, candy making, musical events, family gatherings, and gift wrapping, the year-end holidays make for one of the busiest times of the year. It can be exasperating to fit in home-cooked meals when you are scurrying about at breakneck pace. To help keep you sane yet well-fed, we've gathered a few resources so you… read more

There’s a cookbook for every personality

December 4, 2016 by
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It's sometimes all too tempting to purchase a gift for someone based on what you would like to receive. We've all been guilty of it at one time or another - or have been the recipient of a gift that left us scratching our heads, until we realized that it was exactly what the sender wanted. For cookbook lovers, this… read more

Gifts for cookbook lovers

December 3, 2016 by
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These gifts would be a delight for any food or cookbook lover to unwrap. If you know of any sites that we've missed, let us know in the comments and we'll add them to the post.  UK Yotam Ottolenghi - Gift hampers and kits (more items on the main page) Nigella Lawson - Stationery and gift wrap Fuchsia Dunlop - Authentic Chinese Cooking Set… read more

Cooking and baking are good for your mental health

December 2, 2016 by
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At the end of a stressful week, I look forward to the weekend so that I can relax in the kitchen with a baking project. To paraphrase a popular saying, a bad day in the kitchen is better than a good day at work. Baking and cooking are forms of therapy for me, and I'm sure most EYB Members would agree.… read more

A cookbook ‘starter library’

December 1, 2016 by
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  Cookbook lovers not only read, collect, and cook from cookbooks, they also love to share their passion with others by giving cookbook gifts. Whether the gift is for a holiday, wedding, graduation, or other important life event, a cookbook is not only useful and thoughtful, it can become a cherished reminder of someone's love. Over at indexed blog The… read more

All about black cocoa powder

November 30, 2016 by
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  Don't you love it when you learn something about an ingredient that you have been thinking about trying? That happened to me today, when I followed a link posted by David Lebovitz on Facebook. The link was to an article on the website bakingsociety.com (the blog by the authors of Baked) about black cocoa powder. As an avid baker, I have… read more

Getting to know Fernet-Branca

November 29, 2016 by
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The Italian amaro Fernet-Branca is riding the wave of increased interest in bitter liqueurs. Introduced in 1845 in Milan, Fernet-Branca has been made by the same family ever since. You can learn more about the popular libation in an article that profiles both the liqueur and the sixth-generation family member who represents the brand.  Edoardo Branca joined the family business following a… read more

Is the demise of restaurant guide books imminent?

November 28, 2016 by
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In the days of Yelp and instant reviews, printed dining guides are in danger of becoming irrelevant. As John Lethlean points out in The Australian, the combination of not including recent restaurants, poor writing, and other errors means the guides are not providing much value. Lethlean pens a scathing review of the 2017 Gault & Millau Australia Restaurant Guide, which… read more

How many kitchen gadgets is too many?

November 27, 2016 by
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  Recently I have gone through kitchen cabinets with ruthless determination to downsize. Not being able to close some of the doors due to the surfeit of gadgets and appliances led me to do a KonMari-style clean out. Some items had been hand-me-downs, some were purchased on a whim, and others had become less useful as I changed the way… read more

Pears are the royalty of fruit

November 26, 2016 by
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In his book Sweet Simplicity, Jacques Pépin praises pears, noting that in his native France, "pears are the king of fruits." There are thousands of varieties of pears, although supermarkets usually only stock a handful of the most popular. Pears are wonderful in a variety of desserts, and they also enhance everything from roasts to salads. The editors at indexed magazine Saveur… read more

Roasting vegetables wasn’t always popular

November 25, 2016 by
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  With all of the photos of slightly charred, deeply roasted vegetables on Instagram today, it is difficult to imagine that this method of preparing vegetables was seldom used just a generation ago. Slate.com takes a look at this phenomenon and tries to trace the ascendancy of roasted vegetables into today's ubiquitous occurrence.   If you look at older cookbooks,… read more

Post-game analysis

November 24, 2016 by
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The dust is now settling (along with the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and pie) on Thanksgiving 2016 in the US. As we sit in our turkey-induced stupor, we should resist the urge to take a nap and instead do a 'post-game analysis' on what dishes we loved, what was merely average, and what we will never, ever make again. If we… read more

A new way to make Swiss meringue

November 23, 2016 by
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  Meringue is a pastry kitchen staple. Not only is it good as a topping for pie, it's also the foundation for many other sweets, including pavlova, macarons, and buttercream icing. There are three basic types of meringue: French, Italian, and Swiss. Pastry chef Stella Parks (aka bravetart) explains the difference between them and tells us why we should rethink… read more

The stress of cooking for multiple diets

November 22, 2016 by
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  If you are like me, you obsess over holiday meal planning, attempting to design a delicious menu that will please everyone. That is stressful enough on its own, but throw in a  family member with special dietary needs or restrictions and you raise the anxiety level to new heights. NPR's The Salt takes a look at how stressful special… read more

Get to know nigella seeds

November 21, 2016 by
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  Have you ever purchased a spice for a recipe, then wonder what to do with the remainder of the package? That has happened to me on more than one occasion, most recently with nigella seeds that I purchased for a dish that will not be repeated. Therefore I was happy to find a post on Food Republic that promised… read more

Eating her way through history

November 20, 2016 by
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If you've ever leafed through historic cookbooks, you probably imagined what some of the more obscure recipes and ingredients tasted like. Sarah Lohman doesn't only imagine it, she creates the historical dishes. As a self-described "historic gastronomist", Lohman uses vintage cookbooks and other historical writings as a way to bring history to life.  Lohman just finished a week of eating the… read more

Tips for cell phone food photography

November 19, 2016 by
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Many of you have taken advantage of the new feature that allows you to add your own photos to recipes in the EYB Library. It's easy to upload a photo from your cell phone directly into the Library since the website now functions the same on mobile platforms as it does from one's computer. Shooting food photos with a phone… read more

The cookbook as comic book trend

November 18, 2016 by
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  The earliest cookery books were simple instruction manuals. A few line drawings might accompany the text, but lavish design was just not part of the equation. This was partly to do with cost; few books had color pages. As the price of both photography and color printing came down, more and more books included photographs, to the point where… read more

Tips for using your steamer

November 17, 2016 by
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  If you have a bamboo or other steamer lurking in the back of your kitchen cabinets, you may want to pull it out and give it a good cleaning. That's because Heidi Swanson, of indexed blog 101 Cookbooks, is going to give you new ideas for using your underutilized steamer.   Swanson is a big fan of steam cooking,… read more

Planning for the leftovers

November 16, 2016 by
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  Cooks in the U.S. are in the midst of Thanksgiving meal preparations, and we are happy to offer Rick Rodgers' expert advice to help your meal be the best ever. While you are planning your menu, you may also want to give some thought to how you will use up any leftovers so you aren't feeling the turkey sandwich… read more

Food trends of the last decade

November 15, 2016 by
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  Every year prognosticators try to guess what the next year's food trend will be. We recently saw that vegetable yogurt and watermelon juice are two of the foods to watch in 2017. How well those predictions actually play out is another story. Looking back at the last decade, Nation's Restaurant News reports on which foods actually increased in the… read more

You say potato…

November 14, 2016 by
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  While exotic, expensive ingredients can make a dish shine, some mundane, even cheap, foodstuffs transcend their humble origins. Take the potato, for example. It's equally at home in breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and the forms it can take are myriad. You can dress potatoes up for the fanciest dinner party, but a simple baked potato also pleases the palate.… read more

That 70s food

November 13, 2016 by
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  As food trends change through the ages, people often look back to previous eras and revive the popular food and drink from that time. The craft cocktail movement is one example, hearkening back to the golden age of cocktails in the early 20th century, and even reviving 19th century favorites. Anna Pallai is taking a look at a different… read more
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