Tracing a recipe’s path

September 14, 2023 by
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In the small North Dakota farming community where I grew up, most residents belong to a group known as "Germans from Russia" (GFR), which describes a "a unique group of Germans who lived in Russia after the 1760s and began their immigration onto the Great Plains in the 1870s" according to The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. My ancestors fit this description,… read more

Sometimes you have to stray to remember how good you have it

September 12, 2023 by
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Because I was having issues with my internet service today I needed to test response times and decided to use some recipe search engines to gauge how well the ISP's fix was working (yes, I know I could do an Oookla speed test but where's the fun in that?). After navigating several websites, I was reminded of just how good… read more

Food news antipasto

September 11, 2023 by
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Even though I love to cook and bake, sometimes nothing will satisfy a craving like junk food: cheese puffs with an orange coating that resembles no real cheese but is so good I'll lick it off my fingers , a too-sweet cake with a best-by date that is months into the future, or cookies with an ingredient list of things… read more

Le Creuset supercollectors – and Gen Z loves LC too

September 9, 2023 by
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Jenny and I have written about our fondness for Le Creuset and its ever expanding range of gorgeous colors, designs, and shapes. Both of us have collected many pieces over the years, and while Jenny's collection puts mine to shame, both of us look like rank amateurs when compared to the Le Creuset "supercollectors" profiled in a recent article in… read more

TikTok food trends can have real economic impact

September 7, 2023 by
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Whether you love or hate trending TikTok food videos, they are more than just something entertaining to watch. In the aggregate, they can actually drive food producers to change their production, says Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes. This is especially true of "center of the plate" proteins (which usually means meat), but it can affect other products as well. But with every… read more

Guild of Food Writers announces 2023 winners

September 6, 2023 by
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The Guild of Food Writers announced the winners of its prestigious awards at a banquet this evening at the Royal Institution’s world-famous theater. The Guild awards recognize emerging talent as well as the best-known food writers and broadcasters in the UK. The 16 categories range from books and podcasts to recipe and restaurant writing. There was a new category this… read more

GBBO gets the message

September 5, 2023 by
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After a few years of poorly conceived country-based theme weeks, the producers of the Great British Bake Off have finally seen the light. They have eliminated these types of themes and are returning to the basics that made the program an international success. The show's producer, Kieran Smith, acknowledged the missteps in an interview with The Guardian. “We didn’t want… read more

Food news antipasto

September 4, 2023 by
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First up this week is a delightful interview with Jürgen Krauss, a semifinalist in the 2021 Great British Bake Off. Krauss discusses how his childhood in Germany's Black Forest region influences his baking, and why he doesn't hold a grudge against GBBO for his shocking exit from the program, which spurred over 100 to make complaints to the UK's communications regulator.… read more

Raw milk is back in the spotlight

September 2, 2023 by
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Raw milk is getting a lot of attention again due to a plethora of TikTok videos and endorsements by celebrities touting the alleged health benefits of drinking the unpasteurized dairy product. Tom Parker-Bowles recently wrote that raw milk has endured “no pasteurisation, homogenisation or standardisation, meaning it still contains the full complement of vitamins, minerals and natural digestive enzymes, as… read more

Stop telling me how to get rid of the garlic smell on my hands

August 31, 2023 by
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Frequently a post saying something like "this is the best method to remove the garlic smell from your hands" will pop up in my news feed. I never click on those posts. Not only do I not want to remove the odor, I would be open to a perfume that smells like garlic when it is thrown into hot butter.… read more

It’s pumpkin spice season, but it doesn’t feel like it

August 30, 2023 by
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Starbucks released its seasonal drinks, including the famed Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL), on August 24. While the flavors scream autumn, the weather does not in most people living in the US. Part of this discrepancy stems from the fact that Starbucks has pushed up the release date since the PSL debuted 20 years ago in October, 2003. As the years… read more

Jamila Robinson to head Bon Appétit and Epicurious

August 28, 2023 by
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The Philadelphia Inquirer's assistant managing editor for food and culture, Jamila Robinson, has been tapped to lead Condé Nast magazine Bon Appétit and its companion website Epicurious, the newspaper announced earlier today. Robinson has been with the Inquirer since 2020, first as its food editor and then as an assistant managing editor. She will be replacing veteran book editor Dawn… read more

Food news antipasto

August 27, 2023 by
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First up this week is a fun little quiz to test your knowledge of pantry staples. It starts off pretty easy by asking what are the ingredients in pesto, but it gets more difficult after that. There were some foods I hadn't encountered, although because it's multiple choice most answers become clear even if you don't have a jar of… read more

In the bag: how packaged salad took over the supermarket

August 26, 2023 by
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If you time-traveled back to the 1970s and told the average supermarket shopper that 50 years hence there would be entire supermarket aisles devoted to bagged salad greens and kits, and that twenty percent of all vegetable sales would be spent on salads, you would probably be met with skepticism. At that time you would have been hard pressed to… read more

The celebrity endorsement

August 25, 2023 by
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As I was scrolling through Twitter today, an advertisement featuring chef Gordon Ramsay appeared in my feed. Ramsey was extolling the virtues of Triscuit crackers, something the chef has been doing since February, according to AdWeek. The advertising campaign "features Ramsay as his authentic and unfiltered self and celebrates the wholesome but crunchy things in life that are full of… read more

Angel hair pasta is back

August 23, 2023 by
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I was puzzled when I saw the tweet from Eater stating that angel hair pasta was making a comeback. "Had it ever really left?" I wondered. As I discovered, this is only because I live with an angel hair fanatic: every time I ask what pasta he would like to accompany the sauce I plan to make, the answer is… read more

The rise of the orange yolk

August 22, 2023 by
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When I was growing up I had the luxury of eating only farm fresh eggs because my grandmother raised chickens. Of course, when you're a child you do not recognize the luxuries you have; I wanted to get the pure white eggs from the supermarket that didn't have pieces of straw and dirt (and worse) on them. Now I would… read more

Food news antipasto

August 20, 2023 by
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As if people in the US didn't have enough to worry about with oppressive heat in multiple locations, hurricanes AND an earthquake in California, and tornados in the South and Midwest, now we have to be careful about foamy, exploding watermelons. What's next, locusts?! If you are the kind of person who will take a chance on a foamy watermelon,… read more

Taste Canada releases shortlist for 2023 awards

August 19, 2023 by
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Now in its 26th year, Taste Canada Awards / Les Lauréats des Saveurs du Canada has announced its shortlist of cookbooks vying for a coveted culinary writing award. Seventy-six cookbooks entered the competition, written by authors from across Canada. The shortlist narrowed the competition to 41 entries, featuring authors from six provinces. The winners will be announced at the Taste… read more

Putting a lid on it

August 18, 2023 by
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stainless steel pan lids of varying sizes overlapping each other
Kitchen storage is a source of endless fascination and often frustration for people who love to cook. Most of us are not blessed with enormous kitchens that have bespoke cabinets to house anything and everything imaginable, nor do we have picture-perfect cookware or bakeware sets where all the pieces conveniently stack or fit together like Russian nesting dolls. The vast… read more

All about induction

August 16, 2023 by
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My first exposure to induction cooking occurred way back in 1995. The company I worked for at the time had previously ventured into selling appliances but rather quickly decided it was not a good fit for its business model. A few odds and ends remained on a clearance rack in one of the company's retail stores, and among those was… read more

Echoes of kitchens past

August 16, 2023 by
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The Roma tomatoes in my garden are going gangbusters right now, despite highly variable weather this summer. The bounty led to an early canning session that resulted in six pints of whole tomatoes. As I prepared the tomatoes by coring, scalding, and peeling, my mind's eye flashed back several decades to the times when I "helped" my grandmother with her… read more

Food news antipasto

August 13, 2023 by
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How old is too old to bake? Minnesota's Marjorie Johnson believes there is no upper age limit, because the spry 104-year-old is busy baking up a storm. She will be entering baked goods into the Minnesota State Fair later this month, something she has been doing since the 1970s. She has racked up scores of blue ribbons and hopes to… read more

Debunking the myth of a ‘national’ dish

August 12, 2023 by
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Occasionally we post an article about the (often dubious) origin stories that go hand-in-hand with a particular region or country. One example is the story of pavlova, in which two countries - Australia and New Zealand - both claim ownership of the dish. James Beard award winner Anya von Bremzen looks at origin stories like this in her latest book, National… read more

Do you make the ‘orphan recipes’ in cookbooks?

August 11, 2023 by
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A white book opened to see the blank inside pages, on a white background
Food writer Bee Wilson recently posed a question to readers on her blog, asking if they were more or less likely to make a recipe in a cookbook where some recipes have photos and others do not. She called these 'orphan recipes' and feels that they are overlooked by most people because they lack an accompanying image. Wilson thinks she… read more
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