If at first you don’t fricasse, fry, fry again

December 8, 2018 by
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My husband and I don't always see eye-to-eye on food, but there is one thing we do agree upon: almost every type of food benefits from being deep fried. While deep frying foods can be daunting - with a bubbling pot of hot oil there are many things that could go wrong - if you follow a few simple rules,… read more

Ideas for using Christmas leftovers

December 7, 2018 by
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While many cooks have their Christmas feast planned well in advance, some of us (hand raised over here) haven't even started on the menu. Very few of us have planned beyond the big meal, but that's exactly what they've done over at The Sunday Times. They are already featuring recipes to make use of the inevitable Christmas leftovers.  Even if… read more

An unconventional CEO pens a cookbook

December 6, 2018 by
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Celebrity cookbooks are not new, but one that passed through my newsfeed today was a bit different from the rest. Usually celebrities who pen cookbooks are in the entertainment industry and posses a huge following on social media. Since they are already in the spotlight, they don't mind letting people into their daily lives, which means cooking. Today's news was… read more

Where there’s smoke, there’s flavor

December 5, 2018 by
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In one of the teaser's for the Netflix series The Final Table, you can catch a glimpse of one of the judges lifting up a glass cloche as a small billow of smoke is released. The world's top chefs have long used smoke in various ways to add flavor to dishes, whether indirectly through a smoking process or by using… read more

Leaving a cookbook legacy

December 4, 2018 by
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If you have a significant number of cookbooks, you may have thought about what will happen to your collection when you are no longer around or able to keep it. You might have a plan for some or even all of your books, perhaps bequeathing them to friends, family, or the local library. But what would you do if you… read more

Startups that are transforming the cookware world

December 3, 2018 by
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If you haven't upgraded your cookware in years because of the sticker shock of brands like Le Creuset, All Clad and Staub, you might want to investigate the cookware startups that have sprung up over the past few years. A bevy of companies are taking aim at the venerated but costly giants in the industry with new lines of cookware… read more

Love for latkes

December 2, 2018 by
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Latkes are among the many traditional foods that will make an appearance on tables during Hanukkah, which began today. Epicurious offers tips on how to make perfect potato latkes to ensure that each one is light, crispy, and delicious. Follow these steps and your friends and family will be asking for this classic holiday treat year-round. After testing different types of potatoes, Epicurious… read more

A vegetarian holiday table

December 1, 2018 by
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As more and more people choose to eat less meat or no meat at all for health and ethical consideration, planning holiday meals gets increasingly complex. It can be a challenge to find hearty, festive dishes that will be an appropriate substitute for what is often a meat-heavy meal and that will also please everyone including the omnivores. However, recipe… read more

Has food become too pretentious?

November 30, 2018 by
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It's time again for the predictions of trends for the coming year. According one such list, up-and-coming food items for 2019 include calamansi juice, lichen, and seaweed. Those trends, which feature esoteric, rare, and expensive foods, don't sit well with The Guardian's Poppy Noor. She wonders why food has become so pretentious.  Noor laments the trends toward exotic ingredients that… read more

Chef José Andrés nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize

November 29, 2018 by
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Chef José Andrés can add another accolade to his storied humanitarian work: he has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Earlier this week, it was confirmed that the chef had been nominated for the prize by Democratic congressman John Delaney. It's not the first time Andrés has been recognized for his tireless relief efforts - in February he was named the  Humanitarian… read more

Cookbook sales continue to climb

November 28, 2018 by
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Good news for cookbook lovers - despite concerns that we might have achieved 'peak cookbook', sales of cookbooks are still going strong. Sales are up 25% over last year, with offerings from big names like Ina Garten and Yotam Ottolenghi boosting sales. As popular as those authors are, they are not solely responsible for the uptick in sales. According to Allison… read more

Cookbook author Patricia Quintana has died

November 27, 2018 by
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We learned today of the passing of cookbook author and Mexican "culinary royalty" Patricia Quintana. She was a renowned international chef and an expert in Mexican gastronomy who studied cooking all around the world. For more than twenty years she was dedicated to rescuing the culinary heritage of the country and her research enabled her to travel throughout the different regions of… read more

Nora Ephron’s cookbook crushes

November 26, 2018 by
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When you make a recipe from a cookbook, do you imagine the book's author speaking to you through the instructions? If so, do you ever ask the author questions in your head? If you've ever had imaginary discussions with an author while cooking, you should definitely read the late Nora Ephron's 2006 article in The New Yorker describing her cookbook… read more

Running into a recipe paywall

November 26, 2018 by
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The EYB Library is a wonderful search tool to find a recipe that meets all of your requirements, whether they are for particular ingredients, meeting a dietary restriction, or excluding a certain type of dish. It can be exciting to discover a recipe that is exactly what you are looking for, and you squeal with delight (or is that just… read more

Dominique Ansel is offering his first MasterClass

November 24, 2018 by
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Cookbooks are an excellent medium for transferring knowledge and skills about cooking and baking. From their pages, I've learned how to make a myriad of meats, side dishes, and desserts. Some techniques, however, lend themselves to live demonstration. I was never able to master deboning a chicken until I watched Jacques Pépin  do it on his PBS show (you can… read more

Meet the illustrator for GBBO

November 23, 2018 by
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When The Great British Bake Off made its move from BBC to Channel 4, fans lamented that only one of the show's personalities, Paul Hollywood, was going to remain with the program. Truth is, there was another original cast member that made the switch, although no one ever saw his face. Tom Hovey, the artist who produces all of those… read more

What to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers

November 22, 2018 by
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The feast is over and our bellies are full, and perhaps we ate a little too much but oh it was so tasty. However, in a couple of days we'll be as weary of Thanksgiving food as our non-US members are of hearing about our feast day. Very soon we'll be standing and staring into the refrigerator wondering what to… read more

Chefs say skip the appetizer this Thanksgiving

November 21, 2018 by
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Many of us in the US are prepping well into the evening for the big food holiday - the second biggest in this country, second only to Christmas - and we have tons of last-minute details that will keep us busy right up to meal time. Likely one of those details is putting together the appetizers served up before everyone… read more

Cookbooks inspired by literature

November 20, 2018 by
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Most cookbook lovers are also literature lovers, so it's no surprise that there are crossovers between the two genres. As Emily Temple of Lithub explains, some of these cookbooks are based on author's lives, on fictional stories, or on characters from some of the world's most beloved books and authors. A few books are based on the diets of authors… read more

This cookbook sets the mood with color

November 19, 2018 by
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Gorgeous, color-saturated photographs of food are a given on Instagram and in most modern cookbooks. One of 2018's new cookbooks takes this concept to the extreme: Pantone Foodmood. Yes, you read that correctly, this is from the color company Pantone, which produces exacting color specifications for corporations, graphic designers, and everyone interested in the world of color. It's often said… read more

Holiday gifts from your favorite authors

November 18, 2018 by
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Jenny has already provided her comprehensive lists of holiday gifts for cooks and cookbook lovers. In addition, we have compiled a list featuring holiday hampers and more from popular chefs and cookbook authors around the world. Many of these sites offer special discounts for first-time buyers or have sales going on now just in time for the holidays.  These gifts… read more

Spice support: rosemary

November 17, 2018 by
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"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance," says the tortured Ophelia in Act 4, Scene 5 of Shakepeare's Hamlet. Greek scholars reportedly wore a garland of the herb on their heads to aid their memory during exams, and recent studies have shown that rosemary can indeed boost memory performance. But even if rosemary doesn't actually help you remember anything, its heady fragrance is… read more

Are you brave enough to attempt the turducken of pies?

November 16, 2018 by
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Some culinary creations are a stroke of genius - take the Cronut, for instance. Others, well, leave you scratching your head wondering why. A layered combination of pie and cake baked together in a lumbering tower is a concoction that belongs in the latter category, yet it has developed a cult following.  Meet the turducken of desserts: the pumpecapple piecake (pictured… read more

Celebrate National Bundt Day

November 15, 2018 by
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Today is National Bundt Day (an offically-named celebration day here in Minnesota, birthplace of the Bundt). The iconic pan was invented in the late 1950s by Nordic Ware founder H. David (Dave) Dahlquist. According to the Nordic Ware website, Dave and his wife Dorothy (Dotty), created the Nordic Ware company in 1948. You can read more about the birth of… read more

Indexing a masterpiece – The Escoffier Cookbook

November 14, 2018 by
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The average cookbook contains about 175 recipes. Indexing a book with that many recipes takes some time, as Members who have volunteered to index a book well know. Some books fall well below this average and a few books exceed it by a significant number of recipes. Even the most prolific cookbook authors, however, generally do not exceed a few… read more
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