Spice support: cardamom

June 25, 2017 by
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  Do you remember the first time you tasted cardamom? Perhaps it occurred when you nibbled on Swedish meatballs or drank masala chai. Cardamom's enchanting flavor has made a home for itself in cuisines across the globe.  One of the world's most expensive spices, cardamom ranks just behind saffron and vanilla in cost, sharing their persnickety growing conditions and laborious hand-harvesting requirements. The… read more

When it comes to recipes, does more always mean better?

June 24, 2017 by
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It can be difficult to imagine cooking before the internet, but it was not that terribly long ago when you had to rely on cookbooks or family members to find a recipe. The proliferation of easily available recipes for almost any food imaginable was only possible due to the the lightning-fast sharing we can do via social media and email.… read more

How to keep your tomatoes from getting wrinkly

June 22, 2017 by
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  Perfectly ripe tomatoes are a favorite part of summer. Their brief season (brief, at least, to those of us in the far northern latitudes) is something people look forward to during the long winter months. Once the season hits, it is easy to get into trouble buying too much at the farmer's market so proper storage is essential. Over… read more

How to avoid measuring mistakes

June 19, 2017 by
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  Baking can be intimidating to the most seasoned of cooks because of its requirements for accurate measuring. Using a digital scale solves a lot of measuring problems, but there are some instances when it might not be the best tool, says Stella Parks of Serious Eats. She provides advice on when to use a scale and other guidance on… read more

Demand for vanilla drives up prices

June 17, 2017 by
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  It's difficult to imagine baking without vanilla. The flavor is ubiquitous in everything from pies to cakes to cookies. Other desserts like puddings and pastry cream also rely on it distinctive floral and fruity flavor notes. Growing consumer demand for all-natural products, coupled with other factors, has spiked demand in real vanilla, causing prices to shoot skyward. Even though… read more

The difference between corned beef and pastrami

June 15, 2017 by
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When you go into any American deli, you're likely to find many of the same deli products, with a few regional specialties thrown into the mix. Among the staples you will usually find corned beef or pastrami. Most people use the two interchangeably, but they are different products. Indexed magazine Food and Wine explains the difference between the two, as… read more

This supper club bridges cultures

June 11, 2017 by
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One of the best ways to learn a language is through everyday experiences like eating. That's part of the philosophy behind the Manchester, England supper club called Heart and Parcel. The club teaches English to migrant women through cookery classes.  The club's co-founders and teachers Karolina Koscien and Clare Courtney came up with the idea after funding cuts to English… read more

Cooking for the James Beard House

June 9, 2017 by
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Following James Beard's death in 1985, a group of his friends and colleagues, led by Julia Child, banded together to find a fitting use for the culinary icon's home, a New York City brownstone. Beard had welcomed students, authors, chefs, and other food  professionals into his home. The kitchen there was a integral part of America's mid-to-late-20th century food scene.  We… read more

What’s the difference between sorbet, sherbet, ice cream, and gelato?

June 7, 2017 by
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Cool, rich and creamy treats like ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, and gelato are some of life's best simple treasures. They are all delicious, but there are distinctions between the types of frozen dessert. As with most food items, exceptions blur the lines among the desserts, and there are peculiarities between countries that make strict definitions nearly impossible. If you are… read more

Spice support: mustard seed

June 6, 2017 by
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In previous editions of Spice Support, we have focused on ingredients unfamiliar to many Western palates, like mahleb and fenugreek. Today we are looking at a common spice that you may overlook because of its ubiquitous appearance in less than its best form: mustard. Most households have some form of mustard, although frequently you'll find it in a yellow squirt… read more

Pairing cookbooks with fiction

June 5, 2017 by
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Many literary classics have inspired cookbooks, such as The Boxcar Children Cookbook or The Jane Austen Cookbook. Over at the website Book Riot, Dana Staves takes a different tack - she is pairing classic cookbooks with modern fictional tales. The idea is to make something from the cookbook, then enjoy the fruits of your labors while you dig into the… read more

A table, food and building a community

June 4, 2017 by
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We all have one of those friends - that totally together person who can do it all - and even when she writes about what she views as her shortcomings she further cements our total admiration of her. My friend is Kim Foster - gorgeous blonde, sexy husband, beautiful children, words spray magically from her like a fountain, champion to so many… read more

What does your egg preference say about you?

June 4, 2017 by
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  My husband and I were eating with friends the other day at a restaurant that has a popular weekly brunch menu. As we were placing our orders, one of my friends asked for a poached egg. The waitress looked at him quizzically, and said "That's the same as over easy, right?" After a quick check with the kitchen, we… read more

June is London Food Month

June 2, 2017 by
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  Today might be National Doughnut Day in the US but in London, the scope of celebrating is much more expansive. The London Evening Standard is promoting its first London Food Month, featuring hundreds of food-related activities including events by celebrity chefs and over 50 food stalls. In addition, there will be open-air cinema, Dj's, live music, and art installations. The… read more

10 tips every cook should know

May 29, 2017 by
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  What do you do on your days off? If you are like Felicity Cloake, you spend the day cooking and baking, honing your culinary skills. To help you jump-start the process, Cloake offers 10 cooking tips everyone should know, culled from seven years of preparing dishes for The Guardian.  First and foremost is the adage that "knives don't sharpen… read more

Spice support: mahleb

May 27, 2017 by
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  You have to wonder how people discovered some foods that take quite a bit of processing or manipulation to render the final, delicious product. That is certainly the case for mahleb (aka mahlab or mahlepi), a spice with roots in the Eastern Mediterranean. The spice is made from the seed kernel of the rock-hard pit of an extremely sour… read more

Managing your collection to make it work for you

May 26, 2017 by
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For the last month, I've been doing the unthinkable - I've been giving away cookbooks. I'll give you all a moment to collect yourselves before I go on.   Right now, I've probably purged about 1,000 books. Six hundred were donated and 400 I lost when our basement flooded. Of those 400, I repurchased less than a dozen. I allowed… read more

Watch a butcher break down a side of beef

May 26, 2017 by
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  Vegetarians and vegans, avert your eyes. But those of you who enjoy throwing a steak onto the grill will want to watch an excellent video from Bon Appétit magazine that explains every cut of steak.  The 18-minute-long video features Jason Yang, of  Fleisher's Craft Butchery, who breaks down a side of beef while explaining the various cuts including the oyster steak, filet… read more

How to edit cell phone photos

May 23, 2017 by
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We are excited to see so many Members adding their own photographs to recipes. It is always interesting to see everyone's interpretation of the same dish. We would love to see even more Member contributions in this area. Please do not think that only professional-level photos are allowed - we want to see real-world examples! Nevertheless, we understand that you… read more

The latest food trend is hundreds of years old

May 22, 2017 by
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  If you have an Instagram account and follow anyone who is into food, chances are high that you have seen dozens of photos of "cloud eggs", the latest craze to make the social media circuit. Golden yolks nestled in pillowy whites certainly are photogenic, but the recipe is nothing new. In fact, the technique dates back to the 17th… read more

Spice support: cinnamon and cassia

May 20, 2017 by
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Cinnamon is one of the most recognized and widely used spices in the world, flavoring everything from drinks to meats to breads and desserts. You might be surprised to learn that much of what you think is cinnamon is in fact a different spice. In the US, nearly all of the spice jars labeled as cinnamon actually contain cassia, which… read more

Cookie dough craze sweeps the nation

May 19, 2017 by
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  A recent tweet about a new food truck in my city made me do a double-take. Dozens of food trucks line up along several city blocks in the downtown area, but this one is serving something that none of the others have attempted: cookie dough. This is just the latest in a craze that has swept across the US… read more

Are chefs getting too much adoration?

May 15, 2017 by
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  In the last decade or so, chefs have achieved rock-star status. We've profiled a fair number of these chefs (at least the ones who became cookbook authors) on the EYB blog, reporting on their new dining ventures like pop-up restaurants in far-flung locations, noting the lists of the "world's best" restaurants, and so on. Some folks, like Drew Magary, think… read more

Spice support: nigella sativa

May 14, 2017 by
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If spices were classified by Alton Brown as 'unitaskers' or multi-taskers', nigella sativa would definitely fall into the latter camp. Also known as black caraway, nigella seed, onion seed, kalonji, and charnuska, nigella sativa hails from the Indian subcontinent. The most common name in the EYB Library is nigella seed, so that is how we will refer to the spice in this… read more

The financial challenges of cookbook writing

May 13, 2017 by
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We have posted many stories about people who have written (or ghostwritten) cookbooks. The tales include sneak peeks into the worlds of recipe testing, design, the long back-and-forth of editing, finding a voice, and so on. One thing rarely discussed in these stories: the finances. Food52 takes us behind the curtain to explore the 'harsh financials' of cookbook publishing.  There… read more
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