A rare glimpse into the making of Le Creuset

June 22, 2015 by
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  If you peek into the cabinets of EYB Members, you will probably find plenty of enameled cast iron, and much of that bearing the Le Creuset brand. The fabled casseroles, dutch ovens, and other pans are a touchstone for many cooks. The durable cookware is often passed from one generation to the next, becoming a prized family heirloom. Now chef… read more

Guide to substitutions

June 18, 2015 by
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Don't you hate it when you start a baking project or recipe only to find you are missing one of the ingredients? You can sometimes make substitutions that will allow you to continue, but you have to spend time searching for what you can use. Skip the search and hang up the following substitution chart on the inside of your… read more

Turning disaster into delight

June 15, 2015 by
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It happens to the best of us. We leave a pan of vegetables in the oven too long, or we forget about the beans boiling in the saucepan, and suddenly we have blackened or mushy vegetables. But you don't have to throw away these culinary mishaps, says Tamar Adler. Instead, she advises us to turn tragedy into triumph by reimagining… read more

Thousands of cookbooks – and a controversial past

June 12, 2015 by
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Dalia Carmel's New York City apartment might be a cookbook lover's dream: you can find cookbooks from floor to ceiling in nearly every room of the home. What's even more impressive is that the thousands of books in the apartment are only a fraction of her collection - she has already donated over 11,000 volumes to New York University. One does not amass… read more

The history of the hamburger

June 8, 2015 by
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If you're a fan of burgers, you need to visit Grub Street to read the story of the hamburger. It's actually more than just one story, as Grub Street interweaves several short articles into a longer narrative discussing the rise of the gourmet burger. The smaller vignettes include a blind burger sauce taste testing by Daniel Boulud, a discussion of… read more

Memories influence your choice of food

June 6, 2015 by
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Scientists are continually on a quest to understand how our minds work. Recent research delved into determining how our memories can influence the food we choose, and was reported in the scientific journal Neuron. Everyone has memories that revolve around food, and we would expect that we choose food that we liked based on our pleasant recollection. That is not… read more

How good are lower sugar baking recipes?

June 5, 2015 by
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Alternative sweeteners and lower-sugar desserts are all the rage, as evidenced by two popular new cookbooks - Baking with Less Sugar by Joanne Chang of Flour Bakery fame and Real Sweet by blogger Shauna Sever. Each aims to create delicious desserts using alternative sweeteners, unrefined sugar and/or less sugar. If you have been wondering just how well these alternative sweeteners… read more

100 is the magic number

June 3, 2015 by
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Browse the EYB Library long enough and you're certain to stumble across the number 100 in a cookbook title. There are over 3,000 centuplicate cookbooks in the Library, and this year there are a few big names who are featuring 100 in their cookbooks. Emeril Lagasse has a new book due out this October, in which he distills his storied… read more

Shandies are dandy

May 31, 2015 by
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When the mercury starts to rise, people begin their quest for a refreshing beverage to sip after participating in their favorite summertime activity. A shandy is the perfect drink to quench a heat-fueled thirst, but it's great almost any time. Shandies can be simple mixtures of beer paired with lemonade, soda, fruit juice, ginger beer, or another beverage, but they… read more

André Soltner on the importance of mother sauces

May 27, 2015 by
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If you asked cooks today to name the five classic mother sauces most probably couldn't recite them. But chef André Soltner certainly can, and he thinks that knowing these sauces is vital to anyone cooking in a restaurant. The esteemed chef knows a thing or two about these sauces and plenty more. The long time chef of the highly regarded Lutèce in NYC,… read more

Highlights of the 2015 Ballymaloe LitFest

May 27, 2015 by
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For the second year running we spent a most glorious weekend at Ballymaloe (pronounced Bally-mal-loo), which hosted the third Kerrygold Cooking Literary Festival of Food & Wine (LitFest for short). The venue for the festival is split between the Ballymaloe House grounds and the nearby Ballymaloe Cookery School, which is helmed by Darina Allen and numerous members of the Allen family.… read more

The guide to grilling guides

May 24, 2015 by
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This long weekend marks the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. The Memorial Day holiday also kicks off the grilling season, especially for those in more northern latitudes who eagerly anticipate the first firing of the grill. Although tradition dictates that steaks and hamburgers will make an appearance, more and more people are venturing beyond meat to grill fruit,… read more

Avian flu causes worry about egg shortage

May 21, 2015 by
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An outbreak of the avian flu in the US Midwest has prompted concerns about an impending egg shortage. Large industrial customers are developing contingency plans. Makers of products like mayonnaise, ice cream, cookies, muffins, and cake m ixes are looking to egg alternatives as a possible solution. As of this Wednesday, the flu is forcing farmers to kill more than 33… read more

A sweet seed-saving success

May 20, 2015 by
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The farm-to-table movement has produced renewed interest in heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables. It's something that David Shields knows a lot about. Shields, a professor at the University of South Carolina, is author of Southern Provisions: The Creation and Revival of a Cuisine. His mission is to restore antebellum cultivars and foodways. About 10 years ago, as part of… read more

DIY herb stripper

May 17, 2015 by
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If you're like me, you love to browse through kitchenware catalogs. (In my case it runs a close second to perusing cookbooks.) We may already have cupboards and drawers overflowing with bowls, pans, and kitchen tools, but it's still fun to see the new cookware and gadgets or swoon over the newest color of Le Creuset. Sometimes the browsing even… read more

Blanching vegetables locks in color and crunch

May 13, 2015 by
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Spring vegetables are exciting for cooks because they are fresh, delicious, and fast. You can maximize their bright flavors and colors by blanching them before using, and indexed blog Serious Eats provides a guide to using the technique with all manner of vegetables. Blanching vegetables serves a number of purposes. First, blanching destroys "enough cellular structure to just barely tenderize… read more

Jammin’ cocktails

May 10, 2015 by
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It's easy to end up with a large collection of assorted jams, jellies, and preserves. The tiny, adorable jars packed with fruits both novel and familiar practically beg us to take them home.  But there is only so much toast that you can eat, and rather few savoury uses for jams, so what else can you do with the surplus?… read more

How social media can make (or break) a cookbook

May 4, 2015 by
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Social media plays an increasingly larger role in our everyday lives as it continues to supplement and even replace news formats like newspaper, television, and radio. Not surprisingly, it has become a catalyst for new products, and no example illustrates the power of social media more than the case of the cookbook Eat. Nourish. Glow. The first book from nutritional… read more

Tips and tricks that fail to impress

May 1, 2015 by
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Cooks are always on the lookout for tips and tricks that make working in the kitchen easier. We've reported on tricks that have impressed us, like spanking pomegranates to release the arils and helpful tips on working with bacon. But sometimes "mind-blowing" kitchen hacks don't live up to their hype. Indexed blog The Kitchn reports on 12 tips that didn't… read more

Jazz up your julep

April 30, 2015 by
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Few celebrations or holidays have a cocktail that is as strongly associated with the day as the Kentucky Derby does with its mint julep. Saturday marks the 141th anniversary of the prestigious thoroughbred race, and there is no telling how many mint juleps have been consumed since the inaugural event in 1875. Southerners love their traditions, so until recently the classic cocktail saw… read more

The definition of spring

April 28, 2015 by
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Spring has finally arrived in most of the Northern Hemisphere. It's a particularly welcome change after a harsh winter in the Northeast US, although everyone enjoys the longer days and greening of the scenery. As you might expect, websites are busting out the spring vegetable recipes. The Guardian discusses seven ways to prepare ramps (aka wild garlic). These  mustardy, garlicky… read more

Make your “like” go farther

April 26, 2015 by
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Thousands of EYB Members have liked us on Facebook (thank you!). But even if you clicked "Like," you might not be seeing all of our fabulous giveaways, online recipes from new cookbooks (so you can "try before you buy"), author interviews, or interesting culinary news. To be certain you aren't missing any of these great things, navigate to the EYB… read more

How to care for your vintage cookbooks

April 24, 2015 by
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We've talked about collecting secondhand, vintage, and hand-me-down cookbooks before. But once we have acquired the precious tomes, how do we protect them and keep them in the best possible condition? Indexed blog The Kitchn provides advice from the experts. The Kitchn asked respected booksellers Celia Sack (of Omnivore Books in San Francisco) and Bonnie Slotnick (of Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks in New York City) about… read more

Clear fruit brandies make a comeback

April 19, 2015 by
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Have you ever seen a bottle of pear brandy where an entire pear rests serenely at the bottom, and wondered how the heck they get the pear in there? Wonder no more, as NPR's The Salt explains the process of making fruit eaux-de-vie, and how the liqueur is experiencing a renaissance. Perhaps you already figured out that the pear grows… read more

Mayonnaise mania

April 14, 2015 by
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Almost no food inspires brand loyalty as much as the simple condiment mayonnaise. In the US, there is a cultural divide in fans of the two major brands of mayo: Duke's, which reigns supreme in the southern part of the country, and Hellman's (known as Best Foods west of the Rocky Mountains) which holds court in the north and west. The New York… read more
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