Posts Tagged ‘Serious Eats’
Hungry for Linkage: Eatie, Semi-Vegan and Chocolate Marshmallows
Posted by Stefanie Gans / Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
2012′s new foodie word: Eatie. Thank Rachael Ray. [Eater]
Six totally managable home cooking resolutions. [Big Girls Small Kitchen]
Do what Mark Bittman says: Give (semi) vegan a chance. [NYT]
Craft brew goes corporate and with plans for Ballston. [ARLnow.com]
Don’t believe in climate change, just ask the wine industry. [Yale Environment 360 via Serious Eats]
Still indulging? Homemade chocolate marshmallows. [Bakers Royale]
Pizza Hut as nail art (fourth item). [Oddee.com]
And really, just read what The Washingtonian food writers are reading. [Washingtonian]
Photo by Stefanie Gans, fettuccine alla noce at Pulcinella
Would you ever attempt homemade bagels?
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Photo by rusvaplauke/Flickr.
Today’s home baking debate is no longer about the inferiority of Wonder Bread compared to fresh, homemade loaves. That’s been done (and the answer should be obvious).
What bloggers seem to be churning out of their ovens these days are the kinds of bread products that the majority of us tend to leave to the experts: bagels, English muffins, soft-pretzels and other individually proportioned breads.
I’ve also noticed more than a few blog entries by ambitious home bakers who set out to pit commercial baked goods against the homemade variety.
To prove I’m not just imagining things, here’s some evidence I’ve gathered on this trend:
Slate contributor, Jennifer Reese, conducts a cost-benefit analysis to assess the value of homemade bagels (along with a host of other pantry staples like crackers, yogurt and even cream cheese) compared with the store-bought variety. Her vote on the homemade bagel question: “Make or buy? Make.”
Melinda McCamant from Serious Eats reports on the results of “The English Muffin Experiment,” which compared homemade English muffins with commercial muffin brands (including Trader Joe’s and Thomas’). Her verdict: “I wanted my English Muffins to win and in the end, based on overall taste, cost, and quality of ingredients, they did.”
Pioneer Woman invites Smitten Kitchen over to hang out. Smitten Kitchen talks Pioneer Woman into baking homemade bagels. Pioneer Woman’s life will never be the same: “We made bagels today, and while I realize I’m slightly prone to hyperbole from time to time, I will say this: THESE BAGELS HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE.” We’re guessing that they’re pro-homemade as well.
What I haven’t seen are tons of blog posts encouraging us to make our own croissants — and I think I know why. I once made a batch of homemade croissants from a recipe in Rose Levy Barenbaum’s The Pie and Pastry Bible.
And it took me fourteen hours.
Granted, they were the flakiest, buttery-est croissants I’ve ever had (thanks to over half a pound of European butter), but I can’t see myself ever making them again.
Here’s what I want to know about your home baking adventures:
1. Would you ever try baking bagels, English muffins or croissants at home?
2. What’s the most ambitious thing you’ve ever attempted to bake? And was it worth it?
– Christina Lee
A Blog Devoted to [Insert Food Here]
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, April 30th, 2009
A screenshot of a blog devoted to a dip made from garbanzo beans.
Serious Eats has separate blogs devoted to both hamburgers and pizza, which I think is fitting. If any two foods deserve their own blog, it’s those greasy iconic classics.
But what about the other deserving foods out there? Is anyone giving them blog love?
I searched all over the web for online odes to specific foods (the more specific the better). Some sites, like http://www.thebananablog.com/ (warning: NSFW), were . . . not quite what I thought they’d be. Luckily, I found more than enough food fan blogs out there that fit the bill.
Here’s a short list of ‘em:
What food would you blog about?
I think I’d blog about eggs and all the delicious things you can make with them: frittatas, omelets, soufflés, scrambled eggs, soft-boiled eggs, egg salad, eggs benedict, quiche…I could probably keep that blog going for years.
– Christina Lee
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
Trader Joe's unveils its newest model of designer eggs -- now with twice the cholesterol! Photo by alx chief/Flickr.
Adam Kuban from Serious Eats reports that one reader bought a carton of Trader Joe’s jumbo eggs only to find found that every single one of them was double-yolked — that’s a total of twenty-four yolks distributed across only a dozen eggs.
I don’t know about you, but I had an immediate visceral reaction when I first laid eyes on that sea of yolks. It’s not like I’ve never encountered a double-yolked egg before. (I once found one while making an omelet and immediately whisked the whole thing together so I could pretend it never happened).
There’s just something seeing mutated foods en masse that makes me feel like the world is falling apart. One egg has only one yolk – that’s an equation that sustains our everyday logic. I can ignore one or two freak occurrences, but a whole dozen of them makes me question my view of reality.
A commenter on that Serious Eats egg post astutely points out that:
Factory farms sort out all the eggs that don’t meet the textbook image of what an egg should be. Eggs that are too long, too squat, too big, too small, unevenly shaped or colored are all picked out in order not to freak out the oh so fragile consumer.
Egg laying is a complex process…you can bet all the things coming out of the hens aren’t picture perfect.
So, what other egg mutations aren’t we aware of?
Conveniently, PoultryHelp.com has a whole page dedicated to odd eggs, complete with disturbing pictures. (Apparently enough people have emailed them with questions about egg mutations that they felt the need to give the topic it’s own FAQ).
Here’s a list of some of the creepiest egg malformations from that page:
- NO YOLK – These are commonly called “fart eggs” in the poultry industry.
- MORE THAN TWO YOLKS – PoultryHelp.com claims that one record-breaking egg held a total of nine yolks.
- NO SHELL – Instead of a hard shell, a thin pliable membrane encloses the egg contents like a squishy water balloon (ugh).
- EGG WITHIN AN EGG– It would blow my mind if I cracked an egg into a bowl and saw another miniature egg come out.
- ODD-SHAPED – One egg found in China looks vaguely like a soup spoon (a Chinese soup spoon, of course).
Have you encountered any of these freaky eggs while making breakfast? More importantly, were you able to bring yourself to eat them?
– Christina Lee
Serious Eats Hatches a New Brand of Easter Evil
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, April 6th, 2009
While everyone else around town awaits the big winner of our local peep-orama parade, the folks at Serious Eats are unveiling their latest Frankenstein treat–the S’meep:
(Photo: Serious Eats)
Half peep + half S’more = confectionary doom.
And the worst part is, it’s only day 1 of “Peeps Week 2009.” (Why, SE, why can’t you use your broilers for good?)
–Warren Rojas