New Food Blogs Take Devotion to a New Level

Go beyond the Joy of Cooking with Slate's recommendations

(NEWSER) - What to get the foodie or chef who already has all the classic cookbooks? Slate compiles offbeat favorites recommended by Mollie Katzen, James Oseland and other standout chefs, food editors, and more.

1. Ethan Becker: Cookwise—Less a cookbook than a bible of general cooking knowledge.
2. Dan Barber: The River Cottage Meat Book—"A carnivore's manifesto."
3. Melissa Clark: The Mensch Chef —Traditional Jewish recipe perfection.

Vegetarian occupants hope chef 'is not rolling over in her grave'

(NEWSER) - The sacrilege! Not only has the kitchen in Julia Child’s former Cambridge home—familiar to millions of devotees of her show—been renovated to within an inch of its life, the Boston Globe reports, its new owners have hung a picture of a cow with the caption: “Nobody says when I grow up I want to be a hamburger.” That’s right: Lisa Landsverk and her family are vegetarians. More»

Rarely the same, but effort offers insight

(NEWSER) - Restaurant cookbooks allow you to tap into a chef's genius, but rarely do they yield perfect re-creations of beloved dishes, notes food writer Lauren Shockey for Slate. Shockey tries her hand at recipes from a couple of Manhattan's renowned restaurants— Shopsin's, Carmine's, and Chantarelle—and goes on-site for a taste comparison.

• Eat Me's recipe for Shopsin's "slutty cakes" (pancakes inspired by the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup) leave out the pistachio ingredient. Editorial oversight? "Or does Shopsin not want people to duplicate his recipes?" Shockey wonders.

Perhaps not so health-conscious, but surely cost-conscious—not to mention yummy

(NEWSER) - Faced with a heaping pile of chicken skin and fat after using the rest of the bird in some healthy dish? Those squishy, sallow leftovers, Francis Lam writes in Gourmet, present the perfect opportunity to cook up "the noblest form of chicken byproduct": cracklins. With that extra skin and fat all crisped up, Lam drools, "imagine … sneaking the best part of fried chicken into everything." More»

Culinary types find some foods too daunting to dish

(NEWSER) - Obscure ingredients, tedious techniques, and absurdly complex prep—cooks say some recipes push them to the boiling point. Any step too impractical, time-consuming, or just plain unpalatable can make even the most accomplished cooks hang up their aprons, writes Kim Severson in the New York Times. Even food critics balk when told to harvest sea water or handpick fresh grape leaves. More»