Find a deal? Shop & Share: Scenes From an American Egg Shortage

Find a deal? Shop & Share: Scenes From an American Egg Shortage

A Safeway in Baltimore still had some eggs on shelves, but it was looking grim. 

Jess Mayhugh

Empty shelves and high prices await at grocery stores across the country due to bird flu outbreaks across the country!

Even if you’re not the type of person who eats two eggs for breakfast every single day, you’ve likely noticed that the egg situation in this country is a little bit weird right now. Shelves are empty, prices are high, and that’s all thanks to worsening outbreaks of avian influenza, or bird flu, which have killed millions of birds. There are also concerns about the virus, also known as the H5N1 virus, spreading to other animals, like cows, and humans.

As a result, egg prices are high. Egg-laying chickens are more susceptible to avian flu than chickens raised for meat for a variety of factors. They’re older, and spend much longer on the farm than chickens raised for meat, which are usually slaughtered within a matter of weeks. And while officials are intervening, ordering farms and markets to close and fully disinfect to stop the outbreaks, it’s likely that egg prices will remain high for the foreseeable future. It’s also possible that the shortages could worsen in the coming weeks if outbreaks continue, and the situation is already pretty bleak.

Over the weekend, I headed to three different grocery stores in my neighborhood in the Dallas suburbs — Trader Joe’s, Target, and Kroger — and the egg shelves at each were pretty bare. Every store also had its own version of a sign telling customers that the retailer was struggling to source eggs. “We are currently experiencing high demand and supplier shortages for eggs,” read the sign at Target. “We are actively seeking additional supply.” Others retailers, including Costco and Whole Foods, are limiting the number of cartons that customers can purchase.

Heading out to their own grocery stores, my colleagues at Eater saw similarly empty shelves, purchase limits, and lots of apologetic signage. Here’s what the egg situation looks like at grocery stores in cities across the country.

Sky high egg prices

Eggs were more than $1 each at H Mart in the Los Angeles area.

Cartons of eggs on a shelf with prices listed fo $13.49 and $11.99.Kat Thompson

Sparse and totally empty egg shelves

That grocery stores are finding it difficult to keep eggs stocked has been apparent at stores including Whole Foods, Safeway, and Trader Joe’s. A Trader Joe’s in San Diego even used its empty egg shelves to stock other merchandise.

Empty refrigerator shelves.
Whole Foods in Burbank was clean out of eggs over the weekend. 
Hilary Pollack

A mostly empty refrigerator case.
Empty shelves at a Whole Foods in New York City.
Nat Belkov

Refrigerated shelves stocked with sausage and biscuits but not eggs.
A freshly cleaned out Trader Joe’s shelf. 
Amanda Luansing

Refrigerator shelves stocked with Topo Chico hard seltzer and White Claw.
Rather than leave the egg shelves empty, a San Diego Trader Joe’s that was all out of eggs for the day stocked its shelves with hard seltzer.
Catherine Sweet

Explanations and excuses from grocery stores

Some stores posted signs communicating the dire state of eggs in America.

A sign that reads “We are currently experiencing difficulty sourcing eggs that meet our strict animal welfare standards.
Signs limiting egg purchases to three cartons per customer were spotted at Whole Foods in Los Angeles and New York.
Nicole Adlman

A sign posted on a refrigerator case explaining higher egg prices due to supply shortages.
A Fred Meyer in Seattle with eggs on shelves but a posted explanation for higher prices. 
Harry Cheadle

Empty egg shelves with a sign explaining the high demand for eggs.
A Target in the Dallas area wanted customers to know it was actively seeking more eggs. 

Amy McCarthy is a reporter at Eater.com, focusing on pop culture, policy and labor, and only the weirdest online trends.

doitinnorth shop/share gallery

READYWISE – Simple Kitchen, Powdered Eggs, 72 Servings

ICYMI

10 Twin Cities Chefs, Restaurants, and Bars Are James Beard Awards Semifinalists for 2025

The Best Mushroom Recipes, According to Eater Staff

The Best Mushroom Recipes, According to Eater Staff

Rebecca Marx

Make risotto, soup, pasta, and even bloody marys using your favorite mushrooms

Eater: Fall is the best time of year to go hunting for mushrooms which also means it’s the best time of year to cook mushrooms. The versatility of these meaty fungi cannot be understated: You can throw mushrooms into a soup, roast them on a sheet pan, add them to pasta, spear them into skewers — the options are endless. If you find yourself with a bounty of mushrooms, here are Eater staff’s favorite methods of using them.

Mushroom Bourguignon

Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchen

A reality most of us have to face sooner or later is that the most flavorful, exciting mushrooms — your morels, your chanterelles — aren’t the kind of mushrooms typically found in the grocery store. Smitten Kitchen’s Mushroom Bourguignon is the best recipe I’ve found for transforming cremini mushrooms, which get more points for their meaty texture than flavor, into a robust, velvety stew demanding of chilly nights. It comes together quickly, with red wine and tomato paste adding umami richness to an herby broth, while pearl onions provide balancing bursts of sweetness. I have made traditional beef bourguignon once, and have not felt the need to do so again since making this recipe. — Jaya Saxena, correspondent

Famous Mushroom Soup

The Grape Restaurant

When I first moved to town, the Grape had been a Dallas dining icon for nearly 50 years. It was one of the first “fancy” restaurants I ever visited. Unfortunately, it closed in 2019, but my memories of the cozy neighborhood French bistro are eternally fond, and its iconic cream of mushroom soup recipe lives on in my kitchen. I have since adjusted the recipe’s quantities and proportions to suit my own tastes and limited freezer space, but this is a soup worthy of making a giant batch. It’s exquisitely creamy, full of rich mushroom flavor, and perfect for dunking crackers or batons of bread into on a chilly fall day. And as Thanksgiving approaches, it’s also the ultimate substitute for that condensed stuff in the can, the kind of secret ingredient that takes your Thanksgiving green bean casserole from basic to beyond belief. — Amy McCarthy, reporter

Coconut-Braised Mushrooms with Ginger and Scallions

Chris Morocco, Bon Appétit

This recipe always makes me thankful to have a can of coconut milk in the pantry. Taking cues from rendang, it calls for cooking mushrooms in spiced coconut milk to the point that the coconut milk thickens and separates into a rich, brown coating that swaddles the mushroom chunks, and a bit of flavorful, gold-hued oil that’s sopped up nicely by warm rice. Though the recipe calls for simply adding the mushrooms to the simmering coconut milk mixture, I prefer to sear them, lightly oiled, in the pot first, since I think it yields better flavor and texture. A variety of sturdy mushrooms with different textures works best, in my experience; I love a mix of shiitake, king oyster, and regular oyster mushrooms. And to better pay homage to the dish of inspiration, I’ve also taken to swapping in Auria’s Malaysian Kitchen’s rendang spice blend for the curry powder and Peppadew peppers. — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter

Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta

Namiko Hirasawa Chen, Just One Cookbook

I am a recent mushroom convert and this is one of the recipes that helped me see the light. It turns out that searing off mushrooms in bacon fat and then tossing the meaty mixture with cream and pasta tastes really good. I think the key here is to use high quality mushrooms (I opted for oyster mushrooms, but shimeji and maitake would be outstanding here too), ensure they’re cooked down, and just melt into the sauce. I love the way the umami of the mushroom plays off the savoriness of the soy sauce, all of which is tamed by milk and cream. The best part is that it comes together in half an hour. — Kat Thompson, associate editor

Mushroom Risotto with Peas

Martha Rose Shulman, NYT Cooking

I think at least half of making a really good risotto is having some type of spidey sense for Italian cooking, but this recipe for mushroom risotto is a pretty good place to start. A risotto is deceivingly simple — at its core the dish is made of just wine, carnaroli or Arborio rice, olive oil, and some type of cooking broth. But the entire process is a delicate dance of adding the right amount of ingredients at the right time (and at the right temperature), then agitating the grains to achieve a creamy consistency without pushing the cook too far. Luckily, this recipe breaks it down to the minute to offer a process that can be easily perfected, and tweaked if need be. Spending a little more on fancy mushrooms is worth it here, as their flavor will make or break this dish. — Rebecca Roland, Eater LA associate editor

Sheet-Pan Gnocchi With Mushrooms and Spinach

Ali Slagle, NYT Cooking

I am an oyster mushroom fiend, and one of the ways I most regularly use them is this mushroom-gnocchi-spinach recipe from recipe developer extraordinaire (and former Eater contributor) Ali Slagle. This is a mushroom lover’s ideal weeknight recipe: Instead of cooking its components separately, you bake them all together on a sheet pan, which means that the only effort really required here is tearing the mushrooms and tossing everything with olive oil, salt, and pepper. You don’t even have to boil the gnocchi first; tossed with oil, it becomes crisp and creamy as it bakes. The accompanying horseradish honey mustard sauce is also mind-numbingly simple, and happens to be quite delicious. While I usually make the recipe as directed, sometimes I’ll substitute kale for spinach or add more mushrooms, because like any good mushroom fiend, I know that too much is just enough. — Rebecca Flint Marx, Eater at Home editor

Shiitake Bloody Mary

Aliza Abarbanel, Smallhold

Since the great mushroom resurgence of the early 2020s, wonderful recipes for our favorite fungi abound. However, few of these new-school mushroom recipes over-deliver on ingenuity and umami like this shiitake bloody mary. The recipe was created by a certified B corporation and urban farm, Smallhold, for their cookbook Mushroom in the Middle, and then later published on the farm’s blog. Shockingly, the process for this deviously whimsical take is much simpler than you might expect; the drink is propped up by a home-brewed shiitake vodka made by dropping dried shiitakes into a non-reactive vessel with a half liter of vodka. That’s it. Plus, the recipe produces enough of the earthy spirit to hold you over for your next few get-togethers with family and friends. (And if beer doesn’t suit your fancy, Punch has a Champagne-fueled sipper that’s sure to leave you fawning over fungi.) — Jesse Sparks, senior editor

The 16 Best Cookbooks Of Fall 2024

The 16 Best Cookbooks Of Fall 2024

Andrea D’Aquino is an illustrator and author based in New York City.

 know the drill: According to the calendar, it’s fall now, and that means it’s time to Get Serious — about school and work, about the impossible task of emotionally preparing yourself for the upcoming election, and, of course, about cooking. Between now and December, cookbook publishers will churn out some 100 new titles in service of promoting better living through eating. “Turn on your stoves!” they seem to shout. “Haul out those baking pans! Prepare to spend many hours contemplating the abyss of your Dutch oven!”

Given the sheer number of cookbooks on the horizon, choosing 16 titles to spotlight here (22 if we’re counting those included in our additional themed roundups) was, as it always is, a challenge. The titles we’ve chosen all add something new to the never-ending conversation about the foods we want to make and eat. Here, you’ll find a deep dive into Cajun cooking; baking filtered through the Bronx, India, and beyond; a deeply personal exploration of Black food, and life, in the South; smart spins on weeknight dinner; and the 100th cookbook from the queen herself, Martha Stewart. It is, as ever, as much a feast for the senses as the stomach; consider this preview your amuse bouche. — Rebecca Flint Marx


The cover of Zoe Bakes Cookies

Zoë Bakes Cookies: Everything You Need to Know About Making Your Favorite Cookies and Bars

Zoë François

Ten Speed Press, out now

The second cookbook from TV baking show host, pastry chef, and teacher Zoë François has recipes for cookies and bars for any occasion and then some, but what makes it special to me is a section in the front of the book entitled Cookie Academy. Any baker can put together 100 or so cookie recipes and reassure you that baking is fun, really, but far fewer take the space, as François does, to show you exactly how the recipes work. Over the course of a few illustrated pages, François patiently demonstrates what adding different quantities and types of sugar, leaveners, and fats, along with eggs and flour, does to a cookie. Even if you’re an experienced home baker, seeing this laid out in one place is illuminating.

François organizes her recipes into chapters that reflect her upbringing: The first chapter, titled The Vermont Commune, was inspired by her childhood spent on one, and contains a lot of oats: There are no fewer than four kinds of oatmeal cookies, and there are two permutations of granola. Granny Neal’s Christmas Cookies and Bubbe Berkowitz’s Cookies comprise treats baked by François’s grandmothers (think linzers and rugelach, respectively), while State Fair and Other Favorites nods to her current, longtime home of Minnesota.

It was in this chapter that I found a recipe for blueberry gooey butter bars, which François describes as the “love child of the famous St. Louis gooey butter cake and a blueberry oat crisp.” Easy to follow, it made some very delicious, very gooey bars that were marred only slightly by a greasy shortbread crust. A quick trip back to the Cookie Academy explained the issue: I’d let the butter soften too much. Baking is full of mistakes, but it’s a rare baking book that tells you why, and in doing so encourages you to try, try again. — RFM


The cover of Persian Feasts

Persian Feasts: Recipes & Stories From a Family Table

Leila Heller with Lila Charif, Laya Khadjavi, and Bahar Tavakolian

Phaidon, September 10th

If I had to pick one word to describe Persian Feasts, it’d be colorful. It’s so easy to get lost in the maze of dazzling salads glittering with ruby-hued pomegranate seeds, caramelized pears scattered with bright green slivered pistachios, and endless stews and curries dyed yellow with saffron. It’s no wonder that the visuals of Persian Feasts are so stunning, as the author, Leila Heller, is an art gallerist with a clear affinity for design.

Persian Feasts doesn’t have a singular definition for what constitutes Persian food; Heller celebrates khoresht fesenjan from the coasts of the Caspian Sea, shares her riff on a Shirazi salad, and stirs up a dish of sour chicken stew from Iran’s northern province of Gilan. But as much as this book is an exploration of Persian cuisine across Iran, Azerbaijan, and beyond, it’s also a love letter to Heller’s mom, Nahid Joon, who had always dreamt of writing a cookbook before unexpectedly passing in 2018.

Nahid Joon is alive in every page of this book. Heller shares stories of picking grape leaves with her mom in her childhood home in Tehran and provides instructions for her signature Thanksgiving dish, a platter of rice studded with sour cherries. She traces Nahid Joon’s family history while also providing details of her many travels, from Nice to London to Dubai, that influenced the way she cooked. And, if this cookbook’s 100 recipes are any indication, the way she cooked was brilliant. — Kat Thompson


The cover of Good Lookin Cookin

Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals

Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George

Ten Speed Press, September 17th

Cowritten by country music legend Dolly Parton and her sister Rachel Parton George, Good Lookin’ Cookin’ reads a lot like a family scrapbook. It’s packed with 80 recipes from throughout both women’s lives, including things like the gooey chocolate cobbler their mama made as a special treat during their Tennessee childhood, or the family’s time-tested potato salad, studded with chopped egg and minced celery. There is not much new or innovative in this book, but there is a whole lot of delicious nostalgia. (And a few extraneous recipes — no one really needs a tutorial on how to dye beer green with food coloring.)

According to Dolly, Rachel is her favorite cook, and her dishes are deeply influenced by the duo’s upbringing. The recipes within Good Lookin’ Cookin’ are pure comfort food — the kind you’ll want to pile high on a plate and eat among family — and designed for celebrating special occasions. Each chapter is structured like a multicourse holiday feast, with the proteins, sides, and desserts that you’ll need to give your own New Year’s Day, Easter, Christmas, even St. Patrick’s Day celebration the little bit of that flair that only Dolly can bring. — Amy McCarthy


The cover of Bayou: Feasting Through the Seasons of a Cajun Life

Bayou: Feasting Through the Seasons of a Cajun Life

Melissa M. Martin

Artisan, September 24th

The James Beard Award-winning chef Melissa M. Martin is inextricably connected to the inimitable foodways of the state of Louisiana. A native of Chauvin, she’s the chef behind New Orleans’s beloved Mosquito Supper Club and the author of an acclaimed cookbook of the same name. Bayou, Martin’s second cookbook, reads like a scrapbook of sorts, cataloging her culinary journey from childhood to chef.

In Bayou, Martin takes the reader through a full year of Cajun eating. Divided by the seasons, the recipes run the gamut from a rustic backbone stew for a chilly fall day to more elegant dinner party-worthy dishes, including crawfish fettuccine and a Cajun-inflected take on Lowcountry pickled shrimp inspired by Martin’s fellow New Orleans chef Susan Spicer. The book’s collection of recipes vividly illustrate the ways in which the region’s homestyle Cajun dishes intermingle with the refined, chef-driven Creole cuisine of New Orleans to produce a food culture that’s like none other on earth. — AM


The cover of Pass the Plate

Pass the Plate: 100 Delicious, Highly Shareable, Everyday Recipes

Carolina Gelen

Clarkson Potter, September 24th

There is a kind of food that excels in short-form video. It’s accessible but better, relying on a clever tweak on a known concept. Carolina Gelen has grown her following (1.2 million on Instagram and over 650,000 on TikTok) with this kind of food — beans in vodka sauceonion breadupgraded lemonade. Naturally, Gelen’s debut cookbook relies on the same premise: dishes that aren’t likely to be foreign to most people, but that feel upgraded from the familiar.

Take Gelen’s breakfast quesadilla: Instead of cracking an egg between tortillas and sprinkling on cheese, she asks you to brush the tortillas with some of the egg so that sesame seeds stick to it, to scramble the eggs with cottage cheese and wilted spinach, and to assemble the quesadilla such that the sesame seeds toast and brown on the outside, adding both texture and flavor.

Gelen is good at these little tweaks. She caramelizes the lemons for her gremolata. She simplifies the process of making cabbage rolls by reimagining them as a layered casserole. She circumvents the need for bechamel in mac and cheese by reaching right for already-gooey Brie. Her recipes have little tells of TikTok influence, like a take on arayes that resembles those viral “smashed tacos.”

She is not averse to shortcuts and she often offsets her requests for effort in the kitchen with ease — yes, you’re making sesame seed-infused honey, but then you’re just drizzling it over dates that you’ve stuffed with Gruyere. Pass the Plate will be useful for both new cooks and experienced ones who fall into idea ruts every so often. It’s an approachable and highly usable book that suggests that Gelen has much more going for her as a recipe developer than her social media following alone. — Bettina Makalintal


The cover of Chinese Enough

Chinese Enough: Homestyle Recipes for Noodles, Dumplings, Stir-Fries, and More

Kristina Cho

Artisan, September 24th

Kristina Cho’s Chinese Enough opens with the simplest — but perhaps most personal — of Chinese recipes: tomato egg. Everyone has their own preferred way of making it, and starting with it sends a strong signal: This is unquestionably a cookbook dedicated to Chinese cooking. But it’s when Chinese Enough strays from tradition and veers into the personal, highlighting Cho’s upbringing in Cleveland and her current home in the Bay Area, that it shines brightest.

The book is immensely approachable for those who might be newer to Chinese techniques, but also offers plenty of creative variations (like a silken tofu and tomato salad that can be jazzed up with thousand-year-old egg). If you love cooking with others, jump straight to the chapter dedicated to “recipes that benefit from assembly-line-style production.” Cho’s dumpling party guide has a recipe for homemade wrappers, four types of wrapping techniques, and even a Mad Libs-esque recipe card so you can write down any new creations. “Invite people over to your house to make dumplings, and you’ll be surprised how much your community will grow,” Cho writes.

Certain recipes — banh mi-inspired pasta salad, pork floss-topped deviled eggs — are anything but traditional, and hint at the creativity that made Cho’s first cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, so popular. Others nod to her Cantonese family traditions, her Bay Area home (San Francisco garlic noodles), and her Midwest upbringing (a Cleveland-ish cassata cake, which combines a liqueur-soaked Italian cake with a Chinese bakery sponge cake).

Chinese Enough is dedicated to family, but also grapples with identity the way any second-generation American might; as Cho writes, “cooking together helps soothe the tensions between generations.” The book is also a beautifully penned tribute to her family and upbringing — one that would make any parent, Chinese or not, extremely proud. — Stephanie Wu


The cover of Bodega Bakes

Bodega Bakes: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store

Paola Velez

Union Square & Co., October 1st

The burnt tahini and Concord grape pie on the cover of Bodega Bakes says a lot about what makes Paola Velez’s debut cookbook so enticing: this way lies color, and flavors that you won’t find in every other baking book. Velez describes herself as “a Bronx-born Afro-Latina pastry chef and community organizer” (she’s a co-founder of Bakers Against Racism), and her book functions as much as a tribute to the borough as Velez’s talent for creating baked goods that are as beautiful as they are flavorful.

As Velez writes, her recipes are “a mix of my classical training and love of Americana filtered through the Bronx and the islands of the Caribbean”; as such, there’s soursop in her peach cobbler and ripe plantains in her sticky buns, snickerdoodles flavored with sorrel, and pecan pie spiked with tamarind. And in Velez’s pantry section, you’ll find Maria cookies and Malta alongside strong opinions about imitation vanilla extract (sometimes it can be better than the real stuff, Velez writes — hey, to each their own).

Organized by genre (“Bizcochitos & Other Cakes You’ll Like”; “Galletas Para Todos”), Velez’s recipes present an irresistible tableau, especially as photographed by Lauren V. Allen. After a lot of indecision I wound up making the Summer Camp Milk Chocolate Brownies, which are packed with graham cracker bits and mini marshmallows. Despite the fact that my overeager broiler incinerated the marshmallows, which are supposed to be toasted before they’re added to the batter, the brownies were a winner, thick and fudgy and texturally delightful. As they baked, I bookmarked about 15 other recipes I want to try; truly, this is a book that inspires cravings, to say nothing of late-night bodega runs to satisfy them. — RFM


The cover of Desi Bakes

Desi Bakes: 85 Recipes Bringing the Best of Indian Flavors to Western-Style Desserts

Hetal Vasavada

Hardie Grant, October 1st

With Desi Bakes, Hetal Vasavada continues her mission to bring Indian flavors and design to western desserts. Her first cookbook, Milk & Cardamom, named after her blog of the same name, married popular Indian treats like mango lassi and gulab jamun with cakes and puddings. But here, the MasterChef contestant goes even deeper into Indian flavors, often focusing on the specific sweets of Gujarat that may not be as internationally known. There’s gujju bhai toffee, littered with Gujarati savory snacks; a spice cake inspired by salam pak, a popular mithai that’s said to have Ayurvedic health properties; and a magaz cream pie piled high in a chocolate shortbread crust.

But as Vasavada writes, her desserts were almost more inspired by Indian art. “Through this book you’ll see references to various handicrafts and textile styles as a major source of my inspiration,” she writes. “I wanted to show that India is more than just paisley, peacocks, and elephants!” The result is a book full of both flavorful and beautiful bakes, like a pear and cardamom jam Bakewell tart with slivered almonds crisscrossed over the top; checkerboard cookies in a pink-orange-yellow Madras checkered pattern; and a “mud work cake” inspired by mirror-worked textiles, piped with salted meringue buttercream and decorated with silver dragees. Vasavada makes decoration feel doable, mostly by creating cakes and tarts that feel so special you want to put in the effort to make them gorgeous. — Jaya Saxena


The cover of Ottolenghi Comfort

Ottolenghi Comfort: A Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi with Helen Goh

Ten Speed Press, October 8th

Leave it to Yotam Ottolenghi, the London-based chef and cookbook author whose name has become a kind of shorthand for interesting, veggie-forward recipes, to redefine “comfort food” in a way that actually feels fresh and exciting. In the chef’s latest book, his 11th, the dishes are full of flavor that doesn’t take hours to achieve. These recipes are, perhaps, a little more involved than what some of us might consider comfort food, but most can be whipped up relatively quickly for an easy weeknight dinner that’s actually interesting.

The book arrives just in time for fall, which means you’ll immediately want to dig into cozy, caramelized onion orecchiette and cheesy rice cakes studded with peas and crisped in a skillet until their exterior resembles the perfectly golden brown crust of a tahdig. You can expect the bacon-studded Dutch baby, topped with tomatoes that have been roasted until they’re nice and melty, to become a permanent part of your weekend breakfast rotation. Vegetables, too, get the comfort-food treatment, like tender hispi cabbages roasted in tons of miso butter, and hearty mixed-mushroom ragu. In this book, Ottolenghi’s approach proves that pretty much any ingredient can be transformed into a plate (or bowl!) of pure comfort. — AM


The cover of Jiggle

Jiggle!: A Cookbook: 50 Recipes for Sweet, Savory, and Sometimes Boozy Modern Gelatins

Peter DiMario and Judith Choate

Workman Publishing Company, October 8th

I have to admit that anything to do with gelatin scares me. Maybe it’s flashbacks to a high school Jell-O shot recipe gone awry, or the oh-so-’70s vibe of the typical Bundt cake-like mold. The whole process of making Jell-O has always felt like a science experiment where one misstep could lead to an explosion of gelatinous goo all over my kitchen. So in a personal quest to face my fears, I read Jiggle by Peter DiMario and Judith Choate, a movie and TV producer and chef and recipe developer, respectively. Their technical and theatrical backgrounds make sense when you see their book’s vibrant tablescapes and presentations, photographed by Eric Medsker, that make various gelatin dishes leap off the page. Thankfully, the pair start their book with a basic education on the differences between various agents, molds, and proper ways to plate.

Akin to staying on the bunny slopes, I felt most confident trying something from the section labeled Super Simple Starter Jiggles, where ingredients like apple juice and lemonade provide the base. I opted to make the Pomegranate Jiggle, which only required a saucepan, gelatin, pomegranate juice, sugar, mint, and patience while the jellies set in the fridge. When they were ready, I served them in martini glasses, topped them with vanilla yogurt and pomegranate seeds, and felt like Betty freakin’ Crocker. Once readers master the basics, they can move on to techniques like multilayering, creating mosaic patterns, or sculpting aspics. There is, of course, a whole chapter on boozy innovations like a bouncy bloody mary shot and adorable watermelon margarita bites. I haven’t quite gotten there yet, but feel grateful that I’ve been delightfully reintroduced to the world of all things wobbly. — Jess Mayhugh


The cover of What Goes With What

What Goes With What: 100 Recipes, 20 Charts, Endless Possibilities

Julia Turshen

Flatiron, October 15th

Julia Turshen’s charts are the best. The cook and best-selling author is known for her down-to-earth and accessible approach to cooking, hand-drawing geometric grids for salads, sandwiches, dressings, soups, pastas, and more. So it’s no surprise that her latest cookbook, What Goes with What, has a cover laid out in squares and includes 20 charts (in addition to 100 recipes) for a quick, at-a-glimpse way to visualize your next meal. The through line of Turshen’s five cookbooks and various social media series has always been ease — whether it’s reusing leftovers in a smart way or getting creative with what you already have lying around. This book focuses on the latter, but infuses even the most seemingly mundane pantry dump meal with warmth and creativity.

Take her cucumber and avocado salad. I already had almost all of the ingredients in my kitchen (cucumbers, mayo, kosher salt) and just had to buy ripe avocados, kimchi, and Korean red pepper flakes (though black pepper would do in a pinch). The result was a fresh, umami-rich salad with diverse textures that took me 10 minutes to make. There’s also an entire chapter on grain bowls — my personal favorite way to eat dinner — that will bring anyone out of a taco bowl slump. Or flip to Turshen’s section called Main Dishes, where a simple chicken entree can be given new life with artichokes, poblanos, or hoisin, depending on the recipe. Beyond the charts and hacks, the book has heart, too, with essays on queer cooking and body positivity. The photography and graphics are light, bright, and simple — accented with Turshen’s signature handwriting that always makes me feel at home. —JM


The cover of Our South Black Food Through My Lens

Our South: Black Food Through My Lens

Ashleigh Shanti

Union Square & Co, October 15th

The most magical cookbooks are ones that really transport you to a place you’ve never been; you can smell the food through the pages, hear the sizzles and clangs of cooking, and taste the flavors before even attempting a single recipe. Ashleigh Shanti’s debut cookbook, Our South: Black Food Through My Lens, is this kind of cookbook.

The term “Southern food” tends to unfairly lump a wide range of cuisines under a single umbrella. Some foodways are stereotyped, others ignored or forgotten completely. Shanti aims to dispel the notion that Southern food — and Black food — is a singular thing. How can they be, when the Appalachian mountains of Virginia and the coastal shores of South Carolina offer such different variations on those cuisines?

The book is divided into five chapters — Backcountry, Lowcountry, Midlands, Lowlands, and Homeland — each exploring the specific locales that influenced Shanti’s cooking and perception of food from a young age. As much as the chapters reflect the geography of Shanti’s upbringing, they also pay tribute to the many matriarchal figures in the chef’s life. The Backcountry explores the Appalachian South, a place where Shanti’s great-aunt Hattie lived and where a young Shanti loved to forage. Here, there are recipes for wild mountain tea, creamed sour corn, and rolls with a country ham and ramp butter. Meanwhile, the seafood-centric recipes in the Lowcountry chapter reflect Shanti’s memories of her childhood spent with paternal family off the coast of South Carolina: There’s a cheesy crawfish croustade, barbecued oysters on the half-shell, and crab toast sprinkled with benne seeds.

Homeland, the final chapter, sees Shanti really coming to her own, powered by the family that came before her, the places she’s lived and experienced, her current home in Asheville, North Carolina, and the lessons she’s learned in the fine dining world. There’s a playful riff on mole made with okra and inspired by her Mexican and German wife, a hot oyster and collard greens dip, and a savory-leaning apple pie dripping with chicken schmaltz icing that I’ll be making all fall. — KT


The cover of Madame Vo

Madame Vo: Vietnamese Home Cooking From the New York Restaurant

Jimmy Ly and Yen Vo with Dan Q. Dao

Abrams, October 22nd

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of dining at Madame Vo, the New York City Vietnamese joint known for its massive bowls of short rib pho, you know how special the experience — and the food — is. It’s one of the places I’ve missed the most since moving away from the city. Thankfully, this debut cookbook from Jimmy Ly and Yen Vo, the restaurant’s chef-owners, brings Madame Vo to my own kitchen.

The cookbook reads like a love letter not only between Ly and Vo, who are married, but also to Vietnam, the country both their parents fled as refugees during the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Alongside its recipes are stories about Ly’s and Vo’s experiences growing up in New York and New Orleans, respectively, and the life, family, and restaurant they built together. Co-author Dan Q. Dao also includes thoughtful essays about what it means to be Vietnamese American; Vietnamese nhậu, or eating and drinking, culture; and musings on the regionality of Vietnamese cuisine.

All of Madame Vo’s hit dishes can be found in the pages, including creamy tomato tết noodles loaded with crab to fiery bún bò huế, or the Miss Saigon, a cocktail made with syrupy plum wine that also happens to be my favorite from the restaurant. Although this is a restaurant cookbook, which can sometimes be intimidating, Madame Vo includes approachable recipes along with dishes you’ll want to commit a weekend to; as everyone knows, pho broth cannot be rushed. — KT


The cover of Crumbs

Crumbs: Cookies and Sweets from Around the World

Ben Mims

Phaidon, October 29th

You could buy Crumbs just for the cookie recipes. As its title suggests, there are plenty of them from every corner of the globe, like Bulgarian medenki, which will fill your kitchen with the witchy aroma of roasting honey and cinnamon, and Brazilian casadinhos de goiabada, ethereally airy butter cookies sandwiched with a swipe of guava jam. But around the recipes is an encyclopedia. Author Ben Mims worships cookies, and painstakingly outlines their history from their origins in Persia, where granulated cane sugar was first developed in the seventh century, to their place on the back of a Nestle chocolate chip bag. Each cookie recipe comes with a history of the trade or colonization routes that brought flavors from one part of the world to another, or the precise economic conditions that created the need for, say, the Estonian mayonnaise cookie (a cheap ingredient swap for both oil and eggs in the Soviet Union. Genius!).

Reading through Crumbs, which separates its recipes by locale (Anatolia, the Mediterranean, sub-Saharan Africa) you begin to see the similarities in how we treat ourselves. Palestinian date-filled cookies resemble Sicilian fig-filled ones; cardamom appears in cookies from Lebanon to India; almonds travel from Morocco to Spain to Puerto Rico. Cookies from everywhere are printed with jam and flavored with anise, pressed into ornate molds and piped with cream. In one aside, Mims notes that theories have proliferated for how crescent-shaped cookies came about, tagging them to pagan moon worship and rebellion against Ottoman invasion alike. “It’s also possible,” he writes, “that the shape came about as a way to be more aesthetically pleasing than something simpler.” There is a deeply human impulse to make delicious, and beautiful, things. Crumbs is full of them. — JS


The cover of Martha the Cookbook

Martha: The Cookbook: 100 Favorite Recipes, With Lessons and Stories From My Kitchen

Martha Stewart

Clarkson Potter, November 12th

Now the author of an eye-popping 100 books, Martha Stewart remains the undisputed queen of entertaining. In Martha: The Cookbook, she proves that she’s still in peak form, the kind of cook who refuses to rest on her laurels. There are, of course, inimitably Martha recipes here — perfect honey-mustard glazed salmon, blueberry muffins, and flawless gougeres — but there are also some new dishes for folks who already have many of Martha’s most beloved recipes memorized by heart. One of my favorites, for example, is the impossibly fluffy custard egg sandwich inspired by Boston’s Flour Bakery chef Joanne Chang.

Still, Martha remains the best at being Martha, and the recipes that are deeply connected to her essence are the most successful. Mixing a super-cold Martha-tini really does kind of make you feel like the queen herself, and sipping her daily green juice — a concoction she credits in part for her flawless skin — is actually enough to make you believe that you, too, could still look like that at 83 years old. I was slightly skeptical of her buttermilk-potato soup, which involves a bowl of cold buttermilk and hot boiled potatoes garnished with dill and frizzled onions, but the result — cool, creamy, and inspired by Stewart’s Polish farming heritage — was just further proof that Martha Stewart absolutely never misses. — AM


The cover of Wafu Cooking

Wafu Cooking: Everyday Recipes With Japanese Style

Sonoko Sakai

Knopf, November 12th

Some of my favorite things to eat when visiting Japan are the various wafu foods, or Japanese interpretations of foreign dishes. There’s katsu curry, a reformulation of Indian curry suited to Japanese tastes; wafu Italian restaurants that pile Japanese spaghetti noodles with shiso leaves and shimeji mushrooms; and Salisbury steak-like hambagu steaks served at yōshokus, or Japanese-style western restaurants.

The genre is at the heart of Wafu Cooking, Sonoko Sakai’s fourth cookbook. In it, Sakai, a renowned cooking teacher, shares how both she and her recipes have been influenced by the places she’s lived. Including dishes like “carne asada japonesa,” reminiscent of her time spent in Mexico City, or a California-inspired salmon chirashi bowl bursting with avocado and grapefruit, Sakai explores how abundantly the philosophy of wafu cooking can be applied to create endless — and delicious — new dishes.

Sakai’s book includes some classic beloved wafu recipes, like mentaiko spaghetti and Chinese-influenced chashu pork. But Sakai’s innovative flair really comes through in her own genius riffs, like adding a dollop of salty miso to stewed, caramelized apples for apple pie, or incorporating spicy yuzu kosho in a creamy udon dish for a Japanese version of pasta al limone. Sakai’s recipes are original, playful, and fun, and strike a balance between classic wafu dishes and new, inventive takes that could have been dreamed up only by her. —KT

doitinnorth shop/share gallery

Simple Fruit: Seasonal Recipes for Baking, Poaching, Sautéing, and Roasting

ICYMI

Minnesota Fruits of Fall

 

A Summer Berry Streusel Cake Recipe Inspired by an Ice Cream Icon

A Summer Berry Streusel Cake Recipe Inspired by an Ice Cream Icon

Photography by Celeste Noche

Just like Jeni’s Brambleberry Crisp, this cake boasts the perfect ratio of jammy fruit to crunchy oat streusel

EATER: Having grown up in Columbus, Ohio, Graeter’s and Jeni’s were always my go-to spots for grabbing a cold, creamy treat on summer nights. While my friends tended to gravitate toward Jeni’s ’gram-ready vibes and unexpected flavors (goat cheese with red cherries, anyone?), my dad has always been an outspoken Graeter’s devotee, preferring their old-school, no-frills setup and simple, classic options (their cookies and cream can’t be beat, in my opinion). Though I’m constantly vacillating between the two (I’m currently in a Graeter’s phase), I remember falling in love with Jeni’s iconic Brambleberry Crisp flavor the first time I had it years ago: Each pie-like scoop is swirled with the perfect ratio of brambleberry jam and chunks of brown sugar oat streusel.
This month’s cake is directly inspired by my favorite Jeni’s flavor and doubles as my ode to long, slow (and quiet) Ohio summers. Made in an 8-by-8-inch pan, the lemon-kissed sour cream cake is topped with ripe summer berries (I use a combination of raspberries and blackberries) that bake up just jammy enough while retaining some of their structure. The whole thing gets showered in an oat streusel, which turned out to be my favorite part of the cake and the bane of my existence during the development process: Iteration after iteration, my streusel kept melting and/or sinking into the cake. While all the testers ended up tasting fine (there were a lot of them), I was determined to create a cake that looked the part, too.

After some deep-dive research, I increased the flour and cut down on the butter in the streusel, and followed the very knowledgeable Rose Levy Beranbaum’s helpful tip to sprinkle on the topping 30 minutes into baking. The reason behind this, as I learned from my conversation with cookbook author and food stylist Yossy Arefi (another smart, wonderful pastry person), is that it’s imperative for the cake to have enough structure to support the weight of the streusel. Allowing the cake to set in the oven a bit before adding the streusel helps to create a sturdier base that won’t immediately swallow the topping. Thanks to these pastry experts, I ended up with the streusel-laden cake I envisioned.

This cake celebrates summer in all its ripe, bountiful glory: The crunchy, just-sweet-enough oat streusel gives way to tender cake and baked berries, with cinnamon and lemon zest adding lovely notes of nuance. If you want something a little more over-the-top, serve squares of the cake with a scoop of high-quality vanilla ice cream, lightly sweetened whipped cream — or if you’re feeling extra (basically me, all the time), alongside a pint of Jeni’s Brambleberry Crisp itself. There’s really no better way to soak up this fleeting, delightful season.

Summer Berry Streusel Cake

Makes one 8-by-8-inch cake

Ingredients:

For the oat streusel:

¼ cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
⅓ cup (47 grams) all-purpose flour
⅓ cup (30 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes

For the cake:

1 cup (140 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
⅔ cup (133 grams) granulated sugar
⅓ cup (67 grams) light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (114 grams) full-fat sour cream, at room temperature
¼ cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 ounces ripe summer berries (raspberries, blackberries, or a combination)

Instructions:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8-by-8-inch square cake pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the sides (to make it easier to remove the cake after baking), and grease the parchment.

Step 2: Make the oat streusel: In a medium bowl, combine the sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and salt and mix thoroughly with your hands. Work the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until the streusel resembles wet sand and clumps together when you squeeze it (some small bits of butter are fine). Chill the streusel in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Step 3: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Step 4: In a large bowl, beat the butter with an electric hand mixer or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth. Add the sugars and lemon zest and cream the mixture until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Step 5: Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Step 6: Add half of the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat until just combined. Carefully beat in the sour cream and milk, scrape down the bowl, then add the rest of the dry ingredients and beat until just combined and the batter is smooth. Take care not to overmix.

Step 7: Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a small offset spatula. Sprinkle the berries evenly on top of the batter. The batter will rise around them, so there’s no need to press them down.

Step 8: Bake the cake for 35 minutes, then remove the pan from the oven and quickly but gently sprinkle the streusel on top in an even layer — the cake will be very delicate. Carefully return the cake to the oven and bake for 17 to 20 more minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out nearly clean or with a few moist crumbs.

Step 9: Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes, then gently run a small offset spatula around the edges to loosen. Using the parchment sling to assist, gently transfer the cake to a rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Joy Cho is a freelance writer, recipe developer, and pastry chef based in New York City.
Celeste Noche is a Filipino American food, travel, and portrait photographer based between Portland, Oregon, and San Francisco.
Recipe tested by Deena Prichep

ICYMI

New Shakopee Amphitheater Renderings Released – Shakopee, MN

Tracking Which Twin Cities Restaurant Patios Are Open Summer 2020

Tracking Which Twin Cities Restaurant Patios Are Open Summer 2020

Hai Hai is just one of the patios open again and serving                 Kevin Kramer/Eater Twin Cities

 

Eater Twin Cities: Restaurants across the metro area have put out tables on existing patios, in parking lots, and on sidewalks to welcome back diners now that the restrictions have been loosened on the industry. Guests are asked to wear masks, and all staffs will be masked, and precautions are put in place.

These patios are currently open, but check with the restaurants for individual days and hours of operation.

Disclosure: Studies indicate that there is a lower exposure risk to the coronavirus when outdoors, but the level of risk involved with patio dining is contingent on restaurants following strict social distancing and other safety guidelines.

These restaurants have spaced out seats and are serving:

Minneapolis

Northeast

Centro

Como Tap

Erte

Gardens of Solonica

Hai Hai

Indeed Brewing

Kieran’s Kitchen

Kramarczuk’s

Market BBQ

Psycho Suzi’s

Sociable Cider Werks

Stanley’s Barroom

Stray Dog

Downtown/North Loop

Brit’s Pub

Borough

Darby’s Pub & Grill

Finnegans Brew Co.

Fulton Brewing

The Loop

Kado No Mise

Monello

The Newsroom

Nolo’s Kitchen

Oceanaire

ONE Fermentary and Taproom

Parlour

Red Rabbit

Smith And Porter

Smack Shack

Stillheart Distillery

Eat Street

Icehouse

Nicollet Diner

South/Kingfield

Cafe Ena

Apoy – Filipino Bistro

Fireroast Cafe

Nighthawks

Hola Arepa

Minneapolis Cider Company

Maria’s Cafe

Mill Valley Market

Northbound Smokehouse

Colita

Sebastian Joe’s

Tap Society

Uptown/LynLake

Agra Culture

Amazing Thailand

Amore Uptown

Black Walnut Bakery

CC Club

The Lynhall

Namaste

Nico’s

Prieto Taqueria Bar

The Tasting Room

Longfellow

The Howe

Himalayan

Sonora Grill

Merlin’s Rest

Hi Lo Diner

Peppers and Fries

The Bungalow Club

Longfellow Grill

Prospect Park

Surly

St. Paul

Alary’s Bar

Bad Weather Brewing

Cafe Astoria

Day by Day Cafe

Dual Citizen Brewing

Foxy Falafel

French Meadow on Grand

Handsome Hog (new location)

Hope Breakfast Bar

Hot Hands Pie & Biscuits

Iron Ranger

Joans in the Park

Keg & Case

La Grolla

Lake Monster Brewing

The Lexington

Louis (Above Cossetta’s)

Moscow on the Hill

Nico’s Tacos and Tequila Bar

Parlour Bar

Patrick McGovern’s

Red Rabbit

Shamrocks

Skinner’s Pub and Eatery

Tori

W.A. Frost

Waldmann Brewery

Yumi Sushi

Suburbs

6 Smith Wayzata

Agra Culture

B52 Burgers and Brew

Bacio

Badger Hill Brewery

Baldamar

Bald Man Brewing

Bellecour

Benedict’s

Birch’s on the Lake

The Block

Cedar + Stone

Dampfwerk Distillery

Doolittles Woodfire Grill

Fat Nat’s

Good Day Cafe

The Grocer’s Table

Haskell’s Port

Hilltop

Ike’s

Jimmy’s Kitchen

Lola’s Lakehouse

Lord Fletcher’s

Lucky’s 13 Pub

LTD Brewing

Main Street Farmer

Marna’s Eatery

Maynard’s

McHugh’s Public House

Mill Valley Kitchen

Monkey Table

Nine twenty five

Nonna Rossa

Park Tavern

Pub 819

Redstone

Rock Elm Tavern

Urbana Craeft Kitchen

Yumi Sushi

 

eater twin cities

Pin It on Pinterest