"grandma" news and stories

Brioche is nice and baguettes are lovely, but some meals just won't work without a piping hot, fresh biscuit on the side of the plate. An American biscuit, as opposed to the British cookie-type of biscuit, is a light, tender quick bread that can be sweet or savory. Biscuit Bliss: 101 Foolproof Recipes for Fresh and Fluffy Biscuits in Just Minutes is a cookbook that delivers nothing but biscuits, along with a comprehensive guide to biscuit-making that ensures you'll have perfect results to serve alongside your morning coffee or with a meat-and-potatoes dinner. One thing that it emphasizes up front is the importance of selecting the proper ingredients for biscuit-making, including fats, leavenings and flours. Recipes include classic buttermilk biscuits, sweet potato biscuits and a wide variety of scones.

If you need any more convincing, let me quote one of the Amazon reviewers, who said, "Why would I go out to buy a whole book, even if it's a fairly small book, just on something so simple as how to make biscuits? Because I've never been happy with the biscuits that I've made. The ones made by my grandmother...are so much better than the ones I've been able to make.... I haven't tried all 101 'foolproof' recipes in the book. But I think that this morning's batch is the best I've made yet."

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Apparently, New York's nickname should have been "Chicken Soup City" and not the "Big Apple." Ed Levine tasted his way through a fair number of the city's tremendous chicken soup offerings while searching for the perfect bowl. The secret? Use your grandmother's recipe as a starting point - it's what the pros do. And slurp up some of the best in the city when you have the chance.

Utilizing other parts of the chicken, a recipe from Chef David Kinch turns chicken livers into a confit which rivals the taste and texture of foie gras.

Columnist Alex Witchel managed to overcome a bad experience with a silver finger bowl and dish out some advice on dealing with the unfamiliar at a dinner party.

Mark Kurlansky sees the city in the oyster's half shell and the Minimalist, Mark Bittman, makes puttanesca.

[photo NYT]

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Old is new again as vintage cookbooks are rediscovered online. These books, previously relegated to the back of closets everywhere, are being dusted off, opened and enjoyed. They were even the subject of a blogging event. They range from the insightful - perhaps an old Joy of Cooking - to the bizarre, like this old copy of The Ground Meat Cookbook from the 50s found via BoingBoing.

The cookbook contains "204 intriguing ground meat recipes", but also contains general cooking tips, lovely illustrations and surprisingly appetizing photography. It is unlikely I would want to try the "Jellied Veal Loaf", but I do think I will take a look through the back of my grandparents' kitchen cupboard the next time I visit.

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