The Art and Science of Foodpairing: 10,000 flavour matches that will transform the way you eat
Peter Coucquyt, Bernard Lahousse, and Johan Langenbick
$49.95

What is foodpairing? It is not the familiar and mundane matching of wine and food or even food and food, but it is certainly all about creating the most delicious culinary results possible.

When humans taste a food, they are processing its taste 80 percent through the nose — via the food’s aromatic molecules — and only 20 percent on the tongue. We can conclude then that knowing the aromatic molecular properties of a food is critical to pairing foods successfully for ultimate taste.

For a long time, we have been unknowingly pairing aromatic molecules out of instinct, cultural history, tradition, and plain guesswork. Many of those are routine and make sense but others are counterintuitive, like balsamic vinegar on strawberries. We like them because they are delicious. What we didn’t know is that they work because they share aromatic molecules. With this new knowledge we have discovered unheard-of pairings like chocolate on cauliflower and kiwi with oyster. So how do we use this new science? We at home don’t have the technology to isolate molecules or store the results in a database.

That’s where The Art and Science of Foodpairing® comes in. From the scientists and chefs who discovered this new culinary science, and the company that created and maintains the enormous database, here is a fabulous reference to 10,000 food pairings for use in both professional and home kitchens. Foodpairing® has proven to be revolutionary: When the Foodpairing® database went live, the chef and restaurant community came on like a storm with 100,000 website hits on the first day. Now over 200,000 chefs and restaurants in 140 countries regularly access the database when designing their menus.

The Art and Science of Foodpairing® provides 10,000 flavor matches laid out in taste wheels and color keys. When cooks go to one ingredient, they will find 10 food pairings and a color wheel revealing the taste results. For example, boiled beets will taste less like the earth they grew in and more like cheese if they are paired with coffee, and cauliflower sprinkled with cocoa could turn the fussiest child into a veggie fiend.

Foodpairing® has the potential to transform our food choices with outcomes that include good health as well as the power to alleviate boredom. The same dinner, the same staples. We get bored, our children get bored. Foodpairing®, even without adding anything new to the pantry, can alleviate that.

Beginning with an in-depth introduction and the story of Foodpairing®, the book contains:

• Foodpairing® – What it is, how it works, methodology; the database; how to create a well-balanced recipe.
• The omnivore’s dilemma – Including the conflict between playing safe and boredom, and the search for variety and novelty; learned food association; acquired tastes.
• Aroma – Including the importance of aroma to our flavor experience; how we change aromas by cooking; how ingredients create different or similar results; building your aroma library.
• Smell – Including how people smell and perceive aromas; why smell is essential to the eating experience.
• The Foodpairing® directory – 10 pairings per food, 10 per cooking method, 10,000 combinations in total.

The book also covers key food characteristics, aroma profiles, classic dishes, contemporary combinations, scientific explanations, special features and contributions from some of the world’s greatest chefs for the top 150 ingredients, and much more.

The Art and Science of Foodpairing® is destined to become the essential reference to creating delicious, exciting and perfectly balanced meals.

Fruit Cake: Recipes for the Curious Baker
Jason Schreiber, Martha Stewart
$32.50

In gorgeous photos and dozens of fresh and flavorful recipes, acclaimed food stylist Jason Schreiber shatters misconceptions about that most maligned of desserts—fruitcake—by imaginatively breaking with convention as he pays homage to the delicious combination of fruit and cake. Forget those dried artificially dyed candied doorstops that everyone regifts and passes on. Fruit Cake is a tasty epicurean tour through dozens of cakes and other pastries that use a variety of fruits, combining them with diverse fillings, as well as liquor, nuts, and more. Interwoven with the recipes are stories, anecdotes and asides that are just as charming and intriguing as the lush, full-color photos that accompany them.

Each recipe in Fruit Cake showcases one of thirty-eight fruit, whose natural sweetness and juice make desserts that are perfectly moist and sweet without being overpowering. Indulge your taste buds with his beautiful, fanciful creations, including:

Constant Cravings—cakes like Raspberry Tea Cake and Polenta Pound Cake with Spiced Mandarins that will satisfy your cravings at any hour of day

Out of Hand—finger-focused treats perfect for pocketing or dressing to impress, such as Mango Coconut Cashew Bites and Blueberry Ginger Studmuffins

Showstoppers—cakes for the spotlight that you can humblebrag about “just throwing together,” including Passionfruit Lime Pavlova and Horchata and Roasted Plum Sorbet Cake

All Rise—the next best thing to eating sumptuous creations like the Blood Orange Bee Sting Cake or Bourbon Peach Kugelhopf, and other sumptuous creations is smelling the just-risen yeasted dough

Soaked—try one slice of these decadent cakes that marinate in booze for days—whether it’s the likes of the Pomegranate Molasses Cake or the Fig, Port, and Chocolate Cake—and you’ll need a designated driver

Filled with divine desserts for all seasons, this wonderful cookbook will forever change the way you think about fruit and cake. 

Instant Pot Bible: The Next Generation: 350 Totally New Recipes for Every Size and Model
Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough
$19.99

The Instant Pot is America’s new favorite cooking appliance: twenty percent of households (and growing) have one, and its millions of fans love the appliance for its convenience, simplicity, and the incredible results that it delivers in just a short period of cooking time.

Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough are the bestselling authors of The Instant Pot Bible, and are returning with an even more useful and comprehensive guide to Instant Pot cooking that shows how to get even more out of your machine. These recipes include all-new suggestions for:

• Pot-in-pot (PIP) cooking — setting a smaller dish inside the pot to cook delicate ingredients like rice, grains, dairy-rich soups, and even fish fillets.
• One-pot meals — recipes to cook a main course and separate side dishes all at once in a single Instant Pot, including
• Stacks — using a stack of lidded pans to hold cheesy enchiladas, Tex-Mex rice, and refried beans, all cooked at the same time
• Air-fryer lids — how to use new accessories to crisp at the end of cooking without dirtying additional dishes or turning on your oven
• Dump recipes — all-in-one-go meals that require no prep and no browning–just drop the ingredients in the pot and set the timer.
• Desserts — go beyond Instant Pot cheesecake with yogurt cakes, sponge cakes, dump cakes, and cake-mix-doctor recipes.
• And so much more.