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The Daily Meal: "Best Cooking Apps for Almost Any Kitchen Crisis"
(January 3, 2011)

bq. Inspired by the farmers' market to buy a beautiful-looking vegetable, only to realize when you get home that you have no idea how to cook it? Instead of flipping through dozens of cookbooks, Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything app will tell you what you need to know with just a few strokes of your finger. With over 2,000 recipes and 400 how-to illustrations, you can learn how to cook anything, from a hollandaise sauce to roast beef.

Best Food Writing 2010

bq. My must-read list now includes chow.com, egullet.com, culinate.com, leitesculinaria.com, seriouseats.com, zesterdaily.com, among others.

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Saveur: "The Butcher: Culinate's Unexplained Bacon"

bq. Matthew Amster-Burton's blog Unexplained Bacon, hosted on the culinary site Culinate, is a great resource for home cooks who want to stretch their learning curve. We particularly like his essay about what makes good milk great, as well as his steps for making your own homemade sausage. By detailing the process of sausage-making and removing the fear factors (casing, smoking, drying, and working with fatback), Amster-Burton makes a messy, intricate, and often frustrating process approachable. He also happens to be the author of the book Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater (Houghton Mifflin, 2009), one of our newest favorite food reads and a must for any parent of a picky toddler.

[%image sausage float=right width=400 caption="Two of Saveur's bloggers dig Culinate's Unexplained Bacon column."]

Publishers Weekly: "Cooking the Books with Holly Hughes"
(September 14, 2009)

bq. We have to regard these major foodie sites like eGullet and Culinate as the same as magazines. The writing there is a little greater volume and a little bit more uneven, but the good writing there is as good as the good writing published in any glossy magazine.

Bitten (Mark Bittman's New York Times food blog): "Sustainable Food Blogs"
(June 12, 2009) 

bq. Culinate not only provides a home base for a sustainable kitchen, it also provides food for thought. Editor Kim Carlson doesn’t overlook pleasure and taste in the quest for a better food system.

University of Oregon, School of Journalism and Communication: "Food, glorious food"
(January 26, 2009)

bq. Culinate’s unique blend of articles, cooking tips, interviews, recipes, podcasts, food news, and blog posts teaches readers how to make a delicious apple pie but also encourages them to question where the apples came from and how they were farmed . . . Today, Culinate is expanding its social-networking tools to diversify the site’s content and build a stronger online community. With “My Culinate,” registered members can log in to store recipes and keep a personal food blog, and “Fritter” is a space for users to share food ideas with other members of the Culinate community. However, despite the latest trends or experiments with social media, Culinate’s core message remains constant: Cook consciously with seasonal, sustainable, and healthful food.

Sacramento News &amp; Review: "Arts & Culture: Web sites"
(October 2, 2008)

bq. Give Culinate a whirl. It has a hip how-to-eat-well sensibility, and it’s a smorgasbord of blog feeds, columns, and community (the cutely named Fritter lets you give Twitter-like status updates about what you’re cooking). Our fave? Matthew Amster-Burton’s “Unexplained Bacon,” with tips and exploratory essays on things like why you should be making your own ground sausage (and why it’s easy) and how all garlic is not created equal. Plus, there are recipes, interviews with the likes of Jim Hightower and Armandino Batali, reviews, and more stuff we probably haven’t found yet.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "New food sites make waves"
(August 20, 2008)

bq. We love love love culinate.com, a Portland, Ore.-based site that hooks you up with local farm markets and farmers recipes; vegetarian chef and cookbook author Deborah Madison has a monthly column too.

Yummy magazine: "We're Hooked!"
(August 2008)

bq. I like this website because it offers a lot of useful information not only about cooking, but also about eating healthy, farm produce, gadgets, and kitchen tips.

Chow.com: "Whole Grains Wholly Confusing?"
(July 22, 2008)

[%image buckwheat float=right width=350 caption="Do you know what to do with buckwheat berries?"]

bq. We all know we should be incorporating more whole grains into our diet, but do you know your quinoa from your kamut? How about your sorghum from your spelt? And what on earth is triticale?

bq. Food site Culinate comes to the rescue with its fantastic “Grain Glossary — Twenty Whole Grains to Cook and Eat.” As Food Editor Carrie Floyd explains:

bq. “The bulk bins can be bewildering; even when you’re familiar with a particular grain, it’s mind-boggling to make sense of all the names it may go by. Groats, grits, steel-cut, rolled, puffed, pearled, cracked, flakes, and flour are the most common references, and all describe how the grain has been processed.”

bq. She’s right. Even my local health food co-op thought spelt and farro were the same thing for a while (farro is also known as emmer wheat, but it’s not spelt).

bq. Floyd is so serious about whole grains, she undertook a month of eating them every day. Check out her Whole-Grain Challenge for information, recipes, and inspiration (read: a gentle push in the right direction).

PortlandIsAwesome.com: "Awesome Portland Blogs: Culinate"
(June 6, 2008)

bq. Every time I swing by Culinate, I find something mouthwatering or brain-stretching or just plain yummy. And that’s usually just me looking at the pictures. Then I start reading the brilliant prose and my mind is doing somersaults all over again.

bq. Beautiful, exceptionally well written, and just downright interesting, Culinate is one of the best forward-thinking food blogs anywhere. Which is why it’s extra cool that it’s from Portland.

bq. Next time you’re looking for a recipe, curious about food, or simply just looking for examples of beautiful preparation — be that food preparation or blog preparation — swing by Culinate, an awesome Portland blog.

Idealist.org: "Eating Right: Recipes for Social Justice"
(April 3, 2008)

[%image muffins float=right width=350 caption="Carrot apricot muffins are easy and tasty."]

bq. Culinate is an online community featuring recipes and articles on the theme "Eat to Your Ideal" — in terms of where our food comes from, how it is produced, how it affects our health, and even whom we eat it with. Visitors to the site can, for example, read an article about the domestic fair-trade movement in the United States, learn about healthy and unhealthy fats, and get a recipe for carrot apricot muffins.

Whatscookingblog.com: "Who Feeds The Kids?"
(March 23, 2008)

bq. When I found this article on Culinate, I knew that I was in love. So eloquently put, I had to share directly with you. For more inspiring articles, recipes and opinions, please stop by and take a look.

Andrew Zimmern
(March 14, 2008)

bq. Out of the cache of "food news" sites that put together information and insight about all aspects of food life, Culinate has been a fresh look at fresh food. 

A Mighty Appetite (Washington Post blog): "Who's Cooking What Online"
(February 21, 2008)

bq. For everything but the kitchen sink, you must visit Culinate, which is quickly becoming the hottest online kitchen around. With every visit, I am greeted with not one, but several new things to check out and read. If you like staying current on sustainability, seasonality, food politics and trends (but without an attitude), this site is for you. Such smart, tasty writing. More, please.

EnviroMom.com: "Culinate: eat well, live well"
(November 28, 2007)

bq. I've been drooling over Culinate, a blog out of Portland that takes a deep look at food -- where it comes from, how to prepare it, and how to live well by eating well (thanks for the heads up, Julie G.). Many of the writers live in Portland, so these articles tend to reference local food, farms and farmers markets. I love the section The Produce Diaries, where people write about what's in their weekly CSA bin and suggest recipes for preparation (wish I'd seen this four months ago). And just in the nick of time: 8 ways to use stale bread (as I have two hard-as-rocks Grand Central loaves waiting in the wings) . . . I'm glad Culinate is here to inject a little inspiration and positive local food reinforcement.

Slashfood.com: "Escape from the holiday hubbub"
(November 23, 2007)

bq. This is the time of year when life can start to feel overwhelming and cooking becomes more of a burden than a joy. Thankfully there is lots of good food writing out there that can help you recenter yourself and find the peace and satisfaction available in cooking, eating and living.

bq. Earlier in the week, Culinate posted an essay by Charlotte Freeman entitled "The walking cure." It is about a time when Freeman was struggling with an inexplicable illness that made her run fevers and feel exhausted. A practitioner of Chinese medicine recommended outdoor physical exercise and so she started taking long, very slow walks in the woods on the Utah/Wyoming border.

bq. The essay contains a sense of quiet, almost as if you have stepped into the woods with Freeman and you are able, for a moment, to feel the dampness of the trees and hear the twigs snapping as you step. It also makes you (well, as least if you are me) want to leap up, grab a book about mushrooms and head to the woods in order to find your own.

Not Eating Out in New York
(June 12, 2007)

bq. One of the most unpretentious, intelligent, and fun food websites . . .

EatLocalChallenge.com: "Deborah Madison on Culinate: Local and Organic"
(June 12, 2007)

[%image local float=right width=350 caption="Deborah Madison wants her produce to be both local and organic."]

bq. Culinate has published a compelling article by Deborah Madison in which she outlines her choice of local and organic when possible. I think that you'll find most of the authors on this board agree that, when possible, it's best to choose local and organic. And I personally, don't love to see the two pitted against each other as it's some sort of an either/or contest. All of this is nicely summarized in Ms. Madison's piece.

Curdnerds.com
(March 6, 2007)

bq. For those of you who don’t know, Culinate.com is a fantastic new food site based in Portland, Oregon, that “features articles and essays that address the multitude of intersections between food and the rest of our lives.” They have lots of great content, and you should definitely check out the whole site if you’ve never been.

The Oregonian: "Culinate is cookin’"
(February 6, 2007)

bq. Into the great smorgasbord that is the Internet comes a new site for food lovers. Culinate, based here in Portland, says it’s “a place for those who want to eat better, making connections between food, community and the wider world.” Although the site says it’s still in its “beta period,” there’s plenty to chew on right now, such as an interview with wild-food forager John Kallas, an article on the mainstreaming of “locavores,” and a column on making better use of your oven’s broiler. There’s also a growing library of recipes and book reviews, newsy briefs, and a regular writing contest for readers (February’s is limericks on “something to do with sweet”). Check it out at www.culinate.com.

The Ethicurean
(January 30, 2007)

bq. We’ve been meaning to post about Culinate, a new Portland-based website devoted to conscious eating, but just haven’t gotten around to it. Launched earlier this month, the site already has a great collection of practical tips and personal essays. Today, there’s an in-depth feature about people who attempt the 100-Mile diet — and why. (Disclosure: Editor Liz Crain interviewed us for a forthcoming Blog Feed column. But that’s not why we like them.)

Northwest Home + Garden: "Scouting Report"
(September/October 2007)

bq. A steak is just a steak, right? Wrong! Did you know that meat labeled organic could be from cloned cows? Portland-based culinate.com, a new Web site for the culinary conscious launched in January, offers such provoking food news with a wider focus on the role that food plays in our culture. Although national in scope, the site pays plenty of homage to its Northwest roots with a bias toward sustainably grown, locally procured food. Explains editorial director Kim Carlson, “We feel as if there are a lot of people like us, just trying to do the right things by their bodies and their planet.” 

bq. Aside from interviews with notable foodies, such as the founder of Oregon’s Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods, recipes, and cookbook reviews, there are tasty regular columns, including Seattleite Matthew Amster-Burton’s humorous and helpful Unexplained Bacon, where he ruminates on such things as the real contents of cooking oil. Speaking of humor, culinate.com’s Potluck Contest routinely eggs its readers into food-related flights of fancy. Did you hear the limerick about the nuns with great buns?