The Bitten Word

Battle of the Food & Wine Covers, Plus QR Codes On Covers

Dueling Food & Wine covers for home subscribers (left) and newsstand (right).

We're always fascinated by the choices food magazines make in what to put on the cover each month.

What, for instance, drove the decision for Bon Appétit to put pasta on their May cover when other magazines went with more summery dishes? And how did Fine Cooking end up with ribs on the June/July cover, when most magazines went with burgers?

We're sure these issues are debated long and hard (and hopefully over plates of delicious food from the test kitchen).

But the thing about magazine covers that most fascinates us is when they decide to do two covers -- one for subscribers and another for newsstand. We see this most often in the fall, when we've noticed several magazines doing this for their Thanksgiving issues.

While we were at the supermarket recently, we saw the newsstand edition of Food & Wine's "best new chefs" issue. We were surprised to see the newsstand cover, featuring a beautiful shot of Green Tomatoes with Pistachio Relish, rather than the group-shot cover home subscribers received.

The choice totally makes sense to us. It stands to reason that home subscribers -- more likely to be foodies -- would take more interest in which chefs appear on the cover. The casual shopper at a bookstore or supermarket might be more drawn to a beautiful food photo. (Now, whether the more casual shopper is interested in a green tomato dish is a whole other question.) 

Which cover do you prefer? Below -- take our (first!) poll. Plus, find out what those funny symbols are in the bottom right of each magazine cover.

Lamb-and-Cucumber Kebabs with Feta Sauce

Martha Stewart Living (June 2010)

We really love cucumbers, and the farmers markets around here are bursting with them this time of year.

But we're always a little flummoxed about what to do with them. Of course they're great raw, either by themselves or in a salad. And when there's a huge bounty of cukes, there are pickles to be made. We also know that they can be excellent in cocktails. In fact, this weekend we had a muddled-cucumber gin cocktail we're dying to recreate at home.

But actually cooking with cucumbers? We've always been stumped.

Which is why we were really excited about this recipe for Lamb-and-Cucumber Kebabs with Feta Sauce in last month's Martha Stewart Living.

Grilling cucumbers? We had to try it ourselves.

The Leftovers | Flexible Skewers, Salt Plates, Pig & More

Here are a few items that caught our eye over the last month.

Flexible Skewers: Here to Save the Grilling Day?

Flexible skewers are showing up all over the place, but we first saw them in the June issue of Food & Wine. The idea is that by using a flexible skewer, you can maximize your grill space, making the skewer whatever shape works best for your grill and the other things you're cooking.

Being gadget geeks, we were interested in trying them out. But then, lo and behold, the most recent Cook's Illustrated arrived and the skewers are reviewed in their Equipment Corner. Their verdict? The skewers are hard to flip and the food tends to fall off. Plus, there were concerns about bacteria that we don't really want to get into.  So our flexible skewer dreams are, perhaps, dashed.

If you want to give them a go, you can order a set of 4 on Amazon for $19.

Smoke it!

In the same issue, Food & Wine also featured the Pinzon box, designed by Tom Douglas, the owner of Seattle-based restaurant Serious Pie. The idea is that you fill the box with wood chips and set it on the grill grates, so that whatever you're grilling gets a wood-fired flavor. It's awfully pretty. We might have to get one for ourselves (available for $13 on Amazon.com). 

After the jump: Salt Plates, Pig and Absinthe!