Top 20 Food and Recipe Blogs — Part 2: 11 to 20

Today is the second and final part of my list of top 20 food and cookery blogs. Here I am presenting blogs number 11 to 20. These are blogs I love, and which have an excellent reputation either for their content or because of their beautiful presentation, excellent navigation and usability:

11. The SHIKSA in the KITCHEN This is the blog of Tori Avery, a food writer and recipe developer with an interest in the origins and history of food. There is a broad range of beautifully-photographed dishes here, with anecdotes, history and information. The recipes themselves are well presented and easy to follow and you have the option to both save and print the recipe. The print option opens in a new window, but there is no thumbnail or image of the dish. The recipe itself has a list of ingredients but is broken by lots of photographs of the cooking stages. Whereas this can be useful on a tablet if you are cooking along, I do like to see all the recipe together in one place without having to chose the print option. But that's a small quibble and this is an excellent food blog.

12. Smitten Kitchen This is the blog of Deb Peselman with a nice clean design. The default fonts are maybe a little small, but the food photography is stunning. There are anecdotes with each recipe and lots of images. The main recipe is given at the end of the article, part anecdote and information then the ingredient and then the preparation method. All neat and very easy to follow. There is no print option though, which is a shame as the pages are very long. Still, a blog that's well worth checking out.

13. Dinner: A Love Story This is the blog of Jenny Rosenstrach. This is a brit broader than just a food and recipes blog, tough there are loads of recipes available here. This, however, is a bit more of what a blog is supposed to be, lots of things that interest and influence the author. This is a mixed bag and some of the recipes are amazing, but others are general descriptions of what was prepared that evening. The 'proper' recipes are well illustrated with descriptions and the recipes are put at the end in their entirety and are easy to read. There is no print option however. This is a blog that you can easily get lost in.

14. Two Peas and their Pod This is the blog of Maria and Josh. It's one of those food blogs that everyone who reads falls in love with. The photography is glorious, the descriptions are generous and easy to follow and you see the full recipes at the end of each posting. Font size is nicely readable and you get to both print and save the recipes. Very nice blog that you really should visit.

15. Pinch my Salt Tis is the blog of Nicole and the site design is simple and classy and the recipes are illustrated throughout, with steps. The whole recipe is then given at the very end. Recipes are easy to read and are well presented. However, there is no print option to get just the recipe. Still, the site is well put together, easy to navigate and visually appealing.

16. Bake or Break This is a blog dedicated to baking, both new and novel recipes. the site is classically designed and easy to navigate and the photographs are glorious. There are descriptions with images for each recipe and the full recipe is presented at the end. There is a print option and the recipe is printed out with a thumbnail of the final dish. I really like the design of this blog and I will be taking some tips away with me. Visit it for baking masterclasses.

17. The Novice Chef This is the blog of Jessica and it chronicles her development in learning cookery. The design is nice and the format follows most of the other blogs here. With a description and images of how the dish is put together, followed by the full recipe at the bottom. You have the option of both printing and saving the recipe. The printing option is clean but there is no thumbnail of the finished dish. Nice blog, well put together.

18. Food Blogga This is the blog of Susan Russo, author and freelance writer. The recipes are great, nicely presented and with a simple print option. However, the navigation is terrible (like many blogger blogs) and its hard to find your way around to new recipes beyond the home page. They are there, just buried down the right hands side. Once you get our head around this, then the images are wonderful, the recipes are great and it's a blog well worth visiting.

19. bell'alimento This is the blog of Paula Jones who focuses on Italian cuisine. Beautiful photography combines with well-written recipes. The pages have descriptions and plenty of images and the main recipe is presented simply at the end. You can both print and save the recipe though there is no thumbnail of the recipe in the printable version. There is a nice simple layout with some graphical adornments that makes the site simple to use and easy to find what you are looking for.

20. The Perfect Pantry This is the blog of Lydia Walshin who is  a food writer. The blog has been on-line since 2006 and the focus is on using standard pantry stand-bys to create recipes.  Recipes begin with a description and an image and sometimes an anecdote. The full recipe is then given at the bottom of the page in standard format. There is a link to a printer-friendly version of the recipe. This is a slightly more quirky and individualistic blog and for that reason it should be applauded and visited.

And just one more, as a bonus:

21. Celtnet Recipes This is really a site rather than a blog, but it's a very quirky one. You get complete historical recipe books, everything from Ancient Roman texts to late Victorian books. There are recipes from every corner of the world, as well as classic recipes, with African and British recipes being the focus. There is also a huge section of Wild food recipes, with over 180 edible wild foods described. In addition there are herb and spice guides listing herbs and spices from all around the world, with recipes showing how they are used. This is a big site, but very little known and it really deserves wider publicity. With over 19 700 recipes you should go and explore it!

If you enjoyed this listing of ten of the best food and recipe blogs on the web, and you find it useful, please consider linking to this page http://celtnet-recipes.blogspot.com/2012/11/top-20-food-and-recipe-blogs-part-2-11.html also mention this page on your favourite social networking site.

Back to part 1, detailing sites 1 to 10.