Top food blogs of 2013

Top food blogs of 2013

Published October 15, 2013

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

Like it or not, we're living in the "Era of the Blog." In a country where just about everyone has theability, with the click of a mouse, to not only consume but create content, it seems like anyone withan opinion to voice has taken to their laptop and started a blog. This is obviously nothing new (asanyone who used to have a Xanga account can tell you), but the fact alone that anyone, anywhere,can set up a platform and instantly reach millions of readers is one worth celebrating. So for thefourth year running, we're ranking the top 25 food-oriented blogs, ranked according to readershipand social media following.

There's plenty of time to argue the merits of what makes a food blog great, be it the amount ofbreaking news, quality of the recipes, layout, industry usefulness, or wide appeal, but for today's(and previous years') purposes, we took a very objective approach: we tracked down nearly 200leading food blogs, using "best-of" lists from sites including Saveur and Babble, and then compiledfour data points on each of them: the average number of monthly visitors for the past year (usingCompete.com's data), and the number of Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and Pinterest followers.

To arrive at the final 25, we factored in the number of average unique visitors (this accounted for 50percent of each blog's score) and the data from the three social media components (which accountedfor the remaining 50 percent). The blogs with the highest total scores made the cut.

While the list didn't change dramatically from last year, there were a few notable differences. TheKitchn made a leap from number six up to number two, and Picky Palate jumped from number 12 up

to number five on our list. Skinnytaste, which ranked third last year, fell to number 10 this year, andDavid Lebovitz, whose star just keeps rising, jumped from number 11 up to number six. SimplyRecipes held onto the top spot for the fourth year in a row.

There were also several newcomers, while others fell off the list entirely. This year we welcomeBakers Royale, Chocolate Zucchini, Elana's Pantry, Food52, Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, SimpleBites, and Thug Kitchen to our list, while we say goodbye to Annie's Eats, Gluten-Free Goddess,Mommy's Kitchen, Our Best Bites, Pinch My Salt, TasteSpotting, and A Year of Slow Cooking. Fallingoff our list in no way indicates a drop in quality; reasons vary from blog to blog. Some have sloweddown the rate of posting entries; others have simply been surpassed by other blogs in traffic.

The blogs on our list offer everything from recipes to breaking restaurant news to simple musingsabout life and food, but they're all worthy of being on your radar if you love food.

Cooking Videos

1.nbspSimply Recipes

A virtual recipe box of founder Elise Bauer's favorite homespun dishes, Simply Recipes features hertried-and-true recipes, along with those crafted by family and friends. Bauer started the blog in 2003as a way to document the recipes that she grew up with and those that she developed. SimplyRecipes claims the top spot on our list for the fourth year running.

Average Monthly Unique Visitors: 2,130,665

Twitter: 81,313

Facebook: 91,557

Pinterest: 58

2.nbspThe Kitchn

The Kitchn is the food-focused arm of the home improvement site Apartment Therapy. The Kitchnbelieves that, "simplicity and luxury are not mutually exclusive," and provides its readers with simpletips, how-tos, and recipes. Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan is the founding editor of this blog, however,Faith Durand (pictured) manages The Kitchn on a daily basis.

Average Monthly Unique Visitors: 1,043,813

Twitter: 53,680

Facebook: 72,123

Pinterest: 8

3.nbspThe Pioneer Woman

Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond documents her life as a "domestic country wife," with photos andrecipes that she whips up for her husband and four young cowpokes. Two years ago, Drummondwent from blogger to television host, bringing her "cowboy-friendly" dishes to Food Network.

http://cookingvideos.website/

Average Monthly Unique Visitors: 162,477

Twitter: 423,685

Facebook: 841,945

Pinterest: 14

4.nbspCake Wrecks

Cooking Videos

Holding steady at number four, Cake Wrecks documents the most outrageous, silliest, and creativecakes out there. Users submit snapshots of the cake wrecks they come across and the best are hand-picked by founder Jen Yates and published.


Twitter: 1,250,073

Facebook: 181,685

Pinterest: n/a

5.nbspPicky Palate

Started by Jenny Flake in 2007 after she retired from her job as a dental hygienist to spend moretime at home with her sons, Picky Palate is full of recipes designed to appeal to picky eaters of allages. The dishes that appear on the blog tend to be family-friendly and are interspersed withgiveaways and the occasional product review. The first Picky Palate Cookbook was released lastyear.


Twitter: 20,401

Facebook: 66,816

Pinterest: 3,075

6.nbspDavid Lebovitz

Acclaimed former professional pastry chef David Lebovitz has a food blog that's chock-full of recipes,reviews, and all things Paris. With seven cookbooks under his belt, Lebovitz uses his blog as a placeto share musings on his travels and newly created recipes.


Twitter: 167,157

Facebook: 45,959

http://cookingvideos.website/

Pinterest: 2,501

7.nbspSerious Eats

Serious Eats founder Ed Levine has assembled a team of knowledgeable food writers to exploreeverything from how to sear a perfect steak to how to differentiate between pizza styles, withrecipes, restaurant reviews, taste tests, and plenty of other food-oriented content mixed in. There'salso a very active community of commenters, and coverage has expanded to 12 cities.


Twitter: 206,531

Facebook: 65,970

Pinterest: 128

8.nbspGluten-Free Girl and the Chef

Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef

Shauna James Ahern has been living a gluten-free lifestyle since 2005, and on her blog she has beenwriting about her experiences living with Celiac along with recipes and cooking videos from herhusband, "the chef." She's published three books and their site has become a must-visit for anyoneinterested in a gluten-free lifestyle.


Twitter: 165,041

Facebook: 54,798

Pinterest: 2,183

9.nbspRasa Malaysia

Bee Yinn Low, the author and professional recipe developer behind Rasa Malaysia, has publishedauthentic and approachable pan-Asian recipes since July 2006, and the blog has jumped up fromnumber 24 last year. Low's cookbook of easy Chinese recipes hit bookshelves a couple of years ago.The blog has one of the largest Asian recipe collections available online.


Twitter: 29,546

Facebook: 53,445

Pinterest: 2,063

10.nbspSkinnytaste

Skinnytaste features recipes developed by author and founder Gina Homolka. Skinnytaste's recipesare "healthy dishes that don't sacrifice any of the flavor" of their full-fat counterparts.


Twitter: 27,350

Facebook: 268,263

Pinterest: 144

See all 25 food blogs at The Daily Meal

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Top food blogs of 2013