25 Top Food Blogs Of 2011

What makes a great food blog? Engaging content about specific subject matter, stellar photos, and a hefty dose of in-the-know opinion. Blogs that made this list demonstrate all these things with great finesse.

To put a list of the top 25 food blogs together, we waded through similar "Best Of" lists that other sources, including Saveur and Babble, published in 2011 — compiled data included more than 140 food blogs. Then we averaged the number of each blog's unique visitors throughout the past year using Compete.com's monthly statistics. We also looked at updated stats for those blogs that made our list in 2010 and added them to the mix. Blogs with the highest number of average unique visitors and the greatest number of mentions on other "Best Of" lists made the final cut. 

Click here for the 25 Top Food Blogs of 2011 Slideshow

The top seven blogs remained the same as in 2010, with Simply Recipes taking the number one spot yet again. The only change in this part of the lineup is that Smitten Kitchen swapped places with 101 Cookbooks (coming in at numbers five and six this year, respectively). 

New additions in 2011 include loveable brainiac Michael Chu's blog, Cooking for Engineers, not so suprising given his knack for turning out quirky culinary delights. Another acclaimed blog among the food-focused, Joy the Baker, made this year's list as well. And Lisa Fain, the Southern charmer behind Homesick Texan found her way into the mix, hot off the release of her first cookbook in September.

Of course, there were a few blogs that fell off the list for one reason or another. Mark Bittman's wildly popular New York Times blog ended when he moved on from the Dining section. Viral phenomenon This Is Why You're Fat slowed down their rate of posting entries significantly, which certainly had an impact on the blog falling off the list. 

Curious about which other blogs made the list? Check out 25 that made the cut. Think we missed your favorite? Comment below.

 

Research contributed by Joseph Hernandez