Reference Books - Page 9

The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen

Michael Ruhlman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Modeled on Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, The Element of Cooking is an opinionated reference work destined to stand alongside the shelf among the great works of the kitchen: On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, Escoffier, The Joy of Cooking and the CIA's The Professsional Chef. Unlike those monoliths of the kitchen, this book is slim, clear and very to the point: here are the things you need to know how to do, here are the words you need to speak the langauage of food, and, most importanly, here are the ways you need to think about an approach food, the absolute essentials that every, not only good but great, cook knows.

Just as Strunk and White sits on the desk of every student and professional who has to write a sentence, The Elements of Cooking is destined to be the go-to book for any amatuer or professional cook. It defines terms, offers the basic ratios of important preparations (sauces, cakes, etc.) so that you will never need a recipe again and provides countless, simple chef's "secrets" that every home cook should know.

In eight introductory essays, Ruhlman has pared down the essentials of great cooking: understanding how to salt food; making stock; making sauces; using heat properly; working with eggs; having the right tools (there are only 5 essentials); what to read and use as a resource; and lastly, and most importantly, the use of finesse, that extra attention to detail that turns food glorious.

Simply written, this is a book that can be read in an afternoon and it's lessons be practiced for a lifetime.

Cath Kidston Recipe Organizer

Cath Kidston

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Love It 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

After I got married, I started cooking and accumulating recipes. I needed a way to get organized! This recipe organizer was just the thing I needed. Since is basically a glorified three ring binder, I am able to print recipes off the internet and just put them under the appropriate tab. Each tab is also a folder for random recipes that you cut out or find. It is a great product that I would definitely recommend. After seeing mine, my mom asked me for one. It would be an excellent wedding gift.

Love it, love it, love it!! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I always had recipes scattered about on pieces of paper or magazine scraps, now I have them all in one place and easy to access, and I never have to worry about losing a recipe or not being able to find that littel piece of paper, it's all there

Editorial Review:

Creating a custom recipe book has never been easier! This sturdy and stylish three-ring binder is neatly organized course-by-course, with space to write cherished recipes, and store magazine clippings and Internet printouts. Featuring ample pockets for extra storage, as well as handy tear-out shopping lists, and a variety of helpful cooking charts, the Cath Kidston Recipe Organizer is an all-in-one source for kitchen inspiration.

Stalking the Wild Asparagus

Euell Gibbons

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Classic- Like a Thoreau, Will Rogers & Mark Twain Blend 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Euell Gibbons (1911-1975) had an adventurous life to say the least. His first intro to wild foods was due to his family's poverty when they lived in New Mexico. At 12 years old, Gibbons went out in the surrounding country-side to forage for edibles to help feed his family and a life-long love of wild food got off to a pragmatic start. One of his first discoveries was wild asparagus, hence the book title namesake.

This book is lyrical, yet practical and covers a sizeable array of wild foods- location, preparation, uses, etc. Recipes are given all through the book as well as some medicinal use info. One of Gibbons' favorite plants was the Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). He relates how the Dandelion has been one of humanities longest known and useful wild foods and medicines and laments the assault by lawn care chemical manufacturers in trying to demonize this beautiful, helpful gift from Nature.

Gibbons traveled the world lecturing on the benefits of wild foods and was often seen on popular talk shows along with becoming a pitch-man for Post Grape Nut Cereal commercials where he treated America to hilarious daily line: "...taste like wild hickory nuts!". Gibbon's came across like a modern-day cross between Mark Twain, Will Rogers and Henry David Thoreau.

Those familiar with Thoreau's recently published last manuscript, "Wild Fruits" will see the close resemblance to "Stalking the Wild Asparagus"- both now classics and useful guides to Nature's cornucopia of wild edible gifts.

Editorial Review:

Euell Gibbons was one of the few people in this country to devote a considerable part of his life to the adventure of “living off the land.” He sought out wild plants all over North America and made them into delicious dishes. His book includes recipes for vegetable and casserole dishes, breads, cakes, muffins and twenty different pies. He also shows how to make numerous jellies, jams, teas, and wines, and how to sweeten them with wild honey or homemade maple syrup.

Food in History

Reay Tannahill

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

What we eat and where it came from 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

"Food in History" is a survey of world history from the standpoint of what people ate and when. The time period covered is from the prehistoric up until nearly the present. Along the way the author gives us a brief history of the eating habits of the Romans (unborn rabbits!), China, India, the Arabs, the Europeans, and the modern world. She includes brief histories of tea, coffee, salt, jerky, chocolate, human beings, and many other food items.

This is not a recipe or a nutrition book -- although the author includes ancient recipes and comments on nutritional diseases such as scurvy. Many a fascinating tidbit of information is found within these pages. For example, I learned that the Romans were addicted to a fish sauce they called liquamen which seems to be nearly identical to the fish sauce used in SE Asia today. The Medieval section included several hilarious pages devoted to table manners in the Middle Ages, including a dissertation on breaking wind at the dinner table. (My wife says that only guys find this subject funny.)

This is a book I've had on my shelves for decades and I pick it up now and then and read about the eating habits of one civilization or another. The prose is generally lively and authoritative. Oddly enough, food doesn't seem to have inspired many historians so this book may be the best you can find on the subject even though it was written 30 years ago.

Smallchief

Editorial Review:

An enthralling world history of food from prehistoric times to the present. A favorite of gastronomes and history buffs alike, Food in History is packed with intriguing information, lore, and startling insights--like what cinnamon had to do with the discovery of America, and how food has influenced population growth and urban expansion.

Bistro Cooking

Patricia Wells, Judy Kleiber Jones

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Bistro is warm. Bistro is family. Bistro is simple, hearty, generous cuisine-robust soups and country omelets, wine-scented stews and bubbling gratins, and desserts from a grandmother's kitchen. Researched and written by Patricia Wells, author of The Food Lover's Guide to Paris and The Food Lover's Guide to France, together with over 220,000 copies in print, here is a celebration of the no-nonsense, inexpensive, soul-satisfying cuisine of the neighborhood restaurants of France.

BISTRO COOKING contains over 200 scrumptious bistro recipes made lighter and quicker for the way we cook today. Warm Poached Sausage with Potato Salad. Benoit's Mussel Soup. Guy Savoy's Fall Leg of Lamb. Beef Stew with Wild Mushrooms and Orange, Chicken Basquaise, Pasta with Lemon, Ham, and Black Olives, L'Ami Louis' Potato Cake, Provencal Roast Tomatoes, Pears in Red Wine, and Golden Cream and Apple Tart.

Throughout, lively notes and sidebars capture the world of bistro owners in the kitchen, les grands chefs, and more. Selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. Winner of the 1989 IACP Seagram Food and Beverage Award. Over 166,000 copies in print.

How to Cook a Wolf

M. F. K. Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Unusual writing for unusual times 5 out of 5 stars.
47 of 47 people found this review helpful.

M.F.K. Fisher was a superb writer. And she lived in "interesting times" in Europe and California. How to Cook a Wolf pitted her inate love of food and cuisine against some severe times when money might be short or food was rationed. Her strange sense of humor and practical outlook are interesting; for example, she gives a recipe for a sludge to keep body (if not soul) alive. The instructions begin with borrowing 50 cents to buy the ingredients; hamburger, wilted vegetables. The resulting mush can be used as a nutritious dog food, or a staple to survive on. She even claims it can be quite acceptable fried as scrapple, but then you'd have to have some cooking fat (and even that could be hard to come by.)

In these times of plenty, it's hard to relate to this book except to read Fisher's ideas and fantastic prose; the section on "Sue" (really California artist and etcher Nel Coover) who survived and entertained her guests with wild ice plants, seaweed and stolen eggs and potatoes is captivating.

If you have never read any M.F.K. Fisher, start with "The Measure of My Powers", but if you have read her, and if you have developed a taste for her marvelous writing, this is one of her famous works that is unique and interesting.

Editorial Review:

Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table. M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations to celebrate life by eating well.

1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die

Universe

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Editorial Review:

From single press extra-virgin olive oils and artisanal cheeses to more exotic fare such as zebra jerky, this compilation is a cornucopia of culinary delicacies from every cuisine around the globe. Featuring luscious photographs and descriptions of must-eat foods from sweet to savory, this culinary gazetteer of the world offers expert guidance on how to really eat like a local when in Rome or how to find the most authentic Peking duck when visiting Beijing. Any foodie will delight at the fact-filled descriptions and marginalia and sidebars bursting with culinary history and trivia. Whether looking for the "must-taste treats" to seek out on your next vacation or inspiration for a romantic dinner for two, this compendium is sure to be a source of gourmet inspiration, certain to expand even an experienced epicure’s mental grocery list. The book is divided into sections based on food type (meats, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, sweets and confections, etc). Included are classics as well as delicacies little known outside their home turf. Each entry features authoritative yet opinionated descriptions as well as anecdotes about the producers or the region ensuring that this book will have wide appeal to connoisseurs and novices alike.

The Tasha Tudor Cookbook: Recipes and Reminiscences from Corgi Cottage

Tasha Tudor

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Return to Grandmother's kitchen 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Tasha Tudor's cookbook makes you long for the past when your grandmother taught you how to make the perfect pie crust. Ms. Tudor's own illustrations add to the charm of a book that reminds you of happy times spent in the kitchen. Her recipes and personal stories encourage you recreate that time with your own children and grandchildren.

Tasha Tudor's World -- a birdseye view! 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Anything by Tasha Tudor is a work of art! Her illustrations, and down to earth practicality, is revealed -- upclose -- in this delightful book! This is the kind of book you can give a little girl of any age -- even 99!

Not quite what I expected 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I bought this more for nostalgia, so in that case it gets 5 stars for pictures and memories. Most of the recipes are modern, yet impractical. There are a few that I would say are great heirloom recipes, but that's all.

Editorial Review:

The beloved children's author shares family memories and traditional New England recipes, including those for rich Yorkshire pudding, tangy baked beans, baked custard, homemade ice cream, and English toffee bars. 40,000 first printing. $40,000 ad/promo.

New York Times Cookbook

Craig Claiborne

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Since it was first published in 1961, The New York Times Cook Book, a standard work for gourmet home cooks, has sold nearly three million copies in all editions and continues to sell strongly each year. All the nearly fifteen hundred recipes in the book have been reviewed, revised, and updated, and approximately 40 percent have been replaced.

Emphasizing the timeless nature of this collection, Craig Claiborne has included new recipes using fresh herbs and food processor techniques. He has also added more Chinese, Indian, and foreign recipes and more recipes for pasta, rice, and grains. Additional fish recipes, new salads and bread recipes, and an exceptional chili dish enhance this edition, which contains traditional American recipes and selected recipes from twenty countries. All the recipes are clearly presented and suitable for many different occasions, ranging from a wide variety of family meals to the most formal dinner party. The author also covers sauces and salad dressings, relishes, and preserves. And there are countless old favorites and those wonderful desserts.

Complete with essential cross-referencing, a table of equivalents and conversions, and an index, the revised edition of The New York Times Cook Book is a superb new cookbook to give, to own, and to use for years to come.

Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker's Atlas

Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As they have pursued their passions for travel and exploring culture through food, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid have found an internationally shared and nourishing element of culture and cuisine: flatbreads, humankind's simplest, oldest, and most remarkably varied form of bread.

In their James Beard Award-winning cookbook Flatbreads and Flavors Alford and Duguid share more than sixty recipes for flatbreads of every origin and description: tortillas from Mexico, pita from the Middle East, naan from Afghanistan, chapatti from India, pizza from Italy, and French fougasse. In addition, they provide 150 recipes for traditional accompaniments to the flatbreads, from chutneys and curries, salsas and stews, to such delectable pairings as Chinese Spicy Cumin Kebabs wrapped in Uighur nan or Lentils with Garlic, Onion, and Tomato spooned onto chapatti. Redolent with the tastes and aromas of the world's hearths, Flatbreads and Flavors maps a course through cultures old and intriguing, and, with clear and patient recipes, makes accessible to the novice and experienced baker alike the simple and satisfying bread baker's art.