ruth cooks |
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Overall Best Book Shirley Corriher’s wonderful scientific treatise eluded me for several years after publication, and I can’t think why. Even though I turned down that college scholarship in foods, chemistry being the bane of my student existence, there’s nothing more fascinating to me than finding out why a recipe works or doesn’t work. This, chemist Shirley does in spades. She tells us why methods work and don’t work; how to change a recipe if it doesn’t work; what lessons we can learn from each of her 200 plus recipes that we may apply to similar recipes in our repertoires. Professionals and beginners alike need this book. Shirley’s Touch of Grace Biscuits, made with heavy cream and buttermilk, are so ambrosial they deserve a bread category all their own. She recommends serving them with a yummy sounding Cherry-Chambord Butter. She promises a Lemon Meringue Pie with a meringue that does not shrink. While I’ve not made too many recipes from the book, it’s often served as an invaluable work of reference. Cookwise is a safety net, an insurance policy,
money in the bank. I feel smug and snug knowing it’s on my shelf.
This is the book for you if you’ve ever said, “I just don’t know what goes together.” You’ll find tips on composing flavors, dishes and menus, as well as recipes and menus from famous chefs, such as an entire week’s menus from Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse. This is the book that has the “desert island” lists referred to in the March 10 column. Opening a page at random to the chapter called “Food Matches Made in Heaven” we find “corned beef”. You find out that braising and simmering are the recommended cooking methods and that corned beef is a dish for spring. Cabbage, horseradish, mustard and potatoes are in bold face, meaning that these are the classic foods associated with corned beef. Other go-together flavors are listed. “Duh,” you say, “I knew that.” Of course you did, especially with St. Patrick’s Day just past. Let’s get a little more esoteric. Suppose someone presents you with a “mess” of fiddlehead ferns. You’ve never seen them before. They’re green, so you guess they’re vegetables but you haven’t the faintest idea of how to cook them. Under “fiddlehead ferns” you find that deep-frying and steaming are the recommended cooking methods. In boldface, signifying classic food combinations, is hollandaise sauce. But also listed are bacon, butter, leeks, lemon, nutmeg, olive oil, onions, shallots and vinaigrette. Now you’re cooking.
Category: Best Series I cannot wait for this book to come out each year. I order in advance of publication. I watch the mailbox. I pounce and devour. OK, so pounce and devour is a little over the top. You get the idea that I love this series of books sub-titled “The year’s top picks from books, magazine, newspapers and the Internet.” It’s like having your own personal recipe researcher. Although no two persons have identical taste in foods, there are plenty of goodies for everyone. There have been four books in the series, and this latest seems to include too many recipes from the Mexican-Thai-Japanese-Moroccan-Asian-Indian persuasion. It’s probably just my own prejudice against spicy and spicy-hot foods, because French-German-Greek-Scandinavian-Mediterranean recipes don’t faze me one bit. One chapter I can relate to as an American cook is “breakfast and brunch” with its Three-Cheese Baked Egg Puff with Roasted Peppers and Sweet Spicy Bacon, Lemon-Raisin Breakfast Bars and Orange Caramel Monkey Bread. Each new version features a chapter on “the year in food” which lists the editor’s top ten food trends, great guessing fun for food writers. Top ingredient for this edition is butter (lets hear it for comeback of the decade) and the emerging vegetable is who-woulda-thunk-it cabbage. Top obsession is chocolate. Now there’s old news. Just one query. How can you call this book 2002-2003 and publish it in 2002? You know the testing and writing had to start even earlier unless they have quite a kitchen testing staff. Did the publisher worry you might think it was dated? ©Copyright 2003 - All Rights Reserved |