The New Cooks' Catalogue

The New Cooks' Catalogue by Burt Wolf


The New Cooks' Catalogue

Did I say I'm equipment centric as well? This book isn't perfect, but its the best book of its kind available.

Updated, expanded, thoroughly revised, and now in full color--the definitive guide to cooking equipment and utensils

This book offers detailed evaluations of more than a thousand items of kitchen equipment--from paring knives to grill pans to espresso machines--providing you with practical information about brands, models, size, function, and performance. Each entry is accompanied by a color photograph and includes features and tips on care and usage. Also included are sections on what to look for when purchasing, as well as recipes and sidebars by more than a hundred culinary celebrities.

Whether you are setting up a kitchen for the first time or adding to a long-standing collection, you will find The New Cooks' Catalogue an invaluable and entertaining guide to making the right selections.

This is the first time I have ever been motivated to write a review. I found this to be a complete waste of money. I own the wonderful original "Cook's Catalogue" with James Beard as one of the editors, and have referred to it frequently over many years. This "new version" might be helpful if you are completely inexperienced in the kitchen. Otherwise, direct your spending $$$ towards a nice saucepan.

Great Help and Sparks Good Ideas
This book was a great help in expanding some of our kitchen equipment. If you visit a bookstore or library, you may find thousands of books on cooking and not one on cooking equipment. This book fills that niche very nicely.

There were some items that we had acquired that we knew were really good -- the authors had done their research and it was encouraging that they found the same and for similar reasons. That gave me some reference as to their experience.

The book is up-to-date. They have equipment that is top-notch and widely available. The photos are excellent.

The book is also a great resource for items you may not have considered or known about. I know that we now have several more items on our list of equipment to buy. This makes it especially good as a gift to newlyweds or people starting out on their own and want to cook.

Not exactly a catalogue....
.....but more of an encyclopedia. This is a good book if you don't know what a certain kitchen tool does or would like a breif history lesson. This not the best consumer buying guide around, but a good buy none the less.

Crepes: Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Home Cook

Crepes: Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Home Cook by Lou Seibert



Crepes: Sweet and Savory Recipes for the Home Cook

I absolutely love crepes - and they are easy and functional. If you want a night off cooking, go to your nearest Cafe Brazil restraunt and order your custom crepe from them!

GREAT!
I bought this for my daughter for Christmas along with a crepe maker. We've used it THREE times since Christmas...three different recipes in three days and each has been DELICIOUS! Great pictures...wonderful recipes and tips!

Love this book!
I originally found this book at a library, but after checking it out over and over again -as I love it, I checked on Amazon and it was here!! Love it! It has such a wonderful variety of crepes, using different flours etc., sweet and savory, and so many tips and ideas. I share this book title with everyone at my cooking shows. Definitely worth the price and then some!

Just what I was looking for...
I took a crepe making class just to learn the technique and take the fear out of crepe making. While I took away from that class a few recipes, none were interesting enough to make at home. This book is wonderful--what closed the deal on purchasing it was when I saw that it included a recipe for blue corn crepes. While vacationing in Santa Fe, I fell in love with their blue corn pancake/muffin mix. I can't wait to make the blue corn crepes with the blue corn mix I brought back to Houston. The recipes in this book are exactly what I was looking for--diverse and simple to follow.

The Best Recipe

The Best Recipe by Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine


The Best Recipe

This is the 'consumer report' of recipes. Some repetition between this and Ms Anderson books are to be expected - Ms Anderson is a former executive editor of Cook's Illustrated.

Founded in 1980, Cook's Illustrated (formerly Cook's Magazine) has emerged as "America's Test Kitchen," renowned for its near-obsessive dedication to finding the best methods of American home cooking. Over the years, we've tested 80 recipes for chocolate chip cookies, more than 70 recipes for gumbo, 40 versions of the peanut butter cookie, and more than 20 versions of such simple recipes as coleslaw, roast chicken, and hash brown potatoes. The Best Recipe is a collection of the editors' picks from the pages of Cook's Illustrated. The recipes have been edited, organized, and annotated with in-depth descriptions of how we developed the "best" recipe. And they appear alongside dozens of equipment ratings and taste tests of supermarket foods, as well as more than 200 illustrations demonstrating the most efficient food preparation methods.

In The Best Recipe, we invite you into our test kitchen, where you will stand at our elbow as we try to develop the best macaroni and cheese or the best split pea soup. You'll discover how to make a foolproof yellow cake, a perfectly cooked prime rib roast, and homemade bread in under two hours. You'll find out how to solve the problem of watery coleslaw, overcooked turkey breast, acidic salad dressing, dull tomato sauce, sticky white rice, dry turkey burgers, tough scrambled eggs, and sunken birthday cakes. You will also find the secret to bakery-style high-rise muffins and the way to make that restaurant favorite, warm, fallen chocolate cake, at home, with only a few minutes of preparation.

The Best Recipe also gives you useful tips on purchasing cookware (based on extensive test kitchen evaluations), including pie plates, food processors, standing mixers, chef's knives, skillets, vegetable peelers, and Dutch ovens. We also explain the science of cooking (how to cream butter and why, how baking powder works, the difference between semisweet and bittersweet chocolate) and offer tips on purchasing canned chicken stock, canned tomatoes, flour, butter, and dried pasta.

The editors of Cook's Illustrated have performed thousands of hours of kitchen testing to bring you a cookbook that not only provides the best recipes but also tells you how they came to be that way. Let The Best Recipe become your one-stop cooking school and your favorite kitchen reference.

good standby
I searched this out for the biscuit recipe but have to say all the recipes I have used have turned out lovely. Each recipe is well explained, well thoughtout and overall it is a very easy cookbook to use.

Truly the best recipe!
This cookbook is one of my most ragged cookbooks. It is the one I look for when I want to fix something special or homey. The stew recipe is absolutely the best!
Elaine Littau
Author of "Nan's Journey"

Good..BUT!!!
Yes, this is an excelent book. I cant think of a single recipe that I have made from this book that has resulted in a failure. However there are a few things that get to me when using the book.
1. The Index: The index in this book is perhaps the most absurd index I have ever encountered. I dont know who formatted it but they should never be allowed to create an index for the rest of their career. The way things are tabbed, spaced, and positioned on the page makes it almost impossible to find what you are looking for without sitting down and seriously taking time to search.

2. Christopher "I am depressed" Kimball - At the intro to every single recipe he startes it out with some depressing horror story "Most apple pies turn out soggy, burnt, too crispy, too moist, rotten, dog food..." "most roast recipies turn out like cardboard cooked in a lava flow"

he is depressing.
but cookbook good

How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart

How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart by Pam Anderson


How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart

Just don't expect a thousand recipes.

A Must-have Cookbook
I admit to being a cookbook-aholic - some are fun to read yet I don't actually use them, some are the opposite. This one is both. It's one of those cookbooks that I end up tabbing so I can go back for a refresher. The recipes are imaginative and do-able, and range from ambitious to embarrassingly easy (best example of this is the Warm White Bean Spread that takes about 30 seconds to make and tastes heavenly).
I especially like the way the book is organized, which is by method. For example she goes through sautes ("If you've seen one saute, you've seen them all") with basic methods for sauteing various meats. Then she provides a basic method for pan sauces, followed by several variations that can be made using the basic method. If it sounds too dumbed down, think again - her recipes are delicious and make it possible to serve imaginative and delectable meals to my family even on weeknights.
I always prefer photos, but in this case, the descriptions and then successful outcomes far outweigh that consideration.
I first saw this book at a friend's house; I am guilty of sneaking peaks at bookshelves, trying to get an idea of what my good-cook friends are using. This one was food-stained and dog-eared, the best indicator of a well-used resource. Sure enough, it's starting to look the same on my bookshelf; it's like having a kindly aunty in my kitchen, giving me great ideas for meals and useful tips for success.

Pam makes it look easy--and it is!
How to Cook Without a Book: Recipes and Techniques Every Cook Should Know by Heart
By learning the basic techniques in this book, I'm able to sautee, for example, several different kinds of meats from my memory (and I don't have the greatest memory!) If I look anything up before sauteeing my meat, it's only to decide on a delicious sauce to accompany it. My family loves the Sauteed Boneless Pork Chops (cut from a boneless pork loin) with Orange-Dijon Pan Sauce with Rosemary.

The author covers everything from salads to side dishes to quick deserts. All of the chapters are fabulous, but I've personally gotten the most out of those dedicated to meat, chicken, and fish.

This book is wonderful and I'd recommend it as a starting point for novices as well as experienced cooks. I was an experienced cook looking for quick everyday meal ideas.

Must Have
This book is a must have and I have given it to several people as gifts and they agree. The recipes are straight forward, simple, and do not take much time or prep work. It is more of a "guide" to teach you how to use and expand on the basic recipes that she provides. I also love the "grocery list" that it provides telling you what to keep in your pantry to pull together a great dinner in minutes. She encourages you to bring in ingredients that you have or like and not to be afraid to experiment...within the guidelines that she provides.

Pam Anderson grew up watching her parents and grandparents make dinner every night by simply taking the ingredients on hand and cooking them with the techniques they knew.

Times have changed. Today we have an overwhelming array of ingredients and a fraction of the cooking time, but Anderson believes the secret to getting dinner on the table lies in the past. After a long day, who has the energy to look up a recipe and search for the right ingredients before ever starting to cook? To make dinner night after night, Anderson believes the first two steps--looking for a recipe, then scrambling for the exact ingredients--must be eliminated. Understanding that most recipes are simply "variations on a theme," she innovatively teaches technique, ultimately eliminating the need for recipes.

Once the technique or formula is mastered, Anderson encourages inexperienced as well as veteran cooks to spread their culinary wings. For example, after learning to sear a steak, it's understood that the same method works for scallops, tuna, hamburger, swordfish, salmon, pork tenderloin, and more. You never need to look at a recipe again. Vary the look and flavor of these dishes with interchangeable pan sauces, salsas, relishes, and butters.

Best of all, these recipes rise above the mundane Monday-through-Friday fare. Imagine homemade ravioli and lasagna for weeknight supper, or from-scratch tomato sauce before the pasta water has even boiled. Last-minute guests? Dress up simple tomato sauce with capers and olives or shrimp and red pepper flakes. Drizzle sautéed chicken breasts with a balsamic vinegar pan sauce. Anderson teaches you how to do it--without a recipe. Don't buy exotic ingredients and follow tedious instructions for making hors d'oeuvres. Forage through the pantry and refrigerator for quick appetizers. The ingredients are all there; the method is in your head. Master four simple potato dishes--a bake, a cake, a mash, and a roast--compatible with many meals. Learn how to make the five-minute dinner salad, easily changing its look and flavor depending on the season and occasion. Tuck a few dessert techniques in your back pocket and effortlessly turn any meal into a special occasion.

There's real rhyme and reason to Pam's method at the beginning of every chapter: To dress greens, "Drizzle salad with oil, salt, and pepper, then toss until just slick. Sprinkle in some vinegar to give it a little kick." To make a frittata, "Cook eggs without stirring until set around the edges. Bake until puffy, then cut it into wedges." Each chapter also contains a helpful at-a-glance chart that highlights the key points of every technique, and a master recipe with enough variations to keep you going until you've learned how to cook without a book.

The Perfect Recipe

The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson



The Perfect Recipe

This book and the next one are great - they suit my way of thinking.

Pam Anderson roasted more than 40 turkeys, steamed and boiled more than three dozen lobsters, cleaned and cooked more than 100 pounds of greens,
baked more than 50 cobblers — all so you can have the perfect recipe . . .

Which comes first when mashing potatoes — the butter or the milk? What grade and grind of meat make the best hamburgers? How do you roast a turkey so the breast meat is as moist and juicy as the legs? For the tenderest muffins, should you use buttermilk, yogurt or milk? At what temperature should you cook prime rib for the most succulent results? Is it possible to create a fudgy, cakey, chewy brownie all in one?
Most of us don't have time to figure out the answers to questions like these. We need somebody to do the work for us and get our favorite recipes just right. In this book, Pam Anderson, the food editor of USA Weekend magazine, does just that. Painstakingly conducting test after test, Anderson arrives at not only the best recipe but frequently the most convenient and sensible one:
• A simple formula for a stir-fry that can be varied with different combinations of meat, vegetables and sauces
• French bread so easy it can be baked every day
• Chicken pot pie for weeknights, made with convenient chicken breasts rather than a whole chicken
• Macaroni and cheese as effortless as boxed, but three times as satisfying
• Pizza dough that rises in just one hour or throughout the day
• A cobbler that can be prepared with dozens of different fruits, making it 40 desserts in one.

THE PERFECT RECIPE includes more than 150 recipes in all, with dozens of step-by-step illustrations of techniques, comparisons of products and useful tips.

Simply the best cookbook you will ever buy!5
This book is full of test kitchen recipes that you really can use daily. The ways that they are explained and the mistakes they have made and show you how to avoid are priceless. My sister loved my book so much I had to buy her her own copy! Don't miss this one it is my favorite cookbook on the shelf and I collect them in the dozens!

Very nice "entry level" book for potential "Cook's Illustrated" fans4
This book's style and editorial format has a lot in common with Shirley Corriher's "CookWise" and the output of the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen group, which isn't surprising since Anderson was once affiliated with CI. Anderson brings much of that same chatty, educational style to "The Perfect Recipe"; some people will like it, some people will hate it, depending on what they want from their cookbooks. I happen to really enjoy this kind of cookbook style, so I quite like it.

Other reviewers have mentioned that "Perfect Recipe" is practically a remake of CI's "The Best Recipe", but has far fewer recipes and represents a lesser value for the reader (although it also costs less). The criticism has merit, but I think this book still has a place if the libraries of some cooks. I am thinking here of novice and middling cooks who find the dense, cluttered potpourri layout of the CI books unappealing or intimidating. There are also cooks who couldn't care less about ingredient and appliance brand reviews that pad out every variation of CI/ATK books. For these reader, "The Perfect Recipe" offers a contrasting format with a much simpler and easier-to-follow style - even the typeset and margins are larger and any given page is usually only devoted to one variation of a recipe.

A good example of the cookbook's value is Anderson's chapter on roasting chicken. She shows how to "butterfly" a chicken for quicker/easier roasting, and gives several variations of the recipe, any one which will yield excellent results. I was basically afraid to try this method before reading this chapter (even after seeing Alton Brown's excellent show on the subject) , but Anderson's detailed instructions removed those qualms and left me raring and eager to try it. If a cookbook empowers me to try one new thing, I consider it worth the purchase price...so I am happy with "The Perfect Recipe". I am confident that other readers may well find that Anderson's style is just the ticket to help them get past their fear of other basic topics in food prep.

Weaknesses: For my taste, the chapter on "Special Occasion" foods (crown roast, Thanksgiving turkey, etc) was both too long and too short. Most of these recipes are of little use for a single bachelor - but if you are going to have them, you need more than just a few standards). But I understand that Anderson was making a judgement call on how to structure her book, and that other people will regard the chapter as a Godsend.

So if you are a hardcore cook with 200-300 volumes in your library (including some or all of the "Best Recipe" volumes) you probably won't need (or want) "The Perfect Recipe". But if you are a newer cook trying to upgrade your recipes to the next level, Anderson may provide you the entry you are looking for.

The Naked Chef Takes Off

Naked Chef Takes Off, The by Jamie Oliver


The Naked Chef Takes Off

If you liked the last one, you'll like this one too. I did.

Affable Essex boy Jamie Oliver continues the British culinary invasion with The Naked Chef Takes Off, the smashing follow-up to his bestselling The Naked Chef. For Oliver, the young Food Network import, food is all about "passing the potatoes around the table, ripping up some bread, licking my fingers, getting tipsy, and enjoying the company of good friends and family," and cooking up "what real people at home really want." The thing is, "real people" picking up cookbooks are often seeking easy-to-follow recipes. But that's not Oliver's bag. The layout of many of his recipes may frustrate traditional-cookbook readers--instructions often appear as one big chunk of conversational text with nary an ingredient or measurement in clear view--but that's part of the charm of Oliver's cookbooks. His commentary, tips, and cooking steps come across in a very approachable, colloquial style and leave plenty of room for individual flair or improvisation. Oliver's enthusiasm for cooking is infectious; the recipes and chapter introductions spill out like a best mate who just can't stop talking about food and how much fun--and simple--it can be to whip up these spectacular dishes. Oliver kicks things off by stocking your pantry with best-quality ingredients, and he's an apostle for fresh herbs, raving on about growing and drying your own at home. "Morning Glory" is a chapter full of dishes like Midnight Pan-Cooked Breakfast (bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, sausages, and eggs brought together in the "biggest nonstick pan available" and sopped up with buttered toast--a rustic one-dish cure for any oncoming hangover). "Tapas, Munchies, and Snacks" brings Slow-Cooked and Stuffed Baby Cherry Chili Peppers to the table (when you're done snacking on the chilies, you're left with a jar of terrific flavored oil, perfect for salads or pasta). There's Squashed Cherry Tomato and Smashed Olive Salad, and a Fragrant Thai Broth, infused with lemongrass, ginger, and lime leaves. Once you've mastered his basic risotto recipe you can turn out Shrimp and Peas Risotto with Basil and Mint, and likewise his basic bread recipe is the foundation for Chocolate Twister Bread. "Easy peasy" dessert ideas like Strawberries Marinated in Balsamic Vinegar or Malted Milk Balls and Ice Cream (bash a big bag of Whoppers into bits and sprinkle over quality vanilla ice cream) are a refreshing end to any meal. Now, be a "right little tiger" and get cooking--Seared Scallops and Crispy Prosciutto with Roasted Tomatoes and Smashed White Beans and other fabulous dishes await. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Another great one from Jamie Oliver
This book is a great addition to both our cooking library and our gardening library... Jamie's recipes are fabulously simple and delicious... We highly recommend this book.

Jamie Oliver's Best
Of all the Jamie Oliver cookbooks, this is my favorite. Its full of recipes that make you feel like a grown-up, but are wonderfully simple. His enthusiasm makes the recipes a fun read and the pictures will make your tummy talk. An added bonus is that my kids will eat anything that I make from this book. They love Jamie as much as I do. Naked Chef Takes Off is an essential primer for the inexperienced and the seasoned cook alike.

Don't judge a book by its title
This cookbook is just The Return of the Naked Chef with a new title. I already owned The Return of the Naked Chef, so now I have two. I really dislike publishers who mislead us by changing titles or changing covers just to get us to buy that which we already own.

The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

Naked Chef, The by Jamie Oliver


The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver

This is a nice book - more motivational than instructional though.

There are a few British television chefs, such as Delia Smith and Nigel Slater, who know exactly what viewers want. They cook food that is simple to prepare but looks and tastes delicious. That's probably the reason why the BBC appointed Jamie Oliver as the presenter of its series The Naked Chef (which airs on the Television Food Network in the U.S.). A working chef at London's celebrated River Caf+, Oliver cooks simpler versions of the fare you would find on the restaurant's menu. It's basically modern Italian food using ingredients that can be found by almost anyone who is reasonably interested in food shopping. Like the television show, the book is titled The Naked Chef. In Oliver's words, this sums up the idea: "It's basically stripping back to the bare essentials." He applies this to all his recipes--from salads to roasts, desserts to pastas. He doesn't use culinary jargon or time-consuming processes. In the book you'll find suggestions for ingredients to keep in your larder (pantry) and herbs to grow on your windowsill. Recipes include Warm Salad of Radicchio; Gem and Pancetta; and Beetroot Tagliatelle with Pesto, Mussels, and White Wine. There are also tips on how to cook live lobsters, how to make gravy, preparing dry beans for cooking, and how to make the perfect roast chicken. Several photographs accompany some of the recipes, with step-by-step instructions. Oliver's recipes for bread are particularly good--a tribute to his training at Carluccio's, the Covent Garden deli. This is the perfect book for anyone who doesn't want to spend much more than a half-hour preparing meals and is not willing to compromise on innovation or taste. --Dale Kneen, Amazon.co.uk

Fantastic Cook book
The book is really good. I love this so much I bought Happy Days with the Naked Chef too. The recipes I have tried out so far have worked every time and the instructions are clear. Although I loved cooking, I was not what anyone would call a professional in the kitchen. I would have balked at anything that sounded too complex. The mushroom risotto and the chickpea and leek soup are two of the recipes I make most often. I also tried the Roasted butternut squash in a risotto just as he suggests. It was brilliant and had to be one of the most economical meals I have made. Spotted Dick pudding, minestrone, Fruit crumble, marinated chickpeas, roast chicken have all turned out very well. Such an encouragement for me.