A Reader Cooks

Or is it the other way around?  I'm not sure.  I love to cook.  I love to read.  I am not sure I am either a "cook" or a "reader" though.  I do know that I love cookbooks and that I love not only to browse through them and ogle the recipes and cook from them, but that I actually do enjoy reading them, front to back, just like any other book.

Recently I was cataloging my cookbook collection and the process was making me think about all the different books and why I had them.  I decided to randomly work my way through some of them, cooking and reading, mostly out of curiosity about why I originally purchased them and what I thought about them now.

 The first book I grabbed, Cookwise by Shirley Corriher, was chosen because although I remembered that I have used it for reference, I couldn't actually remember that I had cooked much from the book.  So I started reading and cooking.  Well, actually in this volume there was more reading and less cooking because it is basically about the techniques and materials of cooking and the recipes are designed and arranged to illustrate the points.  This is good from the perspective of learning, but not necessarily so good when you just pick up the book looking for something to cook for dinner.

Cookwise was a very interesting book to read and it contains a lot of valuable information. As I mentioned, I have used if for reference, and I will refer to it again and again as it has some tables and charts that are either not available or not as clearly presented in my other cookbooks.  It has a very thorough discussion of baking, which doesn't directly affect me any more as it is based on wheat, a grain I can no longer use.  I don't do much baking anymore anyway.  But there is still good information here that I can apply to good gluten-free baking because success requires understanding the underlying principles and knowing what one is trying to emulate.

As for the recipes; I find these less successful.  There are really only two recipes I have tried in this book that I will make again.  One is for my favorite sour-cream cornbread, a recipe that I easily adapted to hold up better as a gluten free bread, and one which my guests adore.  It is not dry minimalist cornbread.  I will save the book forever just for the reference materials and because it contains this cornbread recipe.  The other recipe is for a cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum and I actually bake it from Ms. Beranbaum's original version.  

Notice that the two recipes I use are for baked goods.  There are other recipes in this book but I find they all emphasize sugar and starch too much as a substitute for fat.  Now I enjoy me a good dessert now and then, but everything that I have tried is too sweet for my taste.  And I am not convinced that adding more sugar and starch to food to make up for fat and flavor is all that healthy of a choice either.  I certainly find it less satisfying.  

In the end I find Cookwise excellent as a reference work and only so-so as a cookbook.

 The other book I pulled out of the shelf was a book by Rick Bayless called Mexican Everyday.  Now this book is more of a cookbook than a reference book, but I still read it all, and cooked quite a few things as well.  I found more to cook here than I did in Shirley Corriher's book, and although there are several things I will make again and again, I did not actually find that I was happy with many of the recipes as they were written.  I made a fair number of changes and revisions to suit my own taste.

Now I must admit that I am a huge fan of Diana Kennedy.  I have all her books.  I have cooked extensively from all of them, and although I am not a purist and do not always cook everything the classic traditional way she describes, I can do so when I am in the mood to put in the time.   I also have several of Rick Bayless's other books, which I have also used, and I am a fan of his restaurants, where I have eaten several times.   And being a bit of a Diana Kennedy and mexican food snob, I'll admit that when I received this book, I was not particularly impressed.  Mexican Everyday takes quite a few liberties with traditional Mexican techniques and flavors. But I didn't really give the book a chance.

To my mind this is not Bayless's best book, but it may be his most accessible, at least of the books I have read.  And I do find the book inspiring.  Reading this book filled with me with all kinds of ideas for making things I would not have made had I not read the book, and although I don't find all his techniques for simplifying things agree with me, or there are some things I do differently, I have to admit that I will use this book again.  So far there are many recipes that I have been inspired to make, and many that I will make again and again, using my own techniques and changing them, often a good bit.  So far there is only one recipe that I have liked pretty much as it is written, a recipe for slow-braised lamb Jalisco-style.  I am not saying the recipes are bad; they aren't.  I am not saying they don't work; they work beautifully.  I am merely saying that that the actual execution does not really resonate with me although many of the ideas do.

So in the end, I think I rate this book pretty highly, even if I change most of the recipes.  It seems pretty evident that I am more interested in ideas and inspiration than I am in recipes that work but which I find insipid, no matter how good the information surrounding those recipes.

Comments

[Mardel]

Deja Pseu, I am actually rather amazed that I made as many of those Diana Kennedy dishes as I did in the 80s, what with career, step-children and everything else.  It must have been excess energy (now where did that go).  Actually the Bayless cookbook is quite good, I guess Ive just developed my own short-cuts and preferences over the years, although I rarely do anything in the two days ahead vein anymore; life just rarely allow for that now.  I hadnt thought of that soup for some years and now I cant get it out of my head.

K-Line, I love Canelle et Vanille and follow it in fits and starts, like so many other things unfortunately, and noticed the transition to gluten free.  I am still trying to keep my pastry addiction down to an occasional thing though, much as I would love to live on dessert alone.

Belette, Ooh, I have an older cookbook of theirs, Mesa Mexicana and have made things from that (what can I say, I grew up in Texas and I love all things Mexican, Tex-Mex and so forth except flour tortillas, which conveniently I can no longer eat.  I preferred corn tortillas even before I knew I couldnt eat wheat).  But I have never been to their restaurants.   

[La Belette Rouge]

I am still kicking myself for never getting to Bayless's restaurants in Chicago. I have gone to Ciudad and Border Grill which belong to Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger. I love their Mexican food. I have their cookbooks however I have never tried to make anything. As fancy as I get with Mexican food is carne asada from Trader Joe's.

[K-Line]

Good reviews! I read a blog called Canelle et Vanille which is stunning (by a Basque cook transplanted to Florida, of all places.) She is an accomplished French pastry chef who has recently begun to bake many of her traditional things in a gluten-free fashion. I suspect, if you love baked goods and are gluten-intolerant, this woman's work and knowledge could be a port in a storm. If you haven't checked it out you might want to...

[deja pseu]

I've recently picked up "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and am hoping to delve into it soon. Like your Cookwise, I wanted something that would also be a reference book. I used to have that fabulous Diana Kennedy Mexican cookbook in the early 80's (it went with the ex in a divorce) and only ever made a couple of recipes from it. When so many of the recipes start with the words, "two days ahead" it wasn't a come-home-from-work-and-whip-it-up kind of deal. But the one thing I did make and would almost buy the cookbook again just to get the recipe was the Tarrascan Bean and Tomato Soup. Wow. I can still taste that one.