Informational cook books? *****


 
I'll throw a couple more books that I like to use.

Asian Ingredients by Bruce Cost. It details all sorts of Asian Ingredients and their uses. It doesn't have a lot in the way of recipes but I think it may be along the lines of what your looking for.

The Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Yin - Fei Lo. It isn't as much about development and so forth but it did expose me to many things I had never tried and allowed me to experiment those with ingredients I was more familar with. As well it covers in detail many Chinese cooking techniques and ingredients again.

Pleasures of The Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham. This is a really good book with many neat ideas. I really like their desserts. Basically the same logic as above.

The Making of a Pastry Chef by Andrew Maclaughin. Not a tonne of recipes but the ones they have are excellent. They also give excellent in site into the industry, flavor developments, and how to create personal styles.

I can also vouch for Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless, as well as Chacuterie, Sausage Making and Meat Curing, The Profesional Chef, Classic Indian Cooking, The Silver Palate, Molecular Gastronomy, and Sauces, all mentioned above.

If your interesting in baking I have also enjoyed Magie Glezers Artisan Baking as well as the Bread Bakers Apprentice and American Pie by Peter Rhinehart.

Clark
 
Many of Bittman's recipes are good. 'How to Cook Everything' has some very good recipes but ignore most of the pedantics in the beginning (his writing on food safety, much erroneous, and knives, much left out, especially). Bittman suffers from the same poor editing he picked up and then championed at CI, this 'this is the best way (or only way) to do it' nonsense that mars CI as well. Still, worth having in a collection.

Glezer and Rhinehart should be in every cook's library. Cost's book is a worthwhile buy. I'd love to check out The Chinese Kitchen. I do like her dim sum books.
 
Stopped by the bookstore on the way home last night and they had both the old and revised edition of Bittmans books. The pendantics as you called them were very poor and almost pandering in the first edition. He seems to have addressed that in the newer edition, at least at a glance. They also had the CIA book and The Professional Chef.These were both ahead of me. A good solid "basic foundation" based book is what i am looking for.

Paul
 
Yes, 'pandering' is apt. I haven't seen the revised.

Hmm. Why would you think it or the CIA's book to be 'ahead' of you? Or, perhaps rather, what is it you feel you need at the moment (where are you and where do you wish to go)?
 
Thanks for making me be introspective Kevin. All of this is really your fault. After helping me with my pheasant recipe that came out sooo good, it really inspired me. A simple baste made all the difference in the world! Since then, i looked at some of your posts on rubs, marinades, brines, and cooking approach in general, and really appreciate your style.
Where i am at is a good question. Upthread someone mentioned finding your own style. Mine could be called
"random"
icon_biggrin.gif
I guess you could say i have dabbled in cooking and have some "recipe books" (including 4 BBQ books) that never really never turned my crank.
Where i want to go? Not looking to become a chef, but i would like to step up my own cooking. It seems to me that a good understsnding of seasonings, sauces, marinades, and bastes would be a good place to start. I have taught classes before and my approach to teaching was always based on technique, so i think i learn that way.
I am a bachelor and cook mostly for one,and am constrained by time and money. Sorry to ramble.

Paul
 
You aren't, and that is helpful info. Let me ask you one more question so I can hone my response: Were I to come to your place for dinner (btw, where do you live?) tomorrow, what would you make? Be as specific as you can and note why you choose what you choose.

["All of this is really your fault." Accepted!
icon_smile.gif
]
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
You aren't, and that is helpful info. Let me ask you one more question so I can hone my response: Were I to come to your place for dinner (btw, where do you live?) tomorrow, what would you make? Be as specific as you can and note why you choose what you choose.

["All of this is really your fault." Accepted!
icon_smile.gif
] </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


Kevin picked the perfect question to get Paul and us all thinking. In analysing your answer you will discover quite a lot about where you are, why you are there and the direction you wish to head.

Regards
 
The first thing that came to mind was a spatchcocked chicken with glazed grilled sweet potatoes and a fresh salad.
Why. Because i can cook a mean chicken and know that i wouldn't screw it up. Simple, but really good.

Paul

Edit. I was telling my friend about this thread and a couple other meals of mine that she suggested were a pan-seared halibut with a garlic chipotle butter or Alder planked salmon that i do. The reason would still be the same though.
 
sorry to interrupt the conversation but i had to mention this,

"CookWise; The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking with over 230 Great-Tasting Recipes" (Shirley O. Corriher)

I just bumped into this jewel of a book at the library, its fascinating and was 10 years in the making, the author knew many of the people who worked on the above mentioned list of books, and was herself a chemist before she became a chef. Unlike most "information" you come across, this book actually defines the WHY behind the way. It is exactly what i was looking for and needed to get to the next level.

She explains everything from why certain flours are more suited for pie crust than for yeast bread, to how proteins break down in meat, and why that effects how juicy or tender yours come out.

Because my opinion is short on weight i added a quote from the back of the book.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Shirley Corriher is a true original, an experienced cook and natural teacher who happens to be a trained chemist and a great storyteller. For years, Shirley has been a generous mentor to renowned chefs and food writers, and to hundreds of fortunate students and friends. In CookWise, Shirley shows us how the best cooks cook, explains clearly why their methods work, and shares dozens of her favorite recipes. Anyone who loves good cooking will be enlightened and delighted. -Harold McGee, author of On Food and Cooking </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> Shirley Corriher's book will be like having the wisdom of your grandmother, the scientific knowledge of a food chemist, and the best neighborhood cook in the kitchen with you. You'll know why a recipe will work, how to change it to suit your needs of the moment, and what to expect. You'll find your questions answered in this invaluable book" -Nathalie Dupree, author of Nathalie Dupree Cooks for Family and Friends </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
 
Thanks for starting this thread Jarrod. That one has been on my radar too. Alton Brown has her as a guest sometimes.
 
Corriher's book is excellent. It won't help on the creative front, nor in terms of flavors, flavor development and combinations, but understanding technical details is very helpful in learning to master cooking processes, especially for when you do get around to writing your own. McGee is very helpful in this regard as well, probably more informational than Corriher, but she gives better, more tangible examples, imo.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> The first thing that came to mind was a spatchcocked chicken with glazed grilled sweet potatoes and a fresh salad.
Why. Because i can cook a mean chicken and know that i wouldn't screw it up. Simple, but really good.

I was telling my friend about this thread and a couple other meals of mine that she suggested were a pan-seared halibut with a garlic chipotle butter or Alder planked salmon that i do. The reason would still be the same though. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

And that's a good reason. It's the one I'd hoped you'd mention and here's why: Since you are comfortable with these items, since you know them well enough to feel confident to cook any of them as dinner for someone you don't know, they are the best place to start. By keeping one or two items the same but altering the other things on the plate, you can work on a couple things at once, i.e., new dishes or treatments for the same dish, and new combinations for something you have already established.

For example, keeping the chicken the same, you could change the sweetpotato approach and, say, the dressing for the salad. In what ways can you keep sweetpotatoes as the side but alter the cooking technique and flavoring(s) so that this new approach not only works for the sweets but for the chicken as well? Or, more simply, what other glazes would work with the chicken as is? What dressing would be a good lead in to this dinner? --or what would work best, complementing the chicken and the potatoes were you to serve the salad alongside? Or what if you kept the sweets as is but altered the approach to the chicken--what would be a way of doing this that would be fresh yet still work with the sweets in their current incarnation?

See where I'm going? These questions are rhetorical (at the moment!), but asking yourself these sorts of things is a way to start moving down a path, employing some familiar guideposts so as not to be overwhelmed (the stuff you keep unchanged) but introducing some new mechanisms to steer you in a direction at the same time.

With time and experience answers to questions such as these will come to you unbidden, but in the beginning you'll have to seek them out. Books, the Net and boards such as this can help.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> It seems to me that a good understsnding of seasonings, sauces, marinades, and bastes would be a good place to start. I have taught classes before and my approach to teaching was always based on technique, so i think i learn that way. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The best way to get a good understanding of these things is to cook. One can get information by reading, can get inspired, but the information will only work when you actually utilize it. I know this seems rather self-evident but I can't tell you how often I am asked about the best ways to go from a beginning cook to a more advanced level, or accomplished to creative, and when I ask what the individual is currently cooking it is often the same ol' same ol'. This same ol' might be very good stuff, but to advance one must experience and learn anew, and to do that one must take some chances. But, by cooking some things that are already established in your repertoire and by working on changing just an item or two, the task is less daunting, more motivation-enabling, and more likely to offer some real knowledge benefits that, because you are not overwhelmed with too much 'new' at once, will be more likely to be retained.
 
Kevin, I'm glad that you mentioned Shirley Corriher's book. I took a 3-day weekend class with Shirley Corriher about (est) 10 years ago. It was incredible! We started on Friday evening at 6:30 pm., all through Saturday, and late into Sunday. The information and demos were fabulous and we all thought we were going to die from information overload before she finished.

She is one of a kind---what a personality! Jack video-taped the class on VHS. I sure wish it was now on DVD! We still have the tapes. Audio and video are amateurish and not the best but it's still "legible;" it's a copy because we gave her the original. I need a review course!

She has a new book out---finally---on baking, but I haven't seen it yet.

Rita
 
Was at the bookstore and came upon James Petersen's latest book, Cooking, out last year, which I'd forgotten about because I've yet to review it. I spent an hour looking it over. It has very good recipes highlighting the key elements of technique and lots of pics showing the steps. Recommended.

Saw Corriher's new book today but spent time with Petersen's. If I'm still here tomorrow I'll take a look.
 
Well, after checking it out, i think Cooking is EXACTLY what i was looking for. Technique based, where recipes are picked for teaching methods, not just because they taste great. Perfect "foundation" book..ordered.
Thanks for taking the time to check it out and the review Kevin.

Paul
 
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