Reading List
Here is the beginning of the list of cookbooks I own with brief abstracts and links on where to find them. There are many more to come. Knowledge is power!
How to Cook Everything
I’ve been interested in cooking for as long as I can remember. However, it wasn’t till I moved to San Francisco and lived permanently away from my family that I actually bought my first cookbook. I was at a bookstore in the Stonestown Galleria mall in the Sunset district of San Francisco where Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything jumped off the shelf into my hands. If there is one cookbook which has had the most significant impact on my cooking interests, skills and enjoyment, this is the one! I’ve learned more about cooking from this book than any other. I can’t possibly stress enough of my suggestion that everyone in the world buy this book. Recipes of note: creamed spinach, lemonade, basic pot roast & pot stickers.
Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques
So you want to better understand how to hold a knife, julienne a carrot, make stock & sauces, carve meats, dice tomatoes, tie a roast, mince onions, de-bone a chicken … Jacques Pepin’s Complete Techniques isn’t so much a cookbook in the recipe collection sense, but more of a book on “how to cook.” There are tons of recipes, but the overall message is to learn the proper techniques needed to prepare those recipes. Jacques is arguably one of the most proficient culinary technicians in the world. I’ve learned a lot from this book and turn to it as a reference guide as often as I can. Recipes of note: béchamel sauce, Crepes Suzettes and petite filet mignon in a port wine sauce.
The New Professional Chef
The bible! The Culinary Institute of America’s The New Professional Chef cookbook has anything and everything you could imagine when it comes to recipes, food & kitchen safety, equipment, ingredients and cooking methods. This book is a staple in every respectable kitchen. Would you expect less from the CIA? One downside is that many of the recipes measure the ingredients by weight, not volume. Got a scale handy? Recipes of note: Deep-fried breaded shrimp, red wine marinade, meatloaf and veal blanquette.
The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook
In Dixie land I’ll take my stand … It’s fitting that sweet tea (aka Southern champagne) is the first recipe listed in the book. Being the son of a southerner, I have learned to appreciate quality home-cooked southern food. However, I can’t stand sweet tea, go figure. The Blue Willow Inn Cookbook isn’t just a collection of soulful southern recipes; it tells all the stories of how this mom-n-pop southern restaurant in Social Circle, Georgia came to be. This cookbook exudes true southern flavor and charm. The recipes aren’t going to win any Food Network competitions, excite any foo-foo editors at the national food magazines, or win over any nutritional experts since many recipes call for fatback and salt pork! What the book offers are excellent, simple, traditional ways to prepare southern cuisine for you and your whole freakin’ family. Recipes of note: stewed green beans, sweet potato biscuits, breakfast sausage and white gravy, THE fried chicken, and fried green tomatoes (it’s what made them famous). I need to try out the Coca-Cola cake with broiled peanut butter frosting! Sounds good, huh?
Comments
Comment from Jackie Caswell
Time: February 23, 2007, 3:02 pm
The site is looking good. Thanks for the cook book “How to cook everything” i can now boil water…lol.
Comment from Dough Boy
Time: March 6, 2007, 1:50 pm
The site looks great. Jackie’s boiled water is some of the best I’ve ever had. MMMMMMMMM……MMMMMMMM……MMMMMM
Keep up the good work my friend.
In dough we trust!
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