Cheese Primer
by Steven Jenkins
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.78 You Save: $12.17 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.25 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Cheese Primer
Book Review: Cheesy, simply cheesy!
Summary: 5 Stars
Jenkins has put out a top knotch book on every conceivible cheese under the sun. It is a definitive work and sublime reference for any who desire to serve, purchase, and cook with quality cheeses. He includes the history, evolution, manufacture and proper identification for hundreds of cheeses. Also, he includes information on how to test for ripeness as well as where to get your hands on some of the more difficult cheeses. Last but not least, he instructs the reader how to preserve cheese for longevity. I especially appreciate knowing how to store my Parmigiano-Reggiano since around here the good stuff goes for about 17 bucks a pound. Of a special appreciation to me personally is that he includes proper pronunciation of each cheese...nothing is worse than going to the local cheesemonger and mispronouncing the cheese you're after! This is a fine book.Book Review: good reference book
Summary: 4 Stars
I have not had this book for very long, nor have I been able to maximize its use yet; however, on the few occasions that I have used it, it has pointed me in the direction of a good cheese. Also, its organization is good, making it pretty easy to locate cheeses I'm considering, or vice versa, to find a good recommendation based on what I generally know I'm looking for.
My only negative comment is that his top recommendations seem to all be rare. I understand that that might be the case, but I would have appreciated a more practical approach (i.e. a list that I can actually use to find a great cheese at my local market.) If he needs to preserve his culinary credibility by recommending the rare cheeses, fine. However, I would have had a second list of my readily available favorites.
Book Review: A worldly whirl
Summary: 5 Stars
Jenkins' comprehensive "Primer" offers cheese lovers a wonderfully opinionated global guide to everything, beginning with how cheeses are made, how to buy, store, eat and cook, and what wines and accompaniments to choose with each. This includes a list of his favorites and suggestions for cheese boards.
Then comes the world tour - more than 150 pages for France, about 75 for Italy, 25 for Switzerland, 35 for Britain, 25 for Spain, 70 for the U.S., including a tour of regional cheese makers, and somewhat shorter looks at Scandinavia, Germany, the Balkans and Canada. The book concludes with a reference guide to the world's greatest cheeses.
Interspersed are anecdotes, local cheeses to try when visiting and the occasional recipe. A must for cheese lovers.
Book Review: Anectdotally interesting but technically suspect
Summary: 3 Stars
The author has a few very good recipes and a good knowledge of various cheeses, but cast doubt on his technical expertise through the following statement on Page 15,"Cream is composed of milk's larger fat globules, which float because they are heavier than water." Any high-school chemistry student should know that cream floats because it is less dense than water -- just like oil. Maybe this was just a gross editing error, but you wonder why a cheese expert would even write this kind of error in a draft. The book does have good descriptions of various cheeses, serving suggestions, etc. However, as a Texas, I was disappointed with the brief section on Mexican cheeses which are delicious and becoming widely available in my region.Book Review: Steve Jenkins Is A Master
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a writer (in my spare time). I write about technology and so I would like to believe that I have a sense for the relative depth of someone's knowledge and their passion for a particular subject.
Steve Jenkins is brilliant. His book is so fact filled that it can appear to be initially overwhelming. But despair not, you will come out so much the better "foodie" for working through the detail!
Steve delivers a geographical representation in such compelling terms that you can actually see the process and people in your mind's eye.
The book is a triumph and my only regret is that it took me this long to read it. I could have saved so much time and money had I just read the damn book!