CookWise: The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking, The Secrets of Cooking Revealed
by Shirley O. Corriher
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Book Reviews of CookWise: The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking, The Secrets of Cooking Revealed
Book Review: A stellar volume very very poorly laid out
Summary: 2 Stars
Right off the bat, I wanted to like this book. I really really did. I have a tremendous respect for someone like Shirley Corriher, who is a huge advocate of better cooking through science. Clearly, she has the science part down, and goes into great length to make sure readers understand the how and whys of cooking. Along with this, she has some excellent recipes included in this book. The touch of grace biscuits for one are just amazing, almost indescribably good in their texture and taste. That said, I'm giving this book two stars, not for the content, but for the presentation. To say this book is hard to follow is an understatement. The sheer amount of information shoved into this book is astounding, "shoved" being the verb that can best convey how overfilled and poorly designed this book is. Explanations of techniques/science are interspersed with recipes, making for a totally disorienting read. Recipes start on the bottom of a page, and then overlap to the back of the page, similar recipes aren't grouped together, etc. When I read this book, I got the impression that Corriher just started up her word processor, printed out a whole bunch of stuff, and gave it to an intern at the publisher for layout and design. Basic type and layout rules seemed to be overlooked just to get as much information as possible into the pages, and the book suffers tremendously.
In a revised version, this book could easily become one of the 10 most important cookbooks ever published, but at this point, it's too overfilled, overwhelming and under-thought-out to warrant buying. Again, don't get me wrong. The material in this book is stellar, there's just no flow at all. I hope the publisher resets this book in the future, so it gets the praise it really deserves!
Book Review: Disappointing book that fails through lack of organization
Summary: 2 Stars
I was looking forward to reading Shirley Corriher's Cookwise, but I have found her book to be very disappointing. The book's organization is very strange--it may make sense from a biochemical standpoint, but not from a cooking standpoint. For example, while having a chapter on fats may make sense chemically, having information on pastry doughs, deep frying, and sauteeting all in the same chapter makes no sense for the home cook. Admittedly, Corriher does provide a conventional index for her recipes, but the organization of the book is so confusing that I find it takes me far longer than it should to look up information. While I do think that she gives some useful factual information, the recipes she provides are less than helpful. Corriher has tried so hard to make recipes that are foolproof that she loses sight of what the typical cook has in the pantry. As a frequent breadmaker, I found her approach to breadmaking especially strange in this regard. I have never before seen a bread recipe which calls for Vitamin C tablets, and while I have no doubt that the recipe works, I doubt that many of us have it available in the kitchen. It would be far easier for me to try to make bread without Vitamin C and crushed ice and risk a failure (which is rare in basic breadmaking) rather than go to the trouble that Corriher goes to. In fact, very few of the recipes are feasible unless you have duplicated Corriher's pantry--a bread recipe which calls for four different flours plus flax seeds (?!) may work well, but is not helpful for the cook who wants to make bread NOW and is lax enough to only have two types of flour on hand. On the whole, I would much rather be reading Harold McGee's The Curious Cook or Anne Willan's La Varenne Practique.Book Review: Understanding ingredients for delicious foods
Summary: 5 Stars
For an ordinary home cook like me who loves to putter around in the kitchen, this book is an essential kitchen resource to help understanding ingredients for delicious foods. It has been enjoyable reading and cooking by as well. The book contains by far more food science information than a standard cookbook although it does have hundreds of exquisite and delicious recipes. It helps the cook make sound judgements in the preparation of foods, like what ingredients to use and why, where you can make substitutions and how, and where not, and which measurements are critical to be highly acurate and which can be gauged approximately, and it explains why that is so as well. Shirley O Corriher explains in easy to understand language the chemical reactions that can happen when certain ingredients are combined, what causes these reactions and why you'd want it to be so. She also explains what could go wrong and why, and how to repair an item provided it can be corrected.
CookWise is a complete collection of the recipes for everyday food prepratition for a family including partys and other gatherings, from breakfast to lunch all the way to dinner and desert. While it can be read from cover to cover, it does allow the reader to skip around to those segments or recipes of interest without missing important detail, in other words, it's o.k. bake a cake without knowing about cabage. Additonally it provides information what can be prepared ahead and what must be done last minute to have a perfect meal.
It has only a few color photos of some of the prepared dishes. Yet, if I could only afford a few cookbooks, this is one I'd want. The other one is by Jaques Pepin.
Book Review: Must Read Before You Turn on the Oven!
Summary: 5 Stars
I took a class from Shirley before buying the book. In that 2-hour class, I learned more "rules-of-thumb" about cooking than I had gathered in 25 years of cooking. Finally, it all makes sense - the necessary logic to alter recipes when they're not right - the ability to read a recipe and KNOW it is right or wrong before you waste the time and ingredients! Let's take biscuits: they sound simple; most are awful. After listening to Shirley - or reading about biscuits in her book, I realized I could apply the same principle to a box of Bisquick! I took an unmeasured amount of mix, added milk to a manageable consistancy, rolled in flour, and now my biscuits are the best in town. It's just hard not to share the secret!This should be regarded as a textbook, not a recipe book for entertaining. I read it slowly, applied her wisdom -tried to challenge it, and by the time I finished the book, I feel as if I finished my first year at the Cullinary Institute. If you care about what you cook, if you enjoy puttering in the kitchen, this book is the key to success.
Example 2: a famous cook used two boxes of light brown sugar - same brand. One carmelized, the other flunked. They called Shirley in a panic. It took her a while to realize that at that time, the FDA did not reguire brown sugar to be labeled cane or beet based. Cane carmelizes, beet does not. Now, don't we need that information BEFORE we try to impress our closest friends - or the boss - with an elegant creme brulee! You'll appreciate what you learn here, but don't expect an easy read. My copy is already dog-earred; I can't possibly remember it all, and so much is vital to success.
Book Review: Need more like it
Summary: 5 Stars
Shirley is honestly one of my all time heroes. I am actually reading this book from front to back and I learn something new every time I pick the book up. I have been using it as a resource in the kitchen a great deal and have been finding greater ease with my recipes and things just come together a great deal better when I check to see what this book has to say on the subject.
The photographs in this book are gorgeous, I mean I want to blog them up, frame them in hang them in my house sorta gorgeous. The book itself is giant which makes sense with everything that is covered in it. Honestly, this book is just over all amazing. If you are someone who wants to know what is happening in food, how to prepare things better and how to understand recipes instead of just reading them..or if you are someone who is developing your own recipes I advise you to pick this book up.
I picked up a used copy which didn't come with the jacket with the gorgeous bird on the front and the product information said something about some writing on the inside. Well there is some small writing on the inside cover that is some sort of user name or something..which I thought was the writing, many weeks later while actually flipping through the first five pages, I found an actually signed section and a note to the women who owned the book from Shirley her self..because of my above review and then this..the book is never leaving my home..it may not be autographed to me..but it's still pretty cool.. One of the times i've been truly pumped to by a used copy of something over a new one