How to Boil Water
by Food Network Kitchens
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Book Reviews of How to Boil Water
Book Review: Great for even experienced cooks...
Summary: 5 Stars
I love cookbooks (I have 20+), and this is one of my favorites. When I look at a cookbook, I am looking for (a) something that is "modern" - not a cookbook that is just chock-full of frozen casseroles or potted meat product, (b) has skill levels, (c) doesn't call for fussy ingredients or at least gives me substitutions for those fussy ingredients, (d) has lots of brightly-colored pictures and some "step-by-step" methods, and (e) is at least vaguely health-conscious (for example, finds other ways to be fresh and flavorful without calling for 16 oz. of sour cream in a two-person dish).
This book meets all of those criteria. It has regular recipes for chocolate chip cookies, deep-dish brownies, "date night chicken" and smoothies, but also teaches you the basics of putting together a killer vinaigrette, how to buy and cook different cuts of meat, and how to make a good gravy by deglazing. There are a lot of normal recipes with minor tweaks that make them fresh and modern - for instance, we tried their recipe for oatmeal that added lemon zest and strawberries to plain Jane oatmeal, and it turned out amazing.
I haven't had any of these recipes fail me, taste awful, or call for unobtainable ingredients which can occasionally happen in the other compilations. Although I regularly turn to the internet for recipe ideas, "How to Boil Water" is still one of my foolproof, top-two keeper cookbooks, along with "Anyone Can Cook" by Better Homes & Gardens. Although I can cook and bake fairly well now, I still enjoy books that take the time to break directions down for me, tweak tried-and-true old recipes with fresh new flavors, and includes helpful hints that I can use in other recipes. I would definitely buy this book again, and I think it's a bargain for beginning and experienced home cooks alike.
Book Review: Visually appealing; makes me want to cook something immediately.
Summary: 4 Stars
There are definitely more pros than cons about this book.
Pros
Visually appealing; the photos could cause salivation in just about anyone.
Illustrations for basic kitchen know-how from holding a knife, folding an omelette, or setting the table.
Recipes keep up with current trends in cooking, from sundried tomatoes to tofu.
Detailed charts for steaming and and roasting veggies.
Detailed, illustrated instructions for making coffee, smoothies, and putting a well-balanced meal together.
Useful "Wisdom" pages for various foods and techniques.
The photos, the photos, the photos.
Cons
Difficult to read white writing on a color background.
White or yellow type on a white page is tough to read even for those under 50.
Recipes call for fairly exotic ingredients, unfamiliar or extravagant for new cooks, like fresh herbs, chutneys, and fresh mozzarella.
This Food Network Kitchen book is very well thought out, visually stunning, and has abundant information for the semi-beginning chef. While some basic instruction - hardly ever seen in cookbooks - is here and much appreciated, the recipes' ingredients and information is slightly upscale for the very beginner, and in that respect the title is misleading.
That said, there are enough beginner cooks with an appreciation of food who would certainly get a lot out of this book. And beginning cooks of all sublevels would find the illustrated instructions and basic information helpful. It's a great graduation gift for those moving out on their own. You will be helping them ease into independence a little better equipped to take care of themselves. 50 Ways to Leave Your Mother
Book Review: Not such a great basic manual
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm a decent cook, but I always like to review the basics once in a while. This book just increasingly irritated me the more I read it. As a basic manual (so implied by the title!) it is haphazard and rarely informative, if you can find the information, that is.
Several things about the format of this book I didn't like. White font on a light yellow or green background? Are you serious?? There were a couple pages I couldn't even read. There are also several font-style changes. The hand-written font is often very small and difficult to read.
The pictures are frequently unlabeled, although very pretty. Many times I had no idea what I was looking at because there was no caption, or no sense of scale, or the pictures were very small. I couldn't tell if I was looking at a grain of rice or a loaf of bread.
Some of the recipes are simple enough, but there are some that require ingredients that I would never normally have in the cupboard, nor make a special trip for.
I think the writers from the Food Network may have been too advanced to realize that a book with this title would need to be a lot simpler. I think this is an intermediate book at best, and not very well put-together.
Book Review: you always need to review the basics...
Summary: 5 Stars
If you're one of those "Sure, I know how to cook...except I don't want to" people, you need this book. This book gives you the basics on how long you can keep meat, how to pick good cuts, what to do with vegetables, and the essential hints on everything you need to get started. The best part of this book aren't the recipes, but rather the reference guides on the things you never quite know, like how to cook specific vegetables and how to build a soup or smoothie. Great for someone who has just moved into an apartment, or for anyone who wants to get a primer on cooking. If you are puzzled about what tools you need, fear not--it's all very simple, and there are many, many diagrams in case you freak out with too many words.
I would say it's useful for anyone with less training than professional cooking experience. The pictures are wonderful.
Book Review: Great Cookbook - Poor Binding
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this cookbook in order to help teach my son how to cook and give him something to take with him when he leaves the house. We used it for just a couple months and pages just fell out. We have to carry it around carefully in order to stop whole sections from falling out when you walk from the shelf to the table (for example). I thought my son was just mistreating the book, but since I bought 4 or 5 other cookbooks at the same time and none of them have had the same problem, I have to believe it's a binding issue with this one.
The content is really good though. I love the way things are broken down and all the pictures that go with the recipes. This is an excellent book for a beginning cook - I just wish they would have done a better job on the binding.