Cheap The Kitchen Detective: A Culinary Sleuth Solves Common Cooking Mysteries With 150 Foolproof Recipes Discount Review Shop
I recently purchased "The Kitchen Detective" because I was interested in getting a taste of the "Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen" approach to home cooking. I wanted a representative sample of Kimball's approach but I tend to dislike the anonymous/royal "we" voice adopted by institutional cookbooks and collections (such as the Food Network, Cooking Light and various Junior Leagues)...so this collection, which is somewhat more personal and idiosyncratic in its voice and approach, seemed like the perfect choice.
Let me say, right up front, that there are some absolutely terrific recipes in here. Kimball's suggestions for a honey/lime juice glaze for root vegetables, for instance, is almost worth the price of the book by itself. I have only tried a handful of recipes, but I found his directions clear, easy to follow, and easy to execute..."foolproof" indeed, since I normally blow at least as many recipes the first time I try them as I carry off.
But as other reviewers have pointed out, the strength of this collection is also its biggest weakness. That is, by reading this book, you get a really vivid idea of what Christopher Kimball likes in a dish, and lots of very informative explanations on his thinking and choices as he arrives at his final result. What you don't get is the more open, generous, improvisational feel that other chefs and food writers inspire (I am thinking of people like Jamie Oliver, Sally Schneider, or Dave Lieberman), passages that make you want to run out and start slapping ingredients together for the fun of it. Reading page after page of Kimball's doctrinaire thinking produces an airless, hermeneutical, almost "prissy" feeling that seems to take a lot of the fun out of the cooking process. (Or maybe it's just the little "bow tie" graphic that ends each sentence at the end of a text box or a summary paragraph). Many given reader's tastes may not match Kimball's or they may not be looking for what Kimball is in a given dish. (I agree with the reader who thinks that Kimball tends to oversalt and under pepper almost every dish).
Similarly, I appreciate his detailed recommendations for tools and ingredients, but they seem to run somewhat counter to what I would expect sometimes .For instance, most celebrity chefs seem to hate garlic presses, but Kimball seems to favor using presses over the simple "smash and peel" approach that even a rookie cook like myself uses to avoid bitter, hot garlic pieces. And while most of the serious cookbooks I own disdain home knife sharpening devices as a waste of money (and good steel), Kimball endorses an expensive (+) elaborate model with little justification or explanation. Well, every one is entitled to their preferences, I just think some of his preferences seem a bit odd and arbitrary.
Despite these reservations, I admire the man's dedication to his principles and his talent at showing the reader how to work with the principles of taste, texture, and heat to arrive at a desired result. This may be the only collection from the Kimball publishing franchise that I ever feel the need to own, but it certainly was worth the purchase and the perusal.
Available at Amazon
Cheap "The Kitchen Detective: A Culinary Sleuth Solves Common Cooking Mysteries With 150 Foolproof Recipes" Discount Review Shop
"The Kitchen Detective: A Culinary Sleuth Solves Common Cooking Mysteries With 150 Foolproof Recipes" Overview
A culinary sleuth solves common cooking mysteries with 150 foolproof recipes - thoroughly tested solutions that explain why recipes work and don't work. Christopher Kimball, America's premier culinary sleuth and the founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated magazine is the author of a popular newspaper column entitled 'The Kitchen Detective'. The Kitchen Detective is an attempt to get under the skin of popular recipes to understand how and why they work (or don't work) and how to make them reasonably foolproof. It is also full of opinions and odd facts. Did you know that your oven, that miracle of modern engineering, is remarkably imprecise? Do you think searing meat seals in its juices? Well it doesn't. This is a book for anyone who is tired of being told what to do in the kitchen without being told why.
"The Kitchen Detective: A Culinary Sleuth Solves Common Cooking Mysteries With 150 Foolproof Recipes" Specifications
You have probably run into Christopher Kimball before, as founder/publisher/editor of Cook's Illustrated magazine, or host of public television's America's Test Kitchen, or maybe as author of The Dessert Bible, The Cook's Bible, or The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook. Kimball probably grew up spending all of Christmas morning taking apart his presents to see how they worked. And he's never stopped.
Now he does it with food, sometimes with a big support staff and test kitchens, and sometimes at home. The Kitchen Detective is Kimball's home version of taking standard recipes apart and putting them back together again, often over and over and over again, until he gets to where he wants to be, or gets to what he wants to eat. In 125 recipes and 290 or so well-illustrated pages you will learn why all salt is not the same; why that cake pan isn't any better than its cousin; why various ways of measuring flour can yield results that differ by as much as 25%. Kimball's the guy in the back of the class asking the cooking teacher why she's adding cream of tartar to egg whites, and making her a little nuts because, truth be told, she doesn't know. The man takes no prisoners.
This book is about getting good, familiar food on the table fast for a family. There are chapters on "Soups and Stews"; "Vegetable and Salads"; "Pasta and Grains"; "Chicken"; "Meat and Fish"; "Eggs and Morning Baking"; and "Desserts". How about Minestrone with Flavor, or Really Good Blue Cheese Dressing, or Faster, Easier Fried Chicken, or Pork Chili for Sissies, or The Best Bran Muffin? Kimball touches all the bases and hits all the high notes with The Kitchen Detective. You'll not only achieve the results you are looking for, you'll know why. --Schuyler Ingle
Customer Reviews
Available at AmazonCheap "The Kitchen Detective: A Culinary Sleuth Solves Common Cooking Mysteries With 150 Foolproof Recipes" Discount Review Shop
0 ความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น