Your next cookbook

[Lippy]

A friend sent me a copy of the new Dorie Greenspan book Around My French Table. I've only gone through the first two chapters, but I want to make EVERYTHING. I went to sleep last night dreaming of salmon rillettes and gougeres made with gruyere.

 

I'm seriously considering getting this.

[splinky]

on an edna lewis kick lately. "the edna lewis cookbook" is the next one i plan to get.

 

miss lewis

How is that one different from the others?

i should say that i want the hardcover version. it's the first one and has more narrative then the later ones. i haven't looked at the one she did with scott peacock but i'm guessing there's a fair amount of overlap. probably a fair amount of overlap in all the books. i've just always wanted that first one but could never find a copy and my powerful yearning for it was recently reignited. which do you have? do you have a favorite out of the four?

[Suzanne F]

on an edna lewis kick lately. "the edna lewis cookbook" is the next one i plan to get.

 

miss lewis

How is that one different from the others?

i should say that i want the hardcover version. it's the first one and has more narrative then the later ones. i haven't looked at the one she did with scott peacock but i'm guessing there's a fair amount of overlap. probably a fair amount of overlap in all the books. i've just always wanted that first one but could never find a copy and my powerful yearning for it was recently reignited. which do you have? do you have a favorite out of the four?

I've got The Taste of Country Cooking (19th printing, 2000) and The Gift of Southern Cooking. The latter is much, much more Scott Peacock than it is Miss Lewis, although his narratives complement hers, from his background of growing up in Alabama, the son of a farmer. I look to ToCC as kind of an urtext for a lot of Southern dishes; GoSC is much cheffier. I wanted it because I so loved my meal at Watershed, esp. the fabulous chocolate cake.

[memesuze]

this

 

 

Yeah, I want that one too. Another gigantic, expensive book to add to my collection. Not very practical, but I just can't resist these things...

There's a YouTube video of two of the authors in a lecture at UWashington

[Behemoth]

Picked up (German edition of) this one yesterday:

 

My Bavarian Kitchen

 

Haven't bought a cookbook in ages, but this was on sale, I'd heard good things from several good cooks, and it has recipes for all the weird German stuff that comes in my CSA box that I never know what to do with like salsify & kohlrabi. Also lots of game dishes.

 

Böfflamot ftw!

[Suzanne F]

Apparently, the Myhrvold book is delayed. Actually, it's good to know that part of the holdup is proofreading. (No, I'm not. Proofing, that is. )

 

But Harold McGee is coming out with a new one. I'd spring for that one!

[Daisy]

I'm wanting Colman Andrews' The Country Cooking of Ireland and Around My French Table from Dorie Greenspan.

[Anthony Bonner]

I'm wanting Colman Andrews' The Country Cooking of Ireland and Around My French Table from Dorie Greenspan.

I have the Colman Andrews book - it is beautiful, but I've never made anything from it - lots of baking if I remember correctly

[prasantrin]

I'm wanting Colman Andrews' The Country Cooking of Ireland and Around My French Table from Dorie Greenspan.

 

I want Around My French Table, too! I have a $23 credit on amazon.com which would almost pay for it if I lived in the US. Despite the Canadian dollar being worth more than the US dollar right now (barely), the book is $6 more on amazon.ca (and I don't think I can transfer the .com credit to .ca).

 

I still want Cindy Mushet's The Art and Soul of Baking. I borrowed it from the library, and it would be a great complement to Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

 

If only I had a decent kitchen space and oven for baking. . . .and money. . .

[g.johnson]

I'm wanting Colman Andrews' The Country Cooking of Ireland

Peel potatoes. Boil in salted water until soft. Add butter and milk. Mash.

 

Just saved you 30 bucks.

[Anthony Bonner]

I'm wanting Colman Andrews' The Country Cooking of Ireland

Peel potatoes. Boil in salted water until soft. Add butter and milk. Mash.

 

Just saved you 30 bucks.

that's only course one of a 7 course dinner as we all know.

[prasantrin]

I'm wanting Colman Andrews' The Country Cooking of Ireland

Peel potatoes. Boil in salted water until soft. Add butter and milk. Mash.

 

Just saved you 30 bucks.

that's only course one of a 7 course dinner as we all know.

 

Is course two cabbage?

[Lippy]

A friend sent me a copy of the new Dorie Greenspan book Around My French Table. I've only gone through the first two chapters, but I want to make EVERYTHING. I went to sleep last night dreaming of salmon rillettes and gougeres made with gruyere.

 

My copy arrived yesterday. I started paging through it, but put it down because it was 2 a.m. In an hour, I was back in the living room with it for another 90 minutes.

 

First impressions, not having actually made anything from it yet:

 

It's very much the way I cook normally. Why do I need this cookbook?

1. The photography is extremely beautiful.

2. The in-between recipes patter is fun -- like having a good chat with a friend you've known for a long time who just happens to have a far more fabulous life than your own and wants to share it with you.

3. The recipes are conveniently laid out over one or two side-by-side pages.

4. This is home cooking. You don't need a sous-chef. You don't need to cook for two days to produce a meal.

5. Scattered throughout are little trucs. Many of the recipes have the small, but critical factors, like an ingredient or technique that seems offhand, but makes all the difference in the final result, not that the recipes are designed to be followed slavishly, not at all.

 

Years ago, there were a couple of French cooking magazines that could be found regularly at large news dealers. These were not upscale publications like Saveur, but simple magazines that featured menu suggestions and recipes for a month's worth of ordinary family meals. The American equivalent would be the food sections of maybe, Good Housekeeping, but what a difference in the quality of the finished product! The recipes in this cookbook remind me of those magazines. This is food as it is actually prepared and eaten by real people. I have the feeling I will making a much higher percentage of the recipes than I do in most of the cookbooks I've bought in recent years -- if I can bring myself to risk ruining the beauty of the book itself by putting it next to the stove.

[memesuze]

Her Baking From My Home to Yours is exactly like that: well laid out, homey, full of variations and tips that make every recipe I've tried a hit. I've my own copy now of Around My French Table, but have waited until cooler weather to do more with it than read and dream.

[bloviatrix]

I bought a red kuri squash at the greenmarket last week - I'm planning to make Beatrix's Red Kuri Soup. Now that the weather has turned we're going to be eating even more soup than we do already.