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Title: The Kitchen Detective: A Culinary Sleuth Solves Common Cooking Mysteries With 150 Foolproof Recipes by Christopher Kimball ISBN: 0-936184-70-1 Publisher: America's Test Kitchen Pub. Date: August, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Truly Great Cooking Resource
Comment: I checked this book out recently from the library, and loved it so much that I am now ordering my own copy.
I have made about 6 dishes so far and found them to be accessible and delicious. I especially enjoyed the vegetable soup, the braised chicken with sweet potatoes and maple syrup, and the shrimp curry. There are lots more great-looking recipes that I am eagerly waiting to try. I think that many of these will be new standards in our home.
These recipes are not overly gourmet and impractical, but aren't lowbrow either. If you're a home cook who loves good food, you can't go wrong with this book. Highly recommended!
Rating: 5
Summary: Kimball minces garlic, but certainly no words!
Comment: The Cook's Illustrated publishing empire is perhaps the most benign, useful deployment of mass obsessive-compulsive disorder in today's America. I say that in the nicest possible way. Cook's magazine reporters tell you everything that went wrong during recipe development and testing, and why. If that wears the reader out, they can skip to the recipes, which ALWAYS WORK. (I'm not shouting at you--there's no way to put italics on Amazon.com reviews.)
If I'm going to spend time, money, and care on everyday recipes, rather than ambitious gambles, I want to know that the results will be worth it. I've never had a dud from a Cook's recipe unless it was clearly my fault (I didn't hear the timer, someone in the house started screaming and bleeding, etc.).
This volume is more idiosyncratic than the magazine, as maestro Christopher Kimball gives full voice like a hunting hound to his personal prejudices ("Poaching perfectly ripe fruit is insane"). He explains exactly how to make a gloriously moist, evenly roasted chicken, a batch of bran muffins worth eating, or from-the-cupboard main dishes that are ready in a flash or two, yet still memorable. If his bow-tied certitude starts getting you down, pour a glass of wine and skip to the recipes.
The gold standard for kitchen "whys" remains, in my house, Shirley Corriher's "Cookwise." I wouldn't be without it. But for day-to-day usage, "The Kitchen Detective" is guaranteed to make a cook take a different five o'clock look at the unpromising contents of one's pantry: Canned tuna as a pasta-sauce base? Gosh, it's good!
Rating: 5
Summary: On par with my dog-eared copy of 'Joy of Cooking'
Comment: I almost didn't buy this book after wondering if it would just end up being another issue of Cook's Illustrated (the magazine founded by Kimball), but decided to go ahead and get it, and I'm really glad I did! After only having owned this book for a week, it's already my favorite cookbook. I don't know if it's my New England sensibilities or just the high quality of the recipes that I've come to expect from Kimball & Co., but I'm amazed at how many of the recipes in this cookbook I want to make. Usually when I buy a cookbook, many of the recipes are either too time-consuming, too complicated, or they require expensive or hard-to-find ingredients. As he tests different recipes to come up with a perfected version, Kimball makes note of any strange ingredients or bizarre preparation methods, favoring simpler and more straightforward methods that will save cooks time and result in recipes just as delicious as any that require hours in the kitchen.
The book is divided into sections - soups, meats, dessert, and includes many helpful sidebars with interesting information about such things as the rise of Kraft Mac & Cheese or his most-used kitchen tools. Overall, this book is more than just recipes, though the recipes are all really great. The author goes through the trial and error process for you, reports on his results, and analyzes why some recipes failed and others succeeded, and gives you the knowledge you'll need to know what makes some recipes work and others turn out badly.
My only complaint about this book is Kimball's overuse of the phrase 'marriage' when referring to the combination of two ingredients, tastes, textures, etc. Someone get this man a list of synonyms.
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