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Title: The Best American Recipes 2003-2004: The Year's Top Picks from Books, Magazines, Newspapers, and the Internet (Best American Recipes, 2003-2004) by Fran McCullough, Molly Stevens, Alan Richman ISBN: 0-618-27384-0 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Fun series with good recipes and lots of annoying aspects
Comment: This latest in a series which I believes goes back about five (5) years breaks no new ground in presentation or insights about the American culinary scene. All that means is that this book is fun to read and may be worth a purchase from the deeply discounted pile of books at the entrance of Borders. But, it adds little of substance to one's permanent cookbook library.
At the top of my list of reasons not to pay list price for this book is the fact that it gives no criteria by which the editors choose their best of winners. You have nothing like the closely reasoned thinking you get from the Cooks Illustrated magazines or books. You do not even get any rationale for how sources are chosen. On top of this is the very few recipes from Cooks Illustrated or other 'best of' sources.
Next on my list of complaints is that when a recipe comes from a periodical, the editors do not give enough information about the source which would enable you to find that particular issue. This may be useful especially for recipes from Savour or Gourmet, where recipes often accompany articles on countries or restaurants and you may be interested in reading about the recipe's source.
Another irritation is that all the copyrighted sources show that they were published in 2002, not 2003. This irritation is doubled when I find recipes from republished material, such as new editions of works by M. F. K. Fisher or memoirs including old material such as 'Between Bites' by Jim Villas. I really like both authors and I think they deserve every credit coming their way, but I already own their works, so I don't need to see their old material rehashed here.
Yet another irritation is in the Foreword by guest contributor Alan Richman. Like Tony Bourdain before him, he was primarily enlisted to provide some opening comic relief. The problem is, at least some of his humor is based on plainly false observations such as a mythical difficulty in finding shallots at an American grocery. Unlike the author, I find shallots at every store stocking vegetables in my middle-sized city. Bring back Tony Bourdain. At least I know where his cynical sense of humor is coming from.
I always look forward to some insights from the editors' trends of the year. This year, I flatly disagree with their identifying a movement toward can opener cooking exemplified by Sandra Lee's 'Semi-Homemade' rubric. I think that with the recent popularity of Rachael Ray's books and TV show, I would more likely identify the trend as a strong interest in cooking at home and the search for ways to do it quickly without having to rely too heavily on prepared foods. The observation about Sandra Lee is doubly ironic in that her Food Network TV show started in 2003, and, as cited above, all the recipes presumably reflecting this trend are from 2002.
The last annoyance with which to burden you are my finding inaccurate statements in the editors' notes to some recipes. One I found was the statement that scallops are stored in solutions of sodium to preserve them. Sodium cannot form a solution. Only sodium salts can form a solution, and, I believe the salt used to preserve scallops is not the most common sodium salt, sodium chloride, but some less common compound.
In spite of all these nuisances, this book is fun to read, if not worth the expense to own it. If I were to fall back on a quote from Joseph Conrad, which says that the sole purpose of a cookbook is to increase the amount of happiness in the world, I believe this book can do that, especially if acquired at a deep discount or from the library.
In the books defense, I cite with favor the editors' notes accompanying each recipe. This levels the quality of the entries, balancing sophisticated stuff from Jeremiah Tower with material found on the back of a bread crumb can.
Recommended, with reservations.
Rating: 5
Summary: Use it all the time
Comment: This series is the absolute best. I have them all. Recipes are reasonably easy, creative, and meal menu suggestions are a big help. For those cooks who need pictures to tell them what the heck they are eating, this probably isn't for you. But if you are into any sort of forward meal menu planning, then pick this and the other years' editions up. An experienced palate also helps so that room temperature dishes are not a shock, but a style to which the Italians and French have become accustomed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great series - terrific selections!
Comment: Fran McCullough is well known in the food bood business and I've come to trust her taste. I'm automatically favorably inclined towards any book she's associated with.
This series started out strong and has only gotten better over the years. I love the editors comments in the headnotes and they are great at discerning trends.
Also there are lots of really simple but very tasty dishes here, along with a few real challenges.
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Title: The Best American Recipes 2002-2003 (Best American) by Fran McCullough, Molly Stevens ISBN: 0618191372 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Restaurant Favorites at Home: A Best Recipe Classic (The Best Recipe) by Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine ISBN: 0936184671 Publisher: Boston Common Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Lost Recipes: Meals to Share With Friends and Family by Marion Cunningham ISBN: 0375411984 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic (The Best Recipe Series) by Editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine ISBN: 0936184752 Publisher: America's Test Kitchen Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Secrets of Baking: Simple Techniques for Sophisticated Desserts by Sherry Yard ISBN: 0618138927 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.95 |
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