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Sunday, June 30, 2013

* THE REISSUES, THE REPRINTS, AND THE NEWER EDITIONS...

...all reflect a boom in the cookbook publishing business. A paperback
reprint will lower the cost to the purchaser, and also give a publisher
a chance to correct egregious errors or add a postscript. Some will
reissue a book in paper covers with a new layout or photos. Others will
rearrange existing material to present it as more informative text
while keeping the focus tight. Here are some recent "re-editions"...
 

CHAMPIONSHIP BBQ SECRETS FOR REAL SMOKED FOOD. 2d ed. (Robert Rose,
2013, 405 pages, ISBN 978-0-7788-0449-9, $24.95 CAN soft covers) is by
Karen Putman and Judith Fertig. Putman was a BBQ prize-winning chef
with a grand championship and several world championships; Fertig is a
food writer who has produced eight BBQ books with a co-author. It was
originally published in 2006 with Putman, but she has since died and
Fertig began work on an update with new preps from the BBQ cooks'
community. So, as the publisher says, there are even more secrets here.
Over 300 recipes are provided, arranged by main product such as
poultry, pork, lamb, fish, shellfish, and the like. There is, of
course, the primer on the art of smoking and BBQ competitions. And the
primer on brines, rubs, marinades, bastes and sauces. The source guide
at the back is all US except for one in BC, but Canada is included in
the North American Regional Barbecue section, itemizing what works best
on a provincial basis. For Ontario, my home, there are pork ribs with
maple syrup, maple-smoked freshwater fish, and tomato-based maple-
sweetened sauces. Quebec isn't mentioned, but you can figure it out
from blending the Maritime Provinces (salt pork, salmon, maple, French-
inspired sauces) with Ontario. And of course, out in BC it is fish,
oysters, and Asian-styled sauces. Photos illustrate techniques of
brining and smoking. This is a nice book for chicken wings, cold smoked
veggies, salmon with white wine, stuffed game hens, and rack of lamb.
Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and
avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Quality/price rating: 89.
 

RECIPES AND DREAMS; from an Italian life (Appetite by Random House,
2013, 338 pages, ISBN 978-0-449-01603-9, $34.95 CAN hard covers) is by
Tessa Kiros, author of several food and travel books. She has explored
the world since the age of 18, cooking and traveling, and finally
settling down in Tuscany with her Italian husband. The book was
originally published last year in Australia by Murdoch Books. It's a
tribute to the women in her life: mother, mother-in-law, grandmothers –
and to other women. The nine chapters are headed for names of rooms and
items in the home: the linen cupboard, the pantry, the bread oven, the
snack box, the pasta pot, the dining room, the sugar bin, the ice box,
et al. There's a collection of photos, memoirish sidebars containing
tips, and about 100 recipes. Preps include limoncello, salsa verde,
quince jelly, pasta al forno Sicilian, rabbit pate, mascarpone and
lavender ice cream, and green tagliatelle. It would make a handsome
gift book. But the index not only has teeny tiny font size, but also
has no contrast between the grey ink and the white paper. Preparations
have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is
no table of metric equivalents. Quality/price rating: 85.
 
 
 
FOOD; vegetarian home cooking (Sterling Epicure, 2013, 234 pages, ISBN
978-1-4549-0726-8, $29.96 US hard covers) is by Mary McCartney; she has
been a consultant to Linda McCartney Foods for over a decade. It is a
family book, full of memoir material, photos, observations about food,
stories about the recipes, and the like. It was originally published in
the UK in 2012 by Chatto and Windus. There's a primer on veggie
cooking, followed by divisions with breakfast, brunch, snacks,
sandwiches, soups and starters, salads, mains, sides, and desserts.
It's got more photos than I would have wanted, but the preps are all
tasty, such as the shepherd's pie, the asparagus summer tart, and the
spinach-leek-zucchini frittata. The additional interest here is Paul
McCartney's comfort food listings and recipes. Preparations have their
ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table
of metric equivalents. Quality/price rating: 86.
 
 
 
THE EASY KITCHEN: pizza & focaccia (Ryland, Peters & Small, 2013, 144
pages, ISBN 978-1-84975-379-1, $19.95 US hard covers) and
 
THE EASY KITCHEN: salads & dressings (Ryland, Peters & Small, 2013, 144
pages, ISBN 978-1-84975-376-0, $19.95 US hard covers)
 
…are two new entries in the series designed to promote "simple recipes
for delicious food every day". The preps have been culled from RP&S
writers. In the pizza book, Maxine Clark contributed the bulk, but
there were contributions from six other writers. The salads book used
mainly recipes from Fiona Smith, but eight other writers were also
used. In this standard format, there are about 75 recipes with 80
colour photos. They are all basic, and the books can be host gifts. The
salads book is arranged by a section on dressings, followed by "the
classics", grains, meats, pasta, potato, nuts, and cheese. The pizza
book is divided into thick, thin, calzones, focaccia, and pizzette.
Both books' preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric
and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Quality/price rating: 85.
 
HOME MADE SUMMER (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2013, 232 pages, ISBN
978-1-61769-015-0, $35 US hard covers) is by Yvette Van Boven, a
freelance food stylist and recipe writer who runs a restaurant and
catering business in Amsterdam. It was originally published in 2011,
but this is its first North American release. Sometime back she had
published Home Made. This is the third volume, expressly put together
for the warmer climate time of year. Last year (2012) she'll come out
with Home Made Winter (in English). Meanwhile, here there are 150
colourful and black-and-white illustrations, of food, techniques,
finished plates, and some touristy angles. It's arranged by course,
with breakfast, tea time, drinks, apps, mains, and desserts. All of it
is geared to tasty foods. There's peach tart, zucchini cake with lemon
glaze, red iced tea, cantaloupe soup with goat cheese and basil oil,
white gazpacho, buttery corn risotto, spicy ratatouille, and more. The
pictures accompanying the food are generally terrific, but there is not
enough of them (but there are quite a few non-food pix). Preparations
have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois
measurements, but there is no table of equivalents. Quality/price
rating: 86.
 

THE DUKE'S TABLE; the complete book of vegetarian Italian cooking
(Melville House, 1930, 2013; distr. Random House Canada, 333 pages,
ISBN 978-1-61219-139-3, $40 US hard covers) is by Enrico Alliata, the
Duke of Salaparuta. It was originally published in 1930, at 1000
recipes! Actually, the number was 1009 in categories of appetizers,
soups, salads, pasta, timballi, lunch and side dishes, mains, eggs,
desserts, drinks, etc. There is a separate list of these at the back,
along with a traditional index. Alliata reworked all the classic
Italian dishes to be meatless. The book has been modernized to reflect
modern oven temperatures and quantities, but otherwise it remains the
same. At the front, there is a basic chart of cooking techniques for
the most common vegetables and their service size. Preparations have
their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no
table of metric equivalents.
Quality/price rating: 88.
 
 

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