3.HOW TO MAKE SOURDOUGH (Ryland Peters & Small, 2016, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-84975-704-1, $24.95 USD hardbound) is by renowned baker Emmanuel Hadjiandreou who had worked with Gordon Ramsay and organic food shops. His bread creations have won him several awards such as the Soil Association Organic Food Award for his sourdough. This is his third book, and of course it covers natural bread making. The primer details the sourdough process, and then it is on to the pre-ferment or biga. He's got 45 recipes, divided into types of grains; the same grain is used in the starter. There are chapters on rye sourdoughs, gluten-free sourdoughs, spelt sourdoughs, and some specialty ones. The hardest part of the whole procedure is getting the sourdough to do an initial ferment; the rest is basic breadmeaking of kneading, shaping and baking. There are plenty of technique photos. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents. And of course, everything is scaled – as it should be.
Audience and level of use: bakers looking for new ideas, sourdough lovers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: prune and pepper rye sourdough; sprouted spelflour sourdough; red quinoa sourdough; chickpea and potato focaccia.
The downside to this book: I wanted more recipes!
The upside to this book: preps for rye and spelt and GF.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
4.CRISPS, COBBLERS, CUSTARDS & CREAMS (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, 302 pages, ISBN 978-0-544-23075-0, $30 USD hardcovers) is by Jean Anderson, who has written a score of cookbooks over the years, including The food of Portugal and The Doubleday Cookbook. She's been a multiple Beard Award winner and a senior editor at Ladies' Home Journal. Here she visits a love of custards, et al: 150 recipes divided equally. These are what the Brits call "puddings", the real goods. An excellent resource tool, with many variations and some gluten-free alternatives. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: comfort food lovers, home cooks, dessert lovers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: heirloom betties, crisps, baked custards, stovetop creams, dulce de leche, souffles, bread puddings, Bavarians, Charlottes, whips, moulds, mousses, sauces, toppings, puddings.
Quality/Price Rating: 88.
5.ONE PAN TO RULE THEM ALL (Good Books, 2016, 265 pages, ISBN 978-1-68099-130-7, $19.99 USD hardbound) is by Howie Southworth and Greg Matza. The two guys live and die by their iron skillets, and this book gives us 100 cast-iron skillet recipes for indoors and out (grill and campfire). It's a guy book, so men can extend their repertoire from the BBQ to the camp and to the home kitchen. No excuses. For the mechanic in the family, there is a thorough section on buying, seasoning, cleaning, repairing, and general care – all once you've kicked the tires. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there are tables of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: guys.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: chopped pork and red slaw sandwiches; mega-tamales; Creole jambalaya; baked ziti; campfire burritos.
The downside to this book: actually needs more pix of skillets.
The upside to this book: good large print, and an even larger-sized index!
Quality/Price Rating: 87.
6.BREAKFAST LOVE (Quadrille Publishing, 2016, 192 pages, ISBN 978-1-84949-714-5, $22.95 USD hardbound) is by David Bez, who, four years ago, challenged himself to create a new salad every workday. This resulted in "Salad Love", a collection of lunch salads. Now he has created salads for breakfasts. In essence, these are one bowl meals, mainly sweet but also savoury in some cases. His main criteria are: to be quick and easy to prepare, to give energy for the day, to be filling, and to be healthy. There are 150 here, clearly marked vegetarian, vegan, raw, omnivore or pescatarian. And they can be adapted to fit different diets. The basic layering for each bowl includes two fruits or veggies, a cereal, a protein, a liquid, and a one teaspoon garnish. There are 100 pages on sweets and 50 pages on savouries. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: beginners, breakfast lovers, rushed people.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: blood orange, avocado, brown rice and shrimp; lychee, pineapple, oats and walnuts; blackberries, melon, oats and chia seeds; pomegranate, grapes, quinoa and coconut yogurt.
The downside to this book: I actually wanted more preps.
The upside to this book: well-illustrated with one pix per bowl.
Quality/Price Rating: 89.
7.SOUTHERN HEIRLOOM COOKING (Good Books, 2016,349 pages, ISBN 978-1-68099-131-4, $24.99 USD hardbound) is by Norma Jean McQueen Haydel and Horace McQueen. Norma Jean cooked her family preps but never measured or wrote things down. Her brother Horace decided that she should, and together they produced this "family" collection of 200 recipes. The food is traditional and straight forward, and the preps are arranged by type such as apps, snacks, salads, soups, sides, mains, breads, desserts, and preserves. There's a concluding chapter on game. It is all easy enough, using a series of prepared mixes or single canned ingredients such as water chestnuts or artichoke hearts. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: those looking for a traditional southern US cookbook.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: chess pie; poblano cream soup; stuffed corn bread; baked catfish; Cajun rice jambalaya; no-bake ground beef squash casserole; pecan-stuffed pheasant.
Quality/Price Rating: 85.
8.FOOD WITH FRIENDS (Clarkson Potter, 2016, 208 pages, ISBN 978-0-8041-8709-1, $25 USD hardbound) is by Leela Cyd, a food and travel writer in California. Here she compiles preps for brunch, teatime, happy hours, picnics, potlucks, desserts – all those non-timed non-BLD meals of the day. These are small bites and treats to share, as she says: they are for small gatherings. She lists her "secret ingredients", a flavoured pantry for when people drop by or the unexpected happens. In addition to produce, eggs, dairy, and EVOO, there are hard cheeses, flavoured salts, nut oils, preserved lemons, harissa, mustards, and preserved fruits. Table settings and food stylings are considered. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: those looking for spectacular food that is simply made.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: chocolate sandwiches with caramel and peanut butter; rose flan; cotija, apricot and rosemary crisps; South Indian kesari bhath with toasted cashews, sultans and saffron; matcha egg cream.
The downside to this book: From my experience, she makes it sound a lot more easy than it is.
The upside to this book: more great photography!
Quality/Price Rating: 87.
9.MY HEALTHY DISH (Skyhorse Publishing, 184 pages, ISBN 978-1-5107-0343-8, $24.99 USD hardbound) is by My Nguyen, who learned about cooking while working in her family's restaurant. She now has the extremely popular My Healthy Dish blog. These are 60 fresh and easy preps for the whole family, including picky eaters. She takes comfort food and makes them healthier, with new ingredients to help people choose real foods over processed ones. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but there are tables of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: beginner
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: strawberry and cream waffles; chicken cauliflower nuggets; watermelon slushies; nachos; slow cooker chicken sausage jambalaya; slow cooker vegan chili
The upside to this book: large typeface, bold fonts for the ingredients.
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
10.SOUP SWAP (Chronicle Books, 2016, 176 pages, ISBN 978-1-4521-4836-6, $24.95 USD paperbound) is by Kathy Gunst, multiple cookbook author and Bear award winner who is also a food writer and broadcaster on NPR. These are recipes to make and share, very easy to do, and relevant to small community groups such as churches and schools, neighbours and local friends. 60 recipes are provided, covering a range of vegetable soups, poultry soups, meat soups, seafood soups and chowders, plus some garnishes for all manner of soups. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: families, those dealing with quantity cooking.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: escarole and white bean soup with parmesan cheese; corn and sweet potato chowder with saffron cream; lamb and farro soup; sausage, cabbage and root vegetable soup; black bean and chorizo soup.
The downside to this book: I wanted more recipes.
The upside to this book: portions are for six to eight, very manageable and useful for large families to eat entre nous.
Quality/Price Rating: 86.
11.NORDIC LIGHT (Hardie Grant Books, 2016, 224 pages, ISBN 978-1-74379144-8, $39.99 USD hardbound) is by Simon Bajada, a food writer and photographer based in Stockholm. It's a great name for a cookbook, with the word light referring to the daytime and to the filling nature of the food. Bajada has tried to lighten up traditional foods from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway, incorporating foods from abroad. Most of the work is vegetarian, with a handful of meat dishes such as milk-poached chicken or rhubarb-braised pork. It all begins with a Nordic brunch, followed by mid-morning snacks, lunch plates, fika [tea time], bowls, family-style, weekend entertaining, and late night foods and drinks. It is very well laid-out and described (he is a photographer). Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: Scandinavians and others looking for lighter fare.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: Christmas spiced plums, ricotta, and coffee ice; grilled fennel with roasted black beans and jaffa dressing; black radish, salmon and dill tartare; farro, chestnut and Brussels sprout slaw.
The downside to this book: just a few too many non-food pictures.
The upside to this book: well-framed plated final dishes.
Quality/Price Rating: 87.
12.MILK. MADE (Hardie Grant Books, 2016, 288 pages, ISBN 978-1-74379135-6, $39.99 USD hardbound) is by Nick Haddow, Tasmanian cheesemaker at Bruny Island. It is a basic tool on cheeses, along with 75 preps that use cheese. As the subtitle says, "how to choose it, serve it and eat it". The first 100 pages deals with "from the dairy", and covers the basics of milk, butter, and yoghurt. And then it is on to cheeses, with fresh cheese, surface-ripened, blues, semi-hards, and cooked curd cheeses. Along the way there are recipes, interviews with other cheesemakers, photos, and single-page stories. There are also resources pages and a bibliography for further reading. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements with some metric, but there is no table of metric equivalents.
Audience and level of use: cheese lovers
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: cured ocean trout, grapefruit and goat's curd; yoghurt-marinated BBQ chicken; whey hot toddy; whey pops; ricotta shortcake; Bengali yoghurt fish curry; ricotta gnudi with buttery peas.
The downside to this book: too many photos strewn about, cuts down on space for text.
The upside to this book: resources list and bibliography.
Quality/Price Rating: 87.
13.BREW (Quadrille Publishing, 2016, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-84949-727-5, $24.95 USD hardbound) is by James Morton, a UK author who has also written Brilliant Bread and How Baking Works. As he says, "This book is for those who have never considered brewing and want to understand a bit more about beer". And it is also for those who want to move on from kits and explore other possibilities. He starts off with kits, which are eminently satisfactory for most people who like to have a good beer without going too deep into tasting notes and definitive answers. It's much like driving a car: you can be a regular driver or you can advance to racing – you just need new vehicles. So he starts with the basics, which applies to everyone: what brewing is, sterilizing, principles of fermentation, different forms of equipment, different types of hops and grains, troubleshooting. Then he moves on to the major categories for kits or doing it yourself – British/Irish ales; American beers; European beers; beer specialties and sours. It's really easy – I did it for a few years until I started putting on weight. Now I just drink the occasional draught beer. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents. As brewing is related to baking (yeast, exactitude), everything is scaled.
Audience and level of use: those looking to make their own beer or to understand the principles.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: Broon ale; clansman ale; Scottish export; saison; hefeweizen.
Quality/Price Rating: 88.
14.PRESERVING ITALY (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, 304 pages, ISBN 978-0-544-61162-7, $23 USD paperbound) is by Dominica Marchetti, a former reporter turned Italian cookbook author and food writer. Here she concentrates on canning, curing, infusing, and bottling Italian flavours and traditions, both sweet and savoury. And it comes with log rollers including Nancy Harmon Jenkins. After some details on safety, water-bath canning, and pressure canning, she has arranged her material by form: foods preserved in oil, in vinegar, sweets, tomatoes and tomato sauces, infused oils/vinegars, fresh cheeses and cured meats, syrups and fruits preserved in alcohol, ending with confections. She also includes a wide-ranging list of sources and a bibliography. It is a great package, covering different regions of Italy. She's also got some nice tips and backstories for each recipe. As well, there is a large typeface and good use of white space. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of equivalents.
Audience and level of use: home preservers, Italian food lovers.
Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: sweet, sour and spicy pickled melon; grilled summer veggies with zucchini and savoury mint sauce; spiked peaches in grappa; tramezzini roasted tomatoes, spicy salumi, artichoke and provolone; nocino; orzata; tropea onion jam; calcionetti.
Quality/Price Rating: 90.
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