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How To Cook Everything: Simple Recipes For Great Food (平装)
by Mark Bittman , Alan Witschonke (Illustrator)
| Category:
Cookbook |
| Market price: ¥ 238.00
MSL price:
¥ 218.00
[ Shop incentives ]
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Anyone can cook, and most everyone should. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 11 items |
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Tim Himes (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-06 00:00>
How to Cook Everything is one of the more useful cookbooks I've owned. Each type of food has a "Basics" section that includes lots of preparation tips. The recipes themselves are detailed enough for beginners, and not so esoteric that you have to make a trip to a specialty grocery store every time you want to cook something. Especially helpful are the suggestions for expanding on each dish. For example, after the basic Chicken Kebab recipe, there are four modifications, including Chicken Kebabs in Yogurt-Cumin Sauce.
I'm relearning the way I prepare even the most basic things, like sandwiches and scrambled eggs. Who would have thought scrambled eggs could be so good? And the Pan-Grilled steak has weaned me from the backyard grill forever. No other cookbook would warn you that "clouds of smoke will instantly appear; do not turn down the heat." That bit of fear that your fire alarm will go off at any second just adds spice to the whole cooking experience.
The breadth of this book is amazing. Besides having nearly every type of Western cooking you can imagine, it also has recipes from Japan, India, Thailand, and... you get the idea.
There is one drawback - this book has no photos, just a few hand-drawn illustrations. However, the book is so big that if it did have photos, it would cost much more.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-06 00:00>
" 'Convenience' is one of the two dirty words of American cooking... the other is 'gourmet'. ... The gourmet phase, which peaked in the eighties, when food was seen as art, showed our ability to obsess about aspects of daily life that most other cultures take for granted. You might only cook once a week, but wow, what a meal." (from the introduction to the book)
This is an encyclopedic guide to cooking delicious food at home, from scratch. I got tired of spilling things on the library's copy of the book and finally bought my own. Everything I have made has turned out beautifully: an Asian-flavored green soup, puttanesca sauce, chicken adobo, gingered carrots, pears poached in red wine, and bread pudding, just to name a few.
The recipes use few convenience foods, but almost all the ingredients can be found in any supermarket. They are delicious, and most importantly, doable. Even the dishes that have only three or four ingredients, and there are lots of them, turn out to be more than the sum of their parts. Many basic recipes (e.g. grilled whole fish, stir-fried noodles, apple pie) are wonderful on their own but also feature variations for those who want to dress their food up. There are authoritative but not stuffy sections on equipment and technique, as well as some nice meal-planning suggestions ("Twenty fish dishes for fish haters," "Twenty-nine crowd-pleasing Thanksgiving side dishes you may not have thought of"). Look no further: there is enough great cooking and eating in this book to last a lifetime.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
I've owned this book for about a year now, and today when I realized how often I consult it for cooking and baking, I had to write a review. This cookbook offers far more than recipes! It offers basics of food preparation, suggestions and ideas for alternatives to standard recipes, some background information on where particular dishes originated, and just general helpful hints. I use this book whether I'm creating something on my own in the kitchen, trying a recipe from a friend or another cookbook, or preparing one of Mark Bittman's dishes. Today I was looking for a recipe for pizza dough, and found myself caught up in reading an entire section! The instructions are clear and concise, and the language draws in even cooks with the most casual interest. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys food preparation - regardless of their skill level. This is a fantastic reference and cookbook, and would make a great gift!
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
In our home, there are two types of cookbooks: show books & useful books. The show books adorn our shelves with their sleek, glossy covers and get used once in a blue moon. The useful books have dog-eared pages, broken spines and the occasional stain from an overzealous pasta sauce. Using wear-and-tear as a standard for value, then Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" must be worth more than gold to me.
Bittman's recipes are everything I look for in mid-week fare. The ingredients and instructions are presented in a clear and easy-to-follow fashion, many dishes can be made with modestly stocked cupboards, and most dishes take less than an hour from start to finish. The recipes are very receptive to on-the-fly changes from cooks who like to head off the beaten path, and some even come with suggested alterations (if you feel that you just have to follow the instructions). Three chicken dishes in particular (Cutlets w/ Lime Sauce, Curried Chicken Breasts, and Cutlets Roasted with Tomatoes, pgs 391-394) can be served week after week and still seem fresh and new with only minor tweaking.
How to Cook Everything is a perfect selection for anyone who would like to build their repertoire of easy but flavorful dishes. Whether you are an experienced or novice cook, this collection will be a worthwhile addition to your library.
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Diarmaid Gleenan (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
Tasty, basic recipes, using easy to find ingredients with minimal preparation time. If you're like me - hate to cook in the evening after coming home from work, but feel guilty about eating Pop Tarts instead of a good healthy meal, this book will help you turn that around. If you have the most basic of cooking skills and some basic utensils, you'll be able to expand your recipe repertoire dramatically with this book. A must-have for all beginner cooks, and a good one for intermediate cooks, just to have.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
This book is so good that it's hard to talk about why it's good without resorting to a string of superlatives. It's a really, really good book, very well-written, and very handy for someone new to cooking. I'd reccommend this as a gift or purchase for someone who has never cooked seriously before - perhaps a young adult learning to be independant.
It has directions and information about most of the foods one might encounter or wish to cook in plain American cuisine, with quite a few suggestions for unique variations. There are good descriptions of "common knowledge" subjects - for example, what the different cuts and grades of meat are, or the basic science of eggs. It is very helpful, as a new cook, to have straightforward information about what ingredients are supposed to be like, and what their basic properties are, before you start trying to cook. Having an understanding of basic principles makes a cook who can improvise and solve problems, not just read and follow a recipe.
There are illustrations for many of the recipes, especially those that are explained better visually (making knot-shaped dinner rolls, for example, or trussing a chicken.) The book is presented as categories (meat, poultry, vegetables, fruits, breads, cakes, puddings, etc) and within those categories are basic recipes. The basic recipes include variations - either directions for making a change, or one-liners suggesting an addition or subtraction. Having these variations instantly widens your repertoire as a cook, and are a good starting point for innovation.
I also have several minor problems with this book. First, the recipes are written with the assumption that you own or will buy a food processor, mixer, and blender, and rarely are directions written that include both hand and mechanical directions. Many people just starting to cook will not own these machines because they haven't been convinced that cooking is worth the expenditure. I vastly prefer translating basic directions ("beat the eggs until you see stiff peaks" which can be done by hand or by machine) into machine terms ("three minutes on high" or something.) Machines are supposed to replace working by hand, so it's easier to figure out what you're supposed to be accomplishing and then use the tool made for that, rather than working backwards.
Second, there are many recipes I consider standard (like baking a potato) but not obvious for a very new cook that aren't in here. Similarly, many of the recipes are on the bland side. I was once a new cook and was paranoid about following recipes to the letter - and the letter was usually not spicy or boldly-flavored enough for me.
Third, I don't like the yeast bread recipe. I think the entire bread topic is not covered with enough scientific/conceptual detail to truly teach someone the process. Breadmaking is so complex that a conceptual understanding is important. Then again, I learned to bake from James Beard's bread book and from experienced bakers in my family, so I'm pretty spoiled.
Finally, this is not a book for someone learning to cook cheaply. Rarely does the author make suggestions for cheaper variations. I agree that it's important to work with high-quality ingredients, but the resources are not necessarily there. I'd reccommend this book to young adults just starting out, but there are no notes about using Velveeta is it's all you've got, or what other low-quality, quick 'n' dirty substitutions you can make. So you need a Kitchenaid mixer and shallots? What if all you've got is a whisk and some onions? This is not adequately addressed, though the conceptual/scientific discussions of ingredients and tools make it possible for someone reading critically to reinvent the wheel and figure out how to cook without the suggested equipment.
All in all, I found this book to be very valuable as a new cook. It's not perfect, but it's the best all-purpose starting place I can think of. I'd reccommend it highly.
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Jolie Penry (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
I love this cookbook. I've never loved a cookbook. In fact, I've never much enjoyed cooking... but this book is coaxing me back into regarding cooking as a creative and interesting activity. I think I most appreciate the way the author shares cultural information along with the food and ingredient backgrounds. I'm learning about the dish as I learn to cook it. I feel like I've joined a sunny yellow cooking class.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
I grab for this cookbook every single time I need cook. I did not know how to cook before this book. Left the crinkle skin on the garlic when I made salsa... Yuck! Heck, it wasn't spelled out in the recipe so I didn't know... This is how bad I used to be. This cookbook explains, in intimate detail, just about anything and everything that is in the kitchen, including food and utensils. The recipes are simple and made from things most everyone will have in the kitchen. This is NOT a dieter's cookbook as most recipes call for a large amount of fat. In our mouths, fat is responsible for most of the taste. If loosing weight is your goal, you will need to find a different book, or you will be disappointed. If you want simple, tasty, flavor-filled recipes that even a beginner can follow, this book is highly recommended. I have made everything from pot roasts, to birthday cakes, to punches, to grilled shrimp and BBQ rubs. I have yet to be disappointed. Best of luck and Bon Appetite! I Love This Book!
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Maria Reidelbach (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
I love this book! Rather than limiting recipes, it gives formulas - templates - that you can use to infinitly vary the things you cook and enable you to use what's in season, or on special, or in you fridge or cupboard at the moment. The sidebars of useful lists - 12 chicken recipes you can serve cold - are especially useful. The only complaint I have, and it's sort of a big one, is that it (a hardcover) began to fall apart within a month. Now mine is in chunks! It's so annoying, considering that I have well-used cookbooks that are over 50 years old and still going strong. The publisher must be using an inferior bindery.
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Stephen DeCherney (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-07 00:00>
Most cookbooks aim either too high - taking for granted that you know how to use a chinois - or aim too low and include only simple recipes. This book offers the truth about cooking and leads the reader through fantastic recipes with ease. Bittman explains where you can take short cuts and where you have to be careful. He includes both common and rare recipes. For example, my 13 year old son and I made a raspberry/red currant/port wine sauce for chicken. I have used Bittman's book to make my own stocks which are flavorful and so superior to canned stocks, that I will never be able to return to the cans.
The recipes are complete and organized in a way that makes preparing the ingredients ahead of time logical.
Most inportant for me is the honesty of the descriptions. I have never found another cookbook that does not underestimate preparation time to make the recipe appear easier. Bittman's descriptions are extremely accurate.
The book is also very well illustrated with pictures that actually show how the preparation should proceed. For example, he shows how to truss a chicken, but then explains how unnecessary the whole trussing is.
And finally, he includes great recipes that you would need three books to find otherwise. If you only buy one cookbook, this is the one to get.
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 11 items |
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