"To buy or not to buy Cookbooks"

[Paul Kierstead]

Paul, you use the section on sauces, whether it is to accompany a recipe in the B book or to use at your whim, correct ?

I'd like that too, to have a great sauce book, which Robuchon are you referring too ? This one ?

That is the book. It may not be his best book (I don't know), since it is the only one by him that I own. I more often use the sauces section on a whim than with recipes in the book. I wouldn't buy the book for the sauces section alone; it is very good but relatively small part of the book. I really really love Sauces; I doubt it has a peer. However, its single biggest flaw can be its breadth and size; if you want a nice sauce other than brown butter for that sole meunière you just made (always a lovely fast and healthy dish!), it can be hard to know where to start in Sauces if you don't know, a priori, the right sort of sauce. This is where cut down size can help.

Robuchon is a great book for me though, because it is so .... different then the common sort of cooking in NA. A lot less sautéing, a lot more gentle cooking, poaching, etc. More subtle and delicate flavours; really quite a different experience. Most of the recipes are for "modern" use, so relatively quick and easy, as these things go. My only real complaint is ingredients. No John Dory around here! But still, I use it often, especially for simpler meals.

[Aloha Steve]

Paul, you use the section on sauces, whether it is to accompany a recipe in the B book or to use at your whim, correct ?

I'd like that too, to have a great sauce book, which Robuchon are you referring too ? This one ?

That is the book. It may not be his best book (I don't know), since it is the only one by him that I own. I more often use the sauces section on a whim than with recipes in the book. I wouldn't buy the book for the sauces section alone; it is very good but relatively small part of the book. I really really love Sauces; I doubt it has a peer. However, its single biggest flaw can be its breadth and size; if you want a nice sauce other than brown butter for that sole meunière you just made (always a lovely fast and healthy dish!), it can be hard to know where to start in Sauces if you don't know, a priori, the right sort of sauce. This is where cut down size can help.

So Sauces is THE book, just cut down on the amounts, correct?

[Paul Kierstead]

So Sauces is THE book, just cut down on the amounts, correct?

In my opinion, yes. Of course, finding dissenting opinions is likely pretty easy To clarify, the quantity problem is the size of the book, not the recipes (though they need cut down too). Until you've given the whole book a serious skimming (maybe a few times), it can be hard to pick a sauce. Also, it is notable that it is a lot more about technique then recipes, so it isn't a "solutions" book, more of a learning book. Though lots of solutions too

[Aloha Steve]

So Sauces is THE book, just cut down on the amounts, correct?

In my opinion, yes. Of course, finding dissenting opinions is likely pretty easy To clarify, the quantity problem is the size of the book, not the recipes (though they need cut down too). Until you've given the whole book a serious skimming (maybe a few times), it can be hard to pick a sauce. Also, it is notable that it is a lot more about technique then recipes, so it isn't a "solutions" book, more of a learning book. Though lots of solutions too

Are you a politician ? That was one of the best CYAs I've read in a long time

Sincerely, thanks for the info I ordered it.

[Safran]

Buy, buy, buy (or check out from the library!) No internet source is going to give you the depth of Clifford Wright on Mediterranean food & history, the beauty captured by Alford & Duguid, or the sheer pleasure of reading Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking" over again. Good cookbooks are always about more than recipes...

Well said!

[Lora]

I think the only reason I ever turn to the internet is because my cookbook collection isn't full-text searchable...

[MelissaH]

I think the only reason I ever turn to the internet is because my cookbook collection isn't full-text searchable...

I think that should I ever win the lottery, I'd hire a database guru and a bunch of typists. I'd have the typists enter my cookbook collection into the database that the guru builds for me. Then I'd have a collection that was searchable for ingredient(s). I wouldn't even necessarily want the entire set of directions in there; I'd just want to be able to look for recipes that use the combination of ingredients I'm after and then tell me which cookbook, on what page. I don't necessarily follow recipes, but I like to use them for inspiration.

MelissaH

[Paul Kierstead]

Are you a politician ? That was one of the best CYAs I've read in a long time

Sincerely, thanks for the info I ordered it.

LOL, too many years negotiating corporate mazes. Hope you'll enjoy the book! I made sorrel sauce from it last night; fairly unique and interesting sauce. Served it over salmon. One of those sauces where you taste the core ingredient (a sorrel puree) and you have a hard time believing this will come out well. Even the finished sauce was uhhhhh ... oh boy. But on salmon? Excellent!

PK

[violetfox]

I rarely use recipes online, and only if I must - a reciped that I can't find in another cookbook, or that's only in a book that I don't want to buy. I am a book person, and I love everything about a good cookbook. I just got my third copy of MAFC and love its heft, typeface, drawings, the whole thing. I buy cookbooks that are appealing in some particular way, and I love pictures. I also tend to buy books that have a recipe that I really want to make on almost any page. Resisting cookbooks is tremendously hard, and very rarely based on cost!

[OliverB]

I think that should I ever win the lottery, I'd hire a database guru and a bunch of typists.

LOL, I'd do the same! I wish that publishers would just make the index of cookbooks available for download in a simple format that allows you to just add it to a database, thus allowing you to search the index of every book you own on your computer. It will probably happen some day. I hope.

[Paul Kierstead]

OMG, no, they will never do that. It is their copyrighted material, and they'll die before they ever give it to you, whether it helps their sales and users or not.

[baroness]

For those of us who are hopelessly in love with the printed page, bookcloseouts.com is currently offering an additional 35% off their cooking titles. Uh oh.