Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed by Shirley O. Corriher Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed
Book Review: Excellent tools for the experimental cook
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent cookbook for the experimental cook. If you open up three or four cookbooks to gauge the similarities between different recipes for the same dish, get a few ideas, and then use them to make up a version of your own, this is the book for you. Have you ever wondered which were important steps in a recipe, and which were OK to change? Have you wondered why you can't get consistent results from some ingredients, and wished you knew exactly what was happening so that you could compensate? Shirley Corriher explains chemically and mechanically what is happening to the ingredients at each point in preparation and cooking and gives you the benefit of hundreds of controlled kitchen experiments that it would take years (and endless patience) to duplicate for yourself. This book provides the tools to launch off into your own creations even in the previously mysterious realms of breads and sauces.
The recipes are good, but more importantly, they illustrate a particular reaction or effect, and give you the tools to customize them for yourself.
Book Review: Open that pie-hole, we're cooking Shirley's recipes tonight!
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, this book gives you the why's and what-for's, but wait till you taste some of these recipes! I just finished the cheddar-crusted chicken breasts with grapes and apple in grand marnier sauce, served over the sherried rice and barley, accompanied by a salad with the basil vinaigrette. It was some of the best food I've tasted outside of France. Really. I tried the eat-your-veggies spaghetti sauce and found the addition of the pureed carrots inspired. But when you taste Shirley's basic, moist, sweet cake with old-fashioned burnt sugar icing, you will transcend mere food tasting and wind up dumbfounded, staring at the stars, wishing your mother had known how to make a cake like this.Book Review: First cookbook I've read from cover to cover!
Summary: 5 Stars
Though we've never met, Shirley is now my best friend in the kitchen. I gave CookWise for Christmas presents. Must-read sections are biscuits, yeast, wheat protein, emulsions, roasting, and brining. And the stories are great, especially the one about the exploding duck!Book Review: Too much of a recipe book for me
Summary: 3 Stars
Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking is one of my favorite books in the kitchen, so when I heard the NPR interview of Shirley O. Corriher, I was deeply excited about her new book. Alas, I didn't find the book nearly as interesting as she was on the radio. I guess it's just too much like a recipe book (of recipes I'm not particularly interested in) for me. Oh well. I'll still look forward to her next book.Book Review: An excellent book for every cook.
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I can nitpick that there are many annoying things about this book (such as poor organization and overly complex recipes), it should be read by every serious cook. It has an abundant source of cooking information which I find more useful than that in Harold Mcgee's book. She also offers many of her favorite recipes which I find less useful, but some are excellent. It is helpful, but not absolutely essential, to have some knowledge of chemistry (e.g. high school chemistry) to appreciate this book. I have been making bread for 25 years and thought that there was nothing new to learn, but was amazed to find that her techniques do result in a superior loaf. However, I do not like the way she measures a cup of flour. Her cup of flour is quite a bit larger than is usual. It is really better and much more accurate to weigh flour with an inexpensive kitchen scale.