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drillvoice's review
2.0
Here is my overall view of this book: it has some great ideas in it, but they are spread through literally hundreds of pages, and the book has a hefty $50 price tag.
In this review I am going to share the great ideas from the book, which will mean you no longer need to read it. I'll start, however, by explaining what's wrong with it.
Soon after I began reading this book, I googled one of the kitchen tools mentioned, and I found a blog post by the author that was virtually identical to the bit I was reading. It became clear that the book, to a remarkable extent, simply collates blog posts that Kenji Alt-Lopez has written over the years. This isn't the end of the world, and it can be handy to have such posts brought together in a physical format.
However, making this work requires effort to impose an overall order and avoid duplication. This effort was not made. For example, there could have been one chapter about cooking chemistry that explores the chemistry of pectin, and then there wouldn't be a need to rehash this. Instead, every chapter talks over pectin again. This makes sense if you are writing blog posts, but not in a book format. It's lazy, and it contributes to the book's unnecessary length.
Other downsides are that the book uses the bizarre imperial measurement system. Obviously it's written for Americans (and this is obvious in other ways too), but it is still a pain point for people using the superior metric system. The book is also quite focused on meat. I'm a vegetarian; a cookbook doesn't need to be exclusively vegetarian to be valuable for me, but this one fell short.
It really would have been better if shorter. There are ridiculous time-wasting sections like a whole thing about how to cook good home-made fries. Who even does that? This recipe is a waste of time and space and it is just showing off.
I was hoping this book would be like 'Salt Fat Acid Heat, which is excellent. But while SFAH offers invaluable general principles for cooking, this book more offers specific rules, like you should boil potatoes at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I think there is an audience for this sort of precision, but I *much* prefer the imprecise but more helpful approach of SFAH.
Here are the good things though:
(1) The first 100 or so pages are about kitchen set-up and cooking tools and are engaging. I subsequently got a good dutch oven and a non-stick pan, very good.
(2) Really good science around better frying. The basic idea is you want things to be dry (not moist) when you fry them, because otherwise the oil's heat goes into boiling the water. For example, you should pat halloumi dry before frying, to get a good cripsy coating more easily.
(2b) This lesson extends to salmon cooking. The bit on cooking salmon was certainly the most useful in the book and has dramatically improved my salmon cookery. It's probably all in a blog post though, so you don't need to buy the book. Most important thing is probably to dry the salmon first.
(3) A good tip on how to hold a knife for kitchen prep: basically, hold it in front of the handle, with your thumb and forefinger almost alongside the blade. This gives you a bit less power, but much more control. I like it.
(4) Great bit on how to cut onions for a fine dice. Hard to explain, probably in a blog post.
Lucky you, I've saved you $50 and hundreds of pages and given you the best bits of the book all in one go. Go and read 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' if you want more.
In this review I am going to share the great ideas from the book, which will mean you no longer need to read it. I'll start, however, by explaining what's wrong with it.
Soon after I began reading this book, I googled one of the kitchen tools mentioned, and I found a blog post by the author that was virtually identical to the bit I was reading. It became clear that the book, to a remarkable extent, simply collates blog posts that Kenji Alt-Lopez has written over the years. This isn't the end of the world, and it can be handy to have such posts brought together in a physical format.
However, making this work requires effort to impose an overall order and avoid duplication. This effort was not made. For example, there could have been one chapter about cooking chemistry that explores the chemistry of pectin, and then there wouldn't be a need to rehash this. Instead, every chapter talks over pectin again. This makes sense if you are writing blog posts, but not in a book format. It's lazy, and it contributes to the book's unnecessary length.
Other downsides are that the book uses the bizarre imperial measurement system. Obviously it's written for Americans (and this is obvious in other ways too), but it is still a pain point for people using the superior metric system. The book is also quite focused on meat. I'm a vegetarian; a cookbook doesn't need to be exclusively vegetarian to be valuable for me, but this one fell short.
It really would have been better if shorter. There are ridiculous time-wasting sections like a whole thing about how to cook good home-made fries. Who even does that? This recipe is a waste of time and space and it is just showing off.
I was hoping this book would be like 'Salt Fat Acid Heat, which is excellent. But while SFAH offers invaluable general principles for cooking, this book more offers specific rules, like you should boil potatoes at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I think there is an audience for this sort of precision, but I *much* prefer the imprecise but more helpful approach of SFAH.
Here are the good things though:
(1) The first 100 or so pages are about kitchen set-up and cooking tools and are engaging. I subsequently got a good dutch oven and a non-stick pan, very good.
(2) Really good science around better frying. The basic idea is you want things to be dry (not moist) when you fry them, because otherwise the oil's heat goes into boiling the water. For example, you should pat halloumi dry before frying, to get a good cripsy coating more easily.
(2b) This lesson extends to salmon cooking. The bit on cooking salmon was certainly the most useful in the book and has dramatically improved my salmon cookery. It's probably all in a blog post though, so you don't need to buy the book. Most important thing is probably to dry the salmon first.
(3) A good tip on how to hold a knife for kitchen prep: basically, hold it in front of the handle, with your thumb and forefinger almost alongside the blade. This gives you a bit less power, but much more control. I like it.
(4) Great bit on how to cut onions for a fine dice. Hard to explain, probably in a blog post.
Lucky you, I've saved you $50 and hundreds of pages and given you the best bits of the book all in one go. Go and read 'Salt Fat Acid Heat' if you want more.
cfinnigan's review
4.0
This book changed how I cook. No, really it did. If you ever wondered about the chemistry of cooking and whether traditional cooking methods had any basis to them this book is for you.
Some caveats veggie lovers are going to be disappointed. While the vegetables recipes are fantastic they are the minority. Most of the book is devoted to meat. While you can abuse vegetables while cooking them meat has always needed some special care which is probably why most of the book is devoted to it.
The downside to the text is the “Wife bad” Boomer humour that is scattered throughout book. It was unfunny the first time and just doesn’t get any better. Stick with the science, please.
Some caveats veggie lovers are going to be disappointed. While the vegetables recipes are fantastic they are the minority. Most of the book is devoted to meat. While you can abuse vegetables while cooking them meat has always needed some special care which is probably why most of the book is devoted to it.
The downside to the text is the “Wife bad” Boomer humour that is scattered throughout book. It was unfunny the first time and just doesn’t get any better. Stick with the science, please.
hagbard_celine's review
4.0
It's about food and precision equipment. God bless Amazon for selling blow torches.
penandpencil's review
4.0
Interesting and informative. I’ve been returning back to this over and over again as I’ve cooked different things, but also like a culinary school 101. Great reference.
zellm's review
3.0
This book gets a mixed review from me - as others have said, the author's attempts at humor kind of make him seem like a jerk. He has a condescending, mocking tone in general. Some of the science is very interesting, I liked that part. The recipes themselves are varying levels of quality- the recipe for french onion soup turned out a solid end product, while the one for potato wedges was a huge fail, even following the recipe to a T. Interesting as a theory book, if you can ignore the narky comments, but questionably useful as a cookbook.
kiranmacarena's review
4.0
The expanded cookbook that every kitchen needs. There's been no complaints and I enjoy the amount of detail on the techniques and the breakdown in terms of science.
Edit: Upon reflecting, there is some language that doesn't need to be in a cookbook. As much as Kenji is accomplished at researching and experimenting, he falters at pulling joke with his wife as an expense. If those were omitted, it would come across as a more cohesive book. I understand the need for a cookbook to be candid but there's better ways to do so. A mark on a great book.
Edit: Upon reflecting, there is some language that doesn't need to be in a cookbook. As much as Kenji is accomplished at researching and experimenting, he falters at pulling joke with his wife as an expense. If those were omitted, it would come across as a more cohesive book. I understand the need for a cookbook to be candid but there's better ways to do so. A mark on a great book.
shaunireads1's review
3.0
This book has lots of good cooking advice, but I found the author’s misogynistic jokes about his wife and mother to be so cringy that I can’t justify giving the book more than three stars.