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founddrama 's review for:
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking
by Samin Nosrat
DID NOT FINISH
⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑ for the first part
⭑⭑⭑⭒⭒ for what I managed to read of the second part
The first part is absolutely brilliant, describing the essential elements of cooking and flavor in simple, easy-to-understand terms. Which is to say: the language is elegant and accessible to anyone. HOWEVER (!?!?) it's also extremely dense -- as in: tightly packed. Every sentence is conveying something new and critical to your understanding of the subject. I'll be re-visiting this book (perhaps purchasing a copy?) so that I can re-read those specific passages in a more on-demand fashion and then apply the lessons in-context to help better understand them.
The second part is good in that it's taking the more abstract lessons from part one, and applying them as elements of a concrete recipe. Which is cool! because it's like "remember that stuff about how you might combine acid and salt in these ways? well watch this!" -- unfortunately (!?!?) these parts also read a bit like those notorious recipe blogs out there with their sentimental preambles.
And so with that, let me be the last person in line to recommend this book to you (yes! you!)
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See also: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/the-why-of-cooking-samin-nosrat/523923/
⭑⭑⭑⭒⭒ for what I managed to read of the second part
The first part is absolutely brilliant, describing the essential elements of cooking and flavor in simple, easy-to-understand terms. Which is to say: the language is elegant and accessible to anyone. HOWEVER (!?!?) it's also extremely dense -- as in: tightly packed. Every sentence is conveying something new and critical to your understanding of the subject. I'll be re-visiting this book (perhaps purchasing a copy?) so that I can re-read those specific passages in a more on-demand fashion and then apply the lessons in-context to help better understand them.
The second part is good in that it's taking the more abstract lessons from part one, and applying them as elements of a concrete recipe. Which is cool! because it's like "remember that stuff about how you might combine acid and salt in these ways? well watch this!" -- unfortunately (!?!?) these parts also read a bit like those notorious recipe blogs out there with their sentimental preambles.
And so with that, let me be the last person in line to recommend this book to you (yes! you!)
---
See also: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/04/the-why-of-cooking-samin-nosrat/523923/