friederike's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
121 books reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Rating 
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In a Persian Kitchen: Favorite Recipes from the Near East
By Maideh Mazda
Tuttle Publishing - 1989
I've hadn't had the chance to cook anything from this book yet, but I skimmed it today and was very disappointed that it doesn't contain a recipe for Fesenjan - I thought that was one of the essential Persian dishes?
Other than that, it looks like a nice book. It includes several suggestions for typical menus, for summer and winter lunches and dinners, and I enjoy the tone of the narrative.
Soepkalender
By Anya van der Wetering
Uitgeverij Snor - 2011
Just a short note, not a review: As this is a calendar, it doesn't have page numbers. Instead, I'm using the format mmdd as a substitute.
Die echte Jeden-Tag-Küche: Gut kochen und essen Tag für Tag
By Cornelia Schinharl
Graefe Und Unzer Verlag - 2007
Just a note to say that I noticed a while ago that I had added the wrong cookbook - I own Die Echte Jeden-Tag-Küche by Sabine Sälzer, not Die Echte Jeden-Tag-Küche by Cornelia Schinharl. Why anybody would allow such a distinct title to be used by two completely cookbooks, and then even published by the same publisher (!) is a complete mystery to me. In fact, my mother was so inspired by my book that she decided to get it, too - and of course she got the wrong one...
Quiches and Pastries: Le Cordon Bleu : Home Collection
December 27th, 2011Most recipes look like a lot of work, and the results of those I've tested so far weren't necessarily worth it. Not recommended.
Complete Vegetarian
By Nicola Graimes
Lorenz Books - 2006
I'm not really sure about this cookbook. I've tried two recipes so far, Creamy Lemon Puy Lentils, and Vegetable Pilau, both of which were delicious. The only problem is that most of the dishes on the pictures don’t look appetizing, and the recipe titles aren’t very convincing either. It makes me doubt very much why I bought this book in the first place.
Beware; this book has been published several times with different front covers and different titles (eg. Complete Vegetarian, 330 Vegetarian Recipes for Health, Vegetarian: Over 300 Healthy and Wholesome Recipes Chosen From Around the World, The Greatest Ever Vegetarian Cookbook, Around The World), but always the content is always exactly the same.
Update, 25 May 2011:
I cooked another two recipes from this book. Actually, it isn't so bad at all, at least the recipes are reliable and quite nice. Still, the pictures look dated even for the time of publishing and aren't very appealing.
Pure Vegetarian: Modern and Stylish Vegetarian Cooking
By Gayler
National Book Network - 2008
Quite sophisticated cooking and quite a few flavour combinations that I would not have expected; however, most of it too sophisticated to really be of use for daily cooking.
Slow Cooker Cookbook: Over 220 No-fuss Delicious One-pot Recipes for Relaxed Preparation
By Catherine Atkinson
Lorenz Books - 2008
The recipes sound delicious and look absolutely beautiful – but I am experiencing major problems in prerparing them. The problem is that they are written exclusively for electrical slow cookers, and the book features no tempreature conversion tables for using other equipment at all. All you get are instruction such as "Cook on Low for 5-7 hours." This makes the book quite useless for me and my clay pot. At the moment I am trying to figure a system of temperature conversion, and am hoping for a better book for christmas.
100 15-Minute Fuss-Free Recipes: Time-Saving Techniques And Shortcuts To Superb Meals In Minutes, Including Breakfasts, Snacks, Main Course Meat, Fish ... Dishes, Plus Dazzlingly Simple Desserts
By Jenni Fleetwood
Southwater - 2007
For a large part, this book is somewhat of a cheat - about half of it is filled by sections on basic equipment, a 'Breakfast and Brunch' section with recipes for fruit juices, fruit salads and french toast (come on!), an one on 'Light Bites and Appetizers' - it's no magic to prepare those in 15 minutes or less! That leaves me with a smallish section on main dishes (I never consult it for side dishes or desserts, see above), but I must admit that the main dishes do look interesting and that there are few of the usual suspects you would otherwise find in a comparable book.
Ice Cream Handbook
By Vicky Smallwood
D&S Books - 2005
I'm not too wild about this book. In all fairness, I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but it doesn't give any instructions for people don't own an ice cream machine (I can manage without specific instructions, but it just would have been nicer), but I especially dislike that most recipes require 'liquid glucose' without any explanation whatsoever what liquid glucose actually is (my bet is that if you dissolve sugar in a little water you will get, or at least come pretty close to liquid glucose). Add to that the amateurish quality photos...
On the plus side: it contains many interesting, more adventurous recipes. Buffalo Yoghurt Ice Cream with Brown Sugar, anyone? Liquorice Ice Cream? Caramallow Ice Cream, or Plum Pudding Ice Cream?
Edited to add:
It's summer and I looked through the book to see if I can make anything with all that ripe fruit we have at the moment. I was shocked to see that most recipes use canned fruit - canned peaches, canned plums, canned pears, dried and canned apricots - what about fresh fruit? I'm not making my own ice cream to have it contain industrially processed foods!
100 Great Breads
By Paul Hollywood
Cassell Illustrated - 2004
I'm slightly disappointed at this book. The recipes look very interesting and vary from simple, straight-forward breads to more out-of-the-range recipes like Chocolate and Sour Cherry Bread - but what about sour-dough? There's not a single recipe that includes sour-dough, even the 'German-based Cereal Rye' is based on yeast - seriously, it shouldn't. Such a pity.
How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food
By Mark Bittman, Alan Witschonke
Wiley - 2007
I'm going to make myself unpopular: I don't like this book, for the simple reason that more than half of the recipes I prepared (well, 3 out of 5) turned out badly. Sure, the book in itself is very informative, with all the information given on ingredients, techniques, etc., and I applaud the suggested variations - but given the vast amount or recipes and variations I doubt that they have been tested and revised properly.
Ripailles
By Stephane Reynaud
Murdoch Books - 2008
It's a beautiful book with a lot of very witty illustrations about anything French - but unfortunately, to date most recipes have been disappointing.
Kürbis
By Martin Kintrup, Stephanie Wenzel, Klaus-Maria Einwanger, Tanja Bischof, Harry Bischof, Jörn Rynio
Graefe Und Unzer Verlag - 2007
A pity. It's a book published in a series by a well-known German publisher of cookbooks (actually the largest one, if I'm guessing right), it looks nice, it has a nice topic, but the recipes? Nope, not recommended. Can it be so difficult to come up with a few interesting dishes that actually work?
Tapas. A Culinary Journey of Discovery
By Susanna Tee
Parragon - 2007
This book is not identical to the other book called Tapas, written by the same author and published by the same publisher - more than slightly confusing, I know. Other than that, these might have been meant as a complement to one another - different, complementing choice of dishes, same - low - level of recipe reliability. I'm sure there are better books.
Tapas
By Susanna Tee
Parragon Publishing - 2005
This book is not identical to the other book called Tapas. A Culinary Journey of Discovery, written by the same author and published by the same publisher - more than slightly confusing, I know. Other than that, these might have been meant as a complement to one another - different, complementing choice of dishes, same - low - level of recipe reliability. I'm sure there are better books.
River Cottage Everyday
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC - 2009
I might have had bad luck with the recipes I chose, but they definitely weren't a success, and the instructions weren't that good either...
Fresh in Winter (Seasonal Cookbooks)
By Alastair Hendy
Ryland, Peters & Small Ltd - 1999
Quite sophisticated cooking; most of it is too sophisticated to really be of use for daily cooking. What I do like is that most recipes are accompanied by a recommendation how to modify the recipe.
Essentials of Cooking (Cookery)
By James Peterson
Konemann UK Ltd - 2000
Not really a cookbook, more of a book of techniques. It's quite interesting, but I would still rather recommend The Cook's Book or Le Cordon Bleu Complete Cookery Techniques, both of which are excellent.
Grown in Britain Cookbook
By Carolyn Humphries, Donna Air
Dorling Kindersley - 2009
I love the concept of it - it starts with a month-by-month overview about which ingredients are in season, while the main part is arranged by ingredient, including a description, different types, storage, season, perfect pairings, and recipes. Very unfortunate then that two of the four recipes I made so far turned out to be a complete disaster! It looks like they just compiled recipes from different people without testing them properly. What a pity, as the basic concept of this book is really nice.
In a way, this book is comparable to The Middle Eastern Kitchen.
Muffins
March 27th, 2010 (edited 5th May 2011)I bought this book (and actually all books of this series I own) because the recipes looked attractive and innovative, the dishes are beautifully presented and they just looked like a good deal (5 Euro a piece, 128 pages, ca. 70 recipes) - and they won the World Cookbook Award for best series, right?
Turns out the dishes look good, but taste bland and just don't work well, and are usually a lot of work. And there are at least ten series a year that win the World Cookbook Award for best series. Seriously.
I guess I'll continue to try a few recipes, there must be some good ideas in there. If not...
On this book specifically:
Nice little book with many varied recipes and (simple, not cupcake-style) decoration ideas. Unfortunately, the recipes aren't as impressive nor as reliable I had hoped they would be.
101 One-pot Dishes: Tried-and-tested Recipes (Good Food 101)
By B.B.C. "Good Food Magazine"
BBC Books - 2006
These series of BBC cookbooks contain normally good, reliable recipes that have previously been published in the BBC Good Food Magazine (Olive Magazine for some of the other books) and often on the BBC Good Food website, too. What makes them extremely practical is that you can easily put them in your bag (even your handbag!) on a busy day, and then just choose a recipe when you're actually in the supermarket, or perhaps during lunch break, or whenever.
This specific book is quite nice, although most of the recipes I have made until now weren't exactly mind-blowing.
101 Healthy Eats ("Good Food")
By Jane Hornby
BBC Books - 2008
These series of BBC cookbooks contain normally good, reliable recipes that have previously been published in the BBC Good Food Magazine (Olive Magazine for some of the other books) and often on the BBC Good Food website, too. What makes them extremely practical is that you can easily put them in your bag (even your handbag!) on a busy day, and then just choose a recipe when you're actually in the supermarket, or perhaps during lunch break, or whenever.
I have found this specific book to be the less useful one of the four books of the series I own (Olive 101 Quick Fix Dishes, 101 One-pot Dishes, 101 Store-cupboard Suppers and this one), although I believe that I eat quite healthy - possibly for the simple reason that I'll just grab the others quicker.
The Essential Seafood Cookbook
By Wendy Stephen
Thunder Bay Press - 2003
A very nice book with many interesting ideas. However, the photos make it look slightly older that it is, and the dishes so far have been of variable quality. I'm still testing, though, and I'm not having any troubles in finding recipes I would like to make.
Grillen & Picknicks
May 5th, 2011I bought this book (and actually all books of this series I own) because the recipes looked attractive and innovative, the dishes are beautifully presented and they just looked like a good deal (5 Euro a piece, 128 pages, ca. 70 recipes) - and they won the World Cookbook Award for best series, right?
Turns out the dishes look good, but taste bland and just don't work well, and are usually a lot of work. And there are at least ten series a year that win the World Cookbook Award for best series. Seriously.
I guess I'll continue to try a few recipes, there must be some good ideas in there. If not...
Aufläufe & Gratins
May 5th, 2011I bought this book (and actually all books of this series I own) because the recipes looked attractive and innovative, the dishes are beautifully presented and they just looked like a good deal (5 Euro a piece, 128 pages, ca. 70 recipes) - and they won the World Cookbook Award for best series, right?
Turns out the dishes look good, but taste bland and just don't work well, and are usually a lot of work. And there are at least ten series a year that win the World Cookbook Award for best series. Seriously.
I guess I'll continue to try a few recipes, there must be some good ideas in there. If not...
Noshe Djan: Afghan Food and Cookery
By Helen Saberi, Abdullah Breshna
Prospect Books - 2000
The book is intriguiging. It seems to be quite authentic. The dishes appear to be a mix of influenced of Indian and Persian cooking, which sounds quite reasonable if you look at the geographic situation of Afghanistan and the influences it has probably experienced throughout history.
Lamb and chicken features a lot, as does rice and yoghurt. Most dishes are just variations of one another, though I don't find this particularly irritating. There are quite a few pasta dishes which make me wonder if this is were Marco Polo picked up the later Italianized pasta. Simple stews abound with again both Persian as well as Indian influences showing. Some of the dishes I made looked not only simple but even primitive, as if the recipes weren't too far removed yet from simple fire place cooking. But maybe my fantasy is being carried away now.
It has a longish section on Afghan food, cooking etc., though unfortunately it does not have a reasonable glossary - what is chapati flour? I found chapati bread, but no mention of chapati flour anywhere...
I'm not yet quite sure what to make of it in terms of quality of dishes and reliability, though I have noticed that I want to like it. It contains no photos, only few drawings.
Schnelle Gerichte
July 20th, 2011This was one of those cheap books for five Euros I picked up years ago. I made one dish that went horribly wrong, blamed the book, and moved on, burying the book deep down in some boxes. Now, on second sight, it might just not be soo bad after all. It still looks like a cheap book, and the recipes might not be flawless, but so far they were better than I had expected.
Sophie Grigson's Country Kitchen: 120 Seasonal Recipes
By Sophie Grigson
Headline Book Publishing - 2003
I'm not really enthousiastic about this book. Recipes until now have worked but weren't particularly special. I like that the book is sorted by season, but that the titles are set in multi-colored, handwritten-style fonts just kills me. Maybe this would be different if I had kids (haha, ask me in ten years again).
The Wagamama Cookbook (Cookery)
By Hugo Arnold
Kyle Cathie - 2004
I rather like the Wagamama restaurants, at least the one I've been to (there seem to be huge differences internationally, or so I have been told). The more I was surprised to find that the recipes in this book haven't been as convincing at all.
An extra problem is that I had always thought that Wagamama served Fusion cuisine - most of the recipes in this book however call for mainly Japanese ingredients which I can't get as easily as eg. Chinese ingredients. Not really dramatic, just makes it more of an effort.
All in One
By Parragon
Parragon Inc - 2007
One of those cheap 5-euro cookbooks you can pick up at kiosks and the like. Not too bad given the price, but you won't find anything special either.
Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day
By Diana Henry
Ten Speed Press - 2009
Mostly good recipes, though not all of them. Nearly all are, indeed, very simple, in that aspect the book lives up to its promise. As sturlington mentioned, there are a few gems in here, you just need to find them.
World Food Spain (World Food Series)
By Beverly Leblanc
Thunder Bay Press (CA) - 2003
None of the recipes in this book have impressed me yet. The photos of Spanish landmarks are okayish, the food photography hasn't impressed me. Not recommended, there are better books out there!
Spanish Food and Cooking (Food & Drink)
By Pepita Aris
Lorenz Books - 2003
I'm on the fence with this one. The recipes with the better ratings we prepared several years ago, and I'll admit that we probably have become quite spoiled with great dishes and great books in the meantime. It might be an okay cookbook, it might not be brilliant, but in anycase I believe there must be a better book than this one.
Healing Foods (Dk Living)
By Miriam Polunin
Dk Pub (T) - 1997
This book actually consists of two sections: one regarding health issues andd types of food, one containing recipes. The former is quite interesting, but so far the recipes haven't always been convincing.
vegetarian
By alice hart
- 2000
This seems to be a bit of a hit-and-miss book - either the dishes were really nice, or they weren't enjoyable at all. Or I've just had bad luck; a colleague of mine owns this book as well and hasn't had a single failure to date. If only I could bring her to join cookbooker! :)
German Cooking Today: The Original.
By Dr. Oetker
Ceres Verlag - 2003
Very dated, very, very eighties, especially in layout and format. Some of the recipes are timeless and still very enjoyable. If you're looking for German cuisine, I would rather recommend Culinaria Germany; if you're new to cooking and need help, rather turn to Ich helf Dir kochen (actually, both books are good on German cuisine. Recipes in Culinaria books typically tend to be slightly difficult, whereas Ich helf Dir kochen has lots of easy and straightforward recipes. Not sure if this is available in English, though).
Heimwee naar Bella Italia
By Onno Kleyn
Het Spectrum - 2002
A bit of a mixed bunch, the Dover Sole continues to be a great hit whereas other dishes were a disappointment. Does not contain photos.
Schnell - Rezepte mit Tempo
By Sebastian Dickhaut
GU - 2000
Small book aiming at young people and trying really hard to be hip. Unfortunately, the recipes are everything but hip.
Creme Brulee
By Sarah Lewis
Whitecap Books Ltd. - 2010
The information given in this book on how to make a crème brûlée is scarse, which is a pity as there is enough that can go wrong when making a custard. My first dish from this book wasn't really a success. Given that all the crème brûlée recipes in this book seem to be identical apart from the flavourings, I doubt that I will give any other recipe a try.
Indien. Küche und Kultur
By Tanja Dusy, Ronald Schenkel
Graefe Und Unzer Verlag - 2005
It's a very beautiful book, no doubt, and it's one of few Indian cookbooks on the German market that's worth the read. Unfortunately, the recipes so far haven't been that impressive, and that seems to be due to lack of technique and little testing.
Aufläufe, Gratins und Souffles.
By Cornelia Adam
Gräfe und Unzer Verlag - 1991
One of these typical small cookbooks that is part of a publisher's series and may typically fill a whole wall. It's okay; it includes a few adventurous combinations, but all in all, neither the book nor recipes are particularly exciting.
Essentials of Roasting: Recipes and Techniques for Delicious Oven-Cooked Meals (Williams-Sonoma Essentials)
By Chuck Williams, Noel Barnhurst
Oxmoor House - 2004
I can't imagine I haven't reviewed this book yet! As a cookbook, it's a bit of a mixed bag - I liked some of the dishes, and others not. In general, the recipes look sound. If I had the choice to buy this book or another one on roasting, I would now probably buy Molly Stevens' All About Roasting, just because All About Braising is such a brilliant book.
Snowflakes and Schnapps
By Jane Lawson
Murdoch Books - 2010
I haven't cooked from this book yet, so I can't review it properly, but a few things have definitely caught my attention:
1. For most of the recipes, you will need lots and lots of time; for many recipes, you will need a big budget as well. Veal and lamb are all over the place; there are a lot of recipes for game; also truffles and foie gras have been featured.
2. It's a very impersonal book. I don't think the author directs a single word to the reader. Not a word where a recipes comes from or why she chose them. Basically, it's just a more or less random collection of recipes.
3. It's great as a coffee table book - the photos are beautiful!
4. The layout is less great for cooking, especially if you have difficulties reading under less than perfect circumstances - the text is light grey on a white background. Whoever came up with this idea must have forgotten that a cookbook needs to be used.
Edited 26 January 2014:
I've made four recipes since; nearly all of them were quite nice. But it has been very difficult to choose a recipe that is actually doable in both effort and budget.
In set-up, it's very comparable to Roast Figs, Sugar Snow. Both books are very nice, but if I had to choose, I'd choose Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, just because it has so many more useable recipes, it's more personal, and it's a lot easier to read! Unless you are actually looking for something fancy (ie. for Christmas dinner), then Snowflakes and Schnapps might be more what you're looking for - but expect to spend a lot of time in the kitchen!
French Provincial Cooking
By Elizabeth David
Penguin - 1998
DH bought this book in his student years. He prepared a dish or two from it, but he never really used it a lot. Part of the problem was that this book definitely isn't meant for cooking novices - a lot of the recipes contain gaps a skilled cook is expected to fill, but a novice can't. I'm sure the book had a lot of value back then, as there just weren't a lot of cookbooks around, but until now I can't really help thinking that while this book contains a few good recipes, there are probably better ones around.
No Time to Cook
By Donna Hay
Harpercollins Canada - 2009
Some recipes are very nice, others need some tweaking before they really work.
Crazy Water Pickled Lemons: Enchanting Dishes from the Middle East, Mediterranean and North Africa
By Diana Henry
Mitchell Beazley - 2006
Just like Roast Figs, Sugar Snow, this book is sorted in a rather non-traditional way by topic, which makes for an interesting way of discovering the recipes. But unfortunately, just like Pure Simple Cooking: Effortless Meals Every Day, this one is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to recipe reliability. Some recipes were really good, some of them - not so much. Test and practice before you serve it to guests!
The Baby-led Weaning Cookbook: Over 130 delicious recipes for the whole family to enjoy
By Gill Rapley, Tracey Murkett
Vermilion - 2010
I haven't used it a lot yet, but so far it looks both interesting and useful.
One thing I would have hoped for would have been a chapter on 'first foods' - it seems easier to stick to single ingredients for the first few weeks (or at least days), plus I've read somewhere that it's beneficial as the baby will learn to differentiate individual ingredients. But most importantly I find it difficult to find foods I can give him that are soft enough to let him chew them, but not at the same time too slippery to make it hard to grasp them.
Another thing I'm missing is more information on and more guidance regarding the possibility of an iron deficit. Granted, there is a chapter on nutrition in the beginning of the book that states that most breads and cereals in the UK are fortified with iron - but that alone is not enough. For one point, the book is also sold outside of the UK (and as far as I know, breads and cereals aren't fortified in the NL). Even then, fortified breads and cereals count for nothing if your child doesn't eat them (cereals at least are really difficult for a baby on baby-led weaning; I really don't expect a baby of less than nine months to eat a lot of them, definitely not as much as a spoon-fed one). And last, milk inhibits the intake of iron, and yet there are so many recipes that contain milk (even the few recipes with oatmeal) while Vitamin C, which is necessary for the absorption of non-haem iron, is often is not part of the dish.
I might attempt to review every single recipe in this book; forgive me, then, for reviewing even silly recipes like French Toast and the like.
The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen
By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate Ltd - 2007
A beautiful book. Because it takes the form of a journal, it’s not very practical, but then again, it’s not supposed to; it’s rather one of those books you will read on a lazy Sunday afternoon (preferably after you’ve had your lunch), and marvel at the pictures and the sphere it creates.
The Technique of Chinese Cooking
By Qiang Mai
Tang's Publishing Company - 1974
This is a very funny book. Publsihed in the 1970's as a bilingual edition (Chinese and English), it features more recipe than you will usually find in a Chinese cookbook nowadays, although I probably wouldn't prepare some of them for a number of reasons (Shark's Fin as Peacock, Seacucumber with Pork or Stewed Turtle with Chrysanthemum, anyone?). And it's typical for the time it was published in - it's full of monosodiumglutamate (also known as MSG) which, although thought a typical ingredient in Chinese restaurant food, is actually a quite modern addition. But I suppose you could get by with just omitting the MSG, and try one of the easier recipes to begin with...
The Oxford Companion to Food 2nd Ed
By Alan Davidson, Tom Jaine, Jane Davidson, Helen Saberi
Oxford University Press, USA - 2006
Not a cookbook but a food encyclopedia that I referred to in one of my reviews and that I consult once in a while. It usually answers my questions, although not always.