The Ducks Guts' Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
14 books reviewed. Showing 1 to 14Sort by: Rating | Title
Canapes
By Eric Treuille, Victoria Blashford-Snell
Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd - 1999
Fabulous book. It has very good recipes (only one that guests didn't like) and most importantly evey recipe has a note on how to prepare it ahead for parties. With care, you can choose recipes that only need at the most minor assembling on the day, having been prepared the day or week before. There is a list of them at the back under "Do Nothing On the Day" (such a life-saver). Fantastic for beginners at entertaining.
Australian Seafood Users Manual
By Yearsley,Onley, Brown and others
Department of Primary Industries, Queensland - 2000
Excellent book for Australians who have a fisherperson in the family. Identifies the fish, and more importantly, the best ways of cooking and the most suitable types of wine. This is a industry book, so you also get the resturant type of information such as recovery rates, habitat, flavour, oiliness, moisture, texture, flesh colour, bones, price etc
Chinese Cooking: Cantonese (International Gourment)
By Margaret Leeming
Ward Lock Ltd - 1993
LOVE this book. It is wonderful for beginners with simple recipes that work, with only 1 dud. It's not glamourous, just a plain little book with only a few pictures, but it is a good primer you can spill soy sauce on and not worry.
Summer Cooking
By Elizabeth David, Adrian Daintrey
Penguin Books Ltd - 1969
Part of a boxed set
Banc
By Liam Tomlin, Stan Sarris, Rodney Adler, Adrian Lander, Charlie Trotter
New Holland Publishers - 2000
Hard to review as it is a good book, and interesting, but expensive and the only recipe I have made from the book was nothing special for the hours of work that went into it. It was good, but not amazingly so.
Worth thinking about, but NOT without seeing a copy of it first.
Small Food: Snack-sized Bites to Share with Friends (Cookery)
By *
Murdoch Books - 2002
Like all the Murdoch Books that are produced by a team, make sure that once you buy it, you don't accidently buy it again, thinking it is a different book. I have seen these books twice now, with different covers since I bought my copy.
Chinese Vegetable and Vegetarian Cooking
By Kenneth Lo
Faber & Faber - 1995
Not sure if it is because this book is vegetarian, Cantonese or just too anglicized, but I don't find the recipes very appetising. It was first published in 1974 and in this 1995 version the recipes are still mostly English vegetables and sherry is used instead of rice wine. Very very bland.
On the plus side, it does contain a good description of all the different methods of Chinese cooking, some of which are not described in other cookbooks. There is a ghost of a teaching book in this little paperback.
One Hundred Famous Chinese Foods (Eng-Chin Ed.)
By
Chongqing Publishing House,China - 1999
Difficult to review other then a curiosity. The only recipe I tried, nobody particularily liked, and the recipe with "cat or leopard meat" is frankly upsetting to a pet owner. Also, the servings seem to vary from family sized to recipes that could feed a small brigade, with no explanation why. One recipe started with 50 kg of donkey meat, but others are just a kilogram of flour plus a few extras.
Still, it is an interesting book, with a description of each dish and its history.
New Style Sichuan Cuisine
By Huigi Cao
Beijing Industry University Publishing House - 2003
Book 2 of the series Chinese Cuisine New Sichuan Flavourous Dishes. Missing Book 1.
Dishes of Sichuan Characteristic
By Huigi Cao
Beijing Industry University Publishing House - 2003
Book 3 of the series with ISBN 7563908980.
Chinese Soups
By Huang Chunsheng
Guangdong Economic Press - 2004
Book 1 of the series with ISBN 7806778322. Not sure of the real title of the book,as the Google translation is a bit odd.
Nourishing Soups
By Huang Chunsheng
Guangdong Economic Press - 2004
Book 3 of the series with ISBN 7806778322.
Warming Soups Against Colds
By Huang Chunsheng
Guangdong Economic Press - 2004
Book 4 of the series with ISBN 7806778322.
Summer Soups
By Huang Chunsheng
Guangdong Economic Press - 2004
Book 2 of the series with ISBN 7806778322. Book has a blue soup pot.