Blog Post 2: Cookbook Evaluations

First, I had no idea how many different cookbooks there were. Cookbooks are far more popular than I thought. With that said, I looked at many of the cookbooks there and chose my favorites to talk about. The Deen Bros.: Take it Easy by Jamie and Bobby Deen was a good cookbook. The recipes in it were simple and seemed easy enough for me to handle. The food in it was mostly americanized recipies. There was also a "kids" section with snack foods that are quick to make. Even though it was categorized for kids, I know that I would enjoy cooking such snakes in my dorm room. And the had plenty of pictures. Having pictures is a big help for me so I can evaluate my work when I'm finished. This book is more for the casual cook. Cooking recipes for a nice family dinner. But the kid section of the book lets the reader learn quick and simple recipies for simple yet tasty snacks.

The Deen family seems to be full of chefs. I saw many books from Paula Deen, who I assume to be the Deen Bros. mother. I had no idea how popular a single person could get just by writing a series of cookbooks. Paula had a countless number of cookbooks scattered throughout both bookshelves at the store.

The second book I liked was all about making candy. I love candy! Making sweets sounds like a lot of fun! The book was titled Field Guide to Candy by Anita Chu. The book had everything from chocolate to hard candy. The recipes on some candies seemed like a bit of work. Making candy can be pretty messy. And some recipes you must have perfect timing or the cand won't come out right. There weren't as many pictures in this book, but the recipies and directions seemed simple enough for me to handle. Since candy can get pretty messy, I don't see me cooking this in my dorm any time soon. The candies are organized into categories including chocolates and chewable candies. This cookbook is for any person that loves cooking and loves eating candy. The problem for me is that I love EATING the candy more than cooking it.

Sources:
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COOKBOOKS

So I made my way over to the Barnes & Nobles and found this collection of cookbooks.

I was definitely craving sweets that day so staring at the top shelf was whirling me into a candyland I couldn't get to. So, yeah... that was a bummer. I thought the shelf right below was funny. It was just such a drastic change. Delightful&sweet to MEAT and STEW.

And there were books where people had already made a name for themselves in the culinary world so they were using their famous name to attract people to buy their cookbook. They didn't put up a picture of a delicious dish on the cover of their books; rather, their favorite picture of themselves.

The first book I decided to analyze was Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove Cookbook. I think its intended audience is anyone who loves to bake homestyle delights or anyone who wants to bake like a grandma. The cover reminded me of Hansel and Gretel.

This quote,“I believe that food is central to the important relationships in our lives, and a good dinner sustains us in more than the obvious ways. Preparing and serving a meal is probably the ultimate expression of hospitality and friendship, comfor and love”, tells me this cookbook is for someone who’s looking to make people content and happy with food. Its welcoming, cute, and warmhearted colors and pictures that make you feel like you’re right at home contributes to its central theme of openness and bringing people together around the dinner table with food. It presents a theme of famiy-style, traditional cooking very well while giving you a cottage, 'back to the country' comfort feel.

The Cookbook is very well organized. Its broken up into 9 sections: Breakfast, Lunch, Tea, Appetizers, Dinner, Dessert, Easter, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and these are color coded as well. It's easy to flip through and its organization makes it great for giving ideas as to what to cook for a certain meal. The visual component of the book is very warm and inviting. This book really makes me wish I had one of those grandmas who baked! Haha. The pictures are large, the pages are colorful, and she even inserts small little cursive notes about confessio’n, tips, or just amusing little notes i.e. “ I’m here to tell you real men do eat quiche. Just ask Ben.

The next book was Great Fast Food.

This book definitely had a different feel from the previous one. It seems like it’s more for a working parent who wants to cook and make home made meals and avoid the freezer dinner but needs to be able to make the meals in a short amount of time. Or maybe just for anyone who wants an easy, quick cook. It's all about Convenience.It also gave me a very “down to business” feel.

I mean, look at its contents pictures.Theme: Fast cooking, getting the meal done. Being efficient. Its organiaztion isn't as nice as the one prior. Its contents are divided into seasons: Spring, summer, Fall, and winter. I find this to be sort of an odd way to organize the dishes because for example, how was I suppose to be so certain to find the recipe for Baked Ravioli under Winter. But the overall organization of the book is very neat. It’s actually a bit bland but it makes sense because someone who wants a fast recipe would want a book that gets straight to point and lacks any nugatory décor around the page. The visual component of the book is very basic and consistent. Even the items in the pictures are consistently arranged in the same way.

-Zulaikha

CookBook Evaluations!! Whoooo!!

I'm a big of fan of Rachael Ray, so I decided to compare one of her best selling books, "Classic 30-Minute Meals: The All Occasion Cookbook," to Paula Deen's cookbook, "Paula Deen's Kitchen Wisdom."

In Rachael Ray's cookbook, she includes a variety of simple, yet delicious recipes that a person can whip up in a matter of the 30 minutes. I think the 30 minute time frame is for more experienced cookers who know their way around the kitchen. For a newbie in the kitchen, Rachael Ray is a great way to start but it'll definitely take longer than 30 minutes. Also, a person needs to know which recipe they plan on using at least one day ahead of time because some meals need extra preparation; that's why the meals only take 30 minutes! The intended audience is more for the on-the-go cooker. It's great for a single person living on their own or even for a family without a stay at home to cook all day long. The meals are great because there are about 150 varieties to choose from and they're really simple. They're for the more than average cook and the not-so-average cook. The visual component of the cookbook is well thought out. There's a balanced mixture of words and pictures. What's nice about the pictures is that they come in different sizes so it goes well with the text and they layout isn't completely the same from page to page. The cookbook establishes its authority because Rachael Ray is well known because of her many TV shows such as 30-Minute Meals and The Rachael Ray Show as well as several others. She's a celebrity where her reputation definitely precedes her.

In Paula Deen's book, the recipes are written in a more southern dialect and can be difficult to understand at times. Deen also takes the cookbook to another level by not only including family recipes, but also some old family stories. She gets personal with her audience as she shares with them a meal and a little bit about her past. While some audience members like that kind of personable level that Deen offers, others, like me, do not. It distracts from the book's true intent, which is to convey recipes! I also didn't think it was organized effectively because the cookbook also serves like a personal journal for a person to keep. The journal aspect of it would distract from the food recipes. Visually, there could definitely be a lot more pictures. Pictures are useful in cookbooks because that's what helps people decide what to make and helps them in knowing what the food should turn out looking like.

Overall, I think Rachael Ray had the better cookbook. I felt like it had more quality to it and it still provided that certain ease and comfort level with food.

Cookbook Evaluations

Cookbook #2:

This cookbook is bound to please anyone. There is no way you couldn't possibly find something you like. Cookies! The Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes compilation has a lot of recipes for all sorts of cookies. And they all look scrumptious!

The foreword of the cookbook discusses where the recipes came from. Most or from the Good Housekeeping archives, but some are from family recipes from staff and readers. Others were created in the test kitchens. But no matter where the recipe came from, it was triple tested. That makes me feel good about the recipe I'm about to attempt. If that same recipe came out well three times then it must be good. The book is written so that first time cookie bakers or experts will be able to follow along and create the delicious cookies. The inside also boasts that the GOod Housekeeping seal on the front cover "guarantees that the recipes in this cookbook meet the strict standard of the Good Housekeeping Institute, a source of reliable information...since 1900. " Dang. That's a lot of cookies.

The cookbook is very colorful. Each different section has it's own color, which is what all the titles of the recipes are in. I think that makes it easy to distinguish what type of cookie you are trying to make. The pictures are wonderful. I mean who doesn't want to stare at mouth-watering cookies?

The recipes themselves are a little wordier than the first cookbook I looked at, but it doesn't detract from the easiness of the recipe. ALL of the recipes have a little blurb at the beginning telling a hint or history or the recipe. I like that. Adds a little character. Oh something else I love is that at the bottom of the recipe there is nutritional value for each cookie. It gives the specs for one cookie. Which is nice. You know exactly how much fat you applying directly to your thighs. Who doesn't love that?

Something else that is nice is that each recipe has it's own pages (or two pages). There are never two recipes on the same page. That makes this cookbook easier to read and easier to find things in. The font looks like Times New Roman or something equally as boring but it's not hard to read so I guess that makes up for it. The colorfulness of the cookbook though should have a fitting font.

The organization is very well-planned and I have no complaints here. The theme is fitting all the way through. Overall this cookbook is very good and I would love to try some of the recipes that caught my eye. Coconut Cookies here I come!

Good 'Ole Southern Cookin'!

Well, as many of you would guess, I chose cookbooks that focused on southern recipes. Why? Because I love southern food, a byproduct of being raised in the south.

The first cookbook I chose is the Southern Cook Book, by Marion Brown. This book is great for all those that love their southern food, but is also quite handy for those looking to try the wonderful miracle of southern home cookin.

Mrs. Brown starts of the book with a preface that gives a record of how she obtained her many recipes. She used the North Carolina Chambers of Commerce to ask other states and the people of North Carolina, to send recipes for this book. Mrs. Brown recieved thousands of recipes, giving her a wide variety of good wholesome food to choose from. Also, Mrs. Brown lists where each individual recipe came from in the book.

As you continue into this book, you begin to realize that you are looking a meal. The appetizers and drinks are up front, followed by the light foods, then moving on to the meats and veggies. After that it's into the desserts, and finally, an after meal snack. Perfect!

The set up of the book gives the "chef" the ability to go to the different areas to access what he/she needs for the given moment of the meal.

Sadly, being an e-book, there aren't any wonderful pictures of the food to look at. However, the set up of each page allowed for someone to print out a recipe and gave enough room to make notes while cooking.

The next book I browsed is Southern Practical and Receipt Book. This book is great for those looking for a wide variety of southern food.

The book jumps around on it's recipes, but the recipes jump around in groups, meats with meats, sugars with sugars, etc. This set up is bad for those just trying to look at something, that is unless you use it VERY often.

At the end of the book there is a bibliography, which gives reference to where the recipes come from.

This is another e-book, and again with no pictures, but the text isn't quite as spread apart and there are multiple recipes on a single page, so it isn't quite as easy to put notes down while cooking.

Cookbook Review

The two cookbooks I chose to review are two cookbooks in which I have used often over the past several years and represent just about every culinary experience in which I operated on my own. The first cookbook is in fact, my very own first cookbook I received when I was 11 or 12, and is William-Sonoma’s The Kid’s First Cookbook. The cookbook, as the name implies is directed towards children and starts out with basic instruction for measurements and conversions, safety, and basic food preparation tips. The book lays out step by step instructions with informative pictures to help depict the proper procedure and what the finished product should look like. The book has a wide variety in difficulty level, ranging from fruit smoothies to tortellini and baked pork chops, and also encompasses all food groups from breakfast to dessert.
The next cookbook is my all time favorite cookbook and is the by the far the one I’ve used the most over the years, Chocolate Treats. Chocolate Treats is written for the obsessive sweet tooth, like me, who loves anything containing chocolate. The cookbook contains a wide variety of chocolate containing desserts, most of which geared toward the more advanced dessert cook, or at least someone with a lot of time on their hands. The cookbook starts out with a basic description of the different types of chocolate and the proper steps to different kinds of chocolate preparation. Like the kids cookbook, this one contains a picture of the finished product along with picture or two of some of the instep processes. In all, I was impressed with the layout and organization of both books. In both books the recipes are easy to follow and the common mistakes and more complicated preparations for that recipe, are either explained and shown in a picture within the recipe itself or referenced a section in the front of the book where that process is explained

Evaluation for Cookbooks

For some reason, I felt like checking out our Foodies blog today. While I was looking through the posts, I noticed that there were many new posts.

“No!!! I have an assignment that is due tomorrow?”

Apparently, there was an assignment that I did not know about. The fact that I have to use cook books to do the assignment. Anxiously I searched library website to see if they had any cook books.

“Thank God! They do have cookbooks!"

1. The Cooking of Japan by Rafael Steinberg

I am fond of Japanese food: sushi, udon, donkatsu and etc. For this reason, as I was looking at the bookshelf full of cook books, Cooking of Japan allured me to pick it off the bookshelf. The author of the book has a Japanese wife who kindles his love towards the Japanese cuisine. The intended audiences are westerners who are not accustom to Japanese cuisine. With tone of a close friend and good advisor, he tries to explain Japanese cuisine to the westerners who are not familiar with it. I thought the author could sympathize with the readers very well since he once was a westerner who knew nothing about Japanese food culture.

The main purpose of this book is to have westerners understand and learn about the Japanese cuisine. The author did a good job explaining Japanese cuisine without straying away from the main purpose. Some of the Japanese food culture the author covers in the book was boring but the pictures that the author provided were interesting enough to offset the dullness.

2. Outdoor Cooking by the editors of Time – Life Books

What distinguishes this cookbook from the rest of the ten cookbooks that I looked at is that this one provides a picture for each of the steps of recipes. As I was reading, I thought this was the cookbook which will work the best for the unskilled cooks. If I had to cook something, I would like to use ones that have pictures of steps of recipes because, sometimes, just looking at the text does no help.

Before starting with anything, the author explains the very basics of outdoor cooking such as how to use outdoor cooking equipments and handling fuel and fire. He explaining such basics of outdoor cooking makes me to believe the intended audiences are ones who never have experience the outdoor cooking and have no knowledge of it. The author divided the chapters into vegetables, meats, poultry, and fish. I thought this way of organizing was very well thought out by the author and it sure do help the readers to find what they want.