Spot-on:Elements of Cooking
You can read the complete article at Spot-on.
Monday, December 03, 2007
You can read the complete article at Spot-on.
Disclaimer: Most quantities in recipes are approximate. Adjust as needed according to your taste and experience. Unless otherwise specified, eggs are large and butter is unsalted.
Favorite Blogs
- An Obession with Food
- Anne's Food
- Becks & Posh
- Belly Timber
- Brownie Points
- David Lebovitz
- Diary of the Food Whore
- Dispensing Happiness
- Farmgirl Fare
- The Food Section
- I Heart Bacon
- I'm Mad and I Eat
- Kalyn's Kitchen
- Kitchen Parade
- KitchenMage
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- Saute Wednesday
- Simply Recipes
- S'Kat and the Food
- Slashfood
- Stephen Cooks
- The Traveler's Lunchbox
13 Comments:
Kevin, I thought you didn't buy cookbooks. So why should anyone go out and buy this one?
Ed,
What I said was I seldom buy cookbooks, but this isn't a cookbook, it's a reference book and I still buy them (although this one was sent as a review copy). It has faults, but it's not without value. I would even argue it's worth buying just for the 50 pages of essays -- whether you have veal bones available or not.
Ed,
BTW, I love it when you confront me. You do so in such a way that I have to go back and re-examine my statements for inconsistencies, inaccuracies, or thoughtless opinion. And almost always decide I was correct, consistent, or right. Sometimes all three. You give great negative affirmation.
Slut.
~grinning
Boys, boys!
Anyway.
Technically, Ruhlman was wrong if he thought a watermelon "consomme" shouldn't have any coloration. Pinkish water is fine. What it shouldn't have is any particulate matter, any cloudiness.
I mean, the beef consomme from a pot au feu is gloriously goldy-brown. And it's clear. (Which doesn't mean colorless.)
Now I will go over and read the rest of your essay.
CC,
Then I may have misremembered the episode. I thought he objected to the color, but that may not have been the case. Nevertheless, he was still overly fussy in my opinion. Reminds me of Ed.
Kevin, I just finished reading the book last week. I was similarly dismayed at Ruhlman's slant toward French cuisine. I did learn from the book, though, and will likely refer to it as I do Julia's books on occasion too.
Donna,
I'm sure I'll use the book, I do enough writing to welcome yet another reference. And I would have bought the book just because I like reading Ruhlman. But if it weren't for that I wouldn't find it particularly useful given the books I already own.
I don't accuse you of missremembering the segment. And I didn't see it, so I've got nothing.
But *IF* he thinks consommes can't have color, he's wrong.
When you make tomato water, you stop as soon as the red starts dripping into the amber-colored serum. Because it's particulate and will be cloudy.
I don't know if watermelon "water" is colorless or pink. Maybe he objected to the cloudy stuff getting in. And he would be right.
CC,
But does it matter? In England a biscuit is a cookie, not a soft chemically-risen bread.
This post has been removed by the author.
Kevin, it's funny how you so often seem to echo the sentiments of my wife. Were we married in a previous life?
Always happy to affirm you, negatively speaking.
Hi Kevin,
Nice review. My thoughts too. Though when I first hit the veal stock section I threw the book down and gave up. "What is he thinking? As if anyone can get veal bones!" Picked it up again a week later to finish. I like Michael's writing and I learn from him, but I do think he is too heavily slanted to French cuisine and not particularly practical for the home cook. That said I recommended it as well, just because if you really want to take your cooking to another level, this book has some great tips.
Elise,
It'll be a handy volume to have around -- at least it ways less than my Larousse Grastonomique.{g}
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