Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Recently I was cataloging my cookbook collection and the process was making me think about all the different books and why I had them. I decided to randomly work my way through some of them, cooking and reading, mostly out of curiosity about why I originally purchased them and what I thought about them now.



The first book I grabbed, Cookwise by Shirley Corriher, was chosen because although I remembered that I have used it for reference, I couldn't actually remember that I had cooked much from the book. So I started reading and cooking. Well, actually in this volume there was more reading and less cooking because it is basically about the techniques and materials of cooking and the recipes are designed and arranged to illustrate the points. This is good from the perspective of learning, but not necessarily so good when you just pick up the book looking for something to cook for dinner.



Cookwise was a very interesting book to read and it contains a lot of valuable information. As I mentioned, I have used if for reference, and I will refer to it again and again as it has some tables and charts that are either not available or not as clearly presented in my other cookbooks. It has a very thorough discussion of baking, which doesn't directly affect me any more as it is based on wheat, a grain I can no longer use. I don't do much baking anymore anyway. But there is still good information here that I can apply to good gluten-free baking because success requires understanding the underlying principles and knowing what one is trying to emulate.



As for the recipes; I find these less successful. There are really only two recipes I have tried in this book that I will make again. One is for my favorite sour-cream cornbread, a recipe that I easily adapted to hold up better as a gluten free bread, and one which my guests adore. It is not dry minimalist cornbread. I will save the book forever just for the reference materials and because it contains this cornbread recipe. The other recipe is for a cake by Rose Levy Beranbaum and I actually bake it from Ms. Beranbaum's original version.



Notice that the two recipes I use are for baked goods. There are other recipes in this book but I find they all emphasize sugar and starch too much as a substitute for fat. Now I enjoy me a good dessert now and then, but everything that I have tried is too sweet for my taste. And I am not convinced that adding more sugar and starch to food to make up for fat and flavor is all that healthy of a choice either. I certainly find it less satisfying.



In the end I find Cookwise excellent as a reference work and only so-so as a cookbook.