Random cookbook of the week

TheFuzzy · **Posted:** Tue Feb 01, 2011 12:23 am

Continuing my borrowing from the library. Please use this thread to do little thumbs-up, thumbs-down reviews.

A Taste of Puerto Rico: 2.5 stars out of 5. Surprising limited seafood, given. Many recipes called for exotic ingredients and did not give substitutions. Had a glossary but it was too abbreviated. Terrible index. Didn't have recipes for beans (WTF?). Otherwise recipes I read seemed OK, and the couple I tried (Shrimp a la Criolla, avocado salad) were pretty good. Still, not recommended on balance.

TheFuzzy · **Posted:** Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:36 pm

Fat Witch Brownie Cookbook. 2 stars out of 5. A good source of ideas for the experienced baker. However, recipes contain errors, and several require mastery of difficult techniques (which aren't really explained) and ability to tell when the recipe has omitted things.

We got some good bars out of this cookbook (chocolate/butterscotch, oatmeal/dried cherry). But this was due to Kris's experience as a baker as much as it was due to the cookbook.

Amy · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2011 5:43 am

Well Josh, if you keep posting cookbooks which only deserve a couple of stars, this thread may die from boredom.

Amy

BeckyH · **Joined:** Tue Feb 03, 2009 5:03 pm **Posts:** 1149

I like knowing when it's not worth my time to check something out.

TheFuzzy · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:22 pm

Amy,

What can I say? Haven't checked out anything good lately.

Of course, other people are welcome to tack other (better) cookbooks onto this thread ...

Amy · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:27 pm

BeckyH wrote:

I like knowing when it's not worth my time to check something out.

Agreed.

phoenix · **Posted:** Sun Feb 20, 2011 9:48 pm

So Borders was having a going out of business sale in town (a bit upsetting to me except for the bargains) and I decided, finally, to buy the Bo Friberg professional pastry tome along with "The Craft of Baking." They both look really good. After spending the day reading most of the Friberg book, I have a couple of questions but for now can only remember one (it's quite a serious text): What is mocha paste and where do I get it? More questions to follow. :geek:

TheFuzzy · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:51 am

Phoenix,

We checked out the border's sale. Thing is, here it was only 20% off, which we decided, on balance, wasn't worth dealing with the block-long line.

phoenix · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:37 pm

yeah it's gotten crazy.
Nancy

Amy · **Posted:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:21 pm

phoenix wrote:

So Borders was having a going out of business sale in town (a bit upsetting to me except for the bargains) and I decided, finally, to buy the Bo Friberg professional pastry tome along with "The Craft of Baking." They both look really good. After spending the day reading most of the Friberg book, I have a couple of questions but for now can only remember one (it's quite a serious text): What is mocha paste and where do I get it? More questions to follow. :geek:

Nancy,

I have both of Bo's tomes, although the first is definitely better than the second. We have a well worn version of the first at work. It is geared towards pros, but is accessible for passionate home cooks.

Culinary pastes are simply highly concentrated forms of a flavor. We use them occasionally, e.g., for flavoring ice creams, or when strong flavor is needed without additional liquid.

You can buy them from a number of different sources, but the brand I recommend is Siebin.

Amy

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