Customer Reviews

25 Essentials: Techniques for Grilling

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up this book because we recently bought a grill and I have been a bit intimidated by the lengthier grilling cookbooks that make grilling look complicated. This one is geared towards inexperienced cooks, who want to know the basics in very simple terms. I especially like the recipe headnotes that suggest other ingredients that can be substituted for the featured ingredient in the recipe (ex. Flash-Grilled Chicken Breasts with Orange-Maple Syrup Sauce...this technique can be used with any thin, boneless piece of veal, pork, beef, or lamb). If you consider the suggested recipe variations in the headnotes, this book becomes much more than a book of 25 recipes. The Table of Contents even lists the grilling technique next to each recipe listed: "grilling burgers", "grilling boneless chicken", "grilling fish fillets". Easy! The marinades, sauces, and chutneys within the recipes can be used for other purposes and the book suggests other serving ideas. Great book for the beginner to feel confident firing up the grill for the first time and then becoming more adventurous. I'm tempted to dive right into grilling directly on coals but will probably start with something more tame.

25 Essentials is a lovely little book, with lovely balance of text and white space on each page. It is nicely bound in a lay-flat spiral design; it has slick paper, stylish illustrations, but it is a little lacking on amount of actual information included in the book. If you want an overview of techniques, without a lot of expertise required, then this is the book for you. If you want a good basic book on grilling with lots of info, then I would look elsewhere.