Customer Reviews

Best of the Best from the Mid-Atlantic Cookbook: Selected Recipes from the Favorite Cookbooks of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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I live in this part of the country, and I absolutely loved this compilation of recipes. The Mid-Atlantic is a varied region, but the authors have included recipes from cookbooks that cover many of the area's specialties. As always with this series, I have yet to find a recipe that does not come out well. I have made several of the cakes and they were all superb (esp. the One-Step Poundcake). There are also several very good crabcake recipes and one of the best Eggplant Parmesan recipes I've ever tried.

The seafood recipes in this book are a particular strength, which is appropriate for this region. In addition to the crabcakes, I would recommend the Maryland Oyster Bake and the crab salad stuffed tomatoes (wonderful on a hot summer day).

If you want a taste of real Mid-Atlantic cooking, please give this book a try. You won't be disappointed!

This wonderfully diverse cookbook takes you throughout the region as described but also offers a little history and flavors from the four seasons and around the world. Both sophisticated and down home. Seventy-nine contributing cookbooks are listed alphabetically by name and includes address, phone number, cost and brief description for each as well as an order form for the Best of the Best State Cookbook series. Some of the recipes include Annapolis Harbor Boil, Atlantic Coast Fish Chowder, Beach Club Salad, Breads, Chaschuechli, Delaware Succotash, Energy Bars, Freiburger Kasefondue Moitie-Moitie, Ginger Crinkles, Hungarian Chocolate Cake, Italian Tofu with Mushrooms and Peppers, Judy's Famous Orange Kugel, Kaiserschmarren, Liptauer Cheese, Maryland Crab Cakes, Sara's Scrumptious Chocolate Pecan Pie, Oysters Maryland, Pasta:Chicken Pecan Fettuccine, Quahog Chowdah, Ratatouille, Sauerbraten and Potato Dumplings,Tilapia Veracruz, Tofu Eggless Salad, Union Street Spinach Balls, Veau Guillaume Tell, Wicomico Pan Fried Oysters and Zuchini Pie. For the adventurous cook.

I have enjoyed all of the Best of the Best Cookbooks. Although I enjoy choosing recipes myself to try from individual spiral bound cookbooks, this series has chosen a good variety of selections for each regional cuisine. This particular book is valuable because many of the books the recipes were selected from are now quite rare and difficult to obtain, so the original recipes are now gone, for all practical purposes. For instance, "La Cucina Casalinga" does not come up on a search on this site, or even a Google search at the time of this writing. Another book she drew from, "Come Dine with Us," is selling for over $30 here on Amazon. For an excellent overview of the region, and recipes that cook up very well -- the Maryland Pork Chops were a big hit at dinner for my family -- this book is well worth purchasing.

Being from Delaware, thought this would be good to have and remind me of back home. Not. It is rather simplistic and boring. Would not recommend it and don't feel it represents the delicious and varied cuisine that I remember.