Betty Crocker Why It Works: Insider Secrets to Great Food (Betty Crocker Books) [Hardcover]

Betty Crocker Editors (Author), Kevin Ryan (Author)

Book Description

Series: Betty Crocker Books | Publication Date: July 24, 2006

Become a better, more confident and creative cook!



Have you ever discovered a dish you loved, found the recipe and prepared it with great anticipation--only to be disappointed? If so, this cookbook is for you. With the help of food doctor Kevin Ryan, it lets you in on simple cooking secrets and foolproof strategies that will enhance your cooking skills and help you get great results every time.

Inside you'll find 120 sumptuous recipes for breakfasts, snacks and starters, main dish family meals, special dishes for entertaining, tempting sides and great desserts. You can start the day with Cheesy Apple-Bacon Strata, munch on Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce, dine on Linguine with Caramelized Onions and Angry Tomato Sauce and serve Individual Chocolate Lava Cakes with Caramel Sauce for a grand finale. Each recipe has a "Why It Works" explanation about an ingredient or technique used in preparing it, so while you make something delicious, you'll discover something that will help you cook better. Learning never tasted so good!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ever wonder why a brined chicken tastes juicier than a chicken straight from the package, or freshly picked corn tastes sweeter than corn that's further from the farm? This volume is full of answers for the curious cook, providing not only terrific recipes for favorites like Blue Cheese-Stuffed Pork Tenderloin and Down-Home Mashed Potatoes, but also explanations for why the recipes work. Crispy Fish Tacos get their crunch from oil heated to 375 degrees-any hotter and the oil starts to smoke and break down, any cooler and the fish turns mushy. Moist Chocolate-Mint Layer Cake is scrumptious-smooth because the recipe calls for extra egg yolks, which add fat and moisture. And if chopping the onions for French Onion Soup brings tears to your eyes, the book suggests chilling the onions for thirty minutes to slow the sulfurous chemical reaction that irritates eyes. For the most part, recipes are simple and familiar: American classics with a few detours through Mexico and Italy. But they are, for the most part, healthy, easy to follow and tasty, and livened by the "secrets" that go with them.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Inside Flap

How can you get more intensity from herbs and whole spices?

Why is it important to slice some meats against the grain?

What are the best oils for deep-frying—and why?

How does flour work as a thickener?

Why It Works answers these questions and many more. This unique cookbook goes beyond the typical what (ingredients) and how (methods) to explain the why—why certain ingredients or techniques produce consistently superior results. Packed with useful advice from food doctor Kevin Ryan, it demystifies cooking by explaining and illustrating what makes recipes work and how ingredients work together. As you learn the secrets of food science, you'll take your culinary skills to a whole new level.

Why It Works includes 120 delicious recipes, each one featuring a science food fact that gives you surefire information you can apply to other recipes. Throughout the book, you'll find "Why It Works" tutorials as well as "Recipe Rx" prescriptions for success that tell you why something doesn't work—and how to avoid common cooking mishaps. With this cookbook, you won't just learn to make a specific dish—you'll learn science and techniques that will make you a better cook.

Complete with color photos, illustrations and simple, scientific explanations, Why It Works will lead you—and your family and friends—to a lifetime of great food.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Betty Crocker; 1 edition (July 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047175305X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471753056
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #972,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Only the How, but also the Why, September 28, 2006

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Betty Crocker Why It Works: Insider Secrets to Great Food (Betty Crocker Books) (Hardcover)

You expect any cookbook to have a whole bunch of good recipies. And this one does. But it goes far beyond the traditional cookbook in it's descriptions of why this particular ingredient or procedure works in this particular recipie.

For instance, in the discussion on banana bread there is a discussion on how the acid in the banana is supposed to react with the baking soda to create the bubbles that makes the bread rise. But as bananas ripen they lose some of their acidity. Hence the instructions to add some baking powder. Furthermore, as part of the same recipie he talks about how to tese your boxes of baking powder and baking soda to make sure they are still fresh enough to use.

Do far I've only tried a few of the recipies out of this book -- Banana-Chocolate bread, Caramelized Apple-Blue Cheese Spread, Pan-Seared Tilapia. I'm wanting to try his New Orleans Best Gumbo, but in the little town in which I live you can't get okra, even frozen.

At the church pot-luck this coming Sunday I'm going to do his Hearty Polenta with Swiss Cheese. But with this recipie I've got to make one argument. You don't want to use yellow cornmeal, even the stone-ground he recommends. You want to use grits. Yes, they should be yellow and stone ground, not the white paste kind they sell in supermarkets. I use grits from either Bob's Red Mill or the Old Mill of Guilford. One more point, he says cook the cornmeal 10 minutes. That depends on the coarseness of the grinding. Bob's take about 15 minutes. Guilford's take about twenty. And as for the cheese, he says use either Swiss or Gruyere. Use any kind of cheese you like, blue cheese is great, and in the South Velveeta is often used.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book! One of the Best I've Read this Year, July 6, 2006

By 

MC - See all my reviews

This review is from: Betty Crocker Why It Works: Insider Secrets to Great Food (Betty Crocker Books) (Hardcover)

I own a lot of cookbooks, but this book combines food and fun in a whole new way. I've only tried a few recipes but they are great and the "Why it Works" on each recipe are so interesting. Great book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not the best in it's class, June 20, 2008

By 

W. Timm - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Betty Crocker Why It Works: Insider Secrets to Great Food (Betty Crocker Books) (Hardcover)

I've obtained quite a few of these types of books. This is not my favorite, but not because it's bad. It just isn't as good as a lot of the other books that are out there; Harold McGee, Alton Brown, Michael Ruhlman; they have done a much better job of presenting the science of cooking in book form. I was hoping that something put out by Better Homes and Gardens would be great, but, at best, it's just a book for people that cook at home that don't really know anything about cooking. Even the America's Test Kitchen (my favorite PBS show) manages to show us things that every cook needs to know, albeit with a price (if you miss the programs on Saturday afternoons).

If you're an amateur chef wanting to know things like why eggs curdle when they heat up, then this may be the book for you. If you already know what a mis en plas is or how to julienne a carrot, go for one of the other books. McGee may be too technical, but he knows it all.