Customer Reviews

Canal House Cooking Volume No. 2: Fall & Holiday

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When last we left Christopher Hirsheimer and Melissa Hamilton, they had triumphantly self-published Canal House Cooking Volume No. 1 --- and we had adopted it as our never-fail summer cookbook. Now our tans have faded, the leaves have fallen and they're back with Canal House Cooking Volume No. 2, the second of their three-times-yearly seasonal cookbooks.

I could not be more surprised.

For those just tuning in, the Hirsheimer/Hamilton collaboration is a classic, on the order of Lennon/McCartney --- they're completely complementary talents. Hirsheimer's photographs are food porn of the highest order; on the side of her photography career, she was executive editor of Saveur and co-authored four cookbooks. Hamilton co-founded our favorite restaurant in Lambertville, New Jersey, and worked with Martha Stewart and Cook's Illustrated. In 2007, they acquired a red brick studio overlooking a canal in Lambertville --- just across the river from the artist-and-tourist colony of New Hope, Pennsylvania --- and became missionaries for a special brand of cookbook: "home cooking, by home cooks for home cooks."

In No. 1, the ingredients are few and the recipes are simple. With reason: They're working largely with vegetables in season. The surprise of No. 2 is that it's a seasonal book, and the season is filled with holidays --- Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's. And that calls for them to trade jeans for party frocks and get a little...fancy.

The good news: They have not forgotten their mantra. There may be more ingredients, there may be more steps in the preparation, but the results are out of all proportion to the effort. And there are plenty of entry-level recipes that are pure home cooking: turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato pie. Boeuf bourguignon becomes boeuf aux carottes, with vegetables strained at the end to make the sauce "smooth and silky" --- this will be in heavy demand chez nous very soon. And I see the family baker smearing the recipe for Chocolate Gingerbread with butter in the near future.

I don't need to say that the photographs will make you want to start cooking. Or that the writing is as warm and welcome as a just-made cheese puff. Or that No. 2 is the second reason these women are --- despite their make-do equipment in their off-the-beaten-track kitchen --- the hottest news in the cookbook trade.

Canal House Cooking is like having a best friend who is a fabulous cook and shares her recipes with you!
The recipe using duck eggs was the first I have ever seen anything about using them, and we have plenty every spring.
My only critism is that I would have liked the book to lay flat when opened for ease of use when cooking.

I wasn't sure what to expect, as I have never seen Canal House Cooking before. However, I was very pleased to find detailed recipes for a wide variety of foods as well as menus for both Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts. The recipes do not require lots of trips to tiny specialty markets - they rely on staples that are reliably found in most full sized grocery stores (or your garden!). Some recipes have pictures...but I do wish every recipe had a photograph. All in all it was a great find and I am pleased with the down-to-earth nature of this cookbook.

This was my first Canal House book and I was very pleased with the recipes featured. It's a very warm book and I appreciated the way it was bound, which makes it easier to travel with. Great book, looking forward to all future volumes!!