Customer Reviews

Charleston Receipts Repeats

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

 

 

Charlseton Receipts Repeats by The Junior League of Charleston

My four stars reflects the fact that this book is an intersection of different genres, appealing to cooks with different worlds of interest.

The first, and most obvious interest is the wish to cook like they do in Charleston homes, with a book similar to all other books which began as fund-raisers for an organization. At this task, as the book's publishing success and award attests, this book is a champ, deserving more than five stars, if Amazon would allow it. The first virtue is its breadth. It covers everything from soup to nuts, with chapters dedicated to Cheese, Eggs, Rice, Ice Creams, Preserves, and Condiments among the 26 chapters with all the usual topics such as appetizers, soups, meat, vegetables, and desserts. A fine detail is the separate section for Salad Dressings, after Salads. Virtually the only way one could improve on this aspect is to add tabs for each of these chapters, so they would be easier to find. Within these chapters are recipes which vary from the very simple, such as a crab dip, to the most complicated, such as the Lavington Plantation Venison Pate. This is not a book for the 30 Minute Meal crowd. The second virtue is that every recipe begins with four or five facts which define the time and skill level required to prepare the dish, and how many the dish will serve. These answer the question of whether the recipe is easy or complicated, whether it can be prepared ahead or not, how long and at what temperature does the dish bake (or chill), and how many people does it serve. The third virtue is that it is a fine mirror to reflect cooking in Charleston, South Carolina. This means it will include many recipes which may look out of place in a 'southern' cookbook such as Beef Stroganoff, Caviar Pie, Charlotte Russe, and Veal Scallopine (Charleston).

Some of these virtues add to its attraction as a general cookbook. Others are a superb index, where many recipes appear under multiple headings. The most important is that the recipes are, for those who are neither weight nor cholesterol challanged, very, very good. Appropriate to the season, I made the egg nog recipe and found it as good or better than Alton Brown's Good Eats recipe. I tried the crab casserole, and found it superior to a James Beard recipe in his classic book on American cooking.

Contrary to another reviewer, this is NOT a book which belongs in every kitchen. It is not a 'Joy of Cooking' with a Charleston twist. The first thing I noticed about the recipes is the repetition of the same theme over and over again. As in the excellent Sallie Ann Robinson book 'Gullah Home Cooking, the Dafuskie Way', we find many recipes which are simple variations on a few basic recipes such as mayonnaise, onions, celery, seafood,sugar, molasses, butter, cheddar cheese, pimento, and the 'cookie spices'. This is something which a mainline cookbook author may handle by making one master recipe, with variations. But, as this book is a collection from hundreds of individual contributors, that approach is not possible.

The recipes taste good because they are 'rich' in fat, processed sugar and processed flour. This is true of many 'southern' cookbooks; however books by professoinal cookbook authors such as Edna Lewis, James Villas, and the Lee brothers will tend to moderate the richer ingredients and offer a wider variety of tastes and techniques. The book also does not contain many recipes which are common in faraway places like North Carolina, such as Pork Barbecue, Brunswick Stew, and Pimento Cheese dip / spread. This is not to say the book is devoid of new ideas. If you have some recipe of which you are especially fond, such as baked leg of lamb, this book will offer suggestions you will not find in a Greek cookbook, such as basting the roasting lamb with a mixture of cream, coffee, and red wine. This is done on top of the typical garlic injections and dredging in salt and pepper. Thus, for a died in the wool foodie, who uses many books to look for 'technique', this book will not be lost on you. To be fair, I remind myself that this is a 'follow-up' book to 'Charleston Receipts' and some things I find, such as recipes for stocks, missing in this book may be in the first volume.

The homogeneity and limited range are two results we would expect from this kind of cookbook. Other drawbacks to the 'amateur cook based' cookbook is that the recipe descriptions are sparse. No extra detail or points of interest are included. This is good for the anonymous editor, who must present all in a common format, but it makes the book less interesting to people living in Seattle or we Pennsylvania Dutch folk. The extreme of this sparseness is when, as I found in several places, the recipes literally left out important steps. And, as simple as they are, many recipe steps are presented in different ways in different recipes. In some, batter is poured into greased tins before baking. In others, it neglects to tell you to add the batter to the tins, assuming you will know to do this before you bake the greased muffin pan.

I do give the book high marks for using basic ingredients (assuming you count Hellman's mayonnaise and chicken stock as elementary ingredients.) But, I would prefer that all instances of using margerine would be replaced by butter. It does use Campbell's mushroom soup in some recipes, but then even James Villas says he cannot improve on this as an ingredient by replacing it with homemade mushroom sauce.

If you want to cook like they do in Charleston, SC, this is the book you want. If you want a text on southern cooking, see the authors cited above. If you want to control fat, sugar, processed flour, meat, or fish, keep away. If you want a 'local flavor' but with a somewhat more professional approach, thy two cookbooks from neighboring Savannah, GA, Paula Deen's early 'The Lady & Sons' cookbooks and Mrs. Wilkes' Boardinghouse Cookbook. The very best 'American' cookbook is James Beard's 'American Cookery'.

This is a much updated version of the original which my wife and I purchased when we lived there 40 years ago. It contains the wonderful low country recipes which should not be forgotten but adds more to our current way of an easier cooking without sacrificing what Charleston is all about.

This is an excellent cookbook. You must try the Almond Bark recipe- it is too die for! This cookbook is a must have for anyone who has visited Charleston or loves to cook.

Receipes are easy to follow - and each is rated according to it's difficulty, how well it will "keep", and whether or not it must be prepared well in advance.

....Some especially good salads, soups and appetizers. As I said, it's a great starter book, but pros will love it too - it really belongs in every kitchen.