Customer Reviews

The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia: Everything Youªll Ever Need to Know About Hot Peppers, With More Than 100 Recipes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The CHILE PEPPER ENCYCLOPEDIA by Dave DeWitt, should be an encyclopedia, right? I picture an encyclopedia about peppers as a comprehensive book with many sections each illustrated with a colorful photo of the subject. That is not the case with this book, however. DeWitt's encyclopedia is yet another cookbook. He included many recipes which he has organized origin not by dish, or type of pepper.

For example, "A" is for Africa and African dishes such as "South African Hot Lamb Curry" which include American peppers and probably originated with natives from India using British lamb. "A" contains a section on `Aji' peppers (of interest to me), but I did not find the Aji pepper I grow in my garden and want to know more about (Aji Colorado). From Africa, we move onto Amazonia, which digresses into African slaves and Catholic saints.

DeWitt is obviously quite knowledgeable about peppers. I just wish his editors could help him get organized. And, pictures of Chinese peasants sorting peppers is interesting, but please add color photos of the peppers or don't call this an encyclopedia about peppers.

I purchased this book with hopes of having some detailed information and color pictures of about most of the major types of peppers out there. That is not in this book.

As a book goes, it's a fairly decent book, plenty of interesting information about peppers, recipes, information about different types, South American cultures and so on, but the photos are only black and white, and no detailed photos of peppers or plants are in the book. I think that calling it an encyclopedia was a misnomer.

This books gives a history of peppers, not a cooking encyclopedia. I think the editors realized this so they threw in receipes as an after thought. When I first opened opened up the book I anticipating to see titles of chapters on different kinds of peppers, preparation, growing, cooking techniques etc...instead i got a history of several species of peppers that frankly didnt interest me.
I guess I will have to write a true pepper cooking encyclopedia book myself.

I returned this book to Amazon, because there were no color pictures of any of the myriad hot peppers discussed therein. There is no real way to identify a particular type of pepper with only a black and white drawing/photo.

As someone who taught school from elementary to university level, I can say that learners, especially me, would greatly benefit by viewing color photos of the various hot peppers discussed in this publication.

This book is worth it for the recipes alone. There is a great recipe for Chipotle Chile Sauce that I have tried and was great. There are also all sorts of other recipes such as a mole sauce, and even chile-infused vodka! A good variety of recipes from all over the world.

The recipes can of course be tweaked so they're not as hot. But if you really don't like spicy food, you're looking at the wrong category of cookbook!

This is a very informative ENCYCLOPEDIA about peppers. If you want history, origin and facts about peppers this book will give you the information. I hoped to have more recipes in one location versus having to search for them. I gave it a 5 star because it is well written for researchers or students.

I thought this book would be more than what it was. The information is great, and really well researced, but the book itself isnt so hot. No color pictures, not enough pictures, and just really bland. I got it for a good price but that is really all I got out of it.

With "encyclopedia" on the cover, I was expecting a very encyclopedia like book. Instead it is a combo of some portions being encyclopedia like, some portions a recipe book and some a history book. If your going to call it an encyclopedia,then follow encyclopedia rules, e.g. have the letters at the top of the page instead of "Dave DeWitt" at the top of every page! It is very disorganized. It would be easier to use if all the recipes were in the back as an index. The pages are of newspaper grade and the quality of pictures is lacking and all black & white. It is also a pet peeve of mine to have a picture and not mention anything about it in the text. There is a picture of a "Cambodian flame tongue chile" -- that's all it says and if you go to the section for the letter "c", there is no Cambodian flame tongue chile...the letter "f" section and no flame tongue chile, Cambodian...where is it? It is an encyclopedia isn't it? The layout, quality, etc. just doesn't make it an easy read/look-up book.

Great text! Great information! Great recipes! Very interesting book. However ... the soft cover edition which I purchased only had B&W photos ... and they do not do justice to Chiles in a book otherwise dedicated to them. I presume the hardcover edition has full-color photos and might be worth the extra cost. Everything you might want to know about Chiles ... history, propagation, culinary uses and other interesting facts and trivia pertaining to all manner of peppers ... is in there. And there are lots of recipes as well (over 100 as advertised). I purchased The Complete Chile Pepper Book (TCCPB) to compliment this book and, while a lot of the information was redundant, there was enough new and different stuff to make it worthwhile. Plus ... the TCCPB has full color photos, making identification of specific peppers quite a bit easier and more accurate. The Chile Pepper Encyclopedia is an entertaining and informative book for the price ... but not as nice as The Complete Chile Pepper Book by the same author.

Full of long winded information.
Reading it was like asking a man what time it is & he tells you how to make a watch.