Customer Reviews

Cooking Green: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint in the Kitchen

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I've read several of Kate Heyhoe's previous books and was eagerly looking forward to this one. Kate Heyhoe's Cooking Green comes highly praised by some of the nation's top food environmentalists, and with good reason. There's a practical strategy on every page to "shrink your cookprint," and, she notes that by saving fuel and water you'll save money, too. Her sources are solid, and she draws on them to cover the entire food chain: EPA, USDA, Institute of Food Technologists, FDA, Michael Pollan, Harold McGee, U.S. Geological Survey (which measures land-water use), and the Department of Energy, to name a few.

For instance: Ovens waste as much as 94% of their fuel, according to the Department of Energy (worse fuel-efficiency than a Humvee). Solutions: scale back on oven-cooking, multitask your oven, and power down before the dish is done to make use of the residual heat (she starts her lasagna recipe in a cold oven and "passively" finishes it by turning off the heat 15 minutes early and leaving the door closed; her recipe is great and shows how to adapt others to the same fuel-saving process). Or, use your cooktop or toaster oven instead of a full oven. Avoiding beef drastically shrinks your cookprint, but if meat's your thing, her her rare roast beef recipe uses 20 minutes of high heat, then passively roasts for an hour with the fuel turned off (traditional recipes use 2 hours of fuel).

Many cooks don't realize that with water, it takes nearly as much energy to jump from "almost boiling" to actual boiling, and that boiling water is the same temperature whether it's boiling fast or gently; so fast-boiling actually wastes fuel. And water takes a long time to cool down, so you can turn off the heat early and use slowly cooling water to gently cook lots of foods, including pasta, lentils, potatoes, green beans, and more. This saves fuel and cuts down on carbon emissions.

She also covers the entire "cookprint" by tackling topics that include avoiding BPA (it's in some bottles and most can liners, but good news: it's not in aseptic paperboard packages, like the ones used for chicken broth and tomatoes); which cookware and small appliances to buy; making perishables last longer so there's less waste and fewer grocery trips; and how to pick greener foods when local and organic aren't options.

This is a great book for anyone wanting to take control of their life and really make a difference. As the author says, going green is all about making choices, and this book is a good choice for anyone who eats.

If I had my way, every American cook would read Cooking Green--it's that important.

Our individual food choices--how we select and prepare our food, how we store it and dispose of the wastes--are part of what has become an enormous, life-changing global problem: global warming and climate destabilization, caused by human production of greenhouse gasses. Kate Heyhoe estimates that twelve percent of all these emissions result from growing (think fossil-fueled agriculture), packaging, transporting, and preparing our food. Over 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide per household per year is attributable to what and how we eat. Chew on that for a moment.

If we care (and we should) what can we do? Cooking Green is full of good ideas for reducing what Heyhoe calls our "cookprint," the environmental impact of every meal we eat. She starts by suggesting that we should think of ourselves as "ecovores," choosing and eating "foods that are raised and grown in harmony with the environment." This is more flexible and realistic than strict "locavore" practices, such as the 100-mile diet. It is more ambiguous as well, as she describes in a section called "The Ecovore's Dilemma." It means thinking, reading, evaluating, deliberating, for these are not easy matters, in an era when there are too many of us and we use too many limited natural resources.

Some of Heyhoe's ideas will challenge your idea of a home-cooked meal. Turn off that inefficient oven, she says ("ovens are the Humvees of the kitchen"), and plug in a toaster oven. Reconsider the cooktop, and opt for a greener flame, using more energy-efficient appliances and "passive" cooking practices. Adopt low-impact waste-disposal methods.

Shopping? Be mindful of the seasons, eat more plants and less (much, much less) industrially-farmed meat. Understand "organic," think field-to-fork, consider fair trade, check for sustainable sourcing, weigh the packaging. Eating out? Ditto all this, and look for restaurants that have gone "green."

Nobody said this was easy.

But Heyhoe is right: "The reversal of climate change requires a complete paradigm shift and global actions, in more than just food and cooking. But one thing leads to another. Little steps in behavior can make a big difference in how we think."

There are a few things to quibble with. To my mind, gardening is one of the most important ways we can contribute to our personal food supply, but Heyhoe dismisses this with "grow a few greens." Dishwashers consume more than just hot water (Heyhoe's only measure of efficiency), especially when you consider the resources and energy that goes into manufacturing, shipping, and marketing the appliance. My dishpan requires no electricity, and doesn't cost as much to make or market as a dishwasher.

But these are minor issues. I was challenged by this book to make important changes in what I thought were already careful food choices and cooking practices. You will be, too. But you have to start by reading it.

P.S. When you've read the book, check out the website: http://www.newgreenbasics.com. Lots more good stuff there.

by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

As a fan of newgreenbasics.com, I've been looking forward to this book. Kate Keyhoe is highly knowledgeable, and every time I dip into Cooking Green I learn something new. Example: Americans throw out 27 percent of all food available for consumption. So we can be more green, and save money, by lowering this percentage. It's highly readable and well organized too.

Of course I am committed to reducing my carbon footprint. Aren't we all? I have worked to reduce the miles I drive each week, and to reduce the amount of electricity I use, and to recycle, etc. All of this is to the good, even though I know it is at best a drop in the bucket of what is required. We can work around the edges to reduce our carbon footprint, but until our government undertakes serious efforts to reduce emissions through regulation of industry and business we won't see a serious turnaround in greenhouse gases.

I did not think much about reducing the carbon footprint in the kitchen, however, but this book has many little things that anyone can do to reduce it. "Cooking Green" is a self-help book, emphasizing tips, recipes, and processes to be just a little more eco-friendly. These might be passive or active efforts, but all should help if followed as outlined here. The author is especially good at helping to reconsider how we cook and eat, in the process we might be able to save some time and to be just a little healthier that previously. A major benefit from my perspective was the more than fifty recipes in this book.

My teenage daughter's green club turned me on to this book. It's one of those rare books that's intelligent but reads easy and is soooo interesting. It teaches old dogs like parents new tricks, and it shows my daughter's generation how to start off on a green foot for life. Plus, it's sparked a lot of family discussions about why water never gets hotter than its boiling point, whether we could live on a 100-mile diet, and why we like the terms "cookprint" and "ecovore."

Well-researched, well-written. Packed with helpful info about what happens in the kitchen affects what happens outside it. But the recipes are what make it all worthwhile -- no matter how green people want to be, they won't eat food that tastes lousy. Bravo!

"Cooking Green" is one of the books I wish I had started immediately upon checking it out from the library.

The first few chapters bored me and I was afraid I wasn't going to take anything from the book. There was a lot of discussion on green appliances, building your kitchen for maximum efficiency, etc. As an apartment renter, these are things I cannot change or decide.

Then the book moved into chapters more applicable to me - how to cook more efficiently. How to choose foods that have less of a "cookprint." Some suggestions will increase spending (organic groceries) and others will decrease expenditures (saving electricity, resources, time).

Overall, I enjoyed most of the book and hope to borrow this book again. When I do, I'll move through the book much more slowly and begin to implement some of the suggested changes. I've already discovered that pouring hot water over my noodles (saving electricity) works just as well as boiling them!

As a mommy, cookbook author and chef I find this book to be an amazing influence on our choices in the world of cookery. If you are preparing food for the masses, yourself, your family or friends this book is an incredible guide for mindful and intelligent cooking. Kate Keyhoe gives us advice on kitchen equipment, cooking methods, shopping lists and of course amazing recipes! Try my very, very favorite Mediterranean Rice-Paper Rolls and Short Cut Passive Lasagna (What is passive? Read the book and find out...IT WORKS!!!!) Thank you Kate Keyhoe for making an impression on the way I cook and ultimately the way my daughter will cook in years to come. Isn't that what it is all about?

Sorry, but unless you are already living in a cave and reading this review by torchlight I think you will find this book a massive turnoff. I waited a long time for this book to come out but it is mainly full of "green nags" like how to cook your beans in luke-warm water. Further I believe she gets her science wrong in too too many places -- a blue flame IS NOT cooler than a yellow flame, most energy is already embedded in the food choices you choose to buy, not whether you cook that bean in luke-warm water vs. hot water, etc. The recipes are all ho hum stuff I THINK you can cook yourself with a book! I suggest you read "Food, Energy, and Society" by Pimentel instead -- what you learn will make your head spin!

Very outstanding book for people that want to start going green. Easy to read and lots of common sense ideals one forgets about in this high tech world.

Russell & Anne Ray
La Marque, Texas