From my early years, I cooked a lot. Starting in fifth grade, I had a budget and full responsibility for our family of five's dinner every Wednesday, from shopping to cleanup. Mostly I used the Fannie Farmer cookbook.
Realizing many contemporary young people lack such background and are unaccustomed to food preparation, I think this book's idea of good recipes that appear unintimidating is excellent. The appearance however is deceptive, the execution, inadequate.
A book intended for children needs to be written and edited so children themselves can absorb its information at their level of experience. Rozanne Gold's book offers a selection of delicious, real foods children will enjoy and enjoy sharing, but not the care required to impart necessary directions
Making this cookbook actually work for children wouldn't take a whole lot of effort. As it is, it guides adults who want to cook with children more effectively than it meets the needs of children themselves.
Although illustrated, it's sophisticated style may appeal to the rare child, but not to children in general, and the small type is neither inviting, nor, particularly on the orange and fruit smoothie blue background pages, easy to read. Swapping some of the generous empty space for larger print would help. But beyond visual appearance, the information itself needs to be redone with children in mind. Seriously.
Besides the fact that many children fail to read introductions at all, this book's introduction, containing the main part of its minimal safety precautions and disclaimers, takes way too much for granted. It warns,"be sure you have a parent or kitchen buddy to help you," but if this book is intended for inexperienced children, specifying safety directions within recipes more frequently would be prudent.
It does warn children "to read a recipe slowly and carefully all the way through before you get stated" which, of course, is always wise, but the recipes themselves could ensure better advance comprehension if equipment were listed instead of tucked into directions (how disappointing to find the zest grated from three lemons, sugar and buttermilk won't become sorbet if an unavailable ice cream maker, required in the last line, was overlooked. Well, the tomato sorbet for the shrimp cocktail earlier in the book didn't need one, how was I to know. . . )It's asking a lot really.
Diagrams and more thorough instructions for many procedures would be sensible. Say it's a nine year old's first encounter with a "large knife", is it adequate to instruct, "cut the carrots in half across the width. Cut the slender half lengthwise into 4 long pieces?" Instead of the pretty sketch of a carrot, how about a diagram showing the carrot flat side down being cut as directed? A line drawing of the "slit down the entire length of the tenderloin, leaving 1 inch on each end uncut" would help a child who's never considered such a maneuver before too.
How does the child determine the skillet IS "hot."
How are young cooks supposed to tell how much more kosher salt to add to their boiling water until it "tastes as salty as the ocean?"
I'd like steps built into the numerous poultry recipes to minimize the possibility of salmonella contamination.
How does a small person know how to "remove" a roast chicken from the oven the first time, or "transfer" it to a cutting board?
Then in the confusing directions for making quick gravy, do we have the child pouring hot fat from the roasting pan through the strainer into the small saucepan, or has it cooled? Approximately how long might it take for the juices to thicken and how thick might a child think is right without some approximation or description? And what the heck is the young novice to make of "If using butter, add a tablespoon of cold butter to enrich the sauce" (it's sauce now, not gravy) if our recipe hasn't said we ARE using butter or not, and do we plop the cold butter right into the boiling juices and splash ourselves?
Similarly, why are no tips given for pouring hot jelly into the 8X8 pan?
I wonder how long it might take, and how committed a child would need to be, to "scrape the peel [of a 4-inch piece of ginger] away with the edge of a spoon. "
What size do we suppose "a medium-sized bowl" might be?
If a child has not prepared a fresh avocado before, is it reasonable to begin instructions "scoop the avocado flesh from the hard skin" with no hints on how to open it and remove the pit?
Children might even need to be told to cut off scallion roots, not simply to discard the green part and chop the white part.
Details about the round of parchment for the springform pan would be nice.
If the young chef is not to let the brown butter turn black, it would be a good idea to mention how. (And couldn't more of the recipes use olive oil in place of so much butter?)
Reminding children their fondue cherries still have pits would be thoughtful. A little advice on "transferring" the molten chocolate to the fondue pot would be wise as well.
"Cook it until it is reduced by half" needs a bit more explanation, and I'm not even going to tell you about the two-sentence explanation for separating eggs. . .
Is it enough support to tell a child faced with a fresh pineapple only " Cut the pineapple into little cubes (about 1/4 inch)"?
These are only a few examples. I'm not trying to pick on these splendid recipes but they just won't do; they need to be thought through better for children to use independently.
Having only three ingredients per recipe implies manageable simplicity, but many of these recipes are more complicated than one might expect. Take oatmeal, for example: After cooking the cider syrup for 25 minutes, or arranging to rewarm it if it was made ahead, "cook [oats] over medium heat for five minutes, stirring frequently. Add 2 tablespoons of the heavy cream. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes longer, until the oatmeal is the desired thickness. Meanwhile, whip the remaining cream using a wire whisk. . . until soft peaks form" --pretty demanding for even an experienced cook to finesse and still "serve immediately."
How about divulging first-time tips on dividing ground meat into 12 or 16 evenly sized balls or the puff pastry sheets into 12 pieces.
Some of the ingredients are unlikely to be on hand. Some may be unfamiliar, and essential information is omitted:
How much is in a bunch of fresh mint anyway, in case we're picking our own?
okay, we know we need 5.2 ounces of Boursin cheese, but do we know what to look for at the grocery store? Comté? Even fresh goat cheese seems a little mysterious with no further comments.
garlic oil?
Sometimes less is more, but here it's not.
Kids Cook 1-2-3 claims it is "easy to follow," but it needs more complete, more careful instructions. It really does.
