Kitchen Answer Book: 5,000 Answers to All of Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions (Capital Ideas) [Paperback]

Hank Rubin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Capital Ideas | Publication Date: July 1, 2002

If you are an amateur in the kitchen, The Kitchen Answer Book is the only reference you will ever need. Master fundamental kitchen techniques, learn cooking vocabulary, discover shortcuts, and pick up the know-how and wisdom that make cooking a pleasure rather than a dreaded chore. The Kitchen Answer Book is also perfect for cooking professionals, with its in-depth coverage of cooking.

In concise, direct answers to more than 5,000 cooking and kitchen questions arranged in easy-to-find categories, The Kitchen Answer Book is the ideal quick reference to cope with kitchen emergencies. Questions and answers are arranged in the following broad categories: Baking, Caffeine, Dairy, Eggs, Fowl, Fruits and Nuts, Grains, Beans, and Pasta, Meat, Seafood, Seasoning, Stocks, Soups and Sauces, Utensils, and Vegetables.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Hank Rubin has several decades of experience as a food technologist, executive chef, restaurant owner, cooking teacher, and food and wine writer. He has written over 500 wine and food articles and more than 1000 columns. His wine column in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1965 to 1982 was the first weekly column in the U.S. He is the author of SpainÂ’s Cause Was Mines (Southern Illinois University Press, 1997). Mr. Rubin lives in San Francisco, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 562 pages
• Publisher: Capital Books; 1st edition (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892123746
• ISBN-13: 978-1892123749
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,856,214 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for all cooking novices!!, July 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Kitchen Answer Book: 5,000 Answers to All of Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions (Capital Ideas) (Paperback)

I found this book while desperately searching for something to save me from causing my 25 family members at a reunion to be ill. As a cooking novice, I was looking for a simple guide that would not give me recipes, but would tell me how to do the things in a recipe, like browning meat and creating a soup broth.

Boy, did this book save my life. It had the answer to every question I had - and I had many. Because of The Kitchen Answer Book, I came off looking like a cooking pro, instead of the cooking dunce that I am. This book is very interesting as well because it tells you how to maintain your utensils and tools and gives you the history behind food.

My family went away well fed and not poisoned. Thank God for Hank Rubin and his wonderful book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not a novice, but I would not be without this guide, July 3, 2005

By 

Patricia Tryon (Longmont, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kitchen Answer Book: 5,000 Answers to All of Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions (Capital Ideas) (Paperback)

No home cook can know everything about food and I, like many home cooks, constantly look for ways to broaden my knowledge and increase my skills. Hank Rubin packs a lot into this book by his economical use of language in covering broadly and deeply common and less common ingredients.

Perhaps the strongest recommendation I can give this book is that, after years of preparing mediocre to flat out terrible pot roast, Rubin has given me the knowledge to be a pot roast QUEEN. I thank him, my family thanks him, our guests... You get the drift.

In addition to cooking methods, you'll find useful tricks such as a simple way of improving the flavor of canned shrimp -- before you open the can! There is interesting and, frankly, compelling information about the nutritional value of quinoa, compelling because the information is contrasted to values of other foods. The information about cheese, including a recommendation about the best place in the fridge to store it, has also been helpful. But there are too many hints and useful bits to describe. For me, this book's utility in my kitchen is right behind that of my favorite wooden spoon's.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An organization by type of food - eggs, dairy, seafood, poultry - makes these answers easy to uncover in a crisis, November 6, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kitchen Answer Book: 5,000 Answers to All of Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions (Capital Ideas) (Paperback)

Here's another kitchen answer 'bible' which also excels in an organization lending to speedy referencing: The Kitchen Answerbook: Answers To All Of Your Kitchen And Cooking Questions. Hank Rubin has several decades of experience as an executive chef, restaurant owner and food writer: it's these years of experience which lend to basic answers to common cook's problems; from how to tell if a melon is ripe to what kinds of woods are good for smoking meats, and how to quickly thaw a chicken. An organization by type of food - eggs, dairy, seafood, poultry - makes these answers easy to uncover in a crisis.