Customer Reviews

Starting with Ingredients

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`Starting With Ingredients, Quintessential Recipes for the Way We Really Cook' by Philadelphia chef and cookbook writer, Aliza Green is an imposing tome which promises much, and generally delivers on it's promise, even if it lets us down just a bit on expectations now and then.

The book has ONE BIG IDEA that sets it apart from almost all other general purpose cookbooks. All recipes are in 100 chapters which represent one (or two, or a family of) principle ingredient. Examples of single major ingredients are Beef, Chestnuts, and Butter. Examples of two ingredient chapters are Calamari & Octopus, Carrots & Parsnips, and Bananas & Plantains. Examples of `family' recipes are Mushrooms, Cheese, and Greens. One special chapter entitled `X-tras: Basic and Useful Information for the Cook' covers the usual pantry preparations such as stocks and basic pastry recipes.

All this means that the author is realizing the promise of her title with no compromises. The virtue of this organization comes home as I recall Tom Colecchio's great dictum that one does not decide what one wants to cook before we look at what we have on hand. Ingredients, not dishes, always come first.

With that established, lets look at the recipes we get for that most important ingredient, eggs. Opening this chapter, we see another excellent aspect of this book. Each chapter begins with a table of contents for all the recipes and sidebars appearing under this ingredient. Here we encounter the second great strength of this book. Each chapter includes a great wealth of information on dealing with the ingredient. In the egg chapter, for example, I see (or at least take notice of) for the first time the instruction on how to freeze egg yolks by first stabilizing them with either sugar or salt, depending on whether you are more likely to use them for a savory or sweet recipe down the road. All the other sidebar tips are familiar to me, but I always value any book if it can tell me at least one thing I didn't know before (and not lead me astray in any way). After my initial pleasure, I'm just a bit surprised that for eggs in this chapter, there are scant seven recipes, covering:

A souffle (Broccoli with aged Gouda)
An egg tart (Milanese with spinach and peppers)
Buttermilk Pastry Dough
Huevos Rancheros
Spanish Potato and Chorizo Tortilla
Baked Eggs (`Dad's Venetian')
Baked Eggs (Florentine)

Out of seven recipes, I'm surprised that one, the pastry dough, is much more about buttermilk than it is about eggs, and that in the remaining six, there is no recipe for an omelet, basic scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or poached eggs! And, even on the `sort of' traditional dishes such as the version of the Tortilla Espagnola, the author does not use the most traditional (and easiest) recipe.

As I look through other chapters, I see the same pattern repeated over and over again. Many especially good tips and information, and an assortment of good `example' recipes, but not what you would consider `paradigm' recipes for the ingredient. In the lamb chapter, for example, we discover that American lamb is generally grain fed, while Australian and New Zealand lamb is grass fed. Now this may not seem terribly important, unless you happen to have just read an excellent book on nutrition that says that lamb is the very best red meat to eat because the animals are fed on grass!

One aspect of this book which may not appeal to many, but which I always consider important in a serious book about ingredients. This is the inclusion of the scientific names of all single species, where appropriate (obviously not appropriate for eggs or cheese or butter, but eminently important for broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels Sprouts, especially since this tells us that all these four ingredients are members of a single genus, meaning that all have roughly the same nutritional value and there is a good chance they will cook in similar manners.

Like virtually every cookbook I have ever seen which has some novel organizing scheme, the author tends to color outside the lines just a bit here and there. On the one hand, there is a chapter on `Greens for Cooking', yet Spinach, Arugula, and the aforementioned brassicas (cabbage family) all have their own chapter. On the other hand, sidebars and recipes for one headlined ingredient often find their way into the chapter for some other ingredient, as when the technique for making North African preserved lemons appears in the Carrot and Parsnip chapter. This is on the rather thin fact that carrot salad is a very common North African dish.

The great size of this book (1055 pages) may suggest it is a good first cookbook or major reference cookbook. It is not. It cannot replace either your `Joy of Cooking' or `James Beard's American Cookery' or even Mark Bittman's `How to Cook Everything', as these books DO give you all those basic recipes for our most familiar dishes. It is also not as important as the best instructional books such as Julia Child's `How To Cook' or Madeleine Kamman's `The New Education of a Cook'. This is more like Mark Bittman's `The Best Recipes in the World' or `The Gourmet Cookbook' or `The Bon Appetit Cookbook'. And, in spite of its huge page count, I believe it has fewer recipes than these books. One problem with it's size is that except for the middle third of the book, it is a real pain in the neck to have the book lay open to a particular page without two large cans of tomatoes to weigh it down. It is very nicely, but rather stiffly bound. I believe the book is more at home by the easy chair than in the kitchen.

All in all, considering the VERY reasonable list price, this is a very good, but not great addition to any cookbook library.

Starting with Ingredients by Aliza Green is an achievement of massive proportions. Another reviewer compared this book with The Joy of Cooking, and I believe the comparison has some merit. However, this book is no Joy wannabe but rather an eloquently written cookbook with a unique style of its own.From a commentary on onions and civilization to a remembrance of her great grandmother's Sabbath Challah bread, Ms Green makes even the humble cabbage come alive.
Organizing by ingredient makes it easy for the reader to investigate uses for the thing we have too much of, such as tomatoes in August, but this is more than a collection of recipes. It is in the beginning of each chapter/ingredient that Ms. Green shows her true expertise. I had not heard of this author before, but she certainly has her bona fides in the food world. Yet this book is not a fancy restaurant celebrity chef book. It is solidly grounded in the senibilities of the home kitchen. Though this book has no slick color photographs the author's words alone make me want to make the food.
At 1035 pages not counting the index, this book is going to take years to learn well. For that reason it has a place next to the Joy, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything,and perhaps Jean Anderson's New Doubleday Cookbook. It will then be in appropriate company.

This is probably one of the best cookbooks I've ever owned. It is detailed, thorough (over 1,000 pages!), and inspiring. I purchased it originally because, as the tagline suggests, this really is the way we cook (at least I do). Plus, though it's relatively gourmet at times, it's amazingly convenient for those of us who don't have a big shopping budget or a lot of food at home. Other recipe books call for so many different items that I don't have, but this book allows me to take stock of what I do have in my kitchen and go from there; and in this sense, the recipes are pretty practical.

Not only have I learned new recipes, I've also learned many things about each ingredient: the way an ingredient interacts with other ingredients, the varieties of each ingredient and how to choose from them, storage tips, what to expect when cooking that ingredient in any number of ways, and so much more. My only complaint (which is small) is that it lacks a section on herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme, etc.). I still have plenty of questions about the different varieties, storage requirements, etc.

It's definitely a cookbook to have for a lifetime and pass down the generations. So what are you still reading this review for? Buy it now, you won't regret it!

This is a very good book, if you like encyclopedic type books about food and cooking. My review has more to do with the way the book is bound than with the actual contents. I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about the process of binding or publishing a book. However, I do own many books, including some rather large textbooks, and I have never seen a book that was as difficult to read as this one. At one point in the book there is part of a recipe that is completely consumed by the binding so that you can't read it at all. I made the mistake of trying to pull the center of the book apart a tiny bit so that I could read it. Of course I ripped the page and so still could not read the recipe. It boggles my mind that someone would put this much effort, knowledge, time, etc. into a wonderful work like this and then bind it so poorly that it is unreadable in places. In the places where it is readable, it is just difficult to wrangle, i.e. won't lay open on a flat surface, etc. And yes, I did return the book to Amazon when I realized this to ask for a replacement, which they very graciously and quickly sent. The replacement is the same as the one before. I also check in every book store I go to to see if it is the same there. Every one I have checked is bound the same way as far as I can tell. I am keeping the book because I like it, but I wish it could have been bound differently. Maybe it needs to go into two volumes instead of one?

This is a chef's treasure chest. Each food is listed with an accompanying
recipe. For instance, almonds, quince, spinach and amaretto filling are
depicted with various recipes illustrating dishes in the preferred mode.
A splendid amaretto filling may be prepared with fine liquor, sour cream
and amaretto extract. The recipe also explains how to pick fine fruit;
such as , apples. The preferred apple picked will be shiny, smooth and
colorful. Overall, the work provides valuable information for the cook in
your home.

I love this book . I never realized that the recipes I was always searching for were based on what I felt like eating. What is so great about this format is it takes me directly to the recipe that I am in the mood for. I had been baking banana bread last year and never found a recipe to suit my taste. The banana bread I made from this book was outstanding and easy. This is a great book also when you have the food and decide against the reipe you had chosen. Just a really great concept.

This is one of the most thorough food encyclopedia's I have ever come across. This is a must have for anyone serious about food.

Silvana

This is a must have for anybody who enjoys cooking, history, and trivia. This book is organized by ingredient and includes a short essay on the history of each one. Who knew that orange carrots were developed to honor Dutch royalty?! The recipes in this book are good and numerous, but there are plenty of places to find good recipes. The best part of this book is the commentary that surrounds each recipe. This is a true gem for anybody who enjoys reading their cookbooks.

While I'm certainly no gourmet, and very few of the recipes would be feasible for me to try, it's a lot of fun to read. It goes into detail about histories of various foods as well as how they're raised, grown, slaughtered, used, etc. in various parts of the world.

I got it from the library but was astonished at the low price for a book exceeding 1,000 pages.

Great book with information to enlarge the mind of a cook. Easy explanation and suggestions to help understand different uses for a large variety of spices and foods.