Customer Reviews

The Summer Shack Cookbook: The Complete Guide to Shore Food

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I've been a fan of Jasper White's for many years, but I held off ordering this book because I was afraid it would be full of lobster recipes. I realized long ago that I was not going to pay the premimun lobster demands in the south, so why buy another book heavy on lobster. Well, I was wrong! This is a terrific book of seafood recipes and side dish ideas too. The thing I liked best is that all the food is very casual, not the fancy stuff that looks great on the cover but that you'll never cook. The fish recipes offer ideas for substitutions if the ideal fish isn't in season or region.

This is a delightful cookbook because it is so wonderfully put together. Each recipe has a few paragraphs providing background for the dish. These articles can talk about a variety of things: the history of the dish, the author's personal association with the dish (always interesting), and considerations about the ingredients, preparation, or equipment needed.

The list of ingredients also includes equivalents and the steps for preparation provides helpful information about what you can do to work ahead of time and variants. There are some beautiful color plates of selected dishes grouped in various sections of the book. The first 50 pages or so include very helpful introductory information about preparing and service seafood along with the equipment you will need and want to have to prepare it properly.

The book has eleven chapters (each with its own introduction and table of recipes for easy lookup): the first chapter lays out the basics, chapter two talks about eating seafood raw, especially oysters, clams, and such. Chapters 3 & 4 are about kettle cooking by steaming, boiling, soups, chowders, and stews. Chapter 5 uses your icebox for chilled dishes and seafood salads. You move to the grill in chapter 6 and 7 takes you to indoor cooking on your stovetop and in your oven. Chapter 8 provides favorite Shack fried dishes. You get into the morning baking of biscuits, breads, pies, and other dessert items in chapter 9. Chapter 10 takes you into drink recipes. The final chapter addresses basic sauces, dressings, and stocks you will use in preparing and serving other dishes. There is also a very useful index.

I was fortunate to meet Chef White at a special dinner here in Ann Arbor at Zingerman's Roadhouse (a wonderful place to eat anytime, by the way). Chef Alex of the Roadhouse and Chef White worked together to present more than 100 of us a sampling of starters, salad, entrees, side dishes, and desserts. While these were smaller individual portions, the sheer quantity of dishes left us all achingly full. And the delight of trying so much wonderful food (obviously prepared with care and love) made it an evening we will always remember.

Chef White talked about his philosophy for the food at his Summer Shack restaurants. He focuses on the quality of the ingredients with simple preparation that tries to present the ingredients at their best rather than trying to make them into something else. I think he said that he wanted to stay out of the way of the ingredients. This showed in the dishes we were served. It was Chef White who told us that Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw, the founders of the Zingerman's businesses here in Ann Arbor were given a lifetime achievement award by Bon Appetite. We here in Ann Arbor have known about Ari and Paul for decades and our community has been blessed to have them, but it is especially nice when they get well-deserved recognition by others.

This is a very interesting book to read, the recipes are inviting to the non-professional chef because they seem to be something you can accomplish without extensive training or an incredibly well equipped kitchen. A few key pieces of equipment, some good ingredients, a ready heart and a desire to experiment and learn are all that is required.

Enjoy!

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Great prep guide for summer food up north or year-round here in Florida. Quite a contrast to his New England cookbook and each should merit a spot on your kitchen shelf.

After visitng Boston area we had the opportunity to eat at the Summer Shack. It was a 4 star experience. Living in Alaska we are not new to seafood, but the receipes in this book add a wonderful compliment to different styles of preparing seafood. The sauces are fantastic and the lobster, while not an Alaskan dish, was the best I had ever had! Alaskan Golden King Crab does work well in these receipes.
Just a nice cook book that Jasper White shares some inside truths in preparing excellent seafood dishes.

If you already own the original 2007 hardback copy, you can stop reading. This simply produced paperback edition is a reproduction, illustrated with sketched and 3 sets of eight full-page bound-in photos. The author is the owner/chef of the Summer Shack restaurant in Maine, and he provides both the restaurant's and his home recipes. The recipes are simple but good, well written and easy to follow. Most of them are seafood found along the coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, and are geared for cooks for whom these are easily available. If you live anywhere else, you may have problems finding the ingredients, and substitutes are not given.

Tips to purchase, gather, dig or pick the seafood are very good but useless if your home is in Salt Lake City. This cookbook is meant for the locals. Excellent tables show varieties of all seafood but nothing gives the equally important amounts to purchase per person.

Besides seafood, the author also provides basic recipes for meat and poultry as well as simple desserts and beverages. Good tables for steaming times of seafood are useful, also sketches on how to prepare. Index is excellent and well cross referenced.

Professional Reviewer for Sacramento, San Francisco and Portland Book Reviews.

I bought this cookbook for my husband as a x-mas gift... he had seen it on the Food Network. It is a great one!!! The recipes are easy and delicious. We made the Clam Chowder soup for New Years and it was a hit!!!

...from Jasper White. I have all of his cookbooks and I refer to them quite often. The Summer Shack Cookbook is a great read as well as supplying a ton of wonderful recipes.

I AM THE MAJOR CHEF IN MY HOME FOR 20 YEARS
THIS BOOK IS THE MOST INFORMATE ON SEAFOOD I HAVE READ
JASPER wHITES RECIPES ARE FANTASTIC AND EASY TO PREPARE

WORTH A READ
ENLOY HIS SIMPLE DIRECTION ON PREPARING A GREAT SEA DISH

An excellent book. It arrived about a week before Christmas, and I made the Bloody Mary recipe Christmas day for my family. There was none left.

I received my hard copy of Summer Shack by Jasper White in excellent condition in a very short time. I was very pleased with my purchase.