The Organic Cook's Bible: How to Select and Cook the Best Ingredients on the Market [Hardcover]

Jeff Cox (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2006

The most comprehensive, authoritative organic foods guide available



Flavorful, nutritious meals begin with flavorful, nutritious ingredients. They also begin with knowledge. If you want to learn about and enjoy the benefits of organic foods, this book is an essential resource that will make it easier to "go organic" by helping you "know organic."

Covering fruit, vegetables, meat, eggs, milk, spices, and more, The Organic Cook's Bible expertly addresses the what, where, when, how, and why of choosing and using more than 150 types of organic foods. It includes:
* Easy-to-find entries, organized alphabetically within categories
* Information on selection, storage, nutrition, uses, and preparation
* More than 150 color photos for easy identification
* A special section listing 900 top varieties of organic produce
* A useful list of organic food suppliers and organizations


"This is an amazing book! Jeff brings together the essentials of gardening and cooking with delicious, approachable recipes and a discussion of what it means to eat in an ethical, sustainable, and healthy manner--and manages not to be preachy. It's a great read for those just beginning to explore good food as well as old pros."
--John Ash, chef, food and wine educator, and author of the award-winning book John Ash Cooking One on One

"The Organic Cook's Bible is a fantastic resource to guide both home and professional cooks through a greater understanding of what to consider when using organics."
--Jesse Z. Cool, owner of jZcool Eatery and Catering Company and other restaurants and author of six cookbooks, including Your Organic Kitchen

"The Organic Cook's Bible is a great book and an important tool to spread the good news of organics and inspire us all in the kitchen."
--Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cox (Cellaring Wine), a veteran organic gardener, provides an encyclopedic guide to organic ingredients from fruits and vegetables to meats and dairy products, plus "kitchen staples" like coffee, bouillon and flour. Unlike most reference books, his is filled with personal touches: sidebars like "My Favorite Cherries" and "Keep an Eye Out for Black Walnuts" tell about Cox's encounters with foods, and even within the technical portions of the entries—which give information on nutrition, seasonality, storage, preparation and so on, as well as brief, fascinating histories of a food's cultivation—Cox often takes a personal approach. There are recipes using nearly every ingredient, most prepared simply to highlight a particular flavor, as in potent Rosemary Pesto, but others incorporate a food into heartier fare, like Caraway-Infused Pork. Though Cox's frequent pauses to extol organic food's virtues are of the preaching-to-the-choir variety, his abundant, knowledgeable advice on how to find and use the best products, and his presentation of special varieties of the ingredients make this a helpful resource for shoppers who are both bewildered and excited by the offerings in an ever-expanding field. Color photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A comprehensive guide to foodstuffs, this valuable reference tool empowers the reader with practical knowledge for identifying and making use of almost every edible. After a discussion of what constitutes organic food, Cox inventories vegetables in alphabetic order. Beyond commonplace asparagus, beets, carrots, corn, peas, potatoes, and their ilk, Cox includes cardoons, crosnes, ground cherries, and even seaweed. For each entry, he gives a brief history, its organic cultivation, nutrition, types, seasonality, selection hints, preparation, and uses. Each citation has a recipe or two featuring the item as an ingredient. He provides identical treatment for fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, grains, herbs, spices, meats, dairy products, eggs, and kitchen staples such as chocolate, oils, flours, and wine. A supplemental chapter covers special varieties of vegetables and fruits that occasionally appear in markets. A list of sources complete with Web addresses helps identify organically oriented dealers. Although Cox openly advocates for organic foods, his encompassing approach eschews food fanaticism. The wealth of practical information crowding these pages makes this an indispensable resource. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (April 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471445789
• ISBN-13: 978-0471445784
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 1.6 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #26 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Organic Cooking

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, easy to use and nearly indispensable July 7, 2006

By Lynn Harnett TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

While this well-organized encyclopedic reference and cookbook covers meat and poultry as well as produce, it's the fruits and vegetables that get organics guru Cox's most loving attention.

Each section - vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains, herbs and spices, meats, dairy and eggs and kitchen staples (oils, flour, sweeteners) - is organized alphabetically. Each entry follows a format which includes a brief history, a nutritional profile and comparison with non-organics, various types and varieties, seasonality, what to look for (and avoid), preparation, cooking tips and recipes.

The "what to look for" comments are especially illuminating as Cox explains what weather and time do and how you can spot the signs. Recipes (250) come from a variety of sources and Cox also includes general tips about what techniques and ingredients suit each food. Sidebars throughout share personal anecdotes and gardening experiences.

In addition to providing new information about ordinary garden-variety produce, he includes those you see in the grocery but aren't sure about - like jicama or passion fruit - those you might not recognize if you did see them, like medlars or crosnes, and even those Cox himself has never tasted or seen like the mangosteen, reputedly the most delicious fruit in the world. You'll also find a list of edible flowers.

Easy to use, this is a must-have, particularly for anyone interested in getting their families to eat more vegetables - quality being the first essential.

--Portsmouth Herald

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!! An absolute must have reference book September 11, 2006

By D. Horvath

Format:Hardcover

I borrowed this book on an impulse from our local library. I was pleasantly surprised at how thorough and easy to use this book is. It is an absolute must, whether you are into organic foods or not. It covers everything from fruits & vegetables, meats, dairy, grains, pasta and nuts.

How many times have you gone to the grocery store and wondered how to tell if the fruit you were looking at was good(like melons) or wondered what some fruit or vegetable tasted like and what to use it for? This book clearly explains how to pick the best produce, what the nutritional information is, with beautiful color photos.

I can't wait to get my own copy and start trying some of the recipes. This will definitely be something I use every day.

This deserves a rating of 10 stars!!!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You need this book. August 10, 2006

By Tricia Littlefield

Format:Hardcover

This book answers all of my questions about produce: the organic factor, (which tells you whether a certain product is sprayed heavily with toxins when you cannot purchase organic), nutrition details, seasonality, what to look for when buying, preparation, and uses.

There is just the right amount of detail including full colour photographs of vegetables, nuts, fruits - or whatever you are looking for. I find this very helpful when I want to buy something that I am unfamiliar with like Okra for instance.

The material is extremely accessible. Everything in this book is organized perfectly so that you intuitively know where to find what you are looking for. I love the headings, shadings, chunking of information and the gorgeous green font that suits this book.

I use this book daily for a reference. On top of being extremely useful, it would make a great coffee table book. I'm sure that people couldn't keep their hands off of it.