Customer Reviews

Too Many Chiles!: From Sowing to Savoring : More Than 75 Recipes for Preparing and Preserving Your Pepper Harvest (Cookbooks and Restaurant Guides)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm still trying to find the definitive pepper book, and TOO MANY PEPPERS by Dave De Witt is not that book. I began growing hot peppers this season, and would like to find a book a step up from the EDIBLE PEPPER GARDEN by Rosalind Creasy which although an interesting and colorful book with garden tips and a few recipes is not nearly comprehensive enough. DeWitt's book includes a few pages on growing peppers, but is more about what to do with peppers after you have them in hand. Unfortunately, the peppers one purchases are not nearly as fresh and good as those one can grow.

This is a nice little cookbook (less than 100 small pages), spiral bound with recipes printed on pages that will withstand splatters. The book covers freezing peppers (mash, sauce chutney, Gazpacho, stew); making powders, pastes, and sauces; smoking peppers (salsa, hot sauce, Chipotle, baked beans); pickling peppers alone or in combination with other vegetables such as squash, onions or beans; and preservation in the form of vinegars, oils, liquors, condiments such as Jalepeno Mustard and jelly and Chile butter.

I have to give the book three stars because there are no color photographs. If you can imagine Habaneros, Jalapenos, and Serranos in black and white, you get the picture.

This is a short sweet dip into the world of peppers...not a definitive work by any stretch of the imagination. It's great for a gift or for a taste of pepper mania. Believe it or not, there are those who do not have a passion for peppers--this is the book for them. However, for the serious pepper freak or gardner, I suggest Dewitt's Encyclopedia of Peppers or The Spicy Food Lover's Bible. Both are excellent resources. Dewitt is one of the world's foremost authorities on the subject of peppers so any of his more extensive works are a benefit.

Lots of good recipes.
Lots of good ways to store for future use.
Too generic in the use of names of the peppers which should be used in each recipe. Why use "New Mexico" or "Hot" instead of the variety you are actually proposing?
I would reccomend to anyone who is not a pepper freak...

I agree with other reviewers - great recipes for preserving your excess pods. I don't think the authors ever intended that this would be 'the definitive' guide, more a book of ideas to get you started. For the price I don't think you could find a better book anywhere covering this subject matter!

I recommend this book to anyone who is or isn't a chilehead as I'm sure both will enjoy its contents. Dave Dewitt is an excellent author who knows his subject very well.