December 2021 Cookbook Reviews

 

The Snowy Cabin Cookbook by Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson

This cutely illustrated cookbook gives recipes and tips for your next snowy adventure - whether skiing or just staying in a cozy log cabin somewhere in the snow. Chapter 1 is all about preparing for your trip - what to pack, things to do, games to play, etc. The rest of the chapters are organized by type of recipe - snacks, sides and salads, main dishes, etc. The recipe chapters also include tips and sidebars about all things snow vacation related. There weren't that many recipes I wanted to try and as a Southerner we don't get tons of snow, but it was a cute cookbook to flip through.

Cheryl Day's Treasury of Southern Baking by Cheryl Day

Cheryl Day is the great-great-grandchild of an enslaved baker and is now continuing on the family baking tradition herself. Although Day grew up in Los Angeles, she went back to the South for college and to explore her family history. I was impressed with how expansive this cookbook is, it really covers anything and everything you can think of when it comes to baking. Just flipping through the recipes you would never think the author wasn't born and raised in the South. The chapters are based on recipe types like breads and crackers, muffins and scones, layer cakes and cupcakes, etc. There were a LOT of recipes I'd like to try and I might add this one to my to-buy list because it was very comprehensive for all things Southern baking.

Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond by Angi Schneider

This book gives a good overview of pressure canning in the first chapter. I liked that she included a section called "Grandma's ways" that talks about how some old-time ways of canning are no longer considered safe and with canning it's best to err on the side of caution over tradition. And like I always say with any canning book - do NOT try to learn just from a book, take a class or learn from someone experienced. In my opinion, pressure canning is already intermediate level canning because water-bath canning is so easy that's where most people start. But, I like how this book is organized by type of food - tomatoes, vegetables, beef and pork, wild game, etc. There were a lot of recipes that look good and a few I'd like to try out. I would recommend this one to someone who's an experienced canner looking to expand into meat or more pressure-canning specific things.

Field Notes for Food Adventure by Brad Leone

I used to subscribe to Bon Appetit magazine, but I hadn't ever watched any of Brad Leone's video series for the publication. I liked that in his introduction he talked about growing up in rural New Jersey and being in nature and foraging/hunting/fishing for food. The recipe chapters are unique from most cookbooks, it's not organized by type of recipe, but rather by season or a specific ingredient like maple syrup or ramps. I did like that he included a chapter on wild game because it feels like fewer and fewer people hunt and eat wild game anymore. But, many of the recipe sections were some sort of seafood and I'm allergic to most seafood so I couldn't eat most of the recipes in those sections. I also found the giant/oversize/weird fonts used in the book very distracting. Maybe I'm too old, but it felt like it made the cookbook look very weird - the headings for a recipe would be HUGE, then the actual recipe would be pretty small font. It felt like it was laid out by a child and someone with serious vision issues. For whatever reason that really bothered me. Overall, if you're into seafood you could probably find some good recipes in here, but I didn't find anything I wanted to try.

The Modern Larder by Michelle McKenzie

I liked the idea of this book. Michelle McKenzie wanted to create a cookbook that focused on things you might already have on hand in your pantry/larder and/or staples you can make to have on hand for future dishes (like stock, etc.). The first part of the book is an alphabetical list of "larder items" and a description and best/possible ways to use them. The second part of the book is recipes using these larder staples. The recipes are organized like most cookbooks by type of dish - starters, main dishes, desserts, etc. I did like that the last section of recipes was "foundations and finishes" and that covered things like salad dressings, sauces, stocks, etc. It really does make a difference if you're cooking with homemade stock vs. store bought. Overall, I liked the idea of the cookbook, but there weren't any recipes I wanted to try and I felt like a lot of the larder ingredients would not be in the average person's home.