The Best Cookbooks of the Century So Far

If you are looking for some cooking inspiration this weekend, look no further than these books curated by the Dineread review team.

“The River Cottage Cookbook,” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (2001)

Changing one’s relationship with food “involves no sacrifice, no hardship or discomfort,” Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall writes, in his poetic ode to the hands-on, homestead-ish life. His prescription is simple: get in there and do it yourself—grow your food, meet your meat, learn the colors and patterns of the landscape around you through all its seasons. Years before “farm to table” was a buzzword, Fearnley-Whittingstall urged readers to move away from industrial food systems and reacquaint themselves with lo-fi self-sufficiency. The idea that pastoral practices can be pleasurable instead of burdensome is old news for the many home cooks today who know how to spot ramps in the wild and whip up D.I.Y. ricotta. But “The River Cottage Cookbook” ’s ideas (and straightforward, elegant recipes) remain striking reminders that what we eat isn’t just food on a plate but part of a thrilling natural cycle, our human lives brushing up against countless others, plant and animal alike.

“The Zuni Café Cookbook,” by Judy Rodgers (2002)

Since its introduction, in the late nineteen-eighties, the roast chicken served at San Francisco’s Zuni Café has earned a reputation as the best roast chicken in the world—crisp-skinned, impossibly juicy, served atop a salad of torn bread and bitter greens whose tart vinaigrette blends with the fatty, golden drippings. That recipe alone would land this book on any list of the great and essential, but the rest of the volume has magic, as well. Judy Rodgers got her culinary footing in France, living for a year with the family of the chef Jean Troisgros, and in Berkeley, where she cooked at Chez Panisse, and this five-hundred-page manifesto draws on those threads of experience (and others). The result is a remarkable collection of emphatic culinary opinions, several hundred of which are disguised as recipes: the merits of some soft cheeses over others, the precise way to dress a salad, the non-negotiable importance of salting raw beef and fowl a day or more before it’s cooked. The book’s magnificent opening chapter, “What to Think About Before You Start, & While You Are Cooking,” lays out the philosophical blueprint for every New American and California-casual cookbook that followed.

“Baking: From My Home to Yours,” by Dorie Greenspan (2006)

It’s true, unfortunately, that the art of baking is more rigid and exacting than that of stovetop cooking. The whims of a search-engine algorithm won’t cut it if you want your biscuits perfectly fluffy, your cakes precisely lofty yet moist, and your cookies angelic; a baker, more than any other cook, needs a recipe writer she can truly trust. To my mind, there is none more reliable than Dorie Greenspan; a lapsed academic who found her calling in cakes and pastries and built a career writing uncommonly precise road maps for replicating her success. With her as a guide, there is no room for self-destructive improvisation: her stylish, rigorous, cheerful recipes work because she tells her reader exactly how to make them work, anticipating our errors and our questions, building contingencies, alternatives, and solutions right into the text, and manifesting soothing flexibility. (If the ganache at the bottom of a layered pudding spills up the sides of the cup, “it’s pretty; if it doesn't, the chocolate will be a surprise.”) And if you only have one Greenspan book, it should be this one, a masterwork spanning breakfast to midnight snacks—not to mention her famous World Peace Cookies.

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Essential Kitchen Skills: Toasting Spices

For many of us, cooking skills are only learned out of necessity; when we move out on our own for the first time and are finally responsible for feeding ourselves. Skills were often developed through trial and error, handed down from our parents and grandparents, or even picked up from cookbooks and recipes. That said, we live in the age of convenience, where everything imaginable can be delivered, and cooking has become little more than novelty thanks to meal prep packages. For those who still love to cook from scratch, or those looking to learn, here’s a basic skill everyone should know: Toasting spices.

You may ask yourself why would you toast spices? The answer is simple: Toasting spices helps bring out the flavors and aromas. This technique is particularly useful when incorporating seldom used spices that may have been sitting around for some time, while the spices may have lost much of their punch, toasting them will certainly help bring them back to life!

The technique is a simple one, and involves little more than a frying pan. Heat the pan to medium high heat and lay the spices out across the cooking surface, stirring or shaking them up frequently to ensure they don’t burn. Once your spices start giving off strong aromas they’re ready to use, and if some trial and error is needed a few burnt spices represent a fairly minimal investment.

Looking for more mouth-watering content? Visit our online library at www.dineread.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more. Accessible anytime, anywhere, from your favorite devices, and perfect for your next culinary adventure.

In Praise of Slow (The Slow Cooker, That is)

It may seem like a bit of a paradox, we live busy lives that by all accounts are fast paced, how can something called a slow cooker make our lives any easier? Well, yes, the appliances are aptly named as a slow cooker is just that: Slow. But oh what a wonderful world of possibilities they open up. Here are three reason why a slow cooker is perfect for your busy life.

Set it and forget it. Not many of us remember Ron Popeil’s infomercial for his "Showtime Rotisserie," but the phrase lives on in kitchens throughout the globe thanks to slow cookers. It really is that simple, you set your meal to start cooking in the morning, forget about it as you go about your day, and when you get home? Bam! A piping hot home cooked meal ready to serve.

Batch cooking for your busy week. Batch cooking is one of the many perks of the usually amply sized slow cooker. Rather than slave over the stove to cook a single meal you can spend the same amount of time on prep and have meals for the rest of the week. Pretty much a no brainer.

Batch prepping is a thing too. If you’re willing to devote a day to chopping, why not prepare several batch meals in advance? Ingredients can be stored in a ziplock in the freezer and pretty much cooked from frozen in most cases. Just imagine, a month’s worth of food prepared in a single day!

Looking for more delicious content that’s sure to have you licking your lips? Visit our online library at www.dineread.com for a wide variety of ebooks, audiobooks, music, and more, accessible anytime from your favorite devices.

The Joys of Cooking With Cast Iron

It’s time to cook dinner, and when getting started there’s any number of different tools at your disposal for your favorite dish, especially when it comes to cookware. From aluminum and non-stick to copper, enamel, and stainless steel, the choices can be dizzying. But tried and true, cast iron is often still king! Here are three reasons why cooking with cast iron is still the best!

Cast Iron retains its heat. Need to step away from the stove for a second? Need to swap pans or perform other complex kitchen maneuvers? Pre-heating your pan a second time around is the least of your concerns with cast iron, as it’s conductive nature keeps your pots and pans hotter for longer than most modern cookware.

You can use metal utensils without worry. Unlike Teflon or other non-stick coated cookware, your metal utensils won’t scratch up and ruin the cooking surfaces of cast iron pots and pans. Good news for anyone who’s looking to scrape the bottom of the pot when making a sauce or trying to flip a heavy roast. As an added bonus, there’s no need to worry about consuming any toxic particles from non-stick surfaces.

From stove to the oven in an easy step. Cast iron is oven safe, so as long as your pots and pans don’t have any plastic handles and parts they can go straight from the stove into the oven. Absolutely ideal for searing meats and cooking the perfect roast or for keeping your food warm once it’s done cooking.

Ready to get cooking? You can find a wide variety of inspirational recipes among the multitude of books available at www.dineread.com.