My Cook Book Dilemma, Or Why Cook Books Make Me a Little Squidgy-Feeling These Days, Part: The Second

I wonder how many basic cook books actually focus on the hows and whys...

So, my best friend that I’ve never met, Linda, left a comment yesterday over on fb.  Here it is:

I love my cookbooks. I read them like novels. A really good cookbook writer brings much more to the party than merely recipes. You can learn the culture of countries, the history of their food and why certain peoples eat certain foods. I adore heirloom recipes and enjoy reading the memories associated with them. Call me sappy – I like knowing that the cake recipe presented was handed down from someone’s grandmother who was conducting a secret love affair with Calvin Coolidge and served him this particular cake post coitus.

As usual, Linda made me laugh and think.

And then, I received a comment on Ye Olde Blogge from Jessica.  Here’s what she said:

If you have any pointers to cookbook titles that actually explain the whys of different ingredients/techniques/etc I would be most obliged if you could share, I?ve been having a hard time finding cookbooks that don?t have exactly the problem you?re describing. And you should definitely consider writing a book! Forget the recipes, I just want a book about cooking techniques, I can find recipes a dime a dozen?

Okay, so here’s the dilemma:  I agree with Linda that cook books are an endless source of culinary and cultural history, but I also agree with Jessica that recipes are a dime a dozen and that basic cook books should focus on the science and process of cooking.

I love to read cook books that focus on a particular state, country or region.  I love to look at the beautiful, full-color photographs and drool and drool.  I own quite a few of those Coffee Table-type cook books, and I’m becoming reacquainted with them now that I’m finally Unpacking.  I’m still looking for the anecdote about the post-coital cake.  I will find it one day–maybe in the First Ladies’ Cook Book…

I also have more than my share of basic cook books that cover everything from Soup to Nuts, as it were.  I already railed against BH&G for awhile yesterday for leaving so many questions unanswered.  For keeping us ignorant of the basics of cooking.  Sure, there’s a Glossary of Terms so I can look up sauté, but I can’t find what mirepoix or soffrito is or how to make one and why they are important.  I can look up weep and find out what it means, but it doesn’t tell me why it Happens.  And, get this one:  it tells me that a dash is 1/16 of a teaspoon and I can measure out a dash by filling a 1/4 teaspoon measuring spoon 1/4 full.  Seriously?!  If I measure any less than that, I might start splitting atoms and cause a Monumental Explosion.

Ahem.  On to Jessica’s question.  She wants to know if there are, indeed, any cook books out there that teach How to Cook as opposed to just What to Cook.  Aside from my as-yet-unwritten book, of course.

The answer is “yes.”  I will only comment on the books that I own, otherwise I’m not Being Fair.  For some great basic cook books that teach the hows and whys, try:

There might be others, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind.

I must be off now to Clean the House.  We are having some friends over for dinner, and I have made a Yummy Vegetabletarian Meal for them.  Because the wife is a Vegetabletarian, and I am nothing if not Accommodating.  Next up, the Mopping of the Floors and the Cleaning of the Bathrooms.  Yay.