Reviews for Hand Book Of Practical Receipts, Or Useful Hints In Every Day Life

The average rating for Hand Book Of Practical Receipts, Or Useful Hints In Every Day Life based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-05-17 00:00:00 ROGER STILTNER Ooooh, I really like this book. Steve made the most wonderful chicken from it (and yes, I ate a little), while I made some gorgeous white beans with crispy sage. Uh, yum! I've returned it to the library, but I'll probably have to check it out again. I really appreciate the improvisational approach, but that was my style anyway. I can't remember the last time I faithfully followed a recipe (Steve, on the other hand, is a recipe follower). I tend to just work with what I have, use cookbooks for ideas rather than recipes, and make tons of substitutions. Do things always turn out well? No. But sometimes they turn out better than I expected, and I get to take some credit for that. If I could really understand the principles in this book, I would be a better improvisational cook - her theories of flavor harmonies, etc., are excellent. But then we hit another obstacle - my attention span.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-04-27 00:00:00 Sergey Malanich I like what she says about improvising, but on a more basic level the dishes she gravitates towards aren't as appealing to me. There's very little about beans, and surprisingly there seems to be much more meat than vegetable dishes. So for a vegetarian or someone who eats more vegetarian food, this is a book worth getting from the library rather than the bookstore. I also think this book shines when it is systematic, as in the section on ingredient combinations where she basically says "what grows together goes together", and the recipes and variations would have benefited from that as well. Each recipe has a section called "understanding"... understanding how that recipe and its variations work... and that really adds to the usefulness of the book.