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Summary: What fun. A food writer who knows how to cook and write.
Review: I recently bought this book and it is already one of my favorites. Good information wrapped in easily digestible words. The recipes work. The book is an enjoyable read and joins the short list of cookbooks I will recommend. Mr. Anderson is a lucky man indeed. I can hardly wait for her next book. Go girl!
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Summary: good recipes & a joy to read
Review: I have a growing collection of cookbooks, & after cooking from them for several years, I've found that I return to a couple of the cookbooks again & again. "The perfect recipe" is one of these books. It's always better to have a "basic" recipe for, say, muffins or brownies or whatever...& then to work from there, adding ingredients & finding interesting variations. Following a recipe from a book that I don't trust never produces the results I want, & leaves me disappointed. That's why I turn to this book, or "How to eat" by Nigella Lawson (& some others) just to be sure I'm doing it right...What I do is---I start off with one of these recipes, & then adjust some of the ingredients to have the result of a different recipe that I'm following. I've found this method works well for me.All the recipes I've tried so far from "The perfect recipe" work fine. The muffins & brownies are wonderful, much better than most other recipes I'd tried before. The actual reading of the book is very good too. I tend to prefer cookbooks that almost read like...fiction!! What I mean is, I prefer to know how & why the author cooked this, or the story behind the meal, or the memories the food brings, or whatever: I hate it when cookbooks just give a "dry" recipe, not explaining anything, just telling you to follow instructions. In this respect "the perfect recipe" is almost...perfect. My only complaint is first, the total lack of photos, & secondly the fact that most recipes in the book are high fat. Apart from that, I recommend this to any person who loves cooking & also loves reading about cooking.
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Summary: Fascinating reading!
Review: If you have ever stood in the produce section of the grocery store wondering what kind of potatoes to buy for mashing or what apples will make the perfect pie, you will love this book! The author's recommendations are based on extensive, methodical testing of each step in the recipe, and what she discovers will surprise and enlighten you. I didn't really know how many questions I had about cooking until I started this book. Loved it!
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Summary: Problem-solving comfort foods
Review: Having cooked for a family for the last 30 years, I have several cookbooks as well as recipes I've printed off the web in my cooking library. It was refreshing to see that in this book I could now find the answer to some age-old problems I've encountered with basic comfort foods, like roast turkey (getting MOIST white AND dark meat), (evenly-cooked) prime rib and (crisp, not weepy and soggy) lemon meringue pie. I also found it interesting to read about the processes performed to find the "perfect" recipe. This book is a find for the new or beginner cook. As a more experienced cook, I was thrilled to find solutions to those cooking "nightmares."
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Summary: Excellent book. However....
Review: This is virtually the same book as "The Best Recipe" by the editors of Cooks Illustrated. I think that "The Best Recipe" is more comprehensive. "The Perfect Recipe" does seem to be laid out in a manner that would be easier to follow as you cook. You don't need both, in any case. The recipes are the SAME!
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Summary: Throw away your other cookbooks!
Review: I owned at least fifty cookbooks. This one is the best! I am a full time working mom and my family thinks I am the best cook. I have tried at least ten of the recipes and they are all good. This book is a must for anyone who hates to cook or just doesn't have the time.
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Summary: Darn tasty brownie recipe!
Review: The unbelievable brownie recipe is worth the price of the book. It is truly the "perfect" combination of fudgy chewy cakey that we all strive for when baking brownies. I have also made a truly fantastic pie and a beef stew that I served to some friends and they asked for that recipe. This has never happened with any other cookbook in my experience. So, needless to say, I am very impressed and it is easy to read. The only negative is that there are not many illustrations and I like a color picture from time to time, but other than that, it is truly perfect.
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Summary: Reliable recipes you can trust
Review: Two nights ago I got home with no idea of what to cook for dinner, with nothing defrosted. Then an idea hit me. I went straight to this cookbook and made the chicken with snow peas and lemon sauce stir-fry. As my calrose rice steamed, I defrosted some skinless, boneless breasts, and as those fried up, I sliced some mushrooms and broccoli (snow peas can be substituted for anything), and green onions (I can never follow a recipe to the tee!). The lemon sauce took 2 minutes to prepare, and I already had jars of preminced ginger and garlic. In short, I knew I could go straight to this book, having never tried that recipe, and knew it would be tasty. I recommend you try the book. Also, the banana muffins are fantastic (don't forget to dip it in the butter/sugar combo afterward!).
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Summary: Not for the casual cook
Review: This book disappointed me tremendously. I had been so looking forward to a thorough examination of basic recipes and when the book arrived, I was expecting something rather down to earth. Instead the author, in her recipe for Pork Loin, suggests that I tell my butcher to "cut the chine bone between each rib". She doesn't tell me what a chine bone might be (although there is a diagram in the book that I think was supposed to help). Another recipe calls for "assertive greens". Oh, yeah, sure. This didn't strike me as a book for a beginner. Nor was I particularly pleased with the variety of recipes in the book. As an example, she provides five different variations on chicken soup. What about a nice tomato bisque? Isn't there a perfect way to do that? Similarly, she provides five variations on beef stew and six variations for hamburgers. I just didn't understand the intention behind the book's structure. I had hoped that the promised 150 recipes would at least really be a variety of dishes. I suspect I'll be sending this one back to the warehouse, guys.
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Summary: You only need one or the other
Review: Having gotten "The Best Recipe," (The other latest cookbook from the editors of Cook's Illustrated" and loving it, I thought I'd buy this as well, and was somewhat dissappointed because they seemed to have overlapped. They are both WONDERFUL books, however, I think you only need one.
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