Cooking A to Z: The Complete Culinary Reference Source (Cole's Kitchen Arts Series)

Rating:
Summary: A very good overall culinary reference book
Review: Jane Horn's "Cooking A to Z" is a fine culinary reference. Almost every entry for a food item includes advice on use, selection, storage, and seasonal availability. While recipes abound, there is a distracting inconsistency on the use of numbers-sometimes they are spelled out (one cup), and sometimes they are listed numerically (1 cup). This is especially annoying with fractions, which are spelled out throughout the book.

Still, this volume has its priorities straight, for the most part, and devotes generous space to the simple foundations of good cooking: the humble egg, knives and knife technique, and so on. Overall, this is intelligently designed and gorgeously photographed.