x

Welcome to Eat Your Books!

If you are new here, you may want to learn a little more about how this site works. Eat Your Books has indexed recipes from leading cookbooks and magazines as well recipes from the best food websites and blogs.

Become a member and you can create your own personal ‘Bookshelf’. Imagine having a single searchable index of all your recipes – both digital and print!

Essentials of Cooking by James Peterson

Search this book for Recipes »

Notes about this book

  • Eat Your Books

    2000 James Beard Award Nominee

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Sauteed chicken breasts and thighs with mushroom sauce

    • sturlington on May 05, 2013

      This is more of a how-to than an actual recipe. Ingredient amounts aren't given, for instance. Once mastered, though, it is a very useful blueprint for making a basic sauteed chicken with pan sauce, and there is a whole page of suggested variations.

You must Create an Account or Sign In to add a note to this book.

Reviews about this book

This book does not currently have any reviews.

  • ISBN 10 1579652360
  • ISBN 13 9781579652364
  • Linked ISBNs
  • Published May 30 2003
  • Format Paperback
  • Language English
  • Edition New edition
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher Artisan
  • Imprint Artisan Division of Workman Publishing

Publishers Text

In this unrivaled practical guide, one of America's most widely respected chefs/teachers/cookbook authors distills his vast knowledge and experience into the more than one hundred essential techniques that every cook needs to know. One hundred and fifty recipes and 1,100 photographs unravel the mysteries of the method and provide practical application on the spot. Here are answers to just about every cooking question, from the simple (why you shouldn't leave slices of apples sitting in water) to the sublime (why you should want to roast a whole saddle of lamb).

Each technique is further explained in terms of how it makes the food taste: What happens, for example, if you cook fish in butter versus of oil? Why is the flavor of roasted vegetables so wonderful? How do you decide whether you want to make a chicken stew or sauté? Knowing how to execute a technique makes you efficient; knowing why you've chosen that technique makes you a master.

There's even an interactive element to the book: Cues throughout make it easy for you to delve further into related subjects that might be of interest. After you've made the mashed potatoes, you can learn how to puree other vegetables and fruits; explore how to use vegetables purees in soups or to thicken sauces or to make flans; and find out how to handle all kinds of kitchen equipment you might encounter along the way, from a ricer to a food processor to a food mill or professional drum sieve.

Expect recipes and techniques that are clearly, meticulously, and encyclopedically described in the style that has won so many awards for Peterson's books, as well as an extensive annotated glossary that you will turn to again and again. In fact, expect your experience of cooking to be forever changed.

Here are answers to just about every cooking question, from the simple to the sublime: how to boil an artichoke or cook a soft-boiled egg, or how to clean soft-shell crabs or even butcher and roast a whole saddle of lamb. Knowing how to execute a technique makes you efficient; knowing why you've chosen that technique makes you a master.

Other cookbooks by this author

Essentials of Cooking

Member Rating

Average rating of 4 by 2 people

Categories