• Eat Your Books

  This cookbook was listed in Publisher Weekly’s Best Food Books of 2009.

  This cookbook was listed in Cooking With Amy's Best Cookbooks of 2009.

  See Susie's review of this cookbook in her round-up of the best 2009 cookbooks at The Boston Globe.

• Digitoes on August 09, 2010

  Great concept for cooking without a book. A must have for any chef

Notes about Recipes in this book

• Basic (but amazing) popovers

  • Lee on January 04, 2015

    This is a great recipe

• 3-2-1 pie dough (pâte brisée)

  • ellabee on August 25, 2014

    p.25. For blind baking, temperature given by Ruhlman is too low. Use 375-400F.

• Addison's bebop-a-rebop rhubarb pie wih lattice crust

  • fprincess on August 14, 2011

    This is great. The rhubarb and sugar mixture sat for a while before I baked the pie and it rendered a lot of liquid, so I was concerned that the filling would be soupy. But it was perfect. The pie took only about 45 min to bake in my convection oven. http://egullet.org/p1832712

• Mayonnaise with fines herbes

  • fprincess on December 20, 2011

    I made the error of trying to use olive oil as my primary oil which cause the mayonnaise to separate. With peanut oil it worked fine.

• Roasted chicken with sauce fines herbes: a lesson in using slurry or beurre manié

  • fprincess on December 06, 2011

    I made the roasted chicken but not the beurre manié. The chicken was delicious, extremely crispy thanks to the liberal use of salt. It's one of the easiest recipes for roasted chicken too with no monitoring/basting necessary. One drawback is that the juices from the chicken were extremely salty so they cannot be used as is, that's where the beurre manié would normally come into play.

• Zucchini fritters

  • fprincess on August 13, 2011

    Very good recipe that allows for variations. I replaced the lemon zest & juice with lemon confit. I used whey (leftover from homemade ricotta) instead of milk. And mint instead of parsley. The fritters were wonderful with the crumbled feta and mint on top.

• Flat bread with thyme, olive oil, and kosher salt

  • twoyolks on July 15, 2020

    A decent flat bread but pretty basic.

• White sandwich bread

  • jessekl on January 03, 2016

    I added 2 Tbsp butter and 1 oz. powdered milk to tenderize the dough. It was perfect!

• Tempura dipping sauce

  • GoldenLeica on June 19, 2013

    This a very simple and easy sauce!

• Basic mayonnaise: an exceptionally versatile sauce

  • rmardel on July 21, 2015

    I use this basic formula at least every week

• Pasta dough

  • Jojobuch on January 07, 2018

    Perfect ratio and instructions, which are in line with many other sources.

  • Totallywired on September 28, 2018

    This has been my standard pasta recipe for some time and has not let me down over a variety of shapes including stuffed pastas. I've progressed to want a dough with more plasticity for shaping and stuffing but will continue to use this for other pastas for familiarity.

  • eszpee on February 19, 2022

    Perfect and easy to remember ratio. I usually use one big egg per person plus one or two (so for a family of 4 I use 5 or 6 eggs), because we love second rounds.

• Green curry soup with beef

  • Dannausc on May 09, 2020

    Good and easy.

• Basil, tomatoes, and garlic sauce

  • Dannausc on May 09, 2020

    Quick and easy. Fine, not great.

• Classic chocolate chip cookies

  • Dannausc on May 09, 2020

    Good but nothing special.

• Mushrooms, shallot, and spinach sauce

  • Dannausc on May 09, 2020

    Quick and easy. Pretty decent.

• White bean, sausage, and escarole soup

  • Dannausc on May 09, 2020

    I used arugula in place of the escarole. Good and easy.

• Food52 by Ben Leventhal

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• Food52 by Dan Barber

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• Fine Cooking

  For cooks who dream of creating original recipes, this book provides the building blocks. It can also help you spot great recipes elsewhere...

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• Cooking with Amy by Amy Sherman

  One of Amy's picks for best cookbooks of 2009.

  Full review

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  Susie included this book in her round-up of the best 2009 cookbooks.

  Full review