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"Books about [...] practical, domestic tasks like cooking were were in high demand and drove nonfiction sales. Nonfiction titles for kids grew more than 23 perc

by kop316 5y ago

"Books about [...] practical, domestic tasks like cooking were were in high demand and drove nonfiction sales. Nonfiction titles for kids grew more than 23 percent as parents turned to books to educate their homebound children." I mean...I'm not surprised? The pandemic forced a lot of folks to stay home so I would imagine they would be interesting in learning new domestic tasks, such as cooking. And if a lot of kids were forced to be remote learning as well, that seems like a logical extension that parents would get involved too. In the cookbook world, it seems that nearly everyone has a cookbook, so seeing a general cookbook (i.e. it has a lot of different recipes to try) with a couple of well known people (Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewert) would seem like a safe bet to purchase. That being said....I would honestly pass on “From Crook to Cook”. I got it as a holiday present, and I tried a couple of recipes. A lot of the recipes were very off the mark for how to do things, which honestly surprised me considering it was written with Martha Stewert. The one that sticks out to me is a cimmamon bun recipe I tried in it. One of the (many) problems was the recipe only called for one rise, and IIRC it was after you already shaped the buns in the pan. They did not have a first rise (before shaping) then a proofing stage (after shaping), which I just added because I knew to do that. I had to modify the recipe in several ways and by the end it just was a different recipe. (if you are interested in baking, I highly suggest https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes . I have their cookbook, and it is a fantastic resource).

ivanbakel 5y ago
Did you try the recipes as presented? I can understand that an introductory cookbook shortcuts recipes for the sake of simplicity; and I wouldn't find it fair to recommend a more advanced resource unless the intro recipes give results so bad that they're offputting.
- kop316 5y ago
  > Did you try the recipes as presented? I can understand that an introductory cookbook shortcuts recipes for the sake of simplicity. Unfortunately, in the case of the cinnamon bun one, I would argue that is not a shortcut that should not be taken. The reason you have a first rise is to allow for the yeast to "multiply", so when you proof it, you get a light, ariy dough. If you skip that step, the cinnamin buns would come out dense and unevenly proofed since there is simply not enough yeast evenly distributed to make a proper rise. I recall making a different dish out of it and following their recipe, and it was just okay. In the end, I simply think there are better introductory cookbooks out there. One that I would recommend oddly enough is Blue Apron's cookbook. I found it used and decided to get it, and they have a lot of pretty good recipes, and they have a lot of "lessons" on how to improve your cooking technique. Maybe it was because I had low expectations for it, but I was impressed with how well it was put together. I have a few of their recipes that I have bookmarked that I rotate into my schedule.

by kop316 5y ago

ivanbakel 5y ago

Did you try the recipes as presented? I can understand that an introductory cookbook shortcuts recipes for the sake of simplicity; and I wouldn't find it fair to recommend a more advanced resource unless the intro recipes give results so bad that they're offputting.

kop316 5y ago
> Did you try the recipes as presented? I can understand that an introductory cookbook shortcuts recipes for the sake of simplicity. Unfortunately, in the case of the cinnamon bun one, I would argue that is not a shortcut that should not be taken. The reason you have a first rise is to allow for the yeast to "multiply", so when you proof it, you get a light, ariy dough. If you skip that step, the cinnamin buns would come out dense and unevenly proofed since there is simply not enough yeast evenly distributed to make a proper rise. I recall making a different dish out of it and following their recipe, and it was just okay. In the end, I simply think there are better introductory cookbooks out there. One that I would recommend oddly enough is Blue Apron's cookbook. I found it used and decided to get it, and they have a lot of pretty good recipes, and they have a lot of "lessons" on how to improve your cooking technique. Maybe it was because I had low expectations for it, but I was impressed with how well it was put together. I have a few of their recipes that I have bookmarked that I rotate into my schedule.