A really great cookbook--not too complicated, but not dumbed down. A decent variety for an MS book None of the recipes are TOO exotic, but foods from a variety of cultures are here. Granted it's mostly American/European, but there's a fair number of Latin and Asian foods and a bit of others as well.
If anything, I'd like to see more in the Meats chapter. Poultry chapter, breakfast chapter, and all the baking chapters are particularly strong. Some nice hints here and there--like how to make a paper clip into a cherry pitter.
NOT a comprehensive cookbook--don't think this will replace your JOY of COOKING book! But, this is my new GO-TO for cooking for company, or a bit more fancy weekday meal.
One interesting thing about this and Great Food Fast is that you see a lot of the graduated/advanced versions of simple dishes from GFF in MSLC! Examples: tortilla pie and pork tenderloin with mustard sauce are represented in both, with a longer ingredient list in this book. The tortilla pie gets cornmeal crusted chicken and other stuff added, and the sauce for the pork is more sophisticated--and includes blackberries! Blackberries and dijon are an EXCELLEND combo, BTW. So, I suppose this is a good book to graduate to if you're a beginner and are ready to move past simpler stuff.
I consider myself a fairly advanced HOME cook, and though there's not much in this book that stretches my abilities, it's a welcome addition to my large collection--I just think when you do something Martha's way, you're doing it in a correct, classy way! (I say that because I love her baking handbook)
I recommend this book highly. |
The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The Original Classics Used Books New.
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