Seduced by Bacon by Joanna Pruess with Bob Lape (Lyons Press, $24.95, 1592288510, October 1, 2006)
Every now and then, I entertain the idea of becoming a vegetarian, but
then realize it's not buttermilk fried chicken I would miss, or juicy
hamburgers, or ballpark hotdogs. It's bacon. Salty, sweet bacon (now
nitrate-free!). As Joanna Pruess says in the introduction, "Bacon is
far more than a food. It is a happy state of mind. It excites people to
the point where some aficionados liken it to illicit pleasures. Can it
be a religion?" Maybe, now that the word "artisanal" is attached.
The recipes, for the most part, look scrumptious: Brioche French Toast Soufflé--a classic dish, and if you want to cut down on butter intake, challah can be substituted, although once you've committed to bacon and bread, why bother? Jumbo Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon with Curried Mayonnaise--easy to make and O.K. with Atkins. If you're a bacon fan but don't eat red meat, there are some good recipes using turkey bacon, like Nicole's Carbonara, which also uses white wine instead of cream. People who say they dislike Brussels sprouts could be converted by trying Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts, Shiitakes & Scallions. Pruess includes a paean to the peanut butter and bacon sandwich, extolling the yin and yang of sweet and salty, smooth and crunchy, saying, "Some PB&B fanciers add mayo, a move calculated to stun others." It did give me pause, but what totally stunned me was the recipe for White Chocolate Bacon Curls, made with pork rinds dipped in white chocolate and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. Now we're getting into deep-fried Twinkie territory. There are three other dessert recipes in the cookbook, and after the bacon curls, Pecan-Brown Sugar & Bacon Ice Cream looks reasonable; even, perhaps . . . yummy.
With alluring photographs and tempting recipes, this is a fine book for bacon fanciers. Even if Chronicle Books' Everything Tastes Better with Bacon is already on the cookbook shelf (and it should be), the fact that Pruess devotes two pages to creating the perfect BLT is reason enough for inclusion in a cook's library. "Ounce for ounce, slice per slice, no other quintessential American ingredient has the seductive powers of bacon."
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Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, $40, 0618443363, September 25, 2006)
Baking (unlike bacon) mystifies me. I worry about beating too much,
beating too little; I haven't come to terms with my old convection oven
yet; I don't know what sablés or dacquoises are. Dorie Greenspan may be
just the person to de-mystify the process. She has a winning way with
description, for a start: "Dacquoise is the name given to both a
meringue pastry . . . and the meringues themselves. But when you take
the first bite, etymological considerations disappear and sighs take
their place." Or Café Volcano Cookies: "Light, bumpy, nutty and
completely higgledy-piggledy shaped . . . they are featherweight but
packed with flavor . . . they disappear in your mouth--quickly, so
quickly and fizzily that if they didn't have nuts, you'd think you were
eating espresso Pop Rocks." Greenspan also clarifies techniques so well
that a novice will feel confident. When explaining biscuit-making, she
says, "Be a little lackadaisical about working the butter into the
flour . . . You want the mixture to resemble a rocky road--there should
be some sandy patches, some tiny little pebbly pieces, pieces as slim
as flakes and pieces as chubby as peas. Let diversity reign."
The recipes, from Breakfast Treats to Spoon Desserts, are enhanced by luscious photographs. Real Butterscotch Pudding, made with brown sugar, cream, butter and single malt--what's not to love? Even better, she suggests topping the pudding with buttered pecans, or whipped cream and then buttered pecans. Wow. Her recipe for Berry Surprise Cake typifies the richness of her prose and attention to detail. It opens with a childhood reminiscence of eating charlotte russe packaged in a cardboard cylinder. In a sidebar titled "Playing Around," she says the filling is so good you might want to use it without the cake, as a topping for fruit mixed with a liqueur. She then tells you (as with each recipe) how to serve the cake and how to store it. A few recipes look daunting for all but the most expert (or the most determined) cooks, like the three-page Black-and-White Chocolate Cake; most, however, look not only doable, but necessary for life--Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, Apple-Coconut Family Cake, Brown Sugar Bundt Cake ("tender texture and comforting taste"), Midnight Crackles, Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, or Flaky Apple Turnovers, whose dough "is a little miracle."
Greenspan has a nice, chatty style: "Holiday dinner is about the pie. Always was. Always will be. And that's good news for those of us who bake: it means we've got the culinary last word." After listing her five favorite holiday pies, all easy to make, she says, "Any pie can be a problem when you've got a turkey just about living in the oven," and lists strategies for what she considers battlefront conditions. Holiday bakers might want to get Baking right away for the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, which combines two fillings: "pumpkin on the bottom and pecan more or less on top." The recipes are scrumptious, the directions are clear and who could resist a cookbook writer who uses words like higgledy-piggledy and lackadaisical?--Marilyn Dahl
Every now and then, I entertain the idea of becoming a vegetarian, but
then realize it's not buttermilk fried chicken I would miss, or juicy
hamburgers, or ballpark hotdogs. It's bacon. Salty, sweet bacon (now
nitrate-free!). As Joanna Pruess says in the introduction, "Bacon is
far more than a food. It is a happy state of mind. It excites people to
the point where some aficionados liken it to illicit pleasures. Can it
be a religion?" Maybe, now that the word "artisanal" is attached.The recipes, for the most part, look scrumptious: Brioche French Toast Soufflé--a classic dish, and if you want to cut down on butter intake, challah can be substituted, although once you've committed to bacon and bread, why bother? Jumbo Shrimp Wrapped in Bacon with Curried Mayonnaise--easy to make and O.K. with Atkins. If you're a bacon fan but don't eat red meat, there are some good recipes using turkey bacon, like Nicole's Carbonara, which also uses white wine instead of cream. People who say they dislike Brussels sprouts could be converted by trying Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts, Shiitakes & Scallions. Pruess includes a paean to the peanut butter and bacon sandwich, extolling the yin and yang of sweet and salty, smooth and crunchy, saying, "Some PB&B fanciers add mayo, a move calculated to stun others." It did give me pause, but what totally stunned me was the recipe for White Chocolate Bacon Curls, made with pork rinds dipped in white chocolate and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. Now we're getting into deep-fried Twinkie territory. There are three other dessert recipes in the cookbook, and after the bacon curls, Pecan-Brown Sugar & Bacon Ice Cream looks reasonable; even, perhaps . . . yummy.
With alluring photographs and tempting recipes, this is a fine book for bacon fanciers. Even if Chronicle Books' Everything Tastes Better with Bacon is already on the cookbook shelf (and it should be), the fact that Pruess devotes two pages to creating the perfect BLT is reason enough for inclusion in a cook's library. "Ounce for ounce, slice per slice, no other quintessential American ingredient has the seductive powers of bacon."
---
Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, $40, 0618443363, September 25, 2006)
Baking (unlike bacon) mystifies me. I worry about beating too much,
beating too little; I haven't come to terms with my old convection oven
yet; I don't know what sablés or dacquoises are. Dorie Greenspan may be
just the person to de-mystify the process. She has a winning way with
description, for a start: "Dacquoise is the name given to both a
meringue pastry . . . and the meringues themselves. But when you take
the first bite, etymological considerations disappear and sighs take
their place." Or Café Volcano Cookies: "Light, bumpy, nutty and
completely higgledy-piggledy shaped . . . they are featherweight but
packed with flavor . . . they disappear in your mouth--quickly, so
quickly and fizzily that if they didn't have nuts, you'd think you were
eating espresso Pop Rocks." Greenspan also clarifies techniques so well
that a novice will feel confident. When explaining biscuit-making, she
says, "Be a little lackadaisical about working the butter into the
flour . . . You want the mixture to resemble a rocky road--there should
be some sandy patches, some tiny little pebbly pieces, pieces as slim
as flakes and pieces as chubby as peas. Let diversity reign."The recipes, from Breakfast Treats to Spoon Desserts, are enhanced by luscious photographs. Real Butterscotch Pudding, made with brown sugar, cream, butter and single malt--what's not to love? Even better, she suggests topping the pudding with buttered pecans, or whipped cream and then buttered pecans. Wow. Her recipe for Berry Surprise Cake typifies the richness of her prose and attention to detail. It opens with a childhood reminiscence of eating charlotte russe packaged in a cardboard cylinder. In a sidebar titled "Playing Around," she says the filling is so good you might want to use it without the cake, as a topping for fruit mixed with a liqueur. She then tells you (as with each recipe) how to serve the cake and how to store it. A few recipes look daunting for all but the most expert (or the most determined) cooks, like the three-page Black-and-White Chocolate Cake; most, however, look not only doable, but necessary for life--Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, Apple-Coconut Family Cake, Brown Sugar Bundt Cake ("tender texture and comforting taste"), Midnight Crackles, Savory Corn and Pepper Muffins, or Flaky Apple Turnovers, whose dough "is a little miracle."
Greenspan has a nice, chatty style: "Holiday dinner is about the pie. Always was. Always will be. And that's good news for those of us who bake: it means we've got the culinary last word." After listing her five favorite holiday pies, all easy to make, she says, "Any pie can be a problem when you've got a turkey just about living in the oven," and lists strategies for what she considers battlefront conditions. Holiday bakers might want to get Baking right away for the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie, which combines two fillings: "pumpkin on the bottom and pecan more or less on top." The recipes are scrumptious, the directions are clear and who could resist a cookbook writer who uses words like higgledy-piggledy and lackadaisical?--Marilyn Dahl