Happy Book Club Monday!
This post is a little late today.
I was busy getting my butt kicked by granola. Granola has become my nemesis. My goal is a granola packed with protein and low on added sugars. And I am kind of obsessed with including quinoa in it too. After six failed attempts, I am getting a little discouraged. Maybe the seventh time will be the charm? If you have any advice, let me know. 🙂
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program: Book Club!
Every Monday I review a book on food or cooking. I love hearing your comments about the book or recommendations of other books to read, so keep them coming! To view past books, check out the Badger Girl Book Shelf.
This week’s book:
The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.
The previous version of this book was called Culinary Artistry.
Basic Overview
The Flavor Bible is a reference book. You will not find any recipes or an instructions in the book. Essentially, the authors tell you how to pair foods and flavors.
I first discovered the book at a friend’s house. I thought it was brilliant. I knew some pairings but I wanted something that could take me to the next level, and let’s be honest, it’s not like that next level was a lot higher. I just wanted a guide to tell me how to pair ingredients within a dish but also how to create menus with dishes that would complement each other, aka what can I serve with meat other than potatoes?
Book Layout
The book begins with some chapters on basic food 101. The authors talk about the different tastes you need to balance (sweetness, saltiness, sourness, bitterness, and umami (savoriness). They got into a long explanation of the temperature of foods and making sure your foods match the weather. Aka, don’t serve a slow roasted hunk of meat with mashed potatoes in July. Duh.
After they identify the basic theories, they interview chefs from around the world. The interviews were a bit of a lovefest and I rolled my eyes a lot when I read them. Essentially it’s chefs talking about how awesome they are, but then again I know if I do ever nail this granola recipe, there will be a lovefest on this blog so perhaps I shouldn’t throw stones…
There is one paragraph in these introductory chapters that made me stop, reread, and flag. Check it out:
“Recipes evolved as a way to teach less experienced cooks how to prepare particular dishes, by providing specific proportions of compatible ingredients along with step-by-step instructions. However, anyone who believes that every recipe followed verbatim will always produce consistent results is kidding themselves given the diversity within individual ingredients, whether the sweetness of fruit or the thickness of a fish fillet. Slavish followers of recipes, who treat them as gospel truth instead of guidelines, make the mistake of putting more faith in someone else’s instructions than they do in themselves.”
Amen. Have faith in yourself and your own taste, people! Even if it means six failed attempts at making your own granola….
After you get through the first chapters, you get into the heart of the book. A to Z list of ingredients with selected pairings. Bold means it’s good, bold and capitol letters means you gotta try it. For each food, you also get information about typical characteristics and some suggested combinations of flavors to get you started on your own recipes.
So it’s not a cookbook, it’s the ultimate cookbook because it shows you how to create your own recipes.
You Need This Book If….
You have people over for dinner and are unsure of what to serve with what.
You have any interest whatsoever in creating your own recipes.
You want to sound super smart at dinner parties. Oh yes, feta does pair well with watermelon, doesn’t it? Black pepper also goes well.
I use this book all the time. I use it when planning dishes so that the foods will complement each other, I use it when creating new salads, and creating new desserts. Sometimes I just look through it and am amazed at combinations I never thought could go together. And you better believe that if a situation ever came up where I could sound intelligent at a dinner party, I would totally take it. You can take girl out of graduate school, but you can’t take the graduate school out of the girl.
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Do you have any must-have reference books? What are your favorite flavor combinations?
On your granola conundrum…I have had quite a bit of success with this recipe http://cleaneatingchelsey.com/2010/10/03/pumpkin-maple-quinoa-granola/… modified to meet my flavoring desires. I have never actually made the recipe 100% but the general idea works pretty well most of the time. The trick is baking it long enough to make it crispy without baking it so long it gets burnt… good luck!!
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Wow! This sounds like a really cool book. As a total learning nerd myself (museums? pretty much the most awesome places everrrr. and food network? heck yes), this book would be right up my alley. I’m going to have to check it out!
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