I'm Just Here for the Food 250
| I'm Just Here for the Food | |
| author | Alton Brown |
| pages | 287 pages |
| publisher | Stewart, Tabori & Chang |
| rating | 9/10 |
| reviewer | Matt Eberle |
| ISBN | 1-58479-083-0 |
| summary | This is a book about cooking, by a geek, for geeks. If you code and you cook, this is the book. |
Rather than giving precise directions about how many rights and how many lefts, Alton aims to give you the lay of the land. "Cooking is not defined by seasonings ... it is defined by the application of heat." That is why the first six chapters are devoted to a single heating method each: searing, grilling, roasting, frying, boiling, and braising. This first book doesn't cover baking, or other manufactured food. Another book, in a similar vein, by a chemist, Cookwise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Cooking , actually begins with baking.
As partial proof of the author's geekiness, I present an excerpt from the introduction to the grilling chapter:
I am typing on a Macintosh G4 Titanium Powerbook, which is roving through my MP3 collection like a digital whirling dervish. When I need to speak to someone, which isn't very often since the G4 is wirelessly connected to the Web through a device in the house, I do so on a Nokia cell phone capable of trading files with my Palm V, which I really should replace since it's so 1999.
He's got his own web site, complete with blog. Throughout the book, he describes approaches to cooking that have everything to do with good food and geekiness, and nothing to do with the manufacturer's instructions. Back to the grill, he's removed one of the plates on the side of his grill and fitted it with a piece of tailpipe. Then, when he's grilling, he sticks a hair dryer in the tailpipe and uses it to whip the coals into an inferno. Which might explain why he gets his oven mitts from the hardware store in the form of welding gloves. When talking about ovens, he describes how he builds an oven out of firebricks, and how he uses a large terra cotta pot to cook a chicken in his oven. It's all in the name of even heat distribution. He's also not above rewiring his electric skillet to provide a greater range of temperatures. You know you've read something good when the author includes a mini-disclaimer to the effect of "if you try this at home kids, I and the publisher are not responsible."
Alton encourages improvisation, suggesting you hold a refrigerator roulette party: everybody brings three ingredients and then everybody has to make something of it. Now there's a team building exercise for the daring. Basically, a recipe is like an open source app that nobody's willing to muck with -- you either eat it when somebody else has already prepared it, or you compile (I mean prepare) it yourself, but follow the directions exactly. This just ruins the whole point of making the source (or the recipe) available. Tinker with it, make it better, make it awful, hey, it's just food.
From Alton's Rules I Cook By: If the food is an existing hunk or hunks of something to be cooked, you can generally mess with seasonings, herbs, spices, and so on to your heart's content. The book is filled throughout with examples of Alton's own improvisations -- like the recipe he used to win a cheap chili competition he and some friends dreamed up while sitting around on somebody's porch. In this case, the ingredients were tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, and salt he had in his pantry, some cheap beef stew meat and some lamb stew meat from the supermarket, and the cheapest beer available from the local taqueria and the chips and salsa that came with it. Total cost: $7.74
The end of the book includes appendices with a Critter Map, which shows where different cuts of meat come from, and The Basic Culinary Toolbox, where he describes necessary tools, from heat resistant spatulas and all kinds of thermometers to what makes a good knife. Also included are a very brief selection of suppliers for various dry goods and a selection on cleanliness that has some tips on recognizing a good meat and produce department. The one weakness of the book may be its index. Again, since this isn't really a cookbook per se, it might not matter so much that all the chicken recipes in the book are not listed in the index under Chicken, or that his great recipe for microwave popcorn is listed under M, but not P. As for the popcorn recipe itself, here's a hint: popcorn, paper bag, and 2 staples.
If you are reading this I highly recommend I'm Just Here For the Food as well as the show Good Eats. This is the book on cooking I've been waiting for someone to write ever since I started cooking. It gives you the tools and the principles so that you can cook what you want and experiment with flavors and ingredients you like.
Appetite whetted? You can purchase I'm Just Here for the Food from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
I love this book (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh, and go buy a digital temperature probe. You'll need one.
Also, as hinted by the author, go watch his show. I especially like the one when he shows you how to make a smoker out of a cardboard box.
I just got this book last week (Score:5, Interesting)
The book is a good read and if you watch the show it is exactly what you expected.
I find that in places he gets a little too odd -- just like when chatting with your other geek friends and one of them goes into a tyrade about how *HE* rewrote something to make it work how *HE* thought it should. You either think their a genius or just a little furher down the geek trail than you want to go.
For instance he does his simmering in the oven because it gets better heat distribution and the oven is better at holding the 195 degree temperature. Makes sense, sure, but also just a little past normal.
On the other hand most of his recipes are DAMN tasty and there are just enough of them to make this book interesting.
But what I truly like about this book and what the reviewer does not explain well enough is the book's point. He does not want to give you the source and teach you how to type
Curry Anyone ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Oil 3tbs,
Chopped onion one and a half cup,
Chopped ginger 2 tbs
Chopped garlic half tbs
Split green chillies 4
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Chilly powder half or one tsp
Coriander powder 2tbs
Cumin seed 1tsp, pepper half tsp, cloves 5, cardamom 2, cinnamon sticks 3. Powder these together. Instead one and a half tsp of garam massala powder can also be used.
Curry leaves a few
Coconut milk 2 cups.
Clean the chicken pieces. Mix it with 1 tbs of salt and 2 tsp of lime juice (or half cup of curd) and keep aside for half an hour. Make a paste of the coriander chilly and turmeric powder. Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel. Add chopped onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies and brown it.
Add the masala paste and fry for a minute. Add the chicken pieces together with the juice that comes out of it. Stir it for about five minutes. If the coconut milk is taken from fresh grated coconut add about 2 cups of the second milk to the curry. Otherwise add about 2 cups of hot water. Cover and cook for about half an hour till the chicken pieces are cooked.
If you like potatoes in the currry, about one and a half cups of potato pieces can be added to the curry half way through. Add the coconut milk and the garam masala powder and curry leaves. If you want more gravy or the gravy is not thick enough dissolve a tsp of corn flour in milk or water and add to the curry and just boil again stirring well and just bring the curry to boil.
Mods : Well... You gotta eat!
P.S : Try this. Its one of the best curried chicken out there. Thank me later. Yes, I got karma to burn. I just thought this recipe would do everyone good.
I met Alton during his book tour! (Score:4, Interesting)
I met Alton while he was doing a book promo tour for IJHFTF. I did a full write up on it at my website. Read the play-by-play here... [amcgltd.com].
An excerpt:
Alton seems to be at the same point of celebrity that Penn & Teller claim to be... famous enough to be recognized and draw crowds in certain situations, but not so "rock star" as to take it all seriously. I get the feeling that if he hadn't had an invite to the Washington Press Club that night, a bunch of the people at the bookstore could've offered to take him to dinner and he would've accepted immediately.
IT Chef (Score:2, Interesting)
Cooking is fun when you add other aspects of life to it. For example... Iron Chef [foodtv.com] is a clever combination of oriental cooking and televised wrestling. It makes a perfect recipe for entertainment!
Check out Cook's Illustrated (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway, my wife and I have several of his books, which are great references to have in the kitchen, and although I haven't used it much, he does have a website [cooksillustrated.com]. It's advertisement-free, and the product reviews are about as objective as you'll find.
Re:Wow, a /. book review... (Score:3, Interesting)
But I've seen this guys show and it's great. Thinking about it, I'm not actually suprised this guy gets mentioned on slashdot.
What I like about his show, he breaks down what he's doing in easy steps, tells you explicitly what to watch out for. Tells you how to fix problems which occur from over, or under cooking, etc [and how to tell without slaughtering the food]. It isn't as simple/stupid as: cook for 10 minutes or until done.
And, his show is entertaining.
Re:Curry Anyone ? (Score:3, Interesting)
The Curry Secret: Indian Restaurant Cookery at Home
Kris Dillion
Elliot Right Way Books
ISBN: 0716020548
Cheaper than that $800 flight
Good Book, Good Show, Good Eats! (Score:4, Interesting)
GREAT BOOK. This is NOT a cookbook - it's a book on kitchen science directed specifically to HOW TO HEAT FOOD PROPERLY.
As a lot of you geeks probably already know... cooking is about science. Physics and chemstry are paramount to making a good meal (unless your cooking out of a box).
Before the advent of FOOD TV, and experts like Alton Brown, I tended to eat out most. If I ate in at all, I'd just slap some chops on a skillet and eat them with some store bought sauce. Thanks to FOOD TV and his show, I've now become quite a good chef and greatly enjoy making myself and friends gourmet meals.
Browns show is intense... super funny, and chock full of unbelievably useful information. He is never satisfied to *just do something*, no, he has to explain each and every WHY to it. And while he's doing that, he's throwing out tons of other useful suggestions that you would never have thought of.
The book goes IN DEPTH into exactly how heat works and cooks... and the various types of heating and when they are appropriate and why. He covers in depth exactly how heat reacts with the food. He explains exactly what the difference is between Radiation, Convection and Conduction (with excellant and funny examples) and then relates them to the various types of cooking (e.g., oven roasting is radiation, while boiling or steaming is conduction etc).
Each page has side panels that blow apart current cooking and food myths, such as salt being bad for you, etc...
Unlike most books that INSTRUCT you... his book and show not only instructs you, but tells you the why, the history, the mistakes and most importantly... the science!
A book every geek should own and read - and then stop going to McDonalds, buy a BowFlex and drop those pounds and build that body!
Re:Curry Anyone ? (Score:3, Interesting)
BTW, flights are a lot less than $800 most the time now.
Alton Brown and R.E.M. (Score:2, Interesting)
But he's not just a cooking geek -- the awesome production values in his show come from a history working with videos for MTV, and even some from R.E.M. I'm not sure which ones he was involved in, but it would be nice to know.
The lobster espisode was the best. Placing them where they were on the food chain has un-whetted my appetite a bit, but the in-depth instructions on how to kill them without pain (it's not dumping them in boiling water...) calmed my nerves when I actually had to do the deed. In AB's terms "the only creature you'll probably have to dispatch in your home kitchen."
Re:what i love about his shows... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not professionally, just several dozen a weekend or so, usually for relatives and friends.
Granted, when the wife asked why I needed to buy a $50 cookie sheet, and I said "Alton Brown has one just like it", she just rolled her eyes.
But I do love my $29 probe temp/timer just like Alton Brown has.
My $0.02 (Score:2, Interesting)
For the DIY/Geek Chef that has not gone to culinary school, here are three must haves:
The Professional Chef [barnesandnoble.com]
Gastronomique [barnesandnoble.com]
La Technique Culinaire [barnesandnoble.com]
Essentially, textbooks from most schools including the CIA.
Cooking and Operating Systems (Score:5, Interesting)
Don't fall into the lies, guys. Cooking can be as masculine as anything. Did I mention they make titanium cookware? Mmmmm.... titanium...
I'm always a bit surprised when people consider cooking to be un-geeky. I think of the choice "to cook or not to cook" to have some parallels to what kind of operating system you run on your computer. Hear me out. We all gotta eat and we all gotta use a computer. A great many of us either run Windows exclusively or have a Windows partition on our machine. Why? Because it's useful sometimes. Windows is crap and we all know it but the convienence is hard to ignore. Much like fast food. Fast food may be tasty but no one is going to argue that it is well-constructed cuisine. Windows is the fast food of operating systems. It's not good but it's ubiquitous and does the job.
Some people oppose eating at fast food restaurants on principle just like some people absolutely refuse to use Windows. However, there's no denying that going to a restaurant or heating up some frozen food in the microwave is a step above fast food. Similarly, some people like their Macs. You're still somewhat at the mercy of what's been created for you, but at least it's not fast-food/Windows.
But for the real power-user who wants to fully understand what's "under the hood" and be free to tinker it to their heart's content, there's nothing like Linux/unix. Infinitely configurable, the performance of the finished product relies quite a bit on your ability and knowledge of what you're doing. Cooking is for the "power eater" who is not content to trust someone else and is willing to get their hands dirty in order to make sure the finished product is just how they like it.
So don't think of cooking as "women's work." Think of it as the culinary equivalent of Linux/unix. The finished product is in your hands. If you're capable, you can create something just how you like it and your friends will be amazed. If you don't know what you're doing, then perhaps you'd better stick with Billy Gates' McOperatingSystem. It sucks but at least you won't die of food poisoning.
GMD
"The Grammar of Cookery" by Philip Harben (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not on Amazon, although some of his other books are (more on .co.uk than .com) - listed as out of print.
I'll look foward to getting a copy and seeing if cooking has changed in the last 35 years! ;-)
Good Eats, Good Man, So-so books (Score:5, Interesting)
However, I find his books to be fairly frenetic in their design, though well written and paced. They're all over the place with Quark textboxes and asides and footnotes, like his MTV-cut cooking show, with tiny margins that remind me of the Principia Discordia more than a book about the science of food. The information presented (especially on the chemistry of foods) is invaluable, but I feel that the brokenness of it strains out a lot of the flavour of the information. Call me a perfectionist, but I prefer my recipes in perfectly structured orders with explanations of what constitutes a perfect rise or the consistancy of an ideal soufflee.
For this reason, I prefer Alton's professor and nemesis of food artisans everywhere, Shirley Corriher. Her book "Cookwise: the hows and whys of successful cooking" has lead to more delicious meals, more perfect loaves, and more satisfied coos from a well fed wife then any book I've ever dealt with, Joy of Cooking included. It's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for aspiring chefs...elegantly written and full of more hints for cooking and living than the large print and simple illustrations would suggest.
However, though I felt a bit let down from Alton's literary style, I still make a point to be at home by 9 every Wednesday for Alton's program. It's entertaining, interesting, and the wife totally thinks he's sexy -- an opinion from whose association I can occasionally gleam a modest amount of appreciation. I even purchased glasses like his.