Describe Whitney Miller's New Southern Table cookbook in one word? Normal. As in, these are recipes actual, real normal non-professional chef families might get round to trying. I can't tell you how often I've picked up a cookbook and wound up never using it because of the extraordinary number of ingredients that would require a special trip, or some painstaking preparation. In this book, she'll throw in some weird ingredient occasionally, but from the look of the quality and "do-ability" of the recipes, it may become something you'll like enough to justify a special purchase.
Miller travelled the world after winning MasterChef, so she was able to add international flavours to her great-grandmothers' Depression-era cooking recipes for this book. It's not what you'd likely expect. Would you pop some pickles into your potatoes for a new dill-y and delicious flavour? There's a recipe for it that and it's remarkably similar to what we tried in Lindsborg, Kansas, at the Swedish Crown restaurant.
It's a thick, hardbound book with glossy pages. Breakfasts, party foods, sides, soups, sandwiches and suppers are all covered. The illustrations are very helpful and I think fairly represent what the finished product will look like. Not too fakey-perfect.
The only criticism I have (and I suppose it is not even that) is that the pages don't lie flat during cooking. Easily fixed with a heavy plastic ruler here, but if they come out with a second edition or an update? I would suggest they spiral-bind it.
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Nice to have a book that can be used. I have several that I don't even open anymore because I don't want all the fuss of so many ingredients and so much time and clean up for just one person. Yes, I could probably freeze leftovers, but I already do that and my freezer is very small.
ReplyDeleteI use a heavy metal ruler (if I can find it) or more often a heavy knife to hold pages open.
Often I hold mine open with a mixing bowl, but presently I have FOUND the plastic ruler, so I will use that until it's lost again...
ReplyDeleteSounds like a winner! I don't like complicated recipes! Like you mentioned in your comment above, I often use a mixing to hold open recipe books as well--or a cookie jar, whatever's handy!
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