Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions

my girlfriend had this book on her bookshelf, new, untouched. if it had a wrapper, it would have still had it. I started to browse it while I waited to go out for dinner and I found several recipes that called my attention and were well explained. the author uses simple measurements like 1/2 cup of this or 1 cup of that, not like others that say everything in grams or used seasonings impossible to find. I also noticed the recipes looked doable for a guy like me that loves to eat well but hadn't had much practice preparing the meals. Anyway, I decided to try a few things at a time and the results were good and got better as I familiarized myself with the process. in just a few months, of mostly a weekend day, I've prepared some delicious stuff that I love to eat but thought it would be impossible for me to make it. Ah, I also like the tips, tricks and stories shared. the overnight cheesecake came out great, the double crusted apple pie... oh my mouth waters just thinking about it and relatively simple to make. I've prepared several soups including the tomato cream, the butter squash, yes,the butter squash cream, delicious! ah, my personal favorite, the french onion soup. With a little effort and wine to go with it, you'll be cooking in no time. I've already bought a new book for my college bound daughter. Von apetite. Luis

An interesting concept is at the base of this book. It provides hundreds of recipes--as a part of what is described as 5,000 "ingenious kitchen hints, secrets, shortcuts, and solutions." Coverage is from A to Z. Some examples of helpful hints. On page 3, substitutes for alcohol in recipes are noted. Instead of one tablespoon of sherry or Madeira, use one tablespoon of apple juice. Another item under A is the choice of the right apple for the right purpose. For example, Golden Delicious apples can be used for sauce, baking, salads, and eating; McIntosh apples are best for eating and sauce; and so on. And immediately after these hints, there is a nice recipe for spicy applesauce (using McIntosh apples). On page 75, for those readers addicted to Buffalo Chicken Wings, there is a recipe for Buffalo Hot Sauce. While I would prefer old-fashioned Tabasco Sauce, the recipe calls for somewhat milder hot pepper sauces, for palates that aren't as willing to burn. In addition, there are a couple recipes for using the sauce other than on chicken wings. What about making Mango Salsa? Page 268 features a simple, easy to make recipe. Polenta? Pages 377-378 provide a veritable "how to do it" mini-manual, including what to do if you err in making it (such as burning the bottom of the polenta). On Page 531, you can read how to prepare vegetables for grilling. For asparagus, snap off the tough ends and use direct heat to grill the vegetable. And so on and so on. A to Z? What about getting the zest from oranges to use in recipes? Here is one of the few places that I have run across this "how you do it" tidbit. All in all, a very nice and useful volume.

I love this book. I collect cookbooks and it is really hard to find something that gets me going. Many of the submissions (which are very well organized) also have great recipes. His long, slow oven cheesecake is worth the price of the entire book!!! Everyone needs this in their culinary library.

If I am about to cook something that I am not completely sure about, I will spend a few seconds looking it up in this book first. My cooking has improved dramatically since I have been using this and Bittman's wonderful "How to Cook Everything," which I find to be more exhaustive than this terse treasure. Brilliant is a joy to leaf through, a reliable reference, and a wonderfully instructive kitchen guide. My dining guests are envious of the skills I have gained from this book and I am constantly tempted to try new dishes and old ones prepared in novel ways. I recommend this as the most rewarding cooking reference to reach for first.

How many tablespoons of juice are in a lemon? What size dish is a "two-quart casserole"? For questions like this, you turn to "Brilliant," a truly great reference that belongs on the shelf with "The Joy of Cooking" (if you haven't ordered the latest edition, be sure to; there are lots of new recipes that no one had heard of when my first copy was published in 1963). "Brilliant" is a pure kitchen reference book that is as useful as any dictionary, encylopedia, or the Internet. Buy it and then browse through it to familiarize yourself with the contents. You'll be amazed at how often you refer to it.