The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook

There is great comfort for any cook who finds a cookbook author he or she likes: you know what to expect, you trust their judgement and their recipes, you like their voice. That's the case with Christopher Kimball and me.Christopher Kimball founded and still edits COOK'S ILLUSTRATED magazine. I always learn something from COOK'S. Its laconic, thorough approach is Chris incarnate, and this unfussy spirit is echoed in "The Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook" as well. With its yellow-checked cover, an old-fashioned typeface (Poor Richard, perhaps?), and illustrations reminiscent of woodblock prints by Rockwell Kent or Barry Moser, this is a conscious visual effort to call up the gentle past. The recipes, however, are anything but nostalgic. Chris flatly debunks assumption after assumption about recipes we thought we knew. He is a demon tester, and has charted wonderful new paths to the same old dishes, making them bright and newly delicious in our mouths. Several "Yellow Farmhouse Cookbook" recipes have become family favorites in my home (especially the scalloped potatoes, which get requested on practically a weekly basis). This book is a stroke of good fortune for any home cook.

Besides being a good read, with Kimball's charming reminiscences of growing up in a quaint Vermont country town, this cookbook is a treasure because of the multitude of absolutely reliable recipes for the best country cooking to be had! I just love this cookbook, and it is the first one I reach for when making meals everyday for my family. It is full of recipes for the type of good, hearty, down-home cooking that you grew up with and/or crave. These recipes are so thoroughly tested and well explained that they are, well, fool-proof. Kimball tells you why and how. All the recipes I have tried have been superb. The chicken pot pie is homey and satisfying. The buttermilk biscuits are so tender and fluffy and high, I threw away my old biscuit recipe and will not make biscuits any other way now. The buttermilk pancakes are the best and most tender I have ever had -- the secret is in the egg whites. Read why inexpensive cast-iron cookware is all you need for good cooking. Now I understand why my expensive Calphalon pans and non-stick coatings have long disappointed me. As soon as I had finished reading this book cover to cover, I bought a cast-iron Dutch oven and two skillets, and now I am cooking happy. If you want a cookbook to cook real meals by, this is the one!!!

I picked up THE YELLOW FARMHOUSE COOKBOOK while my wife was preparing a meal from one of Kimball's recipes. I literally could not put the book down after having read the acknowledgements and introduction. The volume is invaluable for anyone serious about what happens in the kitchen, and is a practical and indespensible reference tool for any home. More importantly, from my point of view, it is remarkably well-written. Mr. Kimball writes with an ingenuous warmth that not only makes the reader feel a closeness to this special Vermont community, but to the author, as well. All culinary concerns aside, this is a very good read.