Soups and Stews Books

This is a thinking man's "Joy of Cooking". They give you all the caveats to avoid when you are making any dish. I am not one to follow recipes to the letter. I like how they give you the objectives of what you are trying to accomplish. Then you can work within your range of knowledge. It is a great book for an advanced cook.

The recipes are thorough to the point of an extreme and if followed EXACTLY you will have perfect results every time. Even when not followed to the tee they come out great! I have purchased a lot of new equipment for these recipes and the buying tips offered in the book were invaluable! so you may be asking why only 3 stars after all the praise? The problem with the book is it's sheer size. It is a monstrosity! 5 pounds does not sound like a lot of weight but combined with the thickness of the book it makes very hard to read. I have accidentally ripped a lot of the pages just by holding them while the book has slipped between my legs. A better format would have been to break this into smaller pieces each focusing on a certain category like baking, main dishes, equipment corner, ect and offered as a boxed set. All said and done it is a great read! 5 stars for content 1 star for format= 3 stars.

I'm not a chef so I don't want to experiment on my own. I want to cook something the right way the first time. This book allows me to do this as the authors have taken the time to try the various methods and only give you the one that works the best.

I am also a geek at heart and I love the fact that they often explain the science and reasoning behind their recommendations. Very good book and I highly recommend. If you are a chef or someone looking for highly unique or very ethnically diverse dishes, this is probably not for you.

I have had this cookbook for a couple of months and have yet to be disappointed with a single thing I have made. The recipes are explained in detail, and I believe this book has made me a better cook simply by providing the "science" behind what makes a recipe work (for example adding baking soda to add more browning to a baked good). This has become my cooking bible and I have since ordered two more books from the same publisher.

Recipes I've made from the book that were fantastic include:
Devils Food Cake with Coffee Buttercream Icing (YUM!)
Chicken Marsala
Guacamole (so easy, yet so delicious)
Hummus (again, easy - it's fun and cheaper to make your own!)
Ratatouille
Stir Fried Pork (tasted better than a Chinese restaurant)

I've made a ton of others, but these are recent ones that come to mind. There are also numerous "sidebar" articles throughout the book with various equipment and ingredient reviews. I've followed a number of these recommendations and have also been very pleased.

In summary, this book is well worth the price and you will be on your way to serving fantastic meals to your family with relative ease!

Provided it as a gift, and the receiver loved it. I am thinking of getting my own copy.

This was a great book, not for the waistline, but certainly for the tastebuds.

I love the recipes in this book...The clam chowder is fantistic with a different flavor of tarragon. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Great book with luscious photos. I can't wait to make these great looking soups! There's something for everyone in this compact well-wriiten book.

Great reading and even better cooking. If you are an afcianado of cold soup's this is your cookbook. Interesting and inventive.

I haven't tried many of the recipes in the book yet, but so far so good! I picked the book based on all the other positive reviews, and from what I have seen so far they are very accurate. Almost all the recipes in the book look very appealing and I suspect the ones that don't appeal to me probably would to someone else (we all have our favorite or less then favorite ingredients!) The ones I have tried are delicious and I have a long list of other ones to try. I just finished making the spinach, feta cheese, and toasted pine nut soup. I was actually making it to have around the house for lunches this week but I tasted a bit when I finished and I'm just going to have to have it for dinner now! Yum! So far I have found everything very easy to make and the ingredients are easy to find with out a hassle at the grocery store. Its also been easy to make small changes to the recipes to make a few of them a little healthier. (I'm trying to do the Mediterranean diet thing, whole grains, lots of veggies, light on the meat, heavy creams, etc.) For example the soup I just made called for cream. I ended up just leaving it out because it was already a great texture and very tasty already. But I think the recipe would have been great with the cream or with half or whatever. Anyhow, if you like soup this one is worth buying!

Great recipes for soups, easy to make, with lovely photos of finished product.

One of my favorite cookbooks. I recommend it.

This is the 5th copy of this book we've bought. We give them as gifts to our busy friends who appreciate good food but don't have much time to cook a delicous, nutritious dinner every night. We especially love the blended soups that use chicken stock. Once blended they taste like a cream based soup without the fat and calories. When we give these as gifts we usually give a good immersion blender along with the book. We have found an immersion blender works so much easier than pouring the blended soups into a blender (less messy too). Our favorites: Potato Leek (blended) and Comfort Chicken Soup (with rice and spinach -- a balanced meal). I especially like the fact that the recipes are so easy to make that my husband loves to fix dinner. We have used the recipes in this cookbook at least once a week since we bought it 5 years ago. It's the best.

this book has a lot of useful information that helps in our fight for good health, fast, easy cooking and time saving. I have used some of the recipes and find them quite satisfactory.

Even though I almost never cook, the soups in this book are *so* simple and *so* tasty that I use it regularly. The format of the book is wonderful and the recipes extremely easy to understand and follow. Oh, and did I mention that they are delicious?! Do yourself a favor and make double quantities and freeze what you can't use right away. That way you can have tasty soup at hand through the winter.

I have already tried a few of the soups in this book, and they are delicious. Easy to make -- even a beginner can master these! A wonderful purchase for a cold winter day.

I purchased this book a few years ago when it was first published. At that time, I let a lady at work borrow it because she really liked to cook soups. She made several recipes and told me how great they were every time. Needless to say, I never got the book back and have since left the company. Recently, I ordered another copy for myself and thus far, have made quite a few of the recipes, which were all great. The book is structured very well, easy to understand, and breaks down the different soup categories; e.g., cream, cold, etc. The photos are also very attractive. This is a Culinary Institute of America cookbook, so we know that it will be a great addition to any cook's library. I have several other books published by them: Vegetables; Grilling; One-dish Meals.

SOUPS, SOUPS AND MORE SOUPS-WOW! GREAT RECIPES AND ILLUSTRATIONS FOR SOUP LOVERS. EASY TO PREPARE AND SERVE. INNOVATIVE AND EXCITING. IMPRESS YOUR GUESTS WITH YOUR KNOW-HOW. ENJOY!

This book is fantastic. In fact, the recipe for the most delicious soup I've ever had -- Minnesota Wild Rice Soup (with carrots, celery, leeks, heavy cream, and white wine) came out of this book. Of course, I may be a bit biased, being a Minnesota girl, but I don't think so.

Dang it, now I'm hungry for soup.

I purchased this book for my boyfriend for Christmas and we just cooked our first soup from it last night. We made the Vietnamese spinach and beef soup. It was delicious! Can't wait to try more of the recipes!

The Culinary Institute of America Book of Soups contains over 100 recipes for soups including soup basics, broths, hearty soups, cream soups, pureed soups, bisques and chowders, and cold soups. This book also includes recipes for a variety of soup accompaniments such as breads, biscuits, crackers, dumplings, and vegetable chips.

As I was looking through this book, I realized how uneducated I was on the wide variety of soup possibilities. Though I enjoy soup, particularly homemade soup with fresh ingredients, I hadn't really ever considered the fact that soup came in so many different varieties, textures, and tastes.

For best taste results, I suggest using garden fresh vegetables and fresh seafood. I also suggest making up large quantities of the various types of broths for use as you need them. As many of these soups are freezable, I am making up large qualities of different soups using fresh seasonal ingredients and then freezing them for later use. This way, I can have some really delicious soups even when the ingredients are no longer seasonally available.

A neighbor and I trade cookbooks. She lent me The Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread: A Country Inn Cookbook. I loved this book so I went out and bought my own copy! While reading my new book, I immediately found a number of recipes that I wanted to try. I first baked "Raisin Pumpernickel Bread with a Secret". It was absolutely delicious and the extra loaves were shared with neighbors and friends. One thing that I especially liked about this book is that as I was reading it, I felt such warmth, love and kindness emanating from it. This book has such personal touches, from the asides about life and experiences as an innkeeper to the interesting introductions with each of the recipes, that I felt as though the author was talking to me as another friend who obviously loved food and cooking as much as I did. Even after I put the book down, the warmth stayed with me for a long time. I recommend this book to everyone who has a passion for cooking, especially with a friend.

This is one of the best cookbooks I have ever used. Every soup I have made has been either very good, excellent or superb. It is engagingly written and easy to use. Highly recommended.

This book features recipes from the Dairy Hollow Inn. Well-known food writer and innkeeper Crescent Dragonwagon puts in the soup and bread recipes that won her inn the "Uncle Ben's" award, a prize for excellence in small inn cuisine. She shares her spotlight with other inns from around the US.

Right now, as I am writing this review, I am sipping her New England Corn Chowder, which is a corn-squash chowder that can be made with vegetarian ingredients or chicken broth. I tried both versions; right now the base is a golden vegetable broth from a tetra pak but you can use her recipe for vegetable stock. The soup is sweet and spicy and I served it to guests and nothing was left; had to make a second batch. The soup recipes here are all winners. There is a vegetable soup base that can become minestrone or what-have-you, and many other fine recipes featuring vegetables. There is also a section on southern greens.

The breads are everything from a raisin pumpernickel with a secret (chocolate chips) to oatmeal molasses and baps, Scottish soft white rolls.

If you can't find a soup in here you like, you are hard to please--or you don't like soup. Ms. Dragonwagon's commentaries on the inn are fun reading so this is a book you can peruse even if you aren't stirring up something in your kitchen. I use this book almost everytime I entertain for casual affairs; soup and bread are always welcome and easy to serve and enjoy.

We've only owned this cookbook for a short time, but already it is one of our favorites. The author includes background on each recipe in an informal style that makes the reader feel like a good friend being given an enthusiastic recipe tip. In addition, the book includes a large amount of useful information from how to deal with an artichoke, to various soup garnishes and how to work with yeast. It's the recipes that shine, however.
We started with the Wintery Chicken and Pasta Soup--delicious. Then I made the Rabbit Hill Inn Oatmeal-Molasses bread--an outstanding bread my husband wants me to make again. The big winner was A Salad for Fall which we just couldn't get enough of. The combination of flavors is as close to perfect as you can get. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves good food and is willing to spend a little time in preparation.
As I write this, one of the bean soups is simmering on the stove. Bon Appetit!

I am a terrible cook, but for ten years I have astonished my wife and made some very impressive soups from the recipes in this collection. These soups are better than anything I have ever had in a restaurant (I've never been to Crescent's B&B, however). Warning - you may never be capable of opening a can of soup once your tastebuds have been altered by this cookbook. I've got to try her Veggie Cookbook!

As an avid cook book collector and amateur chef I found this particular cook book very well organized and easy to follow/use. I have tried some of the recipes and found them to be most flavorful. 50 Chowders is a welcome element to my collection.

This book is wonderful the recipes and ingredients are exact and the chowders are delicious if your an experienced cook you can variate the ingredients to your style, a wonderful book for those in the cooler regions.Nothing better than a great chowder stewing on a cool afternoon.

'50 Chowders' by noted New England chef and writer, Jasper White may not be among my top five favorite cookbooks, but it is certainly on my list of 25 cookbooks which must be on a shelf in my kitchen. My experience with making the recipes in this book is so good, I will waive any complaint about getting only 50 chowder recipes for a list price of $30, at least twice the cost per recipe from a `name' cookbook author.

The charm of this book extends far beyond its recipes, as it inherits an interest for the reader from its subject. Chowders easily rank as one of the great New World dishes, along with barbecue, chili and ceviche. As the author points out at the beginning of the book, a chowder is not a soup, even though it shares many similarities to some famous soups such as minestrones and bouillabaisse in being thick and being based on seafood. But, a chowder is neither a soup nor a stew, yet an exact definition is almost impossible. The meaning of `chowder', like the meaning of the word `games' is so slippery that almost every definition you can imagine may slip through your hands with a valid counterexample. This is where the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein introduced the notion of family resemblance. Each chowder example shares several similarities to a related soup which is also a chowder, but it also exhibits differences from some chowders as well as differences from non-chowder soups and stews.

Virtually the only essential ingredient seems to me to be salt pork. The next most important ingredient is a starch from potato, biscuit, or corn. The third most definitive ingredient is probably a seafood (shell or fin) protein. Even this third element is not essential, as this book contains some chowders where the protein critter source has never willingly stuck its feet or wing into water.

The first chapter in this book provides a really excellent set of recipes for nine (9) different stocks, including six (6) for fish stocks. These nine are in addition to the fifty chowder recipes proper and include a strong fish stock, a traditional fish stock, clam and mussel broths, lobster stock, crab stock, chicken stock, chicken broth, and beef stock or broth. The only thing I miss here is a corn broth, although White's recipes do use cleaned corncobs to add corny flavor to chicken stocks used in the corn chowders.

The last chapter provides ten (10) recipes for `Chowder Companions', dishes commonly eaten with chowder. The only thing I would expect on this list that I miss is a recipe for crackers. But, we get lots of good quickbread recipes for garlic toast, buttermilk biscuits, cheddar cheese biscuits, Parker House rolls, anadama bread, corn bread, corn sticks, corn fritters, clam fritters, and salt cod fritters. White is true to his New England roots, as his biscuit recipe comes from Vermont native, Christopher Kimball rather than from a cook with a Southern accent such as Shirley Corriher or Edna Lewis. These ten recipes also do not count toward the fifty chowder recipes.

Between these two `extras' there are four chapters with the fifty recipes for fish, clam, other shellfish, and `farmhouse' chowders. The scant fifty recipes suddenly becomes more like 150 when we realize that each chowder recipe is augmented with one or more variations to the basic recipe. And, each basic recipe is presented in such a way that if one central ingredient is not available, another can be substituted with virtually no loss of quality. In the recipe for New England Fish Chowder, for example, the author points out that either cod or haddock will do well as the primary fishy protein, with haddock being just a little firmer and less likely to flake, giving larger chunks of fish in the finished soup.

I personally find the instructions for these recipes to be about as carefully written as you can imagine. This means that the procedures seem a bit long, but they are not difficult. Recall that chowders were created to be made on fishing boats with the most basic ingredients you can possibly imagine, by cooks which never saw the inside of a cooking school, long before the birth of either August Escoffier or even Antonin Careme. These were ship's cooks who needed homespun techniques to coax a good taste out of extremely simple ingredients. But, these recipes are not historical reconstructions as you may find in the writings of White's great friend and fellow chowder scholar, John Thorne. I sense that almost all of these recipes started as someone's traditional meal, but chef White has gilded each one to take advantage of fresh herbs and vegetables. And yet, I can find practically no other ingredient beyond the basic salt pork, potatoes, dairy product, basic protein, and basic vegetables such as leeks, corn, tomatoes, and celery. The book also goes out of its way to spell out in advance all he special cooking tools you will need to make each main recipe.

The very best thing I can say about the book as a whole is that it is equally pleasant to simply read it as it is to cook from it and taste it's excellent dishes.

Very highly recommended.

Excellent chowder history, discussions of ingredients and recipes. This book is as good a read as it is a cookbook. Don't be afraid that the author's New England heritage will make all the chowders fish; there is a good-sized chapter of "farmhouse chowders" that features chowders of corn, chicken, mushrooms, bean, potatoes, turkey or pheasant. I had to try the "cider and bean chowder" and it is wonderful. I have also enjoyed the recipes for biscuits, rolls, etc. in the chapter of "chowder companions."

This is a book that will be enjoyed by both experienced and novice cooks, as the recipes are well written and please the palate.

The only caveat is to those with dietary restrictions or those (like me) who do not like higher fat foods. I don't like recipes that use lots of heavy cream, but I have found that the making the usual substitutions (milk plus a little flour) gives me the same wonderful chowders but without the extra fat calories.

This is a book for those who love to understand what it is that makes the food they prepare so delicious. Jasper White writes with infectious enthusiasm about the history of chowder, and explains the roles of the component ingredients in each exceptional recipe. I just prepared his Layered Fish Chowder, and cannot describe the satisfaction I found in the rich aromas of cooking and the incredibly balanced flavor and texture of the dish. My family was delighted with the meal, and I can't wait to prepare more of these elegant but simple recipes. I cannot praise this book highly enough, not only for the recipes, but for informative, well-written text. I am a collector of cookbooks, particularly on the subject of one-pot meals, and this is by far the best I have found to date. Those readers familiar with John Thorne will recognize White's Thorne-like connection to and love for his work.

This book is well written, easy to understand direction, recipes that are usually hard to find, an all around great book for soup lovers. The perfect cook book for those people intimidated by cooking!! I love this book, so much that I gave it to my mother in law and she too loves it!

Every single recipe is a winner. After thanksgiving I've done the Turkey dinner soup. delicious!!
Whatever ingredients you like on a soup, you'll find a recipe here that will suit you. I totally recommend it!
The hardcover and beautiful drawings makes of this book also a great gift for friends and family.

I love soup cookbooks - so I'm always looking to add some new ones to my collection. The recipes in "Is It Soup Yet?" are good and cover a fairly broad range of soups. In addition to traditional recipes for chicken noodle soup, international soups and "20 minute" soups are represented.

However, I found the format and pictures to be a bit too precious for this male soup lover. Although it's the recipes that ultimately matter, a cook is always influenced by cookbook aesthetics, and this one just didn't do it for me. Fortunately, the pictures are included here, so you can judge for yourself. I do, however, think that it would make a good gift for people who enjoy cookbooks with country flair.

Smaller in size than many other soup cookbooks, this one offers a great recipe on just about every page. Great to use by themselves, more adventurous cooks will also be able to use these recipes as great starting points for some personalized variations. Just a great soup cookbook!

As I write this, there is a pot of Hamburger Soup and a pot of Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup simmering on the stove. Literally, the most difficult step in making the Hamburger Soup was browning the meat. I usually do most of my cooking on weekends so that I don't have to come home from work and start cooking a dinner meal. But these recipes are so easy and quick that you can easily put them together in minutes... I also appreciate that the recipes reflect the trend to use ingredients containing low or no-fat. I used skim milk in making the Broccoli Cheddar Cheese soup with the same amount of flour to make a roux, and it turned out beautifully. This is a book that belongs on a coffee table as the illustrations, similar to those found in a children's book, are striking.

Soup is a great comfort food and this book won't disappoint. This will make a great gift for novice or experienced cooks.

This book is absolutely wonderful. It has some great recipes to match up to the adventures that "Soup" went through. Not a thriller, but definitely a wonderful read.

This is a truly great cookbook. In my experience soup recipes are sometimes afterthoughts, as if soup isn't worth the attention of a main course, but these have been carefully considered, and tested extensively on many happy Austinites. The story behind the author's soup business and regional Austin flavor is entertaining as well, so this book makes a great gift.

If you think you are buying a book filled with recipies you are mistaken. In its 181 pages there are 35 recipies--wonderful and tasteful.

If you are intersted in reading David Ansel's reveries, then this is primarily what the book is about. They are fascinating.

Since I expected to find more or the former and less of the latter, I was disappointed.

This is a well-written, easy-reading HILARIOUS book that gives one a magnified glimpse into the life of an Austinite. The characters David reveals, the places to which he takes you, and the adventures he shares are guaranteed to give you that "warm, fuzzy feeling". Oh -- and the soup recipes are great, too! I haven't tried all of them, but the ones I *have* tried are delicious. Get this book, and be weird vicariously!

David's writing is almost better than his soup. I notice this everytime I read something of his, whether the weekly Soupie email, article or something else. He beautifully brings to life the South Austin scene, and does it without condescending, something non-Texans seem hard-pressed to avoid. In fact, his love for the landscape and people in his adopted home comes through in every paragraph. For this, for his soup, for his talent with the written word, I am eternally grateful.

I've had this cookbook for almost 10 years and it is still one of my favorites! It was one of two that made the cut when we moved abroad for a few years and had to leave most of our belongings in storage. There are meals to please my young son as well as his spice-loving parents. One of my favorite features is that the author suggests salads, starches, and desserts to go with each stew, and those recipes are also included in the book.

This is one of my favorite Winter cookbooks. The format is easy to use and the menu suggestions are very helpful. The stew recipes are varied and delicious.

I adore this cookbook - I've liked everything I've made from it, which is much more than I can say for most of the ones I've used. She has excellent taste in food, and most of these are very straightforward to make -- the ingedients are all things that are possible to acquire, the steps make sense and are understandable, and the suggestions about what to serve together are helpful. Hopefully, she'll write more of them.

I love cookbooks...I have a zillion! This is one of my favorites. The recipes are fantastic and fairly easy to pull off, even for a Mom of two young kids. Buy it, you'll love it.

This is a great cookbook! I've been cooking for many, many years. My family is spoiled rotten and expects only the best for dinner. We have not been disappointed with any of the recipes from this book. The stews are almost international in scope, are easy to make, and banish the "I've been making dinner for the last 25 years" cooking doldrums. Most of them are based on standard kitchen cupboard material. Most of them are healthy (occasional sour cream is the worst offender).
None of recipes depend on large quanties of cheese for flavor. I don't believe a can of condensed soup is ever called for and I have found that for many of them you can omit browning the meat -which is the part I hate when making stew.
This is a fun, exciting, interesting and successful cookbook. I don't believe it's been off my kitchen counter since I got it (two months ago) and I just ordered two more for gifts.

If you like soup and are a vegetarian you"ll love this book of receipes. The book itself was in great shape. Thanx Seller

This book is the perfect soup cook book. I really love soup and wanted some new and interesting recipes. This book definitely delivered! I have tried many of the recipes and all of them were delicious. Each recipe is very unique and my favorite so far is the roasted vegetable soup. The roasting causes a sweetness and carmelization that is delicious and even though there are a lot of ingredients prep is quick because it is mostly just chopping up veggies.

One of my friends was recently diagnosed with Celiac Disease and this book is helping her through her tough time with her new dietary restrictions. She is not able to use any canned broths or bouillions that you could buy at the store so the vegetable stock recipe in this book is helping her to be able to eat the soups she loves again.

This is a great book!

Excellent and easy and delicious recipes for anyone who likes soup and doesn't like to go to a whole lot of trouble.

I think a good cookbook should have an image for every recipe.
This cookbook has beautiful images, but I wish they would show me an image of the cooked soup instead of images of the ingredients. I know what a raspberry looks like, but I have no idea about raspberry soup.
Else than that I think that the yummy titled of the recipe make up a little bit for the lack of images, they all sound good. They are simple yet not obvious soups. They have refined ingredients, but not obscure, you can find everything at the grocery store.
My only other critique would be that the organization of the explanation is trying to simplify the flowing of the making process, but I think it is just confusing. I would like a 1-2-3 kind of book, but this one is more like a flowing text wich makes it hard to follow once you are in the kitchen with your stuff cooking fast.
Over all it seems to be a good book, full of nice little recipies. I just wish there was more images...

I love this book. Not just for the recipes but for the clean design and beautiful photographs. Everything about this book makes you want to use it over and over.

I do have one word of caution. Her miso soup recipe calls for you to boil the miso. She makes an effort to explain how beneficial miso is for your health but unfortunately, boiling miso destroys all of the good enzymes.

Add it at the end by turning off the heat, mix in your miso, and wait a few minutes before serving. Heat activates the enzymes but, again, boiling will destroy them.

Aside from this small detail, it is one of my favorites amoung my vast collection of cookbooks.