Stew Books

I'm a guy in my early 20's just learning how to cook for myself... this book is amazing. precise, detailed instructions on how to do things that a novice like me wouldn't otherwise know how to do. it's become like my cooking bible, an indispensable fixture around my kitchen.

Amazing resource! This is not just a collection of recipes strung together there are wonderful discussions of how they arrived at the recipes they present that I enjoy even more than the recipes themselves. There is considerable discussion not only of what worked but other ideas they tried that did not work. I find these are exactly the discussions I find most interesting and rewarding. Even though some of their approaches might have failed in one context, they might work in another one.

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 New Best Recipe is a compendium of more than 1,000 recipes from America's Test Kitchen. The philosophy is to preserve as much flavour as possible using the best cost-effective and time-saving way of cooking, with scientifically proven replicable methodologies. The range of cooking is vast: from Chinese stir-fries to Parker's roll, from chowder to Burgundy stews, the most commonly eaten dishes in modern Western homes are all inside.

There are a few quibbles with this book though. There is no metric equivalent for measurements. In New Zealand we never see such thing as "half and half" - it is either full cream milk or fresh cream, and the authors don't explain possible replacements when you can't find it. Many of the buyer's tips are useless in this country because of different brands (for example, Hellmann's is unheard of here, but only Watties or ETA) and different electrical applicances (fully automated ice-cream makers aren't available for domestic markets in NZ). We also don't have meatloaf mixes sold in supermarkets. The tastes are also a little different: while New Zealand has a preference of sweeter seasoning than Australia, it is nowhere as sweet as the average American palates in dishes such as using sweet white wine in making the bolognese sauce, so many of the food require less sugar. The idea of saving time using substitutes also runs contrary to Kiwi philosophy of "good things take time" - if you make it, use the full recipes. All of these make the book largely limited in appeal to New Zealand audiences.

All in all, it is a good introduction to home dishes, perhaps for American audiences, but I would strongly advise against New Zealand readers to consult this as the primary cookbook. Use The Australian Woman's Weekly series cookbooks or read Julie Le Clerc instead.

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. There is a set of books called the best recipe series by the same authors and we have purchased the "Baking Illustrated: A Best Recipe Classic (The Best Recipe Series)" volume that covers all of the baking recipes in this book and love it because it fits on the counter! This book does consume a lot of counter space so we have taken pictures right from the monstrosity and they print good enough to use then we just trash them keeping the book nice and clean. All said and done it is a great read! 5 stars for content 1 star for format= 3 stars. definitely worth buying!!

The New England Soup Factory cookbook is fantastic. I tried the Split Pea soup and it was so delicious - restaurant quality. I was so excited to serve it to my husband. He loved it! The recipes are easy to follow. I even resurrected my immersion blender. I highly recommend this book.

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 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!

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.

I am a pretty good cook and I can prepare very good soups. I bought this book without a lot of expectations. I made one soup: Mushroom - barley; to be honest I was surprised how good it came. It was very simple recipe, but taste was good enough for high rating restaurant.

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.

Fun to read the anecdotes and stories from the inn that are interspersed throughout the book. I am a gourmet cook but I connot emphasize enough how much I hate to bake. Due to my disasterous history with baking I don't even make birthday cakes and I don't make Christmas cookies. HOWEVER, there are two things for which I will make an exception; they are both in this book. The Rabbit Hill Inn Oatmeal-Molasses Bread makes the best cinnamon toast you will ever, ever eat. (Just try not to eat the whole loaf at one sitting.) And the Raisin-Pumpernickel Bread with a Secret is just divine. The flavors are strong enough that the bread is distinctive and wonderful but not overpowering. I promise you, you will NOT be disappointed.

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!

Own the book and purchased extra copies as gifts. This book makes making soup quick and easy and I love the idea of fresh ingredients and lower salt.

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.

This is a great (understatement) book beyond just the recipes. I grew up in a coastal area in the Northeast, yet despised the common clam chowder that ended up on our dinner table from time to time. The thought of salty milk flavored broth and rubberized clams that I could never bite all the way through gave me a tremendous aversion to the canned stuff. As I grew older and developed a love for good food and fresh ingredients, I stumbled back onto homage chowder and soups. This book is a must have for anyone who makes any kind of soup at home and has at least a passing taste for seafood. As a former Rhode Islander who lived on the east bay, White's references and stories that lead up to most of the recipes serve up some great nostalgia. White's stories are colorful in their subtle detail and provide an appreciation for the casual and organic nature of chowders and seafood based stews. All the recipes I've tried so far, about 8 of them, have been excellent. My all around favorite has been the New England Fish Chowder (pg. 79). There are also great basics like several ways to create different stocks which can be used in a variety of rice dishes, like risotto for example. My wife and I have dozens of cookbooks, and this is by far my favorite and second most frequently used behind Betty Crocker's Cookbook (believe it or not). It's also a generally interesting read.

One side note, over the years I've tried to use salt pork, which White, like other chowder recipe authors recommends for several dishes. I use a cast iron Dutch oven which cooks well and evenly, but I've always found that salt pork didn't cook well for me and the taste, almost metallic, undermined the flavor of any chowder. I try to use good quality smoked bacon for the best results. I only mention it because if I felt that salt pork was a necessity for chowder, I would probably never make it again.

50 Chowders by Jasper White; saw the author on Emeril's show and we immediately ordered Summer Shack and this book. Outstanding, no one needs another chowder book.

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.

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.

Reading this book makes you step back to a time when things were simple. I didn't grow up in this time, but have heard story after story of those times. In reading this book you feel that you are there with the author. This is a great book that I plan on buying more copies of for gifts.

Excellent book. I picked this up and couldn't put it down. My only complaint is that it isn't longer. I don't mean that in a bad way I didn't want the book to end. It makes me want to pull up a chair and listen to George Roof tell his stories first hand. From the earliest memories of his outdoorsman life to the harrowing Dall Sheep Hunt in Alaska you go right along with him, you feel like your there. You want to be there. Ethics, morals about life and the life outdoors are discussed and in such a way you'd be a fool not to agree and understand. Highly recomended well worth it. Buy one for yourself and for a friend, they will thank you.

I just finished the reading of this fine quality book. From the beginning of George Roofs hunting career to presnt day, he has been a great example for all hunters to follow. The book is filled with great stories that all hunters can relate to. I found it even more enjoyable for the writer does not fill his stories with unbelievable information, he is true to his word and his writings are all but incredible. Take the time and read the book, from page one you will be entertained and find yourself wandering throught the woods alongside this great hunter and writer.

I bought the book for my 12 year old son. He loves it and hasn't hardly put it down. He says he feels like he is there hunting and wishes he lived when George did. He took the book to school to share with his friends. He also bought one for his school principal who is helping him get started with taxidermy. It is nice to have some positive influences for your kids when there are so many bad influences out there to worry about. I am definitely going to buy more copies for the other hunters in my family. What a great gift.

This book is great! I am ordering another copy to send to my son. The short stories are a joy and easy to read.

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.