Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham, published by Alfred A. Knopf publisher, 303 pages, $29.95.

Essentials of Cooking, by James Peterson, Artisan Publishing, 299 pages, $24.95.

Summer is almost over for our household and time is running out to teach my second year college student how to cook. I don’t know how we made it to 19 years of age without a lesson, only to say she was always busy with homework and I was dominating the kitchen.

I knew that my old standby, The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, would be too confusing and advanced for Jessica’s easy breezy style.  I still wanted good technique. Even though I would only be a phone call away, I wanted her in “good cooking hands”. Who better than Marion Cunningham? Cunningham - a learned cookbook author of: The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, (both twelfth and thirteenth edition), The Breakfast Book (one of my favorites from my catering days), The Supper Book (a wonderful book of dinner meals using a minimum of ingredients) - has written Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham. This is my first book of choice.

Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham is geared toward the new cook no matter what age. It is for the person who doesn’t know anything about cooking nor can put a wholesome meal on the table. The chapters traverse from appetizers to dessert. They stray into soup for supper, meaty main meals, meals without meat, and breakfast can be supper too. Marion’s voice in the cookbook is no nonsense. She is spare in her descriptions and succinct. She is the nurturing elder for the novice cook. It’s easy to imagine the steps to follow as one reads the recipe.

When you first open the book there is a variety of helpful weights, measures, and equivalents. A useful beginning when sticks of butter are broken down into tablespoons and ounces. Cunningham’s next topic is her “Five Simple Truths About Home Cooking”. 1. Read the recipe through. 2. Organize your cooking. 3. Taste as you go along. 4. Clean as you go. 5. Cook more than you think you may need. These were pearls of wisdom that had taken me years to figure out. I still haven’t mastered clean as you go … Cunningham follows this chapter with essential kitchen tools, a traditional selection of tools and utensils for the novice. Along the way are vegetable charts with what to look for, storage, and how long they will keep. Side bars range from corresponding recipes, ingredient descriptions, to cooking terminology.

 Original Macaroni and Cheese hardly seems to be something that needs a recipe. Upon reading Cunningham’s directions, I saw many things that seemed natural to me but would challenge the fledgling cook. “When the water boils, add the macaroni and stir so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot…After 10 minutes, scoop up a piece of macaroni and taste it. Be careful not to burn your tongue. If the noodle is tender, it is done…Taste the sauce, If it is bland, add another ½ teaspoon of salt.” This is not rocket science but for a new cook these directions stand between a tasty meal and an inedible casserole of glue. My hat goes off to Cunningham for her clarity!

The recipes; Green Salad, Baked Potatoes, and Scrambled Eggs, reside next to Poached Salmon with Cucumber and Caper Sauce, American Apple Pie, and Old-Fashioned Beef Stew. All recipes are geared to success and turning the hesitant student into an intrepid cook.

We had an almost disastrous chicken cooking lesson when I demonstrated how to cut up a whole chicken. It was the pop of the wing socket that sent my daughter almost over the meat eating edge. As I counted to ten and regrouped, I thought that a more visual book would be better than my tutelage. I found Essentials of Cooking by James Peterson to fit the bill. 

Peterson is a prolific and in-depth author who has written definitive cookbooks on Splendid Soups, Fish and Shellfish, Sauces, and Vegetables. Unlike Cunningham’s recipe cookbook, Peterson’s book is technique driven.

There are six chapter headings and an excellent glossary. Recipes aren’t written in the traditional format but are in addition to the technique presented. The first chapter is Basics. It covers peeling and cutting vegetables from chop and mince to chiffonade and how to turn a vegetable. The chapter teaches sauces, pasta dough, cooking grains, and how to determine the doneness of foods. Vegetables and Fruits, Fish and Shellfish, Poultry and Eggs, Meat, and Working from Scratch (filet a flatfish anyone?) round out the chapter headings. The real strength of this book is the pictures.

 How to Cut-Up a Chicken was a clear lesson without trauma. The cut-up chicken can turn into chicken fricassee, chicken with red wine, or chicken with mushroom sauce. There even was a Kitchen Notes and Tips discussing the classic sauces for sautéed chicken. Where Cunningham led with words, Peterson pushed with pictures and technique.

Personally I found the Working from Scratch chapter terrific. The thorough photographs of working with different fish, curing seafood (both cold-smoke, brining, and salting), as well as trimming a veal breast and “Frenching” a rack of lamb were illustrated and described the way I was taught.  I know it will be years (or never) before Jessica will attempt rabbit but Peterson has the steps for cutting, boning a saddle, and preparing to braise a rabbit.

I think with both of these books in her library, my daughter will survive. There will be calls home (I hope), but she will be in good culinary hands at school.

Read, Eat, Enjoy,

Judith Bishop

www.ingoodtastestore.com

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