How to cook indeed! (Delia's How to Cook Book 1 - Delia Smith)

Member Name: AliB

Product:	Delia's How to Cook Book 1 - Delia Smith
Date:	04/09/00 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to follow, not fancy

Disadvantages: None

I tend to buy cookbooks (or receive them as gifts) then never use them, but this one is definitely different! It was given to me as a birthday present and I'm eternally grateful! Despite cooking for myself for about 6 years now there are some things in here that I've found invaluable. Delia shows the very basics such as boiling or scrambling eggs. I thought I knew how to scramble an egg until I bought this book - I used to do what a lot of people seem to do, what I picked up from home, and that is add milk when cooking scrambled egg - Delia told me never to do this and my scrambled egg is one hundred times better!! The book is separated into the different "staple ingredients of all cooking": eggs, flour, potatoes, rice and pasta. Her recipes and methods are to the point, easy to follow and never too fancy - she gives a little description of each dish, a clear ingredients list with alternative measurements, how many the dish serves, and a clear, concise method of preparation. A clear photograph of how it looks during preparation and the finished product accompanies almost all of the 120 recipes.
I didn't think I'd ever bake bread myself but with this book it's made easy; there's a whole chapter on different types of bread. And my partner absolutely loves Delia's (my) toad-in-the-hole. Thanks to Delia my cooking is not just adequate, it's actually rather good!

This book provides basic techniques for the beginner, through to new recipes for the experienced cook - e.g. fat-free white sauces and soufflés that don't collapse! And, contrary to some other dooyooers, I don't find Delia patronising at all. She has spent a great deal of her life cooking and in this book she imparts knowledge she has gained over that time - methods she believes to be the best. This isn't patronising, she isn't insisting every reader adopt her methods and recipes full stop, she is simply trying to assist with expe
rience!

Summary: