"How to Cook Everything" (2008) - Mark Bittman's Popular Home Cookbook

[TrelayneNYC]

I belong to a cookbook club here in San Francisco. Our first dinner is in two weeks. It's kind of like a potluck and social thing: everyone cooks from the same book, then on the big day, brings the dish to someone's house for a get-together. It's about cooking, entertaining, belonging and making new friends.

It's a groovy thing.

What I am so not in love with is the cookbook that was chosen, sort of like an icebreaker, because not everyone attending is on the same skill level. There are some very accomplished cooks who will be attending, including at least one person who has his own catering business. And some newbies, I'm sure. So you need something that will not intimidate. I do appreciate that.

Unfortunately, Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" was the book that was chosen and reading it makes me rage.

A recipe for chicken adobo (page 658) calls for 1 cup soy sauce and 1/2 cup vinegar - which, if you think about it - changes it from chicken braised in vinegar with soy sauce and garlic to chicken braised in soy sauce with vinegar and garlic.

A recipe for chicken biryani (page 654) calls for 4 tbsp. butter instead of ghee and saffron instead of turmeric. Ghee is butter with the water removed and milk solids are caramelized - so it has a butterier and nuttier flavor than butter, plus you don't need to use that much. 

I had heard Bittman's book was "basic" but I hadn't considered that his recipes were nearly unworkable from a technical standpoint. Holy fucking shit. This guy is supposed to be an authority. On what planet?

[Simul Parikh]

Ha! I own that book, but it is super basic and what I used to start cooking. I don't think the goal is to make authentic or excellent versions of anything. He is the Minimalist - I think it's to make cooking easy/less intimidating for people. I mean, the average suburban American person may not have ever used saffron before or even heard of ghee, ya know? 

If you want challenge and authenticity, then try Food Lab and make that Meatloaf or Ragu, or the Rasika cook book, or one of Fuchsia Dunlap books .. those are legit! 

Agree that adobo chicken sounds atrocious, though.