Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking - Hardcover

Bittman, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0025107755 ISBN 13: 9780025107755

Publisher: Macmillan General Reference, 1994

Synopsis

Fish: The Complete Guide to Buying and Cooking is a book that simplifies, once and for all, the process of preparing fish. Organized in an easy-reference, A-Z format, Fish gives you the culinary lowdown on seventy kinds of fish and shellfish commonly found in American supermarkets and fish stores. Each entry describes how the fish is sold (fillets, steaks, whole, salted), other names it goes by, how the fish should look, and buying tips. Fish begins with general guidelines on how to store, prepare, and cook fish, whether sauteing, frying, grilling, or smoking, and you will find easy-to-follow illustrations of such important basics as how to gut and fillet a fish. Fish also includes up-to-the-minute information on the health benefits of fish in our diet.
In addition, there are more than five hundred recipes and variations, all of which use low-fat, high-flavor ingredients to accent the intrinsic natures of the individual fish rather than mask them. And the vast majority of the recipes are ready in less than thirty minutes.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Bittman's is the executive editor of Cook's Illustrated.

Reviews

Bittman organizes this more than ample book into short sections devoted to individual fish: technical information on how to handle a lobster, for instance, is combined with consumer buying tips, then followed by nine recipes. Usefully, the author, executive editor of Cook's Illustrated , holds his commentary down to a sober minimum--he doesn't often opt for chat or reader entertainment. Instead, unveiling the basics about 70 fish, he provides tried-and-true fare for the table--Dungeness crab salad, marinated grilled salmon--interspersed with more unusual offerings: raw sea bass salad; curried mussels; salmon scallops with garlic confit. Anyone with decent access to a fish market will appreciate (and come to rely on) this substantial overview. Photos not seen by PW . BOMC HomeStyle Book Club alternate; Food and Wine Books selection; first serial to Self magazine.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bittman provides enough information on 70 different ocean and freshwater types of fish to make wise shopping and cooking decisions. For instance, he suggests avoiding tilapia because of its indistinct, muddy flavor, and informs us that the tenderizing of octopus has ethnic variations (Spaniards dip it in a boiling water bath, Greeks hit it against the kitchen sink, and Japanese knead it). His recipes, too, reflect a broad familiarity with world cuisines and, for the most part, are easy to duplicate in American kitchens. Barbara Jacobs

Here is yet another fish cookbook, but this is a particularly good one. Bittman, executive editor of Cook's Illustrated, has written a very user-friendly guide to what is still an unknown area for many home cooks. He provides more how-to illustrations than most books, along with informative but approachable descriptions on buying and preparing fish. He includes more than 70 types of fish and shellfish, organized alphabetically (no confusing subcategories here for the uninitiated); each section starts with the relevant particulars (common names, common forms, buying tips, etc.), followed by a more detailed description, ranging from several paragraphs to several pages in length. The recipes-more than 500-are simple, varied, and unintimidating. Highly recommended. [BOMC HomeStyle alternate selection; Food & Wine Books selection.]
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Macmillan General Reference
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0025107755
• ISBN 13: 9780025107755
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 367