Cook's Book of Essential Information: A Kitchen Handbook

“This kitchen reference book is packed with all kinds of information that has never been compiled in one book before.”—Chicago Tribune

Everything you really need to know about buying, cooking, and storing food is here in one easy-to-use volume. Packed with essential information for both the experienced and the beginning cook, this is a kitchen encyclopedia to keep handy when you need fast, accurate answers to your food questions.

A complete compendium of:
• Common Cookbook Terms & Abbreviations
• Ingredient Substitutions
• Temperatures and Cooking Times for Dozens of Foods
• Finest Kitchen Equipment
• Storage Life for Frozen, Refrigerated, and Shelf Foods
• Food Additives—the Safe and the Unsafe
• Nutritional Guidelines . . . and More!
 
Answers to the food questions you really ask:
How many graham crackers are needed for one pie shell?
Can I substitute cocoa for chocolate squares in a recipe?
Which buy on eggs is best—medium, large, or extra-large?
How long will a jar of mayo keep in the refrigerator?
What’s the cooking time for lobster?

Among other things, this title addresses the small, practical problems that at times plague the home cook. Can the casserole be frozen? What does the recipe mean by "proof the yeast?" Which part of the lemon is the "zest"? How many pounds to the cup? What's a substitute for cake flour? How many minutes comprise "cook until done?" Hill provides the answers to these and other questions in seven ambitious chapters. Also included are a dictionary, a concordance of ingredients, menu-planning strategies, advice on food storage, tables of equivalents, descriptions of kitchen equipment, tables of nutritional values, andone of the book's most intriguing featuresan appendix listing many common food additives. As a whole, Hill's work is comparable to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking but geared to novices. Inevitably there are gaps, but at this price it's a bargain.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.