Lora Brody Plugged In: The Definitive Guide To The 20 Best Kitchen Appliances

Based on rigorous hands-on tests, the best-selling author of The Kitchen Survival Guide selects the twenty best brand-name kitchen appliances, offering information about them, tips on their use, and 375 recipes for them.

Imagine David Letterman reading off a top-10 list of wacky kitchen appliances. A cotton candy machine? Come on! Turn to Brody's 20 best, a consumer's guide kind of listing of must-have electrical kitchen doodads. Brody approaches the task with no mean credentials, having been proclaimed the queen of the bread machine by her publicist. Few brand names are espoused; instead, each of the 20 appliances receives a very detailed and thoughtful analysis--what it does, reason for buying, operations, TLC, selection, tips for use, and miscellany. The more than 375 included recipes maximize the specific features of each machine. Recommend for any age in any stage of kitchen smarts. Barbara Jacobs

Brody, the "bread machine queen" (Desserts from Your Bread Machine, LJ 4/15/94), and her team had fun playing around with all the latest kitchen appliances, from immersion blenders to electric water smokers. They chose their favorites, which include both old reliables like the food processor and the pressure cooker, as well, somewhat surprisingly, an electric tortilla press (it's more versatile than you might think); electric sifters and peelers (!) were among those that did not make the cut. Each chapter includes a general description of the appliance (What Does It Do? Why Do I Need This?) and a listing of helpful tips, sometimes including uses that won't have occurred to most cooks, followed by an interesting mix of recipes that use the tool to its best advantage. There are suggestions for what features to look for and so forth, but no brand name buying guide (however, the introduction does single out the clear winners in some categories). Overall, this may be more valuable for its recipes than as a consumer reference; recommended for most collections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.