Review: "Milk Street 365"
Jun. 30th, 2024 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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recipecommunityMilk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year
Hardcover – April 16, 2024
by Christopher Kimball
Today we finished reading this cookbook. It's a huge heavy thing and I'm happy that I won't have to lug it around the car anymore. :D If you like big cookbooks, though, this is a nice chunky one. It is heavily international, which we tend to like. It has a lot of chapters, including food categories not often seen in cookbooks: Salads, Vegetables, Soups, Beans & Lentils, Grains, Eggs, Noodles, Stir-Fries, Oven Bakes, Braises & Stews, Seafood, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Pizzas & Flatbreads, Burgers & Sandwiches, Tortillas, Sauces Salsas & Pickles. The index is primarily by ingredient, rather than title, so you have to guess which ingredient in the title is the one it'll get listed under. Not ideal, but usable.
Recipe titles are typically monolingual. There might or might not be a translation and the cuisine(s) of origin in the header description before the recipe proper. However, it does list the estimated cooking time and number of servings under the title, which is convenient. Recipes typically have a single full-color picture, small to medium, though some are larger. Among the recipes we marked were Persian-style Chicken, Mushroom, and Barley Soup; Coconut Rice; Velvety Turkish Scrambled Eggs with Yogurt; Three-Cup Chicken with Basil; Colombian Coconut Braised Chicken; Pan-fried Tuna Cakes with Yogurt-Caper Sauce; Ginger-Scallion Skillet Shrimp with Napa Cabbage; Rosemary-Balsamic Shredded Pork; Somali Style Beef and Vegetables; Yogurt Dough for Pizza and Flatbread; Moroccan Flatbreads (which are raised, not flat, and I would classify as a seedcake); Spiced Lamb Burgers with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce; Almond and Rosemary Salsa Verde; and Smoked Paprika Spice Paste with Cumin and Oregano. We didn't find a high density of recipes we liked -- they often had one or another ingredient we don't use, like wine or avocado -- but over a big book they added up.
This cookbook is a good choice if you want a humongous variety of recipes, or if you like international recipes but prefer them sorted by food type rather than country of origin. It's a good third or fourth cookbook once you've learned the basics and wish to explore new techniques and ingredients. As long as you have access to a good international food store, you'll probably be able to find ingredients. If not, you'll be stuck ordering online at best. Recommended.
Hardcover – April 16, 2024
by Christopher Kimball
Today we finished reading this cookbook. It's a huge heavy thing and I'm happy that I won't have to lug it around the car anymore. :D If you like big cookbooks, though, this is a nice chunky one. It is heavily international, which we tend to like. It has a lot of chapters, including food categories not often seen in cookbooks: Salads, Vegetables, Soups, Beans & Lentils, Grains, Eggs, Noodles, Stir-Fries, Oven Bakes, Braises & Stews, Seafood, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Pizzas & Flatbreads, Burgers & Sandwiches, Tortillas, Sauces Salsas & Pickles. The index is primarily by ingredient, rather than title, so you have to guess which ingredient in the title is the one it'll get listed under. Not ideal, but usable.
Recipe titles are typically monolingual. There might or might not be a translation and the cuisine(s) of origin in the header description before the recipe proper. However, it does list the estimated cooking time and number of servings under the title, which is convenient. Recipes typically have a single full-color picture, small to medium, though some are larger. Among the recipes we marked were Persian-style Chicken, Mushroom, and Barley Soup; Coconut Rice; Velvety Turkish Scrambled Eggs with Yogurt; Three-Cup Chicken with Basil; Colombian Coconut Braised Chicken; Pan-fried Tuna Cakes with Yogurt-Caper Sauce; Ginger-Scallion Skillet Shrimp with Napa Cabbage; Rosemary-Balsamic Shredded Pork; Somali Style Beef and Vegetables; Yogurt Dough for Pizza and Flatbread; Moroccan Flatbreads (which are raised, not flat, and I would classify as a seedcake); Spiced Lamb Burgers with Tahini-Yogurt Sauce; Almond and Rosemary Salsa Verde; and Smoked Paprika Spice Paste with Cumin and Oregano. We didn't find a high density of recipes we liked -- they often had one or another ingredient we don't use, like wine or avocado -- but over a big book they added up.
This cookbook is a good choice if you want a humongous variety of recipes, or if you like international recipes but prefer them sorted by food type rather than country of origin. It's a good third or fourth cookbook once you've learned the basics and wish to explore new techniques and ingredients. As long as you have access to a good international food store, you'll probably be able to find ingredients. If not, you'll be stuck ordering online at best. Recommended.
