Read the Intro to Avoid Buying Crappy Cookbooks

Okay, I’ll admit it, even after amassing a sizable collection of cookbooks, I still get suckered in and buy a crap cookbook every now and then.  I should know better, I really should, but it still happens – like today, for instance.

The thing about cookbooks is that it’s not about the pretty pictures.  In fact, I prefer cookbooks that do not have glossy photos showing you what every dish looks like when prepared by the author and photographed by a professional.  It’s also not just about how delicious each of the dishes sounds when you skim through a few of them.  Ultimately, a cookbook has to be something that you will actually use.

If you don’t use it, then it’s a big piece of crap and a waste of your money.

I normally go through a multi-stage process:

  1. See a cookbook that I like, whether online or on the shelf
  2. Look it up on Amazon and read the reviews, starting from worst to best
  3. If it’s there in my hands, flip through and see if the recipes are ones that I like and that I’d make
  4. Read the preface & intro to get a sense of what the author is all about and intends for the book

If steps 2 and 3 check out, I usually end up with something that I like and which I feel is worth the money.  Sometimes that means $5 and sometimes it means $50.  Either way, when I stick to that, I usually end up with something nice.

But when I don’t stick to that, things can go wrong.  Today, for instance, I did the following:

  1. See a cookbook that I like
  2. Look it up on Amazon, and find that there are no reviews on it
  3. Flip through the book, and see if there are some recipes that I like and that I’d make

I missed a step there today.  I skipped over Step 4.  I saw 2 or 3 recipes that I liked, got hooked in by the snazzy cover and photos, and bought the book.  Then, while riding on the subway, I started reading the preface.  That’s when I had a sinking feeling – oh shit, I just bought something I’m not going to like and not going to use.

I bought a book about cooking fish.  I liked the fact that the author is taking a Malaysian take on it, because it’s something different for me.  But, as I read the intro, the author starts talking about how the book was inspired by her need to cook for her husband who doesn’t really enjoy fish.  Therefore, the recipes are all about adding tons of other flavors.  That means the fish flavor itself is pretty much gone.

Why the hell would I want to take a perfectly nice fish and completely smother it in other flavors, taking away the intrinsic goodness that I like about fish in the first place?

Had I read the intro, I would have put the book back on the shelf and saved myself the $12.  Yeah, I know, $12 isn’t a whole lot in the grand scheme of things – but to put that in context, the fresh squid I bought for dinner tonight only cost me $1.75.  I’m going to get a helluva lot more enjoyment out of that $1.75 squid than the $12 crap cookbook.

So, learn from my mistake.  Check out the reviews on Amazon.  Be very wary if there are no reviews at all.  Then, if the book is right there in your hands, read the damn intro.  The author will tell you why they wrote the book and where they’re going with it.

If you neglect to read the intro and ignore the fact that Amazon is no help, you’ll have only yourself to blame for wasting your money.  Then, maybe you will also find yourself seeking consolation in a $1.75 squid for dinner…

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categories Cookbooks | 2010/01/14

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