25 Essentials Techniques for Grilling Fish Book Review by ChristineMM

25 Essentials: Techniques for Grilling (Harvard Common Press)25 Essentials Techniques for Grilling Fish Book Review by ChristineMM



Title: 25 Essentials: Techniques for Grilling Fish
Authors: Karen Adler and Judith Fertig
Publication: Harvard Common Press, April 2010

My Star Rating: 4 Stars = I Like It

Summary Statement: Teaches 25 Techniques and Fish Grilling Tips is NOT Just a Small Book of 25 Recipes


My husband and I cook, grill or bake nearly everything from scratch. We are foodies and love to learn new cooking techniques.

The first time I looked through this book I made an error in thinking this was just a recipe cookbook with 25 recipes. I thought, "Who would buy a book with just 25 recipes in it when other cookbooks in this price range have hundreds of recipes?" I kept reading and it opened my mind.

This book is unique as it teaches specific techniques for grilling fish. Yes, there are 25 recipes each with certain techniques, but by making these and reading the accompanying information you learn the techniques. You learn through the experience of trying these new dishes and new techniques. Thus this book is like a self-guided course in book format on how to grill fish. Other information in the book's introduction or with each recipe's preface gives information about substituting these recipes with different fish that may be fresh and available on the day you are shopping.

The book is hardcover with a protected spine of metal spiral binding. This is nice because the book lies flat when in use. Each technique has an introductory page of general information with a high quality color photograph of the finished dish on the facing page. Turn the page to see the ingredients listed on the left page and the method with its directions on the right facing page. The book is not word-heavy; it gives just the right amount of information before diving into the actual teaching of the technique.

The recipes are varied with dishes from around the globe. The fishes range from mild to strong in flavor. The chapter at the beginning of the book has a great chart of fishes defining them by both their texture (firm, moderately firm and delicate) as well as flavor (mild, moderate or full). This was very helpful to me and demystified selecting fishes to match my personal preferences. There is also some information about charcoal vs. gas grills and tips for using each, since they are so different.

This book is one in a series of books that teach grilling techniques. I think this is a fresh way to approach learning to grill. I like the idea that a book can be gone through (grilled through) at home and winds up being basically a "teach yourself to grill by making everything in this book" course. I like that it teaches a variety of techniques instead of a regular old cookbook with recipes, which sometimes don't expose the reader to a wide range of techniques or flavors or fish types.

This book is short and sweet. It is visually appealing and not scary due to the fact that it talks in down to earth language and is not text-heavy. This would make a good gift book. It would also appeal to people who normally would never consider reading a book that teaches cooking (but who are people who are more open to just making a recipe from a cookbook).

I rate this book 4 stars = I Like It. The only reason I'm not rating this 5 stars is as a reader who is not intimidated by longer books or more information and as a frugal person, I'm thinking other cooking books on the market have many more techniques and more recipes for this same price. Instead of four separate books on grilling by this publisher as a series, I'd rather have all their content in one book for double the price that teaches 100 grilling techniques. (These two authors wrote [[ASIN:1558326685 25 Essentials: Techniques for Planking]] and Davis and Powers authored [[ASIN:1558323929 25 Essentials: Techniques for Grilling (Harvard Common Press)]] and [[ASIN:B0022NGE8U 25 Essentials: Techniques for Smoking]].)



Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program. I was under no obligation to blog my book review. I was not paid to write this review. For my blog's full disclosure statement see the link at the top of my blog's sidebar.