How To Boil Water – life beyond takeout

Have you ever wondered if you are cooking food the right way? Have you ever murdered a meal? Do you or someone you love need a good solid cooking resource guide? Then check out How to Boil Water.

How to Boil Water caught my eye at my local bookstore. I liked the attractive bright cover full of pictures of yummy food and the title was perfect in it’s simplicity so I picked it up just to have a look. Sigh… so many of my purchases start this way.

How to Boil Water is a resource book for a new cook or an old cook who didn’t pay much attention in Home Economics class. There is a Victor Borge sketch about a famous violinist who never received his first mail-order violin lesson because it went to Victor. So the violinist was unable to do a basic scrape of the bow across strings because of this missing lesson while being able to play complicated classical pieces that was learned in subsequent lessons. This book will teach you to scrape the bow or bowl as it where.

You will find plenty of delicious, cheap and easy recipes and they literally do teach you how to boil water and then take you from toast to Thanksgiving. The accompanying pictures are understandable and informative. There is an incredibly useful tips with each recipe. The tips are in the categories of shopsmart, cook’s notes, don’t panic, a side of history, wisdom, make it your own, and upgrades. In all they say there are over 1000 recipes, tips and photos spread across 250 pages.

There is a section on how to set up a kitchen. They list the must-haves, the if-you-like-to-bakes and the nice-extras. And they don’t just list them they show you line drawings so you can recognize them. They explain the strategies behind shopping and storage, how to set up a pantry, game plans for safety, where to store fruit to last the longest, etc. The list just goes on.

“The Mechanics of Soup – or how to clean out your vegetable drawer in an hour and have something to show for it” pages are worth the price of the book, which is 20 bucks or less. Who knew there was an order to putting stuff in the pot? There is: Aromatics, Main Ingredient, Liquid, Thickeners and Finishers. And then there is the age-old question, “To Puree or Not To Puree.”

What finally sold me on How to Boil Water was the recipe for Aglio Et Olio (spaghetti with olive oil and garlic). I used to sling Rigatoni in a fancy Italian restaurant and the cooks would make this for me with roasted vegetables for dinner. I loved it but never could duplicate it.

How to Boil Water gave me the recipe plus upgrades such as wilting spinach in the oil before adding the spaghetti – huge yum. It gave me information about garlic such as store at room temperature in a dark place and it will last a long time. My garlic was in the fridge. The shopsmart section explained Parmesan cheese and lesser costing alternatives… all information I didn’t know.

If you have a child (9 to 99) that is interesting in cooking or you want to gain confidence in your own cooking then I highly recommend this book.

And if you need a gift for a young adult then pair How to Boil Water up with Eat This Not That! Supermarket Survival Guide and you will give them something really useful… the ability to feed themselves and maybe you someday.

How to Boil Water: food network kitchens

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