xterminal's review
Arthur Schwartz, Soup Suppers (Harper Perennial, 1994)
The more cookbooks I read, the more I find the majority of them are repetitive, especially those centered around a given theme. (Certainly makes me appreciate Marlena Spieler more.) Soup Suppers definitely falls into this “too much of a good thing” category for most of its length; a hundred-odd pages of soup recipes and you realize that there's not much variation in technique where soup is concerned. Learn a few basic recipes and then vary the ingredients; the bulk of this book could have been six pages of instructional material and ten or fifteen pages of variations.
Where it does get interesting is in Schwartz' almost in-passing closing section on stuff to serve with your soups, from quick bread recipes all the way to dessert. Instantly, the repetition factor goes away and the book gets absorbing again; it's worth it for that final section alone. (For me, it's worth it for the avocado salad recipe alone, but I understand not everyone is as much an avocado fanatic as I am.) Check this one out of the library first to make sure you want to add it to your permanent collection. ***
The more cookbooks I read, the more I find the majority of them are repetitive, especially those centered around a given theme. (Certainly makes me appreciate Marlena Spieler more.) Soup Suppers definitely falls into this “too much of a good thing” category for most of its length; a hundred-odd pages of soup recipes and you realize that there's not much variation in technique where soup is concerned. Learn a few basic recipes and then vary the ingredients; the bulk of this book could have been six pages of instructional material and ten or fifteen pages of variations.
Where it does get interesting is in Schwartz' almost in-passing closing section on stuff to serve with your soups, from quick bread recipes all the way to dessert. Instantly, the repetition factor goes away and the book gets absorbing again; it's worth it for that final section alone. (For me, it's worth it for the avocado salad recipe alone, but I understand not everyone is as much an avocado fanatic as I am.) Check this one out of the library first to make sure you want to add it to your permanent collection. ***
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