- Hardcover: 688 pages
- Publisher: Wiley (Oct 1 1996)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0028610067
- ISBN-13: 978-0028610061
- Product Dimensions: 28.3 x 22.1 x 3.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 2.1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#142,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24 in Books > Nonfiction > Education > Reference > Encyclopedias > Cooking
- #24 in Books > Reference > Encyclopedias > Cooking
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon.com
The recipe calls for burdock, and you haven't a clue--what it looks like, how to buy it, and what to do with what's left over. This is where the Visual Food Encyclopedia shines. Burdock is easily located in the section on root vegetables. The Encyclopedia provides pictures of the whole plant and of the root in question (a whitish, spongy thing with a thin, brownish skin), a short history of the vegetable (originally from Siberia, now cultivated in Japan), buying tips (look for firmness), and ideas of what to do with the leftovers (try a stir-fry, or grate some for a stew).
No food categories are overlooked. The pasta section tells how to make pasta from scratch, and illustrates all manner of pasta types. There are detailed instructions on preparing snails, sea urchins, and frog (this is a translation from a French edition)--and all manner of foods are included, from fruits, grains, and vegetables to seaweed, fats, and tea to dairy, fish, and meat. Some ingredients get more attention than others (all the pear varieties, for example, from Anjou and Bosc to Comice and Passe-Crassane, are pictured and described in detail, while the various chili peppers don't get as full a treatment), but with more than 1,000 ingredients, 1,200 illustrations, and a goodly number of recipes as well, this is a corker of a food reference, of value to any cook, from novice to weekend gourmet to professional chef. --Stephanie Gold
From Booklist
This volume is "adapted" from Dictionnaire Encyclopedique Des Aliments by Solange Monette (Quebec/Amerique, 1989). It has descriptions of 1,000 different foods with 1,200 drawings or photographs. The foods are arranged by broad categories (fruits), then subdivided (pome fleshy fruits), and ultimately arranged by specific foods (apple, pear, quince, loquat). In the introduction to each broad category, as well as to each food, there is a paragraph or two on buying, preparing, serving ideas, cooking, nutritional information, and storing. The introduction notes that this is not a cookbook, but there are selected recipes as well as step-by-step photographs describing kitchen techniques such as making pasta or preparing a lobster.
The text is well written with no hint of translation mistakes and just a slight foreign slant--the descriptions of andouille, foie gras, rillettes, and pigeon. The layout of each page is especially pleasing, with tables for the nutritional information, a box for recipes, and pictures or photographs of the food above, below, or beside the text.
This is a comprehensive source with the common as well as the unusual--lettuce, perch, cinnamon, fiddlehead fern, seitan, tofu, burdock, kefir, and a whole section on seaweeds. Exclusions are minor; there is no mention of lovage, which in French is called false celery, or of the great variety of potatoes--yellowing fingerling, kennebec, etc. The Book of Food by Frances Bissell [RBB Ja 15 95] is similar in content but uses photographs exclusively and does not include recipes. The Visual Food Encyclopedia will be a welcome addition to any food reference collection.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
A romantic plants native to Asia, the chive and the Chinese chive belong to the same family as garlic, onion, and leek. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
A romantic plants native to Asia, the chive and the Chinese chive belong to the same family as garlic, onion, and leek. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
delightful diversion and a practical resource,
By Thea J. Willgress "www.sweetthea.com" (Surrey BC) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking (Hardcover)
One day, browsing at Chapter's, I noticed the "Visual Food Encylopedia", and picked it up. Flipping through it, I immediately thought "wow, cool!" - yes I am a food geek - and brought it home.
It is very much an encyclopedia, stuffed with lots of photos and illustrations, and a few recipes. Every foodstuff is covered in really excellent detail - let's look at an example - something we all use.. Corn. This entry gives an analysis of the components of an ear of corn; how it grows; its history; complete nutritional information (cooked fresh, cream corn, whole yellow cornmeal, degermed yellow cornmeal, corn flour, corn bran, corn germ, and more); tips on buying and selecting good corn; cooking instructions, serving ideas; how hominy, cornstarch, conrmeal, corn flour, corn germ, corn oil, and corn flakes are made; proper storage; and a recipe for cornbread. Next comes a full page about popcorn, with the same attention to important facts and tips. Now that is informative! The illustrations are really good, and it cover so much territory - how to clean a crab, how to make pasta from scratch, how to prepare sea urchins, detailed photos of every kind of lettuce, spotting such odd edible mushrooms as Wood ear, a table of oils including smoke point, fat rations, oxidation, and uses - on and on and on. "The Visual Food Encyclopedia" is a delightful diversion for a food geek, a practical resource, and inexpensive to boot! Recommended.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good general food reference book,
This review is from: The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking (Hardcover)
A very good general food reference book. My only complaint is that it is unclear how this book is organised. There is an index which makes finding things easy. But the body of the content isn't alphabetically arranged!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Missing the ingrediants you really want to know about,
By
This review is from: The Visual Food Encyclopedia: The Definitive Practical Guide to Food and Cooking (Hardcover)
If you are a cook and sometimes come across ingrediants you have never seen (or can't pronounce) this is *not* the book for you. It is missing most of that stuff. Example recipes would be helpful, too. However, as a general western reference with good illustrations, it fits the bill nicely. I open mine about once a month to look up something. Great as a gift and even better to receive as a present!
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