The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook

Cooking a soft-boiled egg to perfection may be more a matter of intuition than carefully honed skill, but even the best combination of both won't be helped by an imperfect recipe. While there's nothing technically wrong with the recipe for boiled eggs given here, it's not the simplest one, a trait shared by quite a few recipes in this book purportedly for the timorous cook. In fact, most of the 200 recipes are geared to immediate gratification at the dinner table rather than to teaching techniques that explain the cooking process and build confidence. An ersatz souffle, made with tapioca, may taste as good as the real thing but is a culinary trick rather than a constructive recipe. If one is willing to live with that compromise, then such recipes as broiled flank steak, avocado stuffed with crabmeat and honey-broiled ham will satisfy but still leave the learner hungry for more. (August)