Gear Books
March 25, 2014 by SusieWhether your own microclimate has bought into it or not, spring is here, which means that in theory publishers will be taking their annual 8-week hiatus from publishing slow-cooker cookbooks so they can concentrate on grill books.
I always wonder at the everlasting popularity of slow-cooker books. I mean, slow cookers are so forgiving – you could be off by an hour or two and things will still be basically OK. The sorts of things you make in them are forgiving too – you can substitute vegetables or herbs or spices or proteins and you’ll still have a good hot supper. You don’t necessarily need the precise quantities or instructions of a good recipe. I’m equally puzzled by the recent slew of cast-iron skillet cookbooks. It’s a skillet! You use it like…a skillet! (I’m sorry. I don’t mean to offend the 123 members who own this book. It must be great – tell me why!)
Of course, not every gear book (you can find them all with the handy EYB filter for appliance-related cookbooks) is like that. I can see strong arguments for getting book help using a pressure cooker, or a griller/smoker like Big Green Egg. I’ve only just heard of the “halogen oven”, but it sounds like something I’d want some advice for. I can see arguments for ice cream maker, bread machine, panini press books, even though personally I think I’d be happy with just the manual.
The one technique where I’d spring for a helpful book right now is sous-vide. For Christmas I got a sous-vide controller device that turns my slow cooker into a sous-vide bath. I’ve mostly been learning from the Modernist Cuisine at Home spiral-bound not-cookbook thing – I think they call it a “kitchen manual. There’s a small selection of sous-vide books out there already, among which I will search for something focused and authoritative. I’ll use it for a year, and then I’ll probably be confident (or maybe overconfident) enough not to look at it much again.
What gear books do you gravitate toward, if any?
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