The Tabasco Cookbook

I know some folks think that manufacturer recipes aren't quite as ... appealing ... as those from chefs who write cookbooks. But think about it. There are plenty of classic and beloved recipes that came from the backs of bags, boxes, and cans.

It makes sense. Manufacturers create and test recipes that show off their products. They want you to make the recipes, love them, make them again and again, and buy more products.

So I had high hopes for The Tabasco Cookbook. The book I received for review is an updated and revised book, but I'm not sure exactly what had changed since the original was published.

Recipes range from well-known (fried chicken, grits, guacamole, salsa, shrimp Creole) to some that are probably unique to this book (lemon-sesame asparagus, Spanish potato salad, portobello nachos, mellow cabbage salad) that feature Tabasco sauce.

Some of the recipes are extremely simple, like adding a bit of Tabasco before grilling a steak, or adding Tabasco (two different kinds) to guacamole rather than adding hot peppers. Other recipes are more complicated. Which is nice - something for everyone.

Most of the recipes have a southern vibe, and specifically a Louisiana twist, which makes sense.

There are tips on a lot of the recipes, some of which are mini-recipes, like a crudite dip with 1 cup of mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon of ketchup, and one teaspoon of tabasco sauce.

Overall, it's a nice little book. Certainly not essential, but a nice addition to the cookbook shelf of someone who likes spicy food. It would make a nice gift item wrapped up with a couple of bottles of different styles of Tabasco sauce.

I received this book from the publisher, for the purpose of a review.

Infuse

I really expected the cookbook, Infuse, by Eric Prum and Josh Williams, to be a commitment. I've made a lot of long-term infusions of my own that have taken months to finish. So I expected to see a lot of those recipes in the book.

Instead, the book has quite a number of quick infusions that you make and use right away, short infusion that might be overnight or 24 hours, and then longer infusion from two to four weeks.

I thought it was really interesting that the book started with a spicy oil, followed by a pizza recipe for using the oil, followed by some vinegar-and-oil salad dressings.

I never really thought of salad dressings as infusions. I always considered them emulsions. But, if you're adding herbs and spices to the salad dressing, the flavor does infuse into the liquid. So, okay, I'm okay with calling them infusions.

What I thought was interesting were the quick alcohol-and-fruit infusions. These recipes required muddling or mashing the fruit in the alcohol, shaking, and straining. Then they're ready to be used. I've always let my fruits mingle with the alcohol for much longer. The peach bourbon infusion that took four weeks was more like what I've made before.

Water infusions - fruit water, refrigerator tea, and cold-brewed coffee - were pretty quick as well. Which is certainly normal for those.

So, if you want to dabble in infusing and you're not the patient type, you might really like this book. If you're looking for deep, complicated infusions that you start in the summer and use in the winter, you won't find those here. I think four weeks was the longest infusion, although I'll admit I haven't read all the recipes in the book.

Along with the recipes for making the infusions, there are some recipes for using the infusions, like the pizza that used the spicy oil, pancakes to go with a syrup recipe, and a few drink recipes. There's not a recipe for each infusion, but I don't think they're necessary. Some of them are intended to be used as is, and the others should be easy to find a use for.

Like photos? This book is very photo-heavy. Not only is there a photo for every recipe, but there are sometimes as many as three full-page photos between recipes, and a few times there were five full page photos in a row. The photos are nice, and some were informative in terms of ingredients, but it's a surprising number of photos compared to text.

The one thing I didn't like about this book - and it's certainly not the fault of the authors - is that the font used for the recipes is small, and it's blue-gray instead of black, and the lines that make up the letters are thin.

Fortunately there's a lot of white space - infusion recipes aren't all that complicated - so at least the text isn't crushed together. But I really wish they would have used some of that space to increase the font size by a point or two. And black text, please. With the slightly glossy paper, this was really hard to read.

While I like the idea of the book and I'll probably play around with some of the recipes, if I was paging through this in a bookstore I have to say that I'd probably pass, just because of the readability factor.

If you're thinking about buying it, I'd suggest looking at a copy first to see what you think of the text.

I received this book from the publisher through Blogging for Books, for the purpose of a review.