Make the Bread, Buy the Butter
What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods
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3.5 • 41 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Selected by the New York Times as a Notable Cookbook, by USA TODAY as a Best Holiday Gift For the Foodie, and by More.com as one of their Best Cookbooks of the Year.
This unique combination of recipes, memoir, and advice is “pure entertainment in an original, fresh voice” (Mollie Katzen, author of Moosewood Cookbook).
When blogger Jennifer Reese lost her job, she began a series of food-related experiments. Economizing by making her own peanut butter, pita bread, and yogurt, she found that “doing it yourself” doesn’t always cost less or taste better. In fact, she found that the joys of making some foods from scratch— marshmallows, hot dog buns, and hummus—can be augmented by buying certain ready-made foods—butter, ketchup, and hamburger buns. Tired? Buy your mayonnaise. Inspired? Make it.
With Reese’s fresh voice and delightful humor, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter has 120 recipes with eminently practical yet deliciously fun “make or buy” recommendations. Her tales include living with a backyard full of cheerful chickens, muttering ducks, and adorable baby goats; countertops laden with lacto-fermenting pickles; and closets full of mellowing cheeses. Here’s the full picture of what is involved in a truly homemade life and how to get the most out of your time in the kitchen—with the good news that you shouldn’t try to make everything yourself.
Customer Reviews
Enjoyably educational
I really enjoyed this chronicle of one woman's efforts to balance responsible consumerism, back-to-the-land ethics with practically and Northern California yuppy tastes. And she shares her story with a balanced recipe of self-deprecating insights on her successes, failures, and compromises told with gentle humor and an intelligent, readable style. If you enjoyed Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolvers' food adventures, this is right up your row (or aisle, depending if you're gardening or shopping).
I've never bought a cookbook electronically - I'm curious to see if I adapt from paper to iPad when cooking. But really, this is so much more than a cookbook; it's a food adventure and a journey of exploration, from raising livestock to homemade yogurt, canadian bacon, bagels and more? And since it inspires adventure, I'll take my cues and give a new cookbook form, and some of the recipes, a try.
But I do wish the editors would be a bit more careful - found at least one misspelling ("grocery" in the Bahn Me recipe) - small point, I know. But for the cost of an ebook I'd like it to be correct.
Enjoyable and entertaining read
While I will flip thru cookbooks all day to the annoyance of my husband, I don't often read a book like this from start to finish. And never finish it in about 24 hours. I like to cook and make things from scratch and have been making my own bread for about 2 months so the title intrigued me. I downloaded the sample and then had to buy the book. Love her story-telling...makes for an easy read. Bookmarked a bunch of pages for recipes I can't wait to try myself. Definitely worth the read. I'll have to check out the blog next. :)
Real recipes, fun to read
Highly recommended if you have ever wondered about homemade vs store bought (price, hassle, taste). My Greek yogurt and the ginger ale turned out great! Loved the backyard chicken story.