Cookbook Comparison

The two cookbooks that I chose to analyze were cookbooks found by my girlfriend in her parents' kitchen. I think that a little background on the owners of the cookbooks would assist in the analysis of the cookbooks, as I chose the most-used and least-used of the books. Her parents both work full time, her mother as a devoted (by which I mean she stays very late after school) elementary school teacher and her father as a sales rep for a company. They have little time for food preparation, and he cooks as often as she.

The first book, the most used, is The Busy Family Cookbook, by Taste of Home:

The intended audience, as can be ascertained by the description on the cover, is a family much like my girlfriend's: too busy to create an elaborate masterpiece in the kitchen. The cookbook is very well-organized into sections based on time required. For example, the picture at right is page 45 from the cookbook that has the characteristic time-slot organization at the top (the 30+). This indicates that the recipes in this section of the book require more than thirty minutes to prepare. This is an effective method for the busy family: analyze the time that you will have to make a meal, and then go to the section of the book that will fit into your timeslot rather than looking through recipes and trying to add up the tiny preparation time and cooking time in your head. The theme of the cookbook, recipes for a busy family, is well-established, through the concise manner of presentation and no-frills recipes are perfect for a family on the go. I found the entirety of the book to be very coherent and effective. I would reccomend this to the busy family.

The least-used is The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook:

This book establishes its authority to advanced chefs and avid readers of food magazines well from the get-go: it incurs the title of Southern Living. This is obviously going to be a convenient book for those with the time to do some authentic southern cooking, all from scratch. The southern food theme is well established, including all kind of food types that I would be rather unlikely to try, though very sophisticated in their portrayal and beautiful in glossy pictures. The organization is like most of the cookbooks through which I skimmed, with recipes divided into sections based on food type (desserts, poultry, salads, etc.). The book is very aesthetically appealing, though the recipes are dauntingly confusing and off-puttingly difficult. I would not reccomend this to someone who wants to do it right the first time or who does not have hours to spare preparing the shell for a pastry that is merely the appetizer to a main course that requires hours to simmer to the correct internal temperature, though if the outside is not brown enough, a different internal temperature may be approached, but not reached...

In conclusion, though both cookbooks are effective, they differ in one principal point: their intended audience. The first is for those with little time and to whom food takes a back burner; the second is for those to whom sustenence holds a daily reservation to the finest feasts, regardless of time involved.