Cookbook Evaluation

The first cookbook I evaluated was "Recipes: The Cooking of Germany," by the editors of Foods of the World. What attracted me to this book was the German recipes it contained for it relates to my heritage and I was curious if any of the recipes are meals my own family make. Going through the cookbook I was happy to see many of the recipes I know of and I have tasted. Also, the book offers different meals for any part of the meal, like appetizer, soups, salad, etc. With the recipes very clear instructions are provided in order to cook the meal as properly as possible. However, there are no illustrations to actually make the book 'pop' and appeal to others.

The intended audience is probably for those who are interested in seriously taking up german cooking rather than looking up a fun meal to make. Overall, the cookbook is effective in the the variety of meals but lacking in the atheistic view.

The second cookbook is titled "The Cooking of China," by Emily Hahn and the Editors of Time-Life Books. I have always been in love with Chinese food and when I saw the bright cover of this book I grabbed it right away. However, unlike a typical cookbook, this book included history about Chinese cooking first before starting to introduce Chinese cuisine. After sifting through all of the writing I found the recipes which were very descriptive and had plenty of colorful pictures unlike the previous cookbook.

Though unlike the other cookbook, this book was not organized and had no order to the placing of different foods. Still, I found this book to be very helpful (especially if I were to make dumplings since they have step by step instructions AND pictures!) in my desire to cook a chinese meal. The cookbook established its ethos by having all the history of Chinese cooking in the beginning of the book to let the audience know that the editors know a thing or two about Chinese cuisine.