A Tale of Two Cookbooks: Tuesday Night Takedown!

Welcome one and all to the Tuesday Night Cookbook Takedown Final! It is 9 pm at the 6^th Floor of the Price Gilbert Memorial Library here at Georgia Tech, and our two finalists for the cookbook takedown are “The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking” and “Cooking with Microwaves”.

Before we begin, let us devote some honorary internet bytes to those cookbooks which were lucky enough to be chosen for this prestigious contest:

As you can see, that is a very diverse array of cookbooks. Unfortunately, the rules stipulate that only 2 finalists may compete, and by a random lottery system, these two cookbooks were chosen:

Left: Cooking with Microwaves, International Microwave Power Institute, 2^nd Edition, 1976 (edited by W.R. Tinga)

Right: The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking, Ayla Esen Algar, 1^st Edition, 1985 (Kegan Paul International Press)

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COOKBOOK I – “THE COMPLETE BOOK OF TURKISH COOKING” by AYLA ESEN ALGAR:

Simply by examining the outer jacket of this book, you can appreciate the passion that the author has put into this work. Adequately reviewed and acclaimed by several respected newspapers, publishers and food-related magazines, you get the sense that this is a book rich in history, culture and traditions associated with Turkish cooking. Written by a Turkish-American and published in 1985, this cookbook seems to be full of authentic Turkish recipes and culture.

Indeed, the introduction carefully details the development of Turkish cuisine from ancient civilization to modern times, and the author delves into her own experience in her grandmother’s traditional kitchen and cooking style. Her credibility as a Turkish chef stems mainly from her knowledge of Turkish history and traditions, and her grandmother’s expertise regarding Turkish food which she seems to have inherited.

The primary audience seems to be a global one, as Algar has covered a large amount of material relating to Turkish ingredients and their Western equivalents, a section which would be greatly helpful with those unfamiliar with Mediterranean and Arabian cuisine. It is packed with appetizing photographs of some of the most popular dishes, and the font style is easy to read and exudes homely warmth and familiarity. Algar has very intelligently provided large margins, so that aspiring chefs can take notes or add variations to her recipes. The binding is light and paperback (rare for 1985) which makes it an easy read in the kitchen, when both hands may not necessarily be free, and quick cross-referencing is conveniently provided.

This is truly a Complete Book of Turkish Cooking, replete with dishes and snacks for every occasion. Highly recommended for moms looking to serve Mediterranean/Arabic cuisine for their family, but don’t know where to begin.

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COOKBOOK II – “COOKING WITH MICROWAVES” by the INTERNATIONAL MICROWAVE POWER INSTITUTE (IMPI)

At the outset, it must be made clear that this is NOT your conventional cookbook. No appetizing pictures of delicacies. No detailed step-by-step instructions. And no recipes.

So what makes this a cookbook? Well, this book probes into topics often left unexplored by your run-of-the-mill, kitchen-table cookbooks. Microwaves have become indispensable for many people (including college kids) in recent years, forcing many traditional recipes to be remodeled to appeal to 2-minute-on-the-go cooks. This 1976 cookbook is slightly ahead of its times, dealing with complex issues regarding microwave food preparation that the authors anticipated would emerge over the following decades.

From a detailed analysis of the workings of microwaves to nutrition issues regarding microwave cooking; from a description of microwave-safe utensils and packaging, to a section devoted to general tips when cooking using a microwave – this is a good all-round academic guide to microwave cooking. Some of the information is unavoidably outdated and a few issues presented are not relevant today, but this still makes for serious scientific reading.

This book is by no means an easy fare. Illustrations are few and far between (and none of them depict any edible items), and most of the book is filled with clunky typeset text. What you will find are extensive charts, graphs and statistics related to microwave cooking. So if you feel sick at the sight of electromagnetic waves and mathematical functions, this book is best left in the library. Undoubtedly, it was published by IMPI as a research thesis/scientific paper, intended largely for the scientific community at the time, and not for the amateur-leisure-chef or the mom-looking-to-whip-something-up-in-the-microwave types.