- Written by Madelaine Bullwinkel
MY BOOKSALE HAUL
My favorite place to shop for cookbooks is at my local library's biannual book sale. This collection of secondhand books is so large, a cook is bound to find an unexpected treasure. Just the process of browsing opens one's mind to new flavor possibilities. It sure beats searching the internet for the perfect mac and cheese recipe.
I recently donned a red ‘Friends of the Library’ apron for my shift at the Lemont Library’s sale and headed straight for the cookbook section. In the official capacity of a volunteer, I carefully rearranged books for easier browsing, all the while shopping for myself. This year’s finds included two self-proclaimed bibles!
The spice and herb bible caught my eye because this massive 600-page paperback came with an IACP* Award emblem stamped in one corner. The fact that the book is a father and daughter collaboration made it an even more attractive. Ian Hemphill is a second-generation owner of an herb and spice business in Australia. His inclusion of the origin, history, processing methods and use for 100 spices and herbs is all a nerd could hope for. Kate, his daughter, is a chef and complements each entry with a recipe. I’m looking forward to reading about seasonings I’ve never heard of like candlenut and wattleseed.
Jim Lahey's updated no-knead boule
The other hefty tome was, the bread bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum whose popularity rests on her first book, the cake bible, published 25 years ago. What makes this one a bible? First is its exhaustive variety of subjects from quick breads and muffins to flatbreads and brioche. It also lists ingredients by weight as well as volume, a practice that Beranbaum initiated in the cake bible. Each recipe is crafted to give the cook a feeling the author is at their elbow guiding their progress.
The book on Vinegar by Margaret Briggs is so slender that a speed shopper might overlook it. That is their loss. With the head-spinning promise of 1001 Practical Uses, this volume delivers recipes for cleaning your house, your car even your pet, all in short, concise paragraphs. It’s reassuring to know that after 10,000 years a simple bacterial process continues to provide a cheap, viable solution for cleaning almost everything and healing common ailments A third of the book is devoted to recipes for making and cooking with vinegar. Finally, a hack for YouTube videos. My favorite find of the day was a like-new copy of Jim Lahey’s my bread. I’ve been teaching Lahey’s no-knead boule recipe since 2006 when it was first published in The New York Times. This book that appeared in 2009 fleshes out Lahey’s technique with recipes for other breads, sandwiches, focaccia and the pizzas sold in his Sullivan Street Bakery. There is even a chapter with recipes that turn stale bread into a heartwarming treat. That's not all. Tucked inside this book were carefully folded pages with an updated recipe boule recipe from a 2022 New York Times Magazine. To whoever donated this book to the sale, “Thank you!”
tomato bread soup from my bread
Yes, there are times when a sale book doesn’t deliver as expected. I picked up the slim volume entitled Your Brain on Food by Gary L. Wenk that had a head of broccoli in the shape of a brain on the cover. I should have paid more attention to the subtitle: “How chemicals control your thoughts and feelings”. This book is actually a fascinating and detailed exploration of the neurochemical effect on the brain of drugs not Sunday’s roast chicken dinner. I trust someone will find it more useful when they pick it up at the next book sale this fall. At the price of $1 a book, it’s worth a try.
*IACP: International Association of Cooking Professionals