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If you own &quot;All About Braising&quot; and have tried the receipes......

would you recommend buying the book? as a whole, how does it stack up as a cookbook. just a few good recipes, or overall fabulous? and one final question, if i wouldn't use the recipes for pork or shelfish, is it still worth it?

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  1. I hesitated buying the book. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about braising and I certainly didn't need another cookbook to add to my collection. But I found a book club edition on Amazaon at a good price and went ahead and bought it. I'm very glad I did. I've made four recipes so far; one was only very good, the other three were excellent. I still haven't tried any pork or shellfish recipes, but I certainly intend to. I think it's worth it even you won't. The recipes, judging from the reports, all work just about perfectly and there seems to be universal agreement that the sauces are just marvelous.

    1. I got the book from the library because I have plenty of cookbooks and even tho I wanted to cook with the group, just didn't want to buy it. Almost all the recipes I've tried are great and I have learned from the book. I've braised plenty of things in my cooking life and didn't know there was such a variety of things to braise or such art to it. A very good book and one I will look into buying. You can always order it from the library, or look thru it at your local bookstore to see if you would really cook from it enough to justify buying it.

      1. I found mine for $7.98 about 4 months ago either on amazon or ebay. Look around and find one cheap. Definitely worth it even if you have to pay more. I don't really use cook books that much, but I made some braised cabbage from it and have a bunch of recipes flagged to try soon. It's a nice book to peruse too.

        1. I borrowed my copy from the library. I suggest you do the same to "test drive" the book without investing in it.

          But ABB will be my request number 1 on my Christmas wish list. My mom-in-law loves to buy me cooking related things. I've enjoyed cooking from it, loved eating from it and just liked flipping through it.

          The veggie recipes have been great. And, I've mostly enjoyed the chicken dishes. But, where I've mostly been cooking from is the pork recipes. Some have been good, others have been outstanding (braised bacon with carbonara was my fave). Over 60 pages goes towards pork recipes. Probably because so many different cuts of pork are conducive to braising. As for shellfish, I haven't made any of those recipes, but there only 27 pages of the book devoted to seafood and only one shellfish recipe (scallops). The other seafood recipes are mostly fish, with a couple of squid recipes. Total pages of recipes are about 400 pages. That's still 300+ pages of non-pork, non-seafood recipes.

          I've been cooking from ABB fairly steadily this month. And, there are still numerous recipes that I want to try. Everytime I read a post or look in the book, I see something else that interests me.

          I do love this book and the librarian is already asking me for this copy. She wants to cook from it too. The solution? She is buying a copy for her branch of the library and I hope I will receive a copy for christmas. This way, we are all happy.

          1. Yes! I would say: buy the book! What's so great about it is that the recipes are trustworthy. So many cookbooks *look* good, but when you get deep into it, find that some techniques are well, wrong, unreliable, etc. I have been wowed by cooking various items this month -- from vegetables to meat, including other than pork -- and have been seriously impressed, and appreciative, of Molly Stevens' techniques and kind direction. It's a great cookbook for the home cook.