As some of you might be aware, I've been working for some time on a a cookbook with the working title of "The Cookbook For Guys". You might be wondering, with the bulging glut of cookbooks overflowing in kitchens, libraries, bookstores and thrift stores, what the hell the world needs another cookbook for? And you would be right, except that I aim to produce a different kind of cookbook.
The way I see it, most cookbooks currently fall into one of two categories...the "Church, Organization, Workplace or Club Cookbook", which is usually packed with a 60:1 ratio of cakes, cookies and bars and should be titled, "The Cubicle Whale's Path To Fat-Ass Wonderment", and the "Look At Me, Look At Me And My Kitchen That Cost More Than Your House Cookbook of Recipes Using Expensive and Exotic Shit, Aren't I Wonderful" cookbook, which is pretty much self explanatory. We've all seen them, most of us have a box or two of them that sit in the basement or crawl space or perhaps even the kitchen, mostly for show. Not very useful, only 3 or 4 of the dozens of cookbooks I own actually have recipes in them that I've actually tried, and only a couple do I regularly ever refer to. I aim to break away from either of those categories.
One of the things that chapped my hide before I *learned* to cook is the number of assumptions that the average cookbook makes about it's audience. In the Cookbook for Guys, I'm going to attempt to spell everything out...in technique, tools, spices, amounts, the whole nine yards, in a way that Guys can understand. Guys being the sort of Dave Barry-esque creatures who are more comfortable with a vise-grips and a roll of duct tape than a wire whisk and a spatula. I'm also going to keep the ingredients as simple as I can. I live in the Northwoods, so common spices and ingredients are usually all that's available unless I plan ahead and bring them from my trips to distant and exotic lands...like Wausau or Stevens Point. And, being sort of a new-age hillbilly living on not a lot of cash, I'll keep things on the cheap also. And, being that this is a cookbook for Guys, there'll be NO bars and NO cookies and cakes. A few pies, maybe, because I like pie. Pie is a guy thing. Cakes are a girl thing. There won't be a ton of casseroles, either. If most cookbooks have 60:1 desserts to everything else, than casseroles usually make up 75% of what's left. You can only make a 7 layer salad so many ways...we GET it! What will be in the cookbook are great recipes for things that guys...or at least THIS guy, likes to make and eat.
We've had our house in Tomahawk up for sale for about 6 months now, in preparation for our move to our off-grid cabin and land over near Prentice. We've had numerous tire-kickers, but the general complaint is that our kitchen isn't large enough or needs updates. Apart from being pissed off by the general feeling of entitlement that everyone under 40 seems to have (and WTF do you expect for under 6 figures, Wolf appliances and granite countertops?), the thing that really irks me is when the complaint is followed with, "and they like to cook". I'm telling you here and now...if you can't cook in my kitchen, you can't cook. I've cooked meals in tents, in the rain, over campfires and in the galley of a sailboat, which is about the size of a broom closet. Yuppified pukes with an 80,000 dollar kitchen where they heat a frozen burrito in a microwave probably won't need or appreciate this cookbook. But anyone with a cutting board, an old stove, a few sharp knives and an enjoyment of making their own tasty, healthy grub from scratch will. That is the purpose of writing this book. If you can barely boil water, this book will hopefully take you from there to Chef in nothing flat.
I hope to have it done sometime this Spring, and I hope that you enjoy it.
No comments:
Post a Comment