Milk Street--The New Rules

August 5, 2019
This clever collection of savory dishes illustrates 75 rules, such as using copious amounts of herbs to amp up flavor or incorporating mashed potatoes into dough for a tender crumb. Each rule is illustrated by at least one recipe, and Kimball, founder of food media company Milk Street, offers dishes that feel modern and international, such as stir-fried Malaysian noodles and shrimp in spicy tomato sauce from the Kerkennah Islands off of Tunisia. Most of the rules are sensible and useful: for example, use baking powder for a lighter frittata, and chill meatballs so they retain their shape. Some rules, however, overlap or contradict each other: readers are instructed to sauce a Peruvian-style chicken dish rather than to marinate the meat in order to add flavor, and then to sauce previously marinated meat in Japanese-style ginger pork for the same reason. But this is a quibble in an otherwise generous and accessible volume. Additional two-page “Milk Street Pantry” spreads are loaded with information on ingredients, such as info on pomegranate molasses, and countless useful tips (to wake up bland tomatoes, roast, pickle, or simmer them). Plenty of I-never-thought-of-that moments fill this enticing and instructive book.

October 1, 2019

While Kimball is no longer at Cook's Illustrated, his new cooking school and media company, Milk Street, takes a similar approach of testing and relentless experimentation to create new and improved recipes. The results are codified into 75 "rules" or tips applied throughout the book that focus on the savory, with chapters on vegetables, beans/grains, noodles/bread, eggs, seafood, chicken, pork, and beef. International flavors predominate, but most ingredients are readily available. Each recipe has a brief introduction and a couple of key tips to help in mastering similar preparations. Instructions are clearly detailed and illustrated with large photos of each dish. Brief sections interspersed among the recipes cover essential spices and the differences between various types of chili peppers. VERDICT Highly recommended for fans of Kimball and Cook's Illustrated, with delicious recipes and sound techniques to improve and spice up everyday cooking routines.--Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2019
In recent times the mantra for good cooking has been that there are no rules. Cooks were encouraged to be creative and find novel ways to combine flavors and ingredients. Now comes a return to more conscious structure. In this vein, noted cookbook author and television personality Kimball (Milk Street Tuesday Nights, 2018) proposes following a new set of 75 rules, which he contends will change the way cooks approach food. These guidelines have less to do with prescriptive instructions than with expanding palates beyond traditional American, French, and Italian tropes that have become so familiar to U.S. eaters. In dozens of recipes illustrating his rules, Kimball branches out into the spices of the Middle East, Japan, Southeast Asia, and beyond. Thai curries and Japanese miso play prominent roles. Cooks unused to these cuisines will find themselves scampering to collect special spices like Aleppo pepper and ingredients on the order of cellophane and buckwheat noodles. For the entrepreneurial cook, this is a real eye-opener, and the tie-in with PBS' Milk Street will add to demand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)