Crescat Kitchen

My friend, Will B. is back blogging, this time about food. He asks and discusses the new-world question of whether cookbooks are dead in the world of internet recipe compendiums.

There is no doubt to me that cookbook are compendium of recipes are largely dead, or dying, at least outside baking. But technique books, although some of them are disguised as "food p$rn", are alive and well. For example, both the Alinea cookbook and Thomas Keller's Under Pressure, although both are stuffed full of highly airbrushed art, are also major contributions by pioneers of an important cooking style. They are studied, pored over and mimicked by professional cooks across the country. They are the avenues through which the cutting edge is transformed into the quotidian.

In other words, if you're eating sous vide short ribs in your local upscale restaurant in Oklahoma City, say, it's either because the cook there did a stage at Per Se (or the equivalent) or because they read and studied Under Pressure. That kind of cookbook simply isn't in competition with epicurious.

Creamed Corn and Lamb

I managed to escape the office early for the first time in a while, and ran home for some late summer feasting. I made creamed corn inspired by this post on Bitten, and added some lamb spiked heavily with smoked paprika on top (I just threw the lamb under our toaster oven broiler until a pink medium). I made the creamed corn with milk, as I had no cream, and enriched it further with a little lower fat soy spread (shame, I know, but that's what I had on hand - one cannot be too picky with the first dinner at home in a few weeks).