Post Punk Kitchen Forum

On Amazon, I mean. I have a lot of books and I read through them and like them, but since I never meal plan I rarely use the books outside of special occasions. But I like the books because I find them informative and they have nice pictures or whatever. So is it wrong to leave a good review if I haven't actually made a recipe yet? Or if i've only made a few? I think people who leave negative reviews without trying any of the recipes are dicks, so.

I wouldn't leave a review unless I got something specific out of just reading the book. Otherwise, I'd wait until I've made at least 3-4 things, unless one thing was so amazing that it was worth the price of the book all by itself.

It usually only takes me a recipe or two to figure out if I'll like the cookbook. Even if I hate what I made, I can still tell if I'm likely to enjoy the author's style and methods.

ETA: what I hate is all the people who whine about so-called hard to find ingredients, half of which can be found in the ethnic section of any small town Walmart, should one bother to look. People who only want to cook the same thing they've made for dinner ever day of their lives probably shouldn't review cookbooks.

If I make around 5, I review. That's what I did for AFR.

Many. I really want to get to know the book before I dare have an opinion about it.

3 or 4? Especially if everything else in the book looks awesome too.

But the best way is to try making a minor substitution, like cornstarch for wheat gluten, to see how flexible the recipes are to determine if a book is good. Then blast it on amazon if it doesn't work out.

If I make two or three that are really good, I'll leave a review. If I make two or three that are okay, I'll keep going before I make a judgement.

If I start reading a glowing five star review and it says "I haven't made any of the recipes" I just stop reading. I mean, they're not useless or anything. I'm sure the author appreciates good feedback about writing style, pictures, etc. But as a potential buyer of a cookbook, all I want to know about is if you had flops or successes.

Depends where you are! I got frustrated yesterday because I went to two huge supermarkets and couldn't find ANY nori, but got happy because I found rice papers for the first time ever. The vegan/vegetarian/organic/hippie section is also rarely restocked, I haven't been able to buy soy cream cheese or sour cream in weeks. I boycott Walmart, but ours doesn't have a big grocery section anyway, and certainly not an ethnic section, maybe they don't feel like competing with Sobey's or Dominion's. And a ton of small towns around here don't even have stores, let alone Walmarts XD

I don't like whining about it a whole lot though, I usually look through a book and judge whether I can get most of the ingredients before I buy it to begin with.

it depends on the shape of the book.

Yeah, I also have trouble finding some things, but I guess I consider that a critique of the town I live in, not the cookbook. I end up buying stuff I need for new recipes when I'm visiting my parents who live near a city. I don't end up reviewing a lot of cookbooks but I probably would want to have cooked 4-5 recipes to review one. I like when reviews note specific recipes that they liked/didn't like.

God, this is so true. Off to give Hannah and Kelly negative reviews for their square shaped books right now!

I've never bought vegan cream cheese or sour cream and generally, I don't like a cookbook that uses a lot of vegan subs like cheese. I wouldn't leave a bad review for a cookbook though if it called for vegan cheese in every recipe. Some of the reviews though are things I'd think are fairly normal for most of the population to find.

I generally cook 3 to 4 recipes before leaving a review but couldn't really imagine leaving a review if I never cooked anything from a book or even if I never bought it (seen reviews like that as well).

I was talking about stuff like Sriracha and soy sauce, and "strange" produce items like fresh ginger. I lived in a rural small town that only had a Walmart and they had all that stuff. Now there is a huge Kroger and expanded HFS so there are mre options there than here near Northern VA.

Some of the reviews on Amazon complain about not being able to find crazy stuff! I get not finding soy sauce in the Netherlands (drove me bonkers since I don't like the sweeter satay sauces; I think I ended up paying $8 for a mini Kikoman), but in the US, most of those things are easy to find. If they aren't, the problem is your local area not the cookbook!

None of Isa's books call for fake meats or vegan cheeses, sour creams, etc. The reviews I was talking about weren't bisqueing about black salt or black cocoa or other things that might need tracking down, which makes them more mystifying.

This book uses white flour/sugar/oil. How dare they.

Bahaha!



And soy. Coz soy is not healthy.

or too much fruit...

And they don't look as good as this vegetarian book published by my friend in 1983 that you can't find anywhere. And you can believe me because I am a Master Chef.

I give it a bad review if it calls for whole onions or garlic. Who can FIND that stuff? Privileged jerks, that's who.

Man, no wonder why my cookbooks suck so hard... Shoulda known!

It also has too many pictures and a dust jacket! The nerve!

nothing riles me up more than a dust jacket.

Free, built-in bookmark!!

*Hangs head in shame*

There go my dreams for a James Beard award...

Guys. PLEASE leave KELLY AND HANNAH bad reviews! ONLY MINE BOOK! Me only! OTHER COOKBOOK BAD.

I thought this was an unspoken rule.