An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace

by Tamar Adler

Paperback, 2012

Status

Available

Call number

641.5 Ad599

Publication

Scribner (2012), Edition: Reprint, 272 pages

Description

Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have.

Media reviews

Adler, Tamar. An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace. Scribner. Oct. 2011. c.272p. index. ISBN 9781439181874. $25. COOKING Adler, who opened a farm-to-table restaurant in Georgia and cooked at Chez Panisse (Alice Waters here contributes a foreword), offers insight into how to make
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simple foods into enjoyable meals, e.g., food scraps that are normally thrown away are instead used for soups, bones for stock, and orange peels for marmalade. In the chapter “How To Boil Water,” she encourages readers to put on a pot of water, then figure out what to throw in it—vegetables, pasta, potatoes, beans, even meat—increasing flavor with each item. Adler devotes a chapter to eggs, which can easily create a meal via a variety of cooking techniques, and she includes a recipe for Tortilla Española (simply potatoes, onions, and eggs). She also offers inspiration for making an exciting salad from in-season produce. VERDICT Working with mundane, simple foods and easy cooking techniques, Adler shows readers how to stretch their ingredients and add flavor to foods. This is not a cookbook but a narrative featuring easy-to-implement ideas that will encourage seasoned cooks to experiment and make mealtimes pleasing experiences.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member gincam
"An Everlasting Meal", by Tamar Adler, is an impressive, informed, invaluable inside look at the pleasure and practicality of food usage and cooking in a sustainable manner. Making the most of the flavors found in almost every part and particle of foods both common and exotic is not a new theory,
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nor is it one lacking in culinary satisfaction. On the contrary, learning to incorporate natural flavors and cooking essences into savory seasonings and sauces is a true treat for the taste buds. This is a carry-it-forward food plan that takes some skill in the kitchen, an organized mind, and a commitment to not letting valuable resources go to waste. Why throw it out and then have to go buy it again? Why not accept it, embrace it, and enjoy it? My favorite chapter in the book is "How to Live Well", and it glorifies one of the most humble, and most essential of all foods: the dried bean. Being from the South, I have an innate love for a bowl of brown beans with some boiled potatoes and a hunk of cornbread on the side. Add some sliced onions and slices of juicy home-grown tomatoes, and you have a peasant's meal fit for royalty! There are wonderful recipes and cooking tips throughout "An Everlasting Meal", but there is also a gentle reminder of how simple and soothing it can be to just cook and enjoy food with your family and friends.

Review Copy Gratis Simon & Schuste
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LibraryThing member LisaCurcio
This simple and engaging book about cooking is intended to let the world know that cooking is simple and engaging. For those who already love to cook, reading this book will enhance your time in the kitchen. For those who are afraid to cook, Ms. Adler will convince you that anyone can cook as she
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does.

One can and should actually read this book rather than just pick through recipes in it. Ms. Adler not only knows how to cook and knows how to simply present her ideas and methods--she is a lyrical writer sprinkling through the text and at the head of chapters quotations from literature, mythology and other good cooks. The chapters build on each other. Simple methods of preparation of simple ingredients result in just good food. Nothing is wasted in her kitchen, and the cook who embraces her ways will likely save money on the food budget while enjoying the meals even more.
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LibraryThing member lauriebrown54
This is not so much a cookbook as a book about cooking, a philosophy of cooking. Adler’s premise is that simple meals are better than production numbers; that great meals can be had from bits and bobs of old meals; that you should save every little vegetable scrap or peel. Her theories are sound;
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onion peels and broccoli stems make great stock and everything tastes better cooked in stock. Stale bread is good for any number of things, from croutons to thickening sauce. But while the word ‘economy’ is in the title, the author uses it to mean ‘not wasting things’, rather than ‘eating cheaply’. She recommends vast amounts of butter and olive oil; organic, free range chickens; fancy olives and prosciutto, and buying a responsibly raised cow – going in with a group to do this, of course, not taking the whole beast home yourself- but still expensive when you consider butchering costs and the freezer to put it all in.

On the other hand, she does praise beans, bean soups, and grains and tells how to make them turn out best. Those are economical, and, if the free range chicken is place sparingly atop the rice, as she recommends, makes an extremely tasty meal while not using much of the chicken.

My other problem is her statement that everything is better salted. While the average human can use (needs!) moderate amounts of salt, a lot of us are getting far too much; a significant population develops hypertension when they eat too much salt. I’d prefer to see most things prepared without much salt, if any, and those who need it can add it at the table. Simple enough to just ignore her statements about salt and not put it in when following her recipes, but I’m not sure the world needs a voice telling it that such and such NEEDS salt.

Adler has a elegant, rambling way of writing. Some sections are lovely; others drag slowly to the point. There are only a few recipes; they are of the ‘see how simple this is?’ sort to encourage people to try cooking by her methods. It’s a book for if you really want to *think* about cooking.
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LibraryThing member hfineisen
I originally reviewed this book and noted that it was a must for holiday host/hostess gifts. A love letter to the basics of food, the prose is as delicious as the water lovingly boiled to start any meal. Adler brings our tastebuds back to the basics, from our humble beginnings and our humble hands.
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I revisit parts of this book as much as my salt shaker, and have become a more frequent and more flavorful cook. My suggestion--get two copies, one for you and one to replace the bottle of wine you normally take to the next dinner party. An Everlasting Meal will be continuously consumed.
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LibraryThing member treelf
I learned plenty of cooking techniques from Adler’s book, and added a few great recipes to my repertoire – such as a Salsa verde that improves just about everything it touches. But I didn't just adore this book for its practical offerings. Adler’s writing is exquisite and expresses the deep
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satisfaction one feels from creating meals with simple tools, and available food.
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LibraryThing member liz.mabry
I stopped on page 145 of this and will come back to it later - not because I didn't like it - I loved it - but because it deserves more attention than I can give it right now. And because it was due and I ran out of renewals. I will definitely re-read and probably buy it.
LibraryThing member MrsLee
This is not a cookbook, this is living and cooking alongside your grandmother, receiving all those invaluable bits of wisdom, tasting the broth, discussing the food and learning not to waste a thing in the kitchen. It also has some recipes in it. It is poetic, the words have a rhythm and flow and
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are a pleasure to read. I found it affirming, since I already practice many of the suggestions written here (I've been cooking for 34 years on my own). I also found it inspiring, encouraging me to go further and giving me terrific ideas to do so.
This would be a wonderful book for someone starting their cooking life, but who never had a grandmother to cook alongside. It is grounding, and removes fear from the equation. My grandmother and mother lived and cooked like this; I have been blessed to have them.
I love the index at the end, since many great ideas are mentioned in passing and I will want to go back to them at some point. Though I don't agree with all of Adler's conclusions, she doesn't ask me to. She only asks me to consider them. Like any friend or mentor would.
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LibraryThing member kcorey
This is more of a philosophy of cooking than a cookbook or collection of recipes. I am not likely to use any of these recipes but I enjoyed and will apply the basic principles of ease, frugality and joy in the craft. It changed the way I approach meal planning.
LibraryThing member Amelia_Smith
I really enjoyed this book, but had some issues with it which detracted from my reading experience.

First, is it a cookbook or an essay? I felt that it was primarily an essay-type book, and read it lying in bed at night, but there were many places where I wanted to jump up and try to cook things. I
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think if I'd read it in the kitchen, I might have had a hard time using it because it's not quite arranged as an instructional book. If I'd bought it as a printed, bound book I would probably stick it in the kitchen for a while and go back through some of the chapters with tools and ingredients at the ready.

I read this as a Kindle e-book, and there were a heck of a lot of formatting errors for a professionally published book. Lots of words got stuck together with no space in between. Worse, in the recipes many of the fractions were unreadable -- if it wasn't 1/4 or 1/2, it was anyone's guess. It's not the author's fault, but still very annoying.

I would read it again and recommend it, with the aforementioned reservations. The cooking advice seemed sound, but I have yet to road test most of it. I did try making beans as recommended here and the results were a big improvement over my previous efforts (which had been perfectly edible, I thought).
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LibraryThing member kristykay22
This philosophical cookbook breaks down cooking by mood, food types, technique, and more, leading the reader through Adler's very personal perspective on food -- one that, ultimately, ends up feeling very universal. With a frugal focus on avoiding food waste and a celebration of the ordinary (I
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will always have parsley on hand after reading this!), this book is a good fit for pandemic cooking and an inspiration for playful experimentation in the kitchen with lots of tasting as you go. I found it best to stick to just a chapter or two a day so that Adler's rich prose didn't become too much, and while it is not a traditional cook book by any means, there is a very detailed index that can help navigate the recipes and ingredients sprinkled throughout when you want to dive into them later.
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LibraryThing member wunder
I had no idea that someone could be this excited about boiled greens, but there you go.

Seriously, this has already influenced my cooking. Two days ago, I made a delicious minestrone with what was in the produce aisle, including the biggest leek I've ever seen. Our veg box had more small sweet
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peppers than could be eaten in a couple of days, so I followed her advice and pickled them.
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LibraryThing member spinsterrevival
I think this book is written for foodies who supposedly don’t know how to cook. It didn’t really work for me in the amazing food aspects, but I did get a little bit more out of the how to parts. To me there are just some foods that don’t taste good, and so it’s somewhat frustrating
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listening to the author be so obsessed with certain items that just don’t sound appealing. I think this will work best for those who already love food the way the author does and can be cheered on accordingly (hence the foreword by Alice Waters), but I don’t feel any burning desire to try new things.
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LibraryThing member mmparker
A lovely if meandering source of inspiration for when cooking gets tedious.
LibraryThing member fmclellan
Lovely and light. A bit of MFK Fisher, Robert Farrar Capon, and Laurie Colwin.

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2011-10-18

Physical description

272 p.; 5.5 inches

ISBN

1439181888 / 9781439181881
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