Product Description

A thoroughly comprehensive guide to cooking throughout the year, this book is presented in three parts: basic information including cooking and preserving techniques, equipment, ingredients, measurements, etc; recipes grouped by season: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter; and recipes covering a range of dishes including:soups,accompaniments, breads, cakes, fish, meat,preserves, puddings, salads, starters, stocks, and vegetarian. Appropriate recipes will be denoted to show low calorie, quick recipes, recipes for children. It also includes Index and cooking terms. Traditional dishes such as Cream of Celery, Apple and Stilton Soup, Sausages and Kidney with Red Wine sauce, Bean and Vegetable Hot Pot, Bramley Apple Gingerbread vie with contemporary classics such as Brazil Nut and Lemon Soup, Spicy Beans with Guacamole Salsa, Poached White Fish with Green Salsa, and Thai Rice Brulees.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22913 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Glasgow Herald
'For nearly a century the women’s institute has enjoyed an unsurpassed reputation for delicious home cooking…Treat your family'

Customer Reviews

Food should be a joy, a pleasure to be shared
`The WI - A Reputation for Home-Cooking That is Second to None.'

`The `Best Kept Secrets' is a series of books, written by WI members, women who know all about cooking for families and friends from previous experience.'

Large format book with over 500 seasonal recipes on 256 high quality, shiny pages, split over 5 main chapters:-

Basic Essentials (further divided into Stocks, Pastry, Jam Making and Useful Tips)
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

with the latter four being split into:-
Soups, Starters & Salads, Lunches & Suppers, Desserts, Cakes & Bakes and Preserves.
Useful colour coded key for recipes:-
Healthy heart, vegetarian, quick recipe and low calorie

Interspersed with colour photography, but not of every dish which may make it less appealing to those who like to see what they are aiming for in the way of a finished product.

Another slight negative in that the text is quite small and can be hard to read, especially in the paler coloured `ingredients' lists within the `Seasons` sections.

Favourite Recipes:-
Smoked Haddock Lasagne
Cullen Skink
Prawn & Papaya Salad
Madeira Pork
Tarte au Citron
Easter Biscuits
Mango Pickle
Minestrone Soup
Summer Vegetable Risotto
Red, White and Blue Salad
Farmhouse Potato Pie
Beef in Guinness Cobbler
Christmas Star Trifle
Old Fashioned Treacle Tart
Toffee Apple Baked Alaska
Pumpkin Marmalade
Iceberg Salad with Stilton Dressing
Irish Brack

Best kept secrets
This is a well presented book with a nice layout for the four seasons, and each season with starters, main , desert and even seaonal jams or preserves and breads.
I would say that disappointingly there is nothing new in here, as the majority of recipes are taken from the already successful Best kept secrets series.
However it is a good summary of the items if you can't decide which best kept secrets book to buy or are if you are interested in a good general "can't go wrong" set of recipes.

Great all round cookbook!
I love this book and have used it a lot. There isn't a recipe I've tried (so far!) that hasn't worked. Its even got me making jam again! Its definately a good buy if you haven't got loads of cookbooks already. I would definately recommend this as a good all rounder.