Product Description

The LEITH'S COOKERY BIBLE is a classic. The most authoritative and comprehensive cookbook there is for seasoned cooks and beginners, chefs and caterers from the celebrated Leiths School of Food and Wine. Covering soups, first courses, vegetable dishes, salads, main courses, stocks, sauces, dips, spreads, puddings, cakes, breads, biscuits, preserves, canapes, snacks and garnishes, the Leiths Cookery Bible is truly exhaustive. In it you will find a perfected recipe for almost any dish you are looking for - Steak Tartare, Beef Bourguignonne, Peking Duck, Gazpacho, Dauphinoise Potatoes, Chicken Kiev, Thai Red Curry, Cassoulet - and for any occasion, be it a quick supper or cocktail party, picnic, three course meal or afternoon tea. The 1,400 recipes range from timeless classics such as Cheese Souffle and Steak and Kidney Pie to more innovative recipes such as Salmon and Plaice Ravioli and Red Onion and Polenta Tart, and come from every part of the world, from Scotland to the South Pacific. In addition there are clear, illustrated instructions on how to perform every culinary operation from preparing a game bird to skinning a squid. From the prestigious Leiths School of Food and Wine, this is a comprehensive and authoritative cookbook that contains everything anyone could ever need or wish to know in the kitchen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3823 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 854 pages

Customer Reviews

A reference masterpiece
"The only cookbook you'll ever need" says the cover, and it's a fair claim. OK, so there's not much in the way of photographs. This is not one of those Delia Smith volumes churned out annually. What you get is several hundred pages of detailed recipes on just about anything. Whether you're boiling an egg or stuffing a wild duck with pistachios, everything is here. That is not to say that this is some pretentious tome for dinner party catering. Those recipes are here, but where the Leith Bibles (there are three others in the series, including the faultless Fish Bible) score is in their everyday recipes: fish pie, roast gammon, tomato soup. Everything's been rigorously tested, and the results (at least for everything I've tried) are infallible. At home this book has had almost daily usage for the two years since I got hold of a copy. It cannot be recommended enough.

Excelllent reference book
Of all the cookery books i have, this is one the one most often out on the table. It contains all the basics (e.g white sauce and , say, two types of tomato sauce) plus obvious staples which have just that little bit more flair e.g. a passable Beef Bourgignon. I agree with another reviewer that some of the recipes are old fashioned - except they are few and far between and it is easy to ignore those ones. I do not agree that it is patronising or school-mamish. The recipes are simply laid out and very easy to follow - especially if, like me, you often modify or combine recipe ideas depending on what ingredients you have. Incidentally, i have tried several rotten meat-ball recipes - most of which fail because the meatballs disintegrate in the pan. This book contains two very good (and easy) meatball recipes. Also some good (very easy, not as fiddly as Rick Stein) fish recipes (try the white fish with green herbs en papillote) - though if you happen to buy the Leiths Fish Bible there is quite a lot of double-up. The baked cod is pretty damned too. If you need a book which is stuffed full of recipes of all kinds...then this is the book for you.

Constant Companion
As a self taught cook, I have often found myself wishing I had a recipe for the most basic of things (ie pastry or gravy) without having to use the trial and error method. I was given this book as a Christmas present and I love it, it has not left my side in the last 5 days. Yes some of the recipes are good old favourites but there are some great inspirational ones too plus the recipes are written in such a way that as a confident cook I can add my own twists and mix and match. A fantastic cookbook for all levels.