The River Cottage Family Cookbook [Hardcover]

Almost as much a 'real food' campaigning document as a cook book, this makes a fantastic brilliantly designed introduction to the whys, wherefores and recipes of good food in your home. There are things I would not have thought of trying with kids such as 'undressing' a crab which are inspired. Excellent illustrations. Well written and well worth buying.

One tiny glitch knocked a star off my review - on the baking front: an excellent fruit loaf and a delicious pear pudding cake. Both of these either had incorrect cooking time or temperature as both were significantly undercooked after their alotted time. The pear pudding was literally fluid in the middle. And no, my oven temperature regulation is correct (I use an oven thermometer) and it's not something I've had with any of Hugh F-W's recipes from other books. If anything my oven tends to be a little too fierce as it's fan-forced. Anyway, both recipes tasted good enough to try and experiment with times and temps to get it right, but it isn't something I feel you should have to do.

I moved here from America last year and wanted something that would help me with the new recipes, ingredients, and cooking terms for British cooking. I got this book from the library, and liked it so much that I re-checked it out twice before finally just buying my own copy.

This book is NOT one for an encyclopedic source of recipes. He covers many basic dishes, but you likely won't find everything you'd like to try and cook. If anything, the majority of recipes tend to center on basic, wholesome comfort food. Not much in the way of chi-chi new trends and no consideration for being low-carb or low-fat or "healthy." The emphasis is also on being "hands-on." I consider it an improvement that I've gone from using store-bought jarred spaghetti sauce to making my own with tomatoes and fresh basil, but if you want to try your hand at making your own pasta from scratch, he'll tell you how.

What's great about this book is the background information on the food. He tells you all about, say, sugar. The history of sugar, where it comes from, what it does when exposed to certain conditions, the uses for all the different types of sugar, etc. His chapter on bread is similarly interesting. There's even a tiny bit of science in here - like the role of gluten in bread making or how yeast works. Frankly, it just plain makes interesting reading! And, the benefit of this sort of background information is that you'll be empowered to vary recipes, since you'll know the purpose of every ingredient.

The recipes are probably all do-able for a child with a parent's supervision, but the book isn't actually written for children. The prose reads at about the same level as a newspaper and is of general interest to anyone wanting to know more about food and cooking. It's an excellent place to start for a person of any age who wants to cook good, healthy food from scratch.

I've since moved on to other cookbooks for my actual recipes, but I still enjoy referring to this book when I am trying to remember if I need to use hard flour or plain for pizza dough, or I've got the urge to try my hand at making scones for the first time. Any book or website will tell you the ingredients and tell you what to do with them, but Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall EXPLAINS the what and the why of every step so that you've not only ended up with tasty scones, but have mastered another sort of baking.

This book is for every budding cook from begginers to more talented experts! The recipies are fantastic and truly inspirational, they make you want to cook. I now enjoy cooking when i get home. The insite into how meat gets to your plate is interesting and the information about where to buy decent meat and how to spot a good buy is really helpful. will definatly buy another book from his collection!