Cookbook Review: The $5 College Cookbook

I'm usually a skeptic of things that promise a lot for a little. A lot of flavor for little effort? A lot of food for little money? Yeah, right. I see it like this. Pick three:

It's delicious.

It's cheap.

It takes no time to prepare.

It's nutritious.

Maybe you have recipes that match all four of these – if you do, show me! But for the most part, in my little experience, either you have to use high-quality meats, vegetables, and spices or spend a good amount of time on a meal to make it both nutritious and delicious, unless you have time-saving tools like slow cookers, food processors, and other awesome kitchen toys... which I, living in a dorm, do not.

So when I saw this for $5 at Hastings, I decided to give it a try.

I'm not a fan of the binding – it's bound in glued paperback, just like a chintzy romance novel. Want to keep it open to a page? Better have some paperweights nearby. Eschewing the popular comb and metal ring bindings most cookbooks go by, it instead closes themselves while you're cooking. I gave up and now copy my recipes from this book to ChefTap instead.

Inside, you'll find a disturbing lack of information and knowledge.

The author expects students to have access to a stove, oven, microwave, toaster oven, blender, food processor, toaster oven, grill, hot plate, room to store dozens of ingredients in a pantry and a fridge, and LOTS of excess time to cook breakfast and lunch... has the author even BEEN to a college dorm? I don't know about other college wanna-be chefs, but the only appliances I have in my room are my microwave and refrigerator, all of my ingredients have to fit on a single bookshelf, save for my potted herbs (which double as room decoration), and I usually have about half an hour maximum to throw down breakfast and lunch before my next class. Far more suited for students in apartments or couples getting their first apartment, I really have to recommend against this cookbook for anyone living in tight quarters without their own kitchen. Some of the recipes are pretty stupid as well. Take this one for peas:

½ cup water 1 cup frozen peas Bring the water to a boil. Add the peas and cook until they turn a bright color and are tender. Drain and serve.

Or this one for pasta:

8 oz pasta 8 cups water 1 tablespoon salt Bring the water to a boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water. Stir while cooking. Drain and serve.

Phew! So glad I got a cookbook out! Here, let me try one; maybe I can get in the next edition:

1 frozen, microwavable, filled pastry pocket Remove from plastic and place in cardboard sleeve. Microwave until no longer frozen. Remove sleeve. Serve.

Don't get me wrong, there are good parts as well. Most of the recipes are suited for one to two people, which is perfect for my purposes. They also include nutritional information, which is always appreciated, and as the cover promises, they are, for the most part, pretty cheap – that is, once you already have the stock of different condiments and exotic spices that you're expected to have. There are sections for party foods and desserts as well – a nice spark of variety as far as most of the “cooking for college” books I've seen go. The dessert section is well-rounded, including both the familiar things like peanut butter cookies and brownies as well as more unusual dishes like nanaimo bars and even sorbet. There are also ideas on using leftovers from previous recipes in the book, which is great for someone on a budget.

Cookbook Review: The Auburn Cookbook

Years ago, my father's grandmother gave my mother a paperback cookbook, bound with a white plastic comb binding. It had a blue cover with a clocktower and an eagle in flight. Inside is a note scrawled in ballpoint pen: “This is an updated edition of the cookbook I was issued in home ec in high school. It has served Grandfather and I for many years and many meals. I hope you enjoy it!”

When I came to Auburn University, I recognized that clocktower. It was the same as was on the front of my mom's cookbook – the iconic Samford Hall. And today, in the university bookstore, I found what is now my newest cookbook!

The Auburn Cookbook is published by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. You can find it online for about $15, but it was at the bookstore for a steal price of $12.50. I had a 50% coupon, so I grabbed a second one as a gift – or a backup. With tax, it came up to $10 per cookbook – not bad for a cookbook of this size and usefulness!

I have to recommend this cookbook for any new cooks, or anyone who feels uneasy in the kitchen. Along with nearly four hundred pages of recipes, it includes sections in the front about planning a nutritious meal, pairing spices with food, common substitutes, food safety, and more things that a beginner might find useful. In the back, there's a somewhat antiquated manual showing the correct way of setting up a table, be it for morning coffee or a full-out formal dinner. It goes far beyond forks to the left, knives to the right – it shows where all of the serving dishes, down to the last slotted spoon, should go. I guess it would be good should you ever host the members of the Emily Post Society or something.

Anyway, on to the food. If you're an American, most of the recipes will look familiar, with very little departing from what's typically made in American kitchens. The main strength in this cookbook is just how many sections there are – twenty-one sections of food alone, including a section for candies & nuts, one for appetizers, and one for relishes and salad dressings. Each section is prefaced with useful information about the food in that section, like how to select fresh fish and how long you can keep meat in the fridge. It's not terribly exciting, but it gives you a great basis for surviving in the kitchen. This newest edition includes nutrition info on most of the recipes with calories, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, protein, fat, and calories from fat, which is really useful.

The only bad thing about this cookbook is that it's geared for family meals serving four to eight people, not singles or couples (usually I'm just cooking for my boyfriend and I). Still, recipes are easily halved or, as my friends prefer, guests may be invited to dinner.

In any case, I'm really excited to finally have a copy of my great grandmother's textbook for myself! I can't wait to try out all of the recipes I haven't tried yet at home.

Consider giving this cookbook a go – if not for yourself, then for some young couple that's about to get married and move out on their own, a high school senior about to have an apartment to himself, or anyone in need of solid cooking advice.