Review: Why Buy a Separate Book?
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 27, 2012
I always wince a bit when I'm hit with a "buy my other books" before I even see a single recipe.There's a good bit of text before the recipes start at location 261.  There is a section about organics in general, the Naked Organic cookbooks, the invitation-only community the author is hoping to start (and I'm a bit bemused about that; one would think that one would wish the "organic is good" message to spread freely), and about scones in general.The introduction says "Discoveries have been made that show obesity, cancer and almost any illness you can imagine, all stem from not giving our bodies the nutrition they need. The cancer and obesity epidemic are pretty new to America, and in parts of the world where people live off the land, eating natural foods- those diseases are virtually non-existent."This, to me, seems written as a more definitive and absolute statement than the facts really warrant.  Granted, obesity is certainly affected by what we eat, and there has been some research into whether cancer rates are indeed rising and how linked it is to what we eat.  (There are other factors such as an increased population, environment, exposures, more sensitive screening tests, and more people receiving such tests.)I would imagine there are indeed parts of the world where obesity is not an issue.  It's the "almost any illness" and that they "all stem from" diet that gets me a bit hot under the collar.  Diet is a factor in health, a huge one, but it's not necessarily the cause of "almost any illness" and it's rarely a cure for diseases not related to the digestive process.If the author is going to make such a blanket statement, I think citing some actual facts about "parts of the world" (which parts?) where "these diseases are virtually non-existent" (which diseases, specifically?) would be appropriate."while organic foods can cost more, it's very possible to eat organic on the cheap."  I would have really liked to hear more about this rather than just a toss-off sentence.  This possibly could have made the book more than 2 stars, at least to me.I am not sure why one would need separate "organic" recipe cookbooks rather than using organic ingredients for recipes one already has on hand.  The author says one can use whatever flour one has on hand instead of spelt flour without mentioning any kind of adjustment, so it's not like that makes the recipes any different.The recipes themselves are, as far as I can tell, essentially regular recipes with some ingredients specified as organic.  This type of cookbook, to me, makes using organic ingredients seem very complicated or "different," when in reality, there's no reason one can't just use such ingredients in whatever one would normally cook.  I make "organic chocolate chip cookies" by using my old recipe and organic ingredients, for example, and I didn't need an "organic cookie cookbook" to tell me how.In fact, I noticed that the very first line of this book's description is praise from a reviewer who says she made these recipes with "regular" ingredients!Then, after reading through the recipes, I started to wonder if inserting "organic" into recipes was exactly what the author had done.  The recipe for "Prickly Pear Scones" is essentially identical to the recipe listed on Allrecipes.com for Pear Scones (note that the recipe in this book does NOT call for 'prickly pear,' but rather just a chopped pear).  The difference is that the author has inserted the word "organic" and changed the pinch of salt to a "pinch of celtic sea salt."I did spot some errors along the way."be my Scott-Irish heritage.""an after diner treat.""I'd just like to say thank you for supporting my family and I"Punctuation is also rather hit-and-miss throughout the book.There is a hyperlinked table of contents but it doesn't work with the Go To Table of Contents command on the Kindle for PC.The Traditional Scones recipe says "Feel free to add your own unique ideas to this great recipe."  Some suggestions and guidelines would be helpful to get people thinking about it.  Do some kinds of nuts work better than others?  How about adding fresh grapes and cherries, would that work?Some of the recipes have some text issues, as well."Lightly grease a baking sheet or line with baking parchment. Flour and baking powder into a medium bowl. Rub butter and sugar into flour to form a fine crumble." Sift?  Mix?  Pour?One recipe calls for 3/4 cup buttermilk and 2 tablespoons buttermilk.  The recipe says at one point to "mix in buttermilk with fork" and then "brush tops with remaining 1 tablespoon buttermilk."  Where does the other tablespoon fit in?The current scones recipe says "1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder (You can find an organic substitute for this in your local co-op)." This seems out of character with the rest of the recipes, which simply say "organic this" and "organic that."  (I was somewhat surprised to see a reference to "apple pie spice" without the word 'organic' in front of it.  Okay, yes, I'm joking a little bit, but the word is very highly utilized.)  I also wonder what those of us without "local co-ops" should do?The Maple Oatmeal Scones call for real maple syrup (not specified as organic) and "maple flavored extract."  Perhaps it's just me, but this seems out of place in all the emphasis on natural, healthy, and organic.  This makes me suspect another recipe where the word "organic" has just been inserted before a freely available recipe.Ultimately, I don't see the point of keeping this book.  I identified at least one recipe that basically just inserted the word "organic" which (to me) doesn't make me think any of the other recipes are all that special or unique or creative.  I won't be keeping it, so my rating is 2 stars.It may be useful to someone who wants scone recipes but doesn't have them already and doesn't want to look online for free recipes.  The text expounding the organic philosophy is not worth buying the book for, in my opinion, for the reasons I noted above.