Review: Lots of good advice, and a few glaring errors
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 22, 2013
This book has a lot of good, basic advice for people who, for whatever reason, are a little bit intimidated by herbs. The author covers 12 common easy-to-grow and easy-to-use herbs, but at a fairly high level. She gives advice on how to use them, but only as far as vague comments like 'goes well with chicken'. There are no detailed recipes for meals in here, the 'includes recipes' line on the cover must refer to the herb mix recipes chapter.Alas, the book has a few glaring errors, and a few places where things just aren't explained.The worst of the errors is when the author claims that 2 teaspoons equals one tablespoon. It's not a typo, she says it in two different ways. In fact, it takes 3 teaspoons to make a tablespoon, if one is actually measuring. However, as the author notes early in the book, it's both difficult and unnecessary to measure herbs with complete accuracy, so for most practical purposes it might as well be 2 teaspoons. Even so, i hope that error will be corrected before too many novice chefs get their hands on this.Throughout the book, bits of lingo go unexplained. I, a somewhat experienced gardener, know exactly what 'pinching back' means, when and how to do it, and so on. For someone who couldn't tell sage from rosemary in a line-up, the kind of person who will most benefit from this book, a bit of advice to 'pinch back the flower buds' might as well be written in a foreign language. Advice on drying and freezing herbs is also lacking. For a few, she advises drying on a flat screen, but again, for a complete novice, that's meaningless. She never says anything about how to freeze herbs, whether she means to literally just put the fresh-cut herbs in the freezer, or use the ice cube method, or something else entirely.All of these issues are easily corrected, and i hope the author does so and reissues the book so that more people can reap the many health benefits she cites from the herbs themselves and the healthier diet one can manage with better-tasting food.