Review: NO TABLE OF CONTENTS
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2012
This is a useful cookbook as it gives a lot of information about steak: CHOOSING (a large section on various cuts of steak, where to buy, what steaks to use for various situations including everyday, elegant dining, large gatherings, and tailgating. There also is a discussion of what to look for in any steak: color, marbling, etc.), PREPARATION, COOKING and RESTING. However, as there is no table of contents, I had to Mark the page I'd gotten to (being careful to remember what the first sentence on the page was) then searched the word "appendix". The tables in the appendix give cooking times for various cuts of various thicknesses that will result in perfectly cooked steaks according to desired doneness: rare, medium rare and medium.[There is no instruction for well done steak. Those who want an easy suggestion for well done steak: double the medium rare cooking time. Yeah, this makes for boot leather meat, but that's what my late Mother, bless her soul, wanted! I always cooked one side of her steak the full time to achieve medium rare, flipped it and then left it in the pan while I added, and cooked my steak to medium rare.]But I digress. I bookmarked the appendix. Then I used a search of My Notes and Marks to return to the page from which I'd begun--that is the page in the text that mentioned the appendix. You see why I value a good Table of Contents, don't you? I like being able to move around in a book by going to MY Notes and Marks, but I'd rather not Mark each chapter when a book's Table of Contents would provide that information while my Notes and Marks could be reserved for specific ideas that caught my interest.The great advantages to this book are:1. step by step instructions for the four main methods for cooking steak: grilling (section on charcoal, then a section on gas), broiling, roasting, and pan frying. [That's right. Not one set of instructions from which to extrapolate for one's chosen method of cooking! ] and,2. a table of desired doneness with requisite cooking times for various cuts of steak, and the thickness of that steak.This is a useful cookbook for those who don't cook steak often enough to remember what works. It truly is a foolproof method, and yup, I made strip steaks last night. They were perfect.