Shirley Corriher: Cookwise
Shirley Corriher first came to America's attention (and captured my baking heart) on Alton Brown's show, Good Eats. She was chipper, knowledgable and fun. She explained food chemistry so that the home cook, one who had fallen asleep once in high school chemistry perhaps, could understand the reactions that make cooked food delicious.
Cookwise was the first book I read that really made me understand cooking. Michael Ruhlman's Ratio explains what works; Cookwise explains why it works and how changes will affect the dish.
If I had to pick a favorite dish from the book, it would be the quiche, with a nice, straightforward ratio of eggs to milk, and what each part of the recipe does, along with variations.
There are still so many recipes I still want to try: grated sweet potato pudding, buerre rouge, golden tomato bake and chicken with wild dried mushrooms and wine. (Really, could I just quit my job and cook?) Thus, it passes the very first test of a cookbook: does it inspire?
![[Christmas trees for sale on South Street, 2009]](/images/DSCF5056.jpg)
The recipe: Christmas Cake
Fruitcake is an excuse and a method for eating fruit plump with whiskey, rum or brandy. In a traditional Irish or British fruitcake like this one, the fruit outweighs and outshines the minimal amount of cake that holds everything together. The cake is baked weeks before Christmas so that it can be "watered" with spirits. A finished 10-inch cake, covered with almond paste and royal icing, will weigh over 10 pounds.