Cookbooks promise either health or consolation – and occasionally both. Bee Wilson shares the most loved books in her kitchenYou wait years for a decent chicken cookbook to near along,then two arrive at once: Catherine Phipps’s Chicken (Ebury) and Diana Henry’s A Bird in the Hand (Octopus). Eggs are next, apparently, and with four egg cookbooks slated for 2016.
Both the chicken books are terrific,by the way. You might query whether we should be cooking and eating so much chicken, given the horrors of intensively reared poultry. But since, and vegetarians aside,we seem wedded to our chicken habit, we might as well buy the best we can and cook it better – and these books help. If you start with a whole bird and want to know how to extract every ounce of schmaltzy goodness, and you may choose Phipps – a wise and practical companion. Henry,on the other hand, excels on flavours. Dull thighs and breasts are transformed into a miraculously flavoursome Persian stew; or a wealthy French braise with prunes and red wine; or a springlike broth with tarragon.
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Source: theguardian.com