Splendid Soups : Recipes and Master Techniques for Making the World's Best Soups

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Summary: The Perfect Guide to Cold Weather Meals
Review: If the cold weather has you thinking of good simple hot dishes, then this is the book for you. Just about any soup you ever thought about making is here, along with some exotics you've probably never heard of. But they are all great taste treats! And as if the recipes themselves aren't enough, it also has histories of many of the soups, which will give you both an insight into why they are made the way they are, and also ideas for possible variations. The perfect gift for anyone who loves the simple hot soup on a cold blustery morning.

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Summary: fantastic, encyclopedic
Review: Mmmmmmmmouthwatering. The weather's turning and thoughts are turning to steaming soups with hunks of buttered bread. I've tried three recipes, and they all worked --- The vichyssoise recipe (I made it hot) is the best I've ever tried, and there are hundreds of others from around the world I can't wait to try -- no rest until every page (there are over 400 of them) of this soup book is kitchen-splattered and crusty.

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Summary: Memorable Meals!
Review: Over two years use this is unquestionably one of my favorite, most reliable cookbooks. Simple, elegant recipes that never fail to delight everyone at my table. From classics to ethnic, includes many valuble tips that apply to all cooking, including stocks, broths, shopping tips and presentation knock-outs. I'm buying all of his other cookbooks!

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Summary: Enthusiastically recommended for gourmet dining!
Review: Splendid Soups is a very impressive, 630-page compendium of recipes for soups of all kinds and categories. These outstanding recipes include broths and consommes, vegetable soups, rice soups, fish soups, bivalve shellfish soups, crustacean soups, meat soups, bread soups, yogurt, cheese and buttermilk soups, fruit soups and dessert soups. Splendid Soups is enhanced for the kitchen chef with sections on basic preparation, patterns for improvising soups, a metric conversion chart, sources, and a "user friendly" index. Splendid Soups is a very highly recommended addition to any personal, professional, and community library cookbook collection.

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Summary: Splendid but not useful
Review: There's nothing like hot, hearty soup on a cold winter day. If you want to read about soups, great book. If you want to cook them, forget it. The book suffers from overly complicated recipes. To make matters worse, it's filled with errors and omissions. Recipes sometimes seem to skip steps (ingredients never get added!), and the ingredients chapter doesn't bother to describe the truly unusual ingredients. It's as if the editor just checked spelling and no one actually tried to COOK from the recipes.

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Summary: This is a great book for a true soup lover.
Review: This book is a must-have for those who eat soup even on the hottest July day. I wouldn't recommend it, though, for someone who is looking for quick meal ideas. Although many recipes are quite simple, most require a bit of effort (but are well worth it). It is a wonderful resource of ideas and information for anyone who enjoys making and eating soup--often.

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Summary: great book
Review: This book is great. I bought it for the Senegalese Peanut soup recipe and it was a stunning winner. When the weather turns colder and darker I make a lot of soups and this is the best book I have seen on the subject.
I have been reading some of the other reviews and I am somewhat amazed. I guess the net of all of these remarks is that this book is not a step-by-step for beginners. It assumes you know something about cooking. It does not give exact instructions. It gives outlines with options for branching out. This is exactly the way I like to cook, so it is perfect for my style.

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Summary: The Last Book on Soup You Will Ever Need
Review: This book is great. I bought it for the Senegalese Peanut soup recipe and it was a stunning winner. When the weather turns colder and darker I make a lot of soups and this is the best book I have seen on the subject.
I have been reading some of the other reviews and I am somewhat amazed. I guess the net of all of these remarks is that this book is not a step-by-step for beginners. It assumes you know something about cooking. It does not give exact instructions. It gives outlines with options for branching out. This is exactly the way I like to cook, so it is perfect for my style.

Rating:
Summary: Splendid but not useful
Review: This guy can cook and he shares it with the rest of us. He is thorough and clearly communicates. Even the simplest and basics of soups turn out spectacular with this book, e.g. Potato and Leek Soup. So many categories and techniques to play with, this book is a goldmine of soups.

Rating:
Summary: Thorough Work on Soups
Review: This guy can cook and he shares it with the rest of us. He is thorough and clearly communicates. Even the simplest and basics of soups turn out spectacular with this book, e.g. Potato and Leek Soup. So many categories and techniques to play with, this book is a goldmine of soups.