By The Editors, Contributors, & Readers of Fine Cooking Magazine, Taunton Press, $19.95, 266 pages
No matter how savvy we think we are in the kitchen, all that trial and error is bound to land us in a pickle at some point. In “How to Squeeze a Lemon,” we find the collective wisdom of Fine Cooking’s Editors, Contributors and Readers at our fingertips.
Valuable features include: a guide to food storage offering guidelines on the shelf-life of certain foods, tips on caring for your kitchen appliances properly, a wine and beer guide that will break down the tasting terms and leave you secure in your own evaluations, and dozens of techniques for baking, grilling, freezing, and frying. Perhaps the most indispensable information is found in the chapter, “When Things Go Wrong: A Quick Guide to Substitutions and Equivalents.” This handy reference addresses scores of problems that call for immediate solutions.
It makes for a quick, light read, but there are enough clever tips in this book to propel the everyday cook to the next level, so it’s worth keeping on hand. And yes, of course, you will be able to squeeze a lemon with the best of them.
Reviewed by Alicea Swett