This is a clever idea; a book that troubleshoots on any issue or problem to do with food and cooking. It is well organised by topic: ‘Baking’, ‘Christmas’, ‘Meat and Chicken’ etc. Within each chapter, problems are posed. ‘How do you carve a turkey?’ And the authority of the Women’s Weekly’s food director, Pamela Clark, will find you an answer. In addition, there is a table for equivalent cup-to-weight ratios, a series of charts that offer quick referencing for things like optimal storage times for the gamut of seafood products, and a comprehensive index. While I think Clark’s information is accessible and useful, and some huge kitchen mysteries have certainly been solved for me (involving meringues), I fear the potential audience for such a text may now use the internet for troubleshooting. Cake flat as a pancake? You can plug that into any search engine and get information very quickly. Thumbing through a printed volume might have no charm for the digital generation. However, for cooks who find the internet difficult to navigate or who like their information stamped with the weight of the Women’s Weekly, this volume could diffuse hours of frustration and, at under $15, the price is spot on.

Annelise Balsamo is a freelance reviewer and wrote on cookbooks in her doctoral thesis

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

Tags: pamela clark, women's weekly australian