Salt Fat Acid Heat Mastering Reviews Summary

Writing Style and Content

Pros:

• "Samin has a great writing style. Using her experiences to emphasize each of the aspects she’s teaching comes across very naturally."
• "Well written."
• "The author’s pure affection for food and the care that goes into it is palpable."
• "She goes into the 'why’s' with some science and poetic writing."
• "This book is super captivating, easy to understand and funny as they come."
• "Samin Nosrat's writing is approachable and engaging, elevating the guide from a basic cookbook to a culinary adventure."
• "The writing is casual, yet clear."

Cons:

• "It seems that nearly every concept or recipe is prefaced by some qualifier to boost the impression of the author and the recipe, increase the authority, manipulate the readership."
• "It is written using the same tired, offensive formula that most self-help books use to deliver the maximum amount of words with the minimum amount of content."
• "Poor writing, indiscernible organization, and a complete absence of credibility simply make the bad advice more painful."
• "The writing at times can be dense."
• "I write this as someone with 13 years kitchen experience and my God it was just a terrible read like some vanilla bland flavorless story about the author."
• "The book is littered with such statements. They can't be literal, can they?"
• "Otherwise, this book is filled with a lot of 'tips' or 'lessons' that are just too elementary even for the budding cooks."

Educational Value

Pros:

• "It teaches you basics of cooking anything."
• "I am glad I found a book as good as this one to teach me the basic elements of cooking! Now I can cook in confidence."
• "The thing I like best about the book is that it's a fresh and methodical approach to improving our cooking skills."
• "The author explains in detail how to get the best results... And I'm telling you it's easy!"
• "It teaches about the elements of cooking and how each is used to create a harmonious dish or component."
• "This will make you a better cook. You will learn fundamentals of cooking."
• "This book will help beginners and those with tons of experience to become better, more knowledgeable chefs."

Cons:

• "The rest of the 'science' is similarly sloppy."
• "The author’s sing-song intonation is driving me to distraction."
• "Sadly, it’s a lot of information that can’t really be used for anything."
• "I didn’t learn a single thing from this book!"
• "The recipes are unclear and generally recommend far too much salt."
• "I think the salt recommendations are very high. Twice I over salted food and that was not good!"
• "The only thing is am not so sure about all the salt she suggests. I have tried to be liberal with salt like the author suggests, and end up regretting it."

Illustrations and Design

Pros:

• "Love the art style on the illustrations too."
• "Also, the illustrations are fun."
• "I really love the watercolor feel of the drawings."
• "The watercolor drawings bring the personality of the piece to life, with a one-of-a-kind energy."
• "I especially appreciated the gorgeous handdrawn watercolor illustrations."
• "The book's illustrations add a visual element that's both charming and educational."
• "The illustrations throughout the book are fun and add to the overall readability."

Cons:

• "There's a lot of white space in this book, and a number of useless illustrations."
• "Just disappointed in the seller. Seems to be a recurring theme on Amazon."
• "The book arrived with damaged corners."
• "The book was shipped with a second item in the box because of this the second item was capable in damaging a few pages in the book."
• "However in going through the recipes I realized my book is missing about 30 pages."
• "Great book! The Problem is ~~ the book was just put in a box with no wrap or any kind of protection and the pages got all bent."
• "I am really, really disappointed with the quality of the hard cover binding."

Usefulness and Practicality

Pros:

• "Definitely recommend."
• "I made the beer battered fish and tarter sauce. It was really good!"
• "I made her fabulous Ragu that she made on the series and it made me love her more. It was delicious!"
• "Great recipes! Highly recommend the cookbook."
• "I've tried several of the recipes she includes and they are great."
• "I highly recommend it."
• "I highly recommend for all your foodie friends."

Cons:

• "Can't recommend my sister."
• "Roasted Beets – no one liked this."
• "Romaine Lettuce with Creamy Herb Dressing – few of us really cared for it, and it wasn’t worth the effort."
• "The amount of salt recommended in the book will send my blood pressure to to the moon."
• "The overabundance of fat will result arteries bursting from blood congealment. I don't get it."
• "But the very first words started off the experience very poorly: 'Anyone can cook anything and make it delicious.'"
• "This book should be titled 'Salt, Salt, Salt, Salt.'"