Tassajara Cooking

by Edward Espe Brown

When it was first issued, Tassajara Cooking became an overnight classic. Ed Brown's recipes for cooking—for learning to appreciate all the steps involved in making a meal, from selecting the ingredients to serving the finished dish—struck a chord with people who care about food and nutrition. This groundbreaking book, in a completely redesigned format, is just as timely and relevant today, more than thirty years later.

Brown discusses methods for working with vegetables, grains, beans, dairy products, and fruits; cooking techniques; and suggestions for planning good tasting, nutritious meals, from soups and salads to desserts. Generously seasoned with illustrations that detail every part of the cooking process, Tassajara Cooking is a comprehensive guide to inspired cooking, with joy.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Vegetarian, Reference

270 pages, Paperback

First published May 12, 1974

About the author

Edward Espe Brown is a Zen Buddhist priest and professional chef.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cookbook (with no photos!) that you can read from cover to cover and still enjoy.

The recipes themselves, only "officially" start in the last 100 pages but by the time you reach them, improvisation, inspiration and resourcefulness are already your best friends in the kitchen.

The author goes to great lengths, explaining the how-to of cutting techniques, the ins and outs of every day to day vegetable, grain, bean, fruit or seed. What produce to use in what time and/or situation of the year. All this with the help of hand drawn pictures and cleverly organized chapters.

But more than hard rules, everything feels like a suggestion based on experience, and consequently, much more down to earth and feasible that your average cookbook. It doesn't matter if you don't have the right vegetable to try that recipe. There's a bunch of suggestions and alternatives in every "recipe" of the book. The variety and possibilities are so many, that although this isn't a strict vegan or even vegetarian book, it's very easy to adapt the ideas presented to your dietary needs.

A brilliant cookbook.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book in the 1970s. We still use it to check how many minutes to cook a soft boiled egg. The correct way to slice a new vegetable , or a forgotten one. This book was written before the internet and has simple illustrations , not color, which are very useful.

It’s a jewel.

[Cole · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight this book is with recipes and meals that really work. I'm so glad to see it is still in print. My well worn copy is from 1976. As a non hippy and a non vegetarian I shouldn't really be writing this but this is the only book I've ever found with really tasty vegetarian food ideas. I only wish the trendy vegetarian restaurants I've visited had a copy of this book. Ok my copy has no photographs but it does have a brilliant comprehensive group of instructional pictures. There aren't many things in this book I haven't tried over the years and it's probably the best investment you could make to add to your kitchen library. Dazzle your family with a delicious vegetarian meal. It's easy.

[Eliza · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites. I go back to it again and again for basic techniques.

[Kristie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book cover to cover, and it is just a delight. It is NOT a cookbook -- it's about cooking. It's very practical and passionate, and helps you learn to cook without recipes.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Tassajara books are different from your average cookbook; there's so much more to them, despite what their slim appearances might indicate. It's about actually cooking, as opposed to following a recipe, so what you learn about is the structure of a dish, and how to do things - how to experiment - rather than simply how to follow directions. Much of the book provides basic information on techniques and ingredients, with the recipes in many ways simply suggestions for how to combine those ingredients and techniques into various vegetarian dishes. It embodies an approach to food that I really like.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cherish my original edition of this book highly, yet it lives in the kitchen and is pretty well spattered from numberless consultations near food.

The book does not provide recipes - it simply makes suggestions about combinations you might try, and encourages you to go experiment. There is wisdom about caring for implements, and for the various vegetables and legumes. Full of the spirit of discovery and don't-know of a young Ed Espe Brown, who learned to cook by washing, cutting, chopping, cleaning, and eating.

[Sheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

My absolute favorite cookbook ever! Mostly because it is not so much a collection of recipes, but rather a collection of zen parables about cooking.
Though I tend to get carried away with artistry in my cooking, every once in a while I want to get back to the elements....let the vegetables be themselves, as Ed would say.
Also, the tahini shortbread is kick ass!

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a cooking book, not a "cook book". It explores the characteristics of basic food ingredients that cooks need to know. There are recipes and suggestions that are intended as a jumping off point for experimentation. Initial directions for that experimentation are suggested. Great book. Permanent place on the kitchen bookshelf.

[MaryBeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't a recipe book as much as it is a book on how to prepare food, including choosing the freshest ingredients. From this general information, you can make prepare dishes in any quantity you wish. Definitely ann interesting read for those who like to "read" cookbooks.

[Alyssa Marie Gale Stockton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very formative to my style of cooking, this book encourages you to know your ingredients and be confident in your improvisations. It bestows freedom on the cautions cook and opens up a whole new world of cooking from what's in your pantry.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Yum. Not a cookbook, but an inspirational cooking book, giving you all sorts of ideas, but letting you know YOU are in charge - onions if you like, but if you don't - don't. Add some sunflower seeds! Lots of basil, or none at all. Full of great ideas for cooking.

[Terri · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is another recipe book from my grandmother's collection. I don't know why she purchased this book or why she kept it. The recipes are simple. So simple in fact, that an idiot could figure it out without the book and Granny was not an idiot. Nor was she a vegetarian.

[Suzanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite cookbook.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

If not the first cookbook I got it is one of the first. I am still using the skills I learned from it

[Joann Calabrese · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect

[MichaelRpdx]

Get a lot of Zen Buddhist attitude with your recipes and observations on how to cook.