I am a travel book reviewer and a cookbook reviewer and How Do You Measure Up? falls into neither of those categories …but on the other hand (the hand is a non-SI unit of length, now used only for the measurement of the height of horses) it fits nicely into both.
Shirley Bond has penned a unique work of research that is a must for any cookbook collector and a necessity for any cookbook writer. It is cover-to-cover conversions, that make life so much easier for those who bake.
Yes, accurate measurement is important in any form of food preparation, but it’s at the very heart of successful baking. A couple of grams either way could indeed make the difference between a light and airy sponge and a hefty pancake. How big is a large egg? How many people will that wedding cake feed? All these answers and more are to be found in How Do You Measure Up?
Any enthusiastic cook is liable to return from holiday (US conversion = vacation) with a case full of cookbooks using cup measurements, that can now easily be converted to ounces (if you’re still in pre-metric mode). Those cookbooks that your mum used for years are likely to be imperial but it’s simple to convert the much-loved recipes to litres, kilos and grams.
Tins and cooking times have always caused problems. You have a favourite fruit cake recipe and have always baked that in a round tin but what do you do if you want to make a larger cake and indeed a square one? Turn to page 108! There is a table here that will enable the baker to turn that small 5-inch teatime treat into a 25cm celebration centrepiece.
How Do You Measure Up? is a thorough catalogue of weights, measures, temperatures, volumes, storage advice, freezing times, cooking times. There is information here that you can’t imagine you would ever need …but sooner or later, if you’re the owner of a kitchen, you will.
How Do You Measure Up?
Author: Shirley Bond
Published by: Woodlands Publishing
Price: £7.99 + £2.75 postage and packing
Order online from www.ypdbooks.co.uk
or
www.woodlandspublishing.co.uk
ISBN 978-0-9558911-2-0
Cookbook review by Chrissie Walker © 2018