The Real Man's Cookbook: How, When, What and Why to Cook

The Real Man's Cookbook: How, When, What and Why to Cook

by W J Rayment
The Real Man's Cookbook: How, When, What and Why to Cook

The Real Man's Cookbook: How, When, What and Why to Cook

by W J Rayment

Paperback

$13.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Choose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Friday, March 22
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

Do real men cook? Of course they do. From the great chefs of France to the rough-and-tumble short-order cooks, real men have been preparing manly dishes for centuries. With dry wit and wisdom, W. J. Rayment dishes out recipes, reflects on the state of society and solves the world's most pressing problems.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781587360091
Publisher: Wheatmark, Incorporated
Publication date: 10/01/2000
Pages: 150
Sales rank: 882,474
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.02(h) x 0.38(d)

About the Author

W. J. Rayment lives in Bellevue, Washington, eats jalapeno peppers whole on a dare, remodels houses, writes books and creates web sites.

Being born in Steven King's hometown of Bangor, Maine, in no way prepared W. J. Rayment for literary success. However, it did give folks more than one reason to label him a Maineiac. Eldest of four children, he grew up in a tight-knit family. His father was an Air Force officer and his mother doted on him and his siblings. He never made his bed as a child and refuses to do so to this day.

The rigors of life as a military brat led directly to the rigors of life as an amphibious warfare specialist on the USS Raleigh during the 1980s. Navy life suited him well. The only drawback is that he is prone to motion sickness. Bobbing about like a cork on the ocean proved to be more than he cared to experience for a lifetime.

Subsequent to his military service, Mr. Rayment married a charming if outspoken woman, had two children and ate three square meals a day (while working in a pickle warehouse and writing novels in his spare time).

His wife, Robin, showed little aptitude for cooking. Mr. Rayment's need for nourishment necessitated the development of some culinary expertise on his own part. A keen curiosity led to study and experimentation. Thus, he pored over his books at the feet of the masters (though that was not always the most aromatic of places to study). In the end, he discovered that the best meals were not always those that were difficult or fancy. Often they involved only a few moments of intense effort and rudimentary knowledge.

Mr. Rayment's natural impatience, proletarian palate and keen intellect helped him realize that there were few cookbooks for the average Joe, the real man. This gaping hole cried to be filled. Indeed, he was the man to do it. With verve and vigor, he produced The Real Man's Cookbook from a compendium of recipes and accompanying essays he had produced over a year’s time.

The cookbook seemed to be a perfect format for the Internet, where it first appeared The popularity of the online cookbook startled its author and dismayed proponents of haute cuisine. He was bombarded by requests for hard copies of the book. iPublisher soon offered a contract for it.

Currently W. J. Rayment resides in Bellevue, Washington, where he spends most of his time answering hate mail from highbrows who think a can of mushroom soup is a shocking ingredient and that whine is spelled "wine."

Read an Excerpt

Being the cook of the house, I also feel an urgent need to lay to rest notions of cooking as a pansy sport. In manly circles, it is thought of in the same light as badminton or croquette, fit only for the effeminate. In reality, cooking is more akin to the rough-and-tumble sport of baseball, borrowing such terms as batter and fowl. It also requires plates and heavy mitts for effective play. Its participants need, in equal parts, power, finesse and intelligence.

Beyond sports analogies, cooking also demands the use of a vast array of tools easily as specialized as auto-mechanics or electronics. A cook may use spatulas, rolling pins and calendars. Hammers and a variety of knives come in handy, too. Not that the art of cooking is so complex that you need to take a battery of courses at the local vocational technical college to do it. Cooking is only as complex as you wish to make it. You can make a simple bowl of oatmeal in the microwave or a complex Chicken Cordon Bleu. You can whip up a bowl of canned soup or make baklava from "scratch."

I suppose I should pause here to explain the word "scratch" so that the reader does not presume I am falling back on my baseball analogy. For a cook to make something from scratch is to attempt to throw together a palatable dish using only basic ingredients. When I say "basic," I mean basic. These ingredients are the elements that form the chemical chart we were all forced to memorize in chemistry class in high school. I’m not big on scratch recipes. So to use this cookbook, you will not be required to break out your son’s chemistry set. Luckily, in the modern world, most carbon-based consumables have already been formulated into a readily edible substance. For example, you don’t need to go through the trouble of making pie crust from flour, water and polyunsaturated gelatinized sunflower seed oil. You can get it from a box, roll it out and flop it in a tin. Or you can even buy the crust pre-made. Heck, you can just buy the whole pie frozen.

This prompts a second question, and a good question: "If I can get food pre-made, for example in a restaurant, then why bother cooking at all?"

I have racked my brain and scrounged up several good reasons. First, any real man is as much of a tight wad as I am. He can’t afford to go out to dinner every night and going out on a date makes this procedure doubly expensive.

An even better reason is that no one makes food to my taste as well as I do. I know just how much paprika and hot sauce to dump into my chili and how many onions to toss into a chicken teriyaki. I know enough to keep my food simple, and to avoid the baser elements on chemical chart: no molybdenum, ferrous oxide, Tang instant breakfast mix or Brussels sprouts.

The best reason to cook is for the sheer joy of it. There are many who would argue with me about this. Even my own mother tells me what a drag cooking can be. But cooking is like any other activity. You get out of it in proportion to what you put into it (and this has nothing to do with Newton’s Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy that we were also forced to memorize in high school). I get a bang out of cooking because I make it fun, and I make the food I like. When a dish turns out to taste good there is also the satisfaction derived from a job well done.

Finally, if it has been too long since your wife or girlfriend granted you her favors, cooking works wonders where the usual pleading and begging will fail. You can pretend to be the sensitive lover, when all you have done is throw a can of mushroom soup over a slab of beef and dumped some instant mashed potatoes into a pan of boiling water.

Table of Contents

Introduction9
About Cooking13
How to Cook in General13
The Oven As a Time-Saver14
Tools of the Trade16
Aprons and Other Protective Gear17
Baking vs. Cooking18
Alcohol at Meal Time18
Universal Ingredients19
Preheating the Oven20
The Right Combinations21
Meal Presentation22
Beef25
Here's the Beef25
Beef Potpie26
Picking out Meat and Looking for Marbling27
Grilled Steak28
Preparation29
Six-Hour Stew30
Safe Handling30
When to Cook Beef31
Roast Beast32
Vegetarianism and the Argument for Gravy33
Gravy34
Stroganoff35
Poor Man's Meat36
Meat Loaf37
Roast Steak38
An Irish Reverie39
Shepherd's Pie40
You Are What You Eat43
Not Everything Tastes Like Chicken45
Roast Chicken45
Chicken Cordon Bleu46
Chicken Cordon Bleu47
Meat Pies48
Chicken Potpie49
Shake-and-Bake50
Oven-Fried Chicken50
Curry Favor51
Chicken Curry52
Stuffing and Dressing53
Chicken and Dressing55
Centrifugal Entropy55
Chicken Teriyaki57
Barley: The Forgotten Grain58
Chicken and Barley59
A Barbecue Secret60
Barbecue Chicken61
Peace in Our Time61
Chicken Gorgonzola62
Hoi Poloi63
Chicken a la King or Chicken with Gravy64
Versatility65
Chicken and Dumplings66
Other Meats69
The Other White Meat and Other White Meats69
Ham and Cream Sauce71
Luck of the Draw71
Breaded Pork Chops72
Euro-Pork73
Euro-Pork73
Country Style74
Country Style Spare Ribs75
You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish76
Tuna and Noodle Casserole77
Roofing Material77
Slop-on-the-Shingle78
Lamb78
Roast Lamb79
The Sausage Effect80
Sausage and Kraut81
Turkey81
Barbecue Turkey Drumsticks82
My Favorite Holiday83
Turkey and Dressing and Trimmings84
How to Avoid the Post-Thanksgiving Letdown86
Vegetables and Salads89
Vegetables89
Broccoli and Cheese Sauce91
Potluck91
Green Bean Casserole93
Zucchini93
Fried Zucchini94
Asparagus95
Asparagus and Swiss Cheese Bake96
Acorn Squash96
Acorn Squash98
Canned vs. Frozen98
Peas-on-Brea'99
Salads100
Vegetable Salad100
Cucumber Salad101
Cucumber Salad102
The Skin Controversy103
Potato Salad104
Tomatoes105
Tomato and Cottage Cheese Salad106
Taco Salad106
Taco Salad107
Soups and Sandwiches109
Soups109
Leftover Chicken Soup111
Broth vs. Cream111
Tomato Basil Soup112
Thinking about the Future113
Lima Bean Soup115
Potato: The All-American Vegetable115
Potato Soup116
Chile, Chilly, Chili117
Chili118
Onion Soup119
French Onion Soup120
Lunchtime121
Cheese and Broccoli Soup with a Baked Potato122
Sandwiches123
French Squish Sandwich124
Dips and Your Friends124
Bean Dip125
Pasta and Starches127
Starches: Not Just for Pressing Shirts Anymore127
Oven-Fried Potatoes128
Stealing Recipes129
Potatoes O'Diana130
The Importance of Bacon131
Bacon-Wrapped Baked Potato132
Pizza Toppings132
The Standard Pizza134
No. 13135
Linguini136
Italian Wines137
Prosciutto al Twirly Noodles138
Company Foods139
Spaghetti140
Lasagna141
Desserts143
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews