This was a comprehensive cookbook with beautiful photos and lots of interesting techniques and recipes. Though I might add that I found the layout a bit odd and the nitty gritty details was a bit overkill dedundant at times. Also, it would be nice if they had used more "common" ingredients instead of difficult to find in regular stores (especially in Norway).

Interessante Art, das Verständnis vom Kochen neu zu überdenken und umzukrempeln. Ich habe viel dazu gelernt und und schon so manche Regel in meiner Küche erfolgreich integriert.
Fazit: ein Kochbuch, dass man im Regal haben sollte!

I really wanted to love this book. But I just did not. The layout/flow of the book is odd. Maybe it's because I am a classically train chef, but the detail they go into seams redundant. But the recipes are great and that alone makes this a good book.

I own Milk Street's Tuesday Nights cookbook and I really like it and I was curious if this next title could hold up its high standard. I am happy to report that The New Rules has surpassed the usefulness, beauty and quality of its Milk Street sibling. I've been an active home cook for over 20 years and this cookbook has taught me so much. I enjoy the rules format and appreciate that the recipes that follow show me how to use the rules in recipes that are different and look vibrant but remain accessible to me and to what I can source from my local grocery. Another great feature is that this cookbook is full of tips and tricks that are practical and actually helpful. Four ways to bring grocery store tomatoes to life? Yes please!! I read this book on vacation and it made me want to quickly get back to my kitchen at home and begin working through these recipes. Another worth-the-price cookbook from Milk Street!

The book has 75 "rules" to change the way you cook. Then the rules are applied using recipes for vegetables, beans & grains, noodles & breads, eggs, seafood, chicken, pork, and beef. Book contains a variety of recipes and flavors, and includes step by step photos of some new techniques. There are also very nice photos of many but not all of the finished dishes. I think the book would feel overwhelming to someone who was not already comfortable in the kitchen. It would take some knowledge of cooking to apply these rules to recipes not included in the book.
I received an ebook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Milk street and Christopher Kimball. I think the title of this cool book should include not for a novice. This is no beginner cookbook but if you are a seasoned cook or chef boy is it good.

This is the perfect book for the cook who wants to figure out why certain recipes and approaches aren't working. This is especially true if that cook wants to understand the science of cooking and flavors in granular detail. I'm not necessarily that cook, but I appreciate the attention to rethinking old methods (like starting eggs on the stove and then finishing in the oven) for more flavor and texture. The recipes look delicious, and I see a lot that I would like to try here. Just like Kimball's former venture, America's Test Kitchen (which he left several years ago), the recipes involve multiple steps, and these recipes are (for the most part) not designed for those just trying to get something on the table during a weeknight. Save these recipes for when you have the time to enjoy making and eating them.

Very informative. This contains some cooking tricks that are obvious to anyone who cooks a lot or reads a lot about food, but also some that I didn't expect!

This is a great book for anyone who isn't too versed in cooking to expand their vocabulary and technique!

Thank you Little Brown, and Company and Netgally for a copy of Milk Street: The New Rules by Christopher Kimball for review.

I really liked this cookbook. I'm not sure it will be in our rotation as much for family style weekday cooking but for the days when I want to experiment or maybe learn more about the art of cooking amazing food, this would be my choice. I liked how The New Rules were laid out and how he had recipes that used and followed the rules behind each one. If you like to cook to hone your craft and create new and interesting recipes, I would recommend this book for sure.

I received this arc from NetGalley for an honest review. Cool new cookbook with good ideas but a little on the complicated side for me to consider using more than every once in a while.

This is a complicated book, for complicated cooking, and you’ll either love it or hate it. In fact, there are many pros and cons with this book, but what I see as a pro another might see as a con, and vice versa.

Does it belong in your cookbook library? Absolutely.

It’s a gorgeous book, with several great “new” cooking tips. I put “new” in quotes because I’m a fairly advanced cook, and I was aware of most of these rules. At least half these rules would be very familiar to any vegan cook. But a beginner to average-skilled cook might find several new things to try, and learn some new skills.

My own biggest issue with the book is the complicated and time-consuming recipes. I like to buy a new cookbook and then attempt to cook every recipe over the following week. I know, that’s my own problem. But these recipes are really for that special occasion when you want to spend time on one great dish, and then have other, more simple dishes to accompany (or a lot of kitchen help). The author helps with this by listing the estimated total time needed with each recipe which is greatly appreciated. But we know those times are usually 50% longer than stated, so when a recipe here says 40 minutes for a salad (yes, a SALAD) then either this is the most honest cookbook ever published, or that salad is really going to take an hour. Salads are some of my favorite dishes, but I’m pretty sure no salad is worth an hour of preparation time – even 40 minutes is quite long.

So this cookbook isn’t great for my needs. I love to cook every night, and I like to bulk cook on the weekends. But not much here would fit this schedule. I would end up only cooking a couple dishes from this book when I have special friends over.

But to reiterate: it’s gorgeously shot, the “new” rules are accurate and helpful to anyone who doesn’t know them, and I’m sure anyone would get some inspiration from it.

Unless you’re looking for dessert. Because there are no desserts that I found in this book and that gets a star taken off immediately. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. My honest opinion is that this one is not for me, but many cooks would enjoy it and many will get some new information by reading it.

A beautiful cookbook but the recipes were a little too exotic and complex for my liking. There were so many special ingredients needed that unless you commit to eating exotically for a while it doesn't seem feasible to try just one recipe.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - all thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

The whole concept of this was new to me which is what drew me to what to read it

Great photographs and comprehensive information - covers everything that the home cook would need. A vast array of recipes ALL of which I am keen to try. Everything looks really doable.

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The book sounds so interesting. Unfortunately, I could not download the book to my kindle. I will just have to wait until it goes on sale.

Thanks, NetGalley for the opportunity

So many good recipes here. I preferred the recipes to the "rules" or tips, because I think most of these weren't completely new (to me, at least -- this would be perfect for new cooks) although the explanations for why certain things should be done a certain way were very helpful and the way they're explained makes them easy to keep in mind.

The rules are connected to recipes that use them, and the recipes are really fantastic. Not overly complicated, very doable for casual home cooks, and most are fairly standard ingredients. I especially liked the Asian-inspired recipes (some for vegetables sound amazing!) and these were the only ones where I think you'd need some potentially non-staple ingredients, but they're not that exotic and once you buy them you'll be using them all the time anyway. Photos are gorgeous and are were lots of them!

I just reviewed Milk Street: The New Rules by Christopher Kimball. #NetGalley

As someone who graduated from culinary school, this book is surely shock me. Stuffs I never learned at school made possible by Mr. Kimball here. WOW!! Are these for real? And the recipes given surely make me want to try them soon. Would like to invite you all to try them with me.

I was extremely excited to review this book. I love everything Chris Kimball and like what Milk Street has become. The book has excellent photographs, is well organized, and the recipes are spot on. My one misgiving is that I didn't learn anything I hadn't already known. The new rules are simply expanding the average home cook's culinary repertoire. This book is not for a seasoned cook who would likely know all of these "new rules." This book is for anyone that wants to expand their cooking knowledge from beginner to intermediate or advanced.

Nuggets
Cook pasta in its sauce not water
Banish one note flavors

Foundation - Counterpoint- Embellishment.
Tenderizing greens by massaging with salt

This will definitely change the way I cook now.
You might already be following some of the dos and donts.
For every recipe, there's a suggestion to use the right kind of vegetable - for exa baby spinach vs mature spinach

Coconut Ginger Rice sounds delicious.

Christopher Kimball is a brilliant chef I’ve followed for years.He is a chef who calmly explains recipes makes time in the kitchen a pleasure even for a non gourmet cook like me.
Milk Street is a guide to cooking in today’s world delicious recipes easy common sense directions.This will be a go to cookbook for me and I will be buying it for friends.This is what I look for no stress recipes no fancy expensive equipment understandable recipes & Milk Street delivers.#netgalley#littlebrowb

Even though I’ve heard of Christopher Kimball and Milk Street, I’ve never picked up any of the books or magazines - until now. I was looking for something quick and easy to read; since this advance reader copy was readily available, I decided to go with it.

The cookbook begins with a short introduction about changing the way we cook, followed by a complete listing of the 75 new rules, each with a sentence or two of explanation. In the digital advance reader copy, each rule is hyperlinked to where the corresponding recipes are in the main body of the book. After all the rules, there is a quick primer on the Milk Street Way, which considers dishes to have a foundation, a counterpoint, and an embellishment.

Some of the rules are natural in the way I cook. For example, I always stagger my cooking (rather than add everything to the vessel at once) and I always add my fresh herbs last. I’ll bloom my spices in fat at the start of a recipe, even if the recipe is written otherwise. And my favorite roast chicken recipe requires the yogurt rub to be applied under the skin. Other rules are just plain odd. Carmelizing dry pasta before cooking, for example. Some of the rules in the set seem to be contradictory without context - like “sear on stovetop, finish in the oven,” and “skip the searing.” And some of the rules seem to be duplicative, like having your marinade play double duty as both a marinade before cooking and a sauce after cooking.

The heart of the book is divided into eight chapters of rules and recipes, starting with vegetables and ending with beef. Fruit and dairy are noticeably absent from the list, which also omits sweets such as jams, jellies, and desserts. Curiously enough, there are eight or nine pages of cocktail recipes embedded at the end of the beef chapter. Each rule has at least one corresponding recipe. Each recipe has a hyperlinked title, an estimated preparation time, and a serving quantity in the header. After the ingredients list, there is a short paragraph about the recipe that explains the inspiration for the recipe and offers more tips on how to prepare the recipe. Sometimes certain ingredients are highlighted in the recipe introduction to explain what they are, how to use them, where to find them, how to store them, and so on. The vast majority of the ingredients used in here recipes can be found in the average supermarket. Perhaps the most exotic ingredients used are Aleppo pepper, ground fennel, and blue fenugreek. Before the recipe steps, there are additional tips related to the rule being applied. The recipe steps are written in paragraph form, with the first few words in bold so that it can make sense when skimmed. The recipe steps are rather precisely, including details such as the cooking vessel type and size, temperature/heat level, and timing.

The recipes themselves were of varying interest to me, as I was fascinated by some and aghast at others. The Sicilian caponata recipe, for example, contains zucchini and vinegar, over and above the traditional ingredients. Each vegetable is cooked separately, which seems to result in a dish more like a ratatouille rather than the cohesive caponata that I make. The majority of the recipes in the grains and beans chapter were for beans and for rice, with the occasional lentil recipe. The polenta recipe was the only recipe in the chapter using other grains. Which is very disappointing given the fantastic variety of grains that are currently available in the United States.

Throughout the book were special sections on “The Milk Street Method,” which explained specific techniques and ingredients in greater detail. For example, in the vegetables chapter, there was a special section on blanching and roasting vegetables. Curiously, the section about blooming and toasting spices was in the grains and beans section, sandwiched between a polenta recipe and a fritter recipe. The noodles and breads chapter featured a “Japanese Noodles 101” section to highlight that the Italians don’t have a monopoly on noodle dishes. The seafood chapter had a section on dried chiles that discussed several different types of chiles and how to use them. The discourse on eighteen essential spices appeared in alphabetical order in the chicken chapter. Several oddities appear in the list, including the aforementioned Aleppo pepper as well as Sichuan peppercorns, sumac, and Urfa pepper. The section on six essential spice mixes - Syrian baharat, Ethiopian berbere, Egyptian dukkah, Chinese five spice powder, Japanese shichimi togarahi, Middle Eastern za’atar - is also found in the chicken chapter. One of the final informational sections, a primer on smoke points of various fats, is included in the beef chapter.

Equipment was rarely discussed in this cookbook, just the odd note if a nonstick skillet was definitely required and the random rule about using shallow baking pans rather than deep roasting pans. In general, the equipment required was very basic: a 12-inch skillet, a Dutch oven, the occasional food processor or spice grinder, pots and bowls of varying sizes, a gas or charcoal grill, and the like.

For my purposes and interests, the best parts of the book were the Milk Street Methods sections. I would be willing to add the book to my (extensive) cookbook collection for those charts and recipes alone. However, because of the hyperlinks that permit easy movement through the text, this is probably better as an electronic book rather than a paper book. Especially since, weighing in at 583 pages, the advance reader copy was a veritable tome.

I received this book as a digital advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have yet to prepare any of the recipes from this book, although I have marked several of the jams and liqueurs to try in the near future. When I do prepare recipes from this book, I will update this review with the results.