How to Dress an Egg: And Other Surprising Ways to Cook Your Favorite Foods

by Ned Baldwin, Peter Kaminsky

Learn to cook one thing exceptionally well and you open the door to a multitude of possibilities, with no need for special equipment or fussy techniques. That’s the premise of this book.

Ned Baldwin, a home cook who taught himself to be an excellent chef, sees no reason why anyone else can’t do the same. By showcasing one ingredient per method, Baldwin introduces all the skills a cook will ever need to prepare endless pleasurable meals. Get a big, beefy hit from a hanger steak by cooking it in the oven; master salad-making with leafy greens; grill fillets of sea bass for crispy skin and moist flesh; roast an explosively juicy chicken (the secret is to cook it on the floor of the oven); bake leeks to soft perfection; and more.

Each dish is elaborated on in different ways to expand the technique into unlikely, inventive recipes that are jumping-off points for endless creativity. The 150 recipes are illustrated by the rustically beautiful photos of Hirsheimer & Hamilton.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food and Wine

304 pages, Hardcover

Published April 7, 2020

Reviews

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will make you hungry and happy. It will send you into the kitchen again and again!
Ruth Reichl

If you follow Ned Baldwin’s good recipes and sage advice, you’ll be able to dress an egg. You’ll also be able to ingeniously change up chicken, pork, shrimp, beets, leeks, broccoli, chocolate, and more. Best of all, you’ll learn to follow your senses and to create foods you love and foods you’ll be excited to give family and friends. Keep this book close—you’ll be consulting it often.
Dorie Greenspan

Don't let Ned Baldwin's success as a chef intimidate you—he has the soul and humility of a home cook.How to Dress an Egg is brimming with astute tips and irresistible recipes that will elevate your dinner game for good.
Amanda Hesser

[Ligaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the premise of the book: By learning to cook one (or 20) thing(s) well, you can then open "the door to a lifetime's worth of recipes." I've picked up several cookbooks with the same philosophy, but this one is accompanied by gentle, witty, and persuasive text, gorgeous photos (though not every recipe has an accompanying pic), and illustrations (yea)! The more-than-basic recipes are imaginative and sound delicious. Luckily, I skipped the chapters on lamb, beef tongue, beets, and mushrooms — I'm old enough that I make no apologies. I made the roasted chicken and it was amazing. The poached cod was fairly flavorless, though. The crispy skin salmon was deemed perfectly cooked by my pickiest kid. And the lobster-style shrimp roll was delicious. I checked this book out from the library but it may be on my buy list.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book better than the execution. Each chapter starts with an ingredient and tells you the perfect way to cook it. You are supposed to master this basic step and then once you have there are additional recipes to use that item cooked the way you’ve mastered.

Some chapters were wasted on me as it was an ingredient I wouldn’t cook or the method of cooking is not something I would do.

The others that had ingredients I like and think the method of cooking is reasonable in some cases had no additional recipes that appealed to me, but others I really liked a lot. Each additional recipe often has multiple steps to it and I feel like you’d be flipping pages a lot. Unless the point is that once you master it you shouldn’t need to recipe as you’ll just know how to do it.

If you like to cook, it might be worth picking up and flipping through. I saved a few recipes to try but it’s not a cookbook I’ll be buying.

[Emily D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not about breakfast and not simplified. The book is set up with what I would call a technique recipe, that continues with five other recipes that use the technique in the initial recipe. One example would be Fire Roasted Eggplant that leads into Split Roasted Eggplant with Spiced Ground Lamb or Eggplant with Green Beans and Toasted Walnuts. Great premise.

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. I don't think this book was meant for me but rather someone who is more on the beginner end of cooking. It was okay but there was nothing in there that was truly surprising.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Springtime chicken w/herb sauce
Hanger steak w/crispy dukkah potatoes
Cilantro-cumin butter with red pepper and lime zest
Rosemay, thyme, and poached-garlic anisette butter
Pork sandwiches w/aioli and bitter greens
Gently cooked shrimp
Potted shrimp
Lobster-style shrimp rolls
Broccoli & fried chickpeas w/dukkah spice
Grilled asparagus
Grilled asparagus w/robust herb sauce
Roasted mushrooms
Mushroom sandwiches w/rosemary aioli

[Cathy Meyers · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 *. I might try a few of the recipes.

[Pleasure Your Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

As recommended in a Smitten Kitchen newsletter - a wonderful cookbook

[Aasinathena]

Cool recipes !

[Laura Watt · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fine cookbook; i can't exactly say i've read every word, but i've enjoyed leafing through it...