Culinary Tea: More Than 150 Recipes Steeped in Tradition from Around the World

by Cynthia Gold, Lisë Stern

This cutting-edge tome on one of the world's oldest ingredients and most popular beverages will be an invaluable tool for both home and professional cooks. Gold and Stern offer new ways of looking at the leaves with a history stretching thousands of years is now a secret weapon in the culinary arsenal. Tea in its many forms has been around for thousands of years, and is a burgeoning industry in many countries as the demand for specialty leaves grows. Read all about the picking and drying techniques virtually unchanged for centuries, popular growing regions in the world, and the storied past of trading. Culinary Tea has all this, plus more than 100 recipes using everything from garden-variety black teas to exclusive fresh tea leaves and an in-depth treatment of tea cocktails. The book will include classics, such as the centuries-old Chinese Tea-Smoked Duck and Thousand-Year Old Eggs, as well as recipes the authors have developed and collected, such as Smoked Tea-Brined Capon and Assam Shortbread.

Genres: Cookbooks, Tea, Nonfiction, Cooking, Food and Drink, Food, Reference

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My expectations for this book were not high when I bought it. I thought it would contain a few ideas, recipes or techniques to appropriate and the rest a lot of dross. Instead, this is a thoughtful, precise, diverse, clearly-written encyclopedia of how tea can function as an ingredient in all manner of cooking. After a fifty-page introduction to tea (its history, cultivation, variety and place in culture), the text wends through a tour of tea's use in starters, in entrees, in desserts and in beverages. There are suggestions for tea in soups and in salad dressings. There is a simple and patient recipe for making those "100-year-old" Chinese tea eggs which are hard-boiled and marbled with tea. The it gets wild: tea-cured gravlax, Earl Grey dried-cherry mustard. I had never considered the possibility of green-tea gnocchi. The seared tuna with black-tea-and-peppercorn crust sounds good as does the tea-smoked roasted duck. There is a formula for an 11-spice tea-based rub for roast pork which I have tried three times, modified and now claim as my own. The recipe for lychee cookies made with tea looks simple and good, as does the recipe for Jasmine fruit tart. Imagine my surprise! I had bragged to others that I had invented chai ice cream (which I did!) and here is a recipe for it in this book. I had never considered infusing vodka, white port, gin nor any other spirits with tea nor of making cocktails with tea in them. There are several wild take-offs from classic iced tea. There is an interesting recipe for Jasmine fruit sangria. I will wear this book out.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up to check out the section on tea cocktails, but I surprised myself by making a few of the other recipes within a few weeks of getting the book.

Everything I've tried so far has been good, and the instructions were easy to follow. I will say that you need a well-stocked pantry (or a willingness to buy specialty ingredients) in addition to all the tea the book calls for.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book about cooking and baking with tea. Lots of different recipes. Some of the recipes were beyond my skill set, I'll admit, though others looked more doable. And I would have loved more photos. Hoping to try some variations of the ice tea/sorbet/smoothie recipes this summer.

[Carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was enjoyable to peruse. It has some history (some new, some not), and some fantastic recipes. As common as tea is around the world, it's use in culinary creations does not feel fully explored. If you're someone who wants to do that, well, this is a decent place to start.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

incredibly classy book with a plethora of recipes involving tea leaves.

you'll find everything from desserts, meat entrees and side dishes in this book. there is also a nice introduction about different types of tea as well as their origin but this section is hardly the majority of the book.

however, after leafing through this cook book, you will definitely be surprised how much tea can be incorporated in culinary arts!

there are also a few recipes that even involve powered matcha tea, in particular a recipes covering how to make matcha cookies which I thought was particularly cute.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book starts with a nice introduction to tea: different kinds of teas, the proper ways to make them, ways to combine them, and what foods pair best with the different kinds. The second part is information and recipes for using tea in cooking. It's really interesting stuff and very readable. I was also excited because a lot of the recipes are, or can easily be adapted to be, dairy-free--even desserts! I can't wait to try some of them!

[Mary]

my new bible, inspired by my aunt J. who was a good cook

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun things to try in the winter.

[Anne]

The chapters I was interested in are those on desserts and beverages.