What do you think?
Rate this book
Dining Dakota Style: A Celebration of Heartland Recipes from the Junior League of Sioux Falls
Book by Junior League of Sioux Falls
176 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2004
1 person is currently reading
2 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 1, 2021
It's rare I give a 1 star review to a cookbook. The only previous 1 star was the well-deserved Spam Favorites. I already knew this one was heading into 1 star territory when after the second recipe, my husband says, "Can we end this one now? We don't need to keep this one going." Unfortunately for him, I'd already bought ingredients for several more recipes. As always, I made all recipes as written with one exception: The recipes were for HUGE serving sizes. i.e. Most of the chicken dishes called for 2 cut up chickens or an 8 to 10 lb roast. If possible, I cut them in half if I didn't think it would change the recipe. Thankfully, it meant I threw out less food.
My husband is originally from South Dakota, and this one comes to me through my mother-in-law when she downsized her collection. One of the first things you'll notice is that so many of the recipes weren't what I would categorize as South Dakota recipes, which lean heavily German or Norwegian. For a cookbook claiming "dining Dakota style," I found the Asian Ribs, Pork Cubano, Tuscan Pasta, etc. interesting choices for a Dakota centric cookbook, but my palate was glad to see more varied fare. It would be one thing if the recipes were good. The Pork Cubano went into the trash. Loved throwing out a 4 lb pork roast, but it was almost inedible even though I made exactly as written and used a meat thermometer for the correct temp. Think Walleye with Grapes, pan sautéed walleye seasoned with only flour and nutmeg then drenched with a sauce made from green grapes and heavy cream, sounds weird? It was, but it was also edible. We ate it for dinner then finished the recipes the next day for lunch. I would never make it again, but at least it wasn't wasted. The Asian Ribs were surprisingly pretty good. They were way too salty and a bit tough, but not bad. The instructions for making them, however, were woefully incomplete. We spent a while debating the best way to finish the recipe and seemed to have guessed correctly. Did no one check these before they were published? The best recipe I made was a dessert, Oatmeal Carmelitas. It was, essentially, two layers of oatmeal cookies filled with caramel, chocolate chips, and walnuts. I prefer a bit more balance in my flavors as this was cloyingly sweet, but it was by far the best, most edible thing I made. I searched online to see if there were variations that may cut the sweet, maybe the edition of dried fruits or salt, only to discover it was a plagiarized recipe from Pillsbury. No credit given to Pillsbury in the cookbook. Bad recipes, bad directions, and plagiarism = 1 star.
My husband is originally from South Dakota, and this one comes to me through my mother-in-law when she downsized her collection. One of the first things you'll notice is that so many of the recipes weren't what I would categorize as South Dakota recipes, which lean heavily German or Norwegian. For a cookbook claiming "dining Dakota style," I found the Asian Ribs, Pork Cubano, Tuscan Pasta, etc. interesting choices for a Dakota centric cookbook, but my palate was glad to see more varied fare. It would be one thing if the recipes were good. The Pork Cubano went into the trash. Loved throwing out a 4 lb pork roast, but it was almost inedible even though I made exactly as written and used a meat thermometer for the correct temp. Think Walleye with Grapes, pan sautéed walleye seasoned with only flour and nutmeg then drenched with a sauce made from green grapes and heavy cream, sounds weird? It was, but it was also edible. We ate it for dinner then finished the recipes the next day for lunch. I would never make it again, but at least it wasn't wasted. The Asian Ribs were surprisingly pretty good. They were way too salty and a bit tough, but not bad. The instructions for making them, however, were woefully incomplete. We spent a while debating the best way to finish the recipe and seemed to have guessed correctly. Did no one check these before they were published? The best recipe I made was a dessert, Oatmeal Carmelitas. It was, essentially, two layers of oatmeal cookies filled with caramel, chocolate chips, and walnuts. I prefer a bit more balance in my flavors as this was cloyingly sweet, but it was by far the best, most edible thing I made. I searched online to see if there were variations that may cut the sweet, maybe the edition of dried fruits or salt, only to discover it was a plagiarized recipe from Pillsbury. No credit given to Pillsbury in the cookbook. Bad recipes, bad directions, and plagiarism = 1 star.
Displaying 1 of 1 review