The book we are talking about is a cookbook, and recipes are an integral part of content, and it is to be expected that readers might want to try them. So, viability of recipes is an issue here. It would have been another story if I am reading “Language of Baklava,” for instance or “Like Water for Chocolate.” There are recipes in both, but they do not pose as cooking guides to teach how cook a particular cuisine. That’s the difference.

Accuracy of instructions and measurements is required in any modern cookbook. You would not have been able to cook authentic fesenjan were it not for a recipe that delivers well. A good recipe might be short indeed, but it provides the reader with the key information.
I know how to cook very well, but when I want to prepare an authentic Japanese dish, I need a good recipe, with balanced amounts. The recipe might be brief but still adequate. In this Iraqi cookbook, adequacy is often lacking. On page 28 for instance, a main meat dish for 4 to 5 people uses only one pound of lamb on the bone. On page 76, to prepare kubba shell, ‘mix the burghul, jireesh, and beef together, add a dash of salt and black pepper. This must be kneaded very well; ideally use an electric mixer or a dough maker.’ To whoever hopes to make the shell following these instructions, I say good luck!

This is not charming romantic Cuisine Grandmere, this is annoying cuisine. If I want to try the Carrot Cake for instance, p. 229, at the top of ingredients list are: 1 LB /2 cups flour and 1 LB / 2 cups sugar. Two cups of flour are not equal to 2 cups of sugar by weight, and this confusion in measurements is repeated at many places in the book.
This is not causal cuisine, this is lack of experience on the part of the writer augmented by lack of professional editing on the part of the commercial publisher.
Thanks for your patience.
Nawal

Many thanks for your comment. I reply in part to that and in part to share our subsequent correspondence for the benefit of other readers.

First, however, Super Chef does not “promote” but reviews cookbooks.

Second, our reviews focus on the philosophy and presentation (content and form) of cookbooks, rather than issues such as “correctness” or viability of recipes.

Your concerns about measurement conversions are valid and noteworthy. Lamees does state the she seeks “authentic Iraqi dishes” (The Iraqi Cookbook, p. xv). She also says, “The recipes are versatile enough for variations in ingredients and cooking methods” (p. xv) — which puts her cookbook (and, really, all ethnic cookbooks) in the area of Cuisine Grandmere, thus free of the rigid recipes of Haute Cuisine. In such light, we would welcome further reply from you — perhaps correcting one or more recipes, along with the basis of your corrections

Instructions are perhaps one of the least standard aspects of cookbook-writing. Our reviews look for the level of cooking proficiency that an author expects or intends. Some cookbooks even state whether the cookbook is for beginners or more proficient levels. In this case, Lamees intended her cookbook for diaspora Iraqis who know how to cook — just not their native cuisine.

An interesting cookbook to consider is M. R. Ghanoonparvar’s Persian Cuisine (Mazda 1982). It is a simple affair with handsome drawings, a clutch of color photos — and extremely short instructions. Most recipes take an average of one page in total. Since the cookbook intends to teach diaspora Iranians both Farsi and Persian cuisine at once, its one-pagers prove extremely handy: once opened, it presents readers with both English and Farsi simultaneously. The recipes are purposefully minimal. The ingredients are purposefully unfaithful to the original–carefully substituting American supermarket ingredients (e.g., cranberry jelly for pomegranate syrup) for the book’s US marketplace. The results are extraordinary. I have found Iranians literally in tears after eating fesenjan that I have prepared — wailing (happily) “I haven’t eaten such good fesenjan since I last visited my mother in Iran…!” I give no credit to myself for this: all credit goes to Dr. Ghanoonparvar and his cookbook.

I hope this reply assuages some of your concerns — and encourages you to contribute further.

– Juliette Rossant, Editor

I agree with you that such books are needed, but promoting The Iraqi Cookbook like this is somewhat misleading. True, the book is professionally produced, the pictures are beautiful, but the recipes do not work! The instructions are very scant, and conversion of measurements is way off. Frankly, it is quite confusing. I think potential buyers should be made aware of this. I would wait for the second edition with due corrections to write something positive about it.