After 100 Books, What's New?
Martha: The Cookbook
For all that Martha Stewart has gone through and her years of influencing legions of cooks, gardeners, aspiring chicken owners, and craft-happy “homemakers,” her latest book, which she trumpets as her 100th (!), shows just how little some things have changed.
Martha: The Cookbook promises readers 100 of Stewart’s most-loved recipes, with brief anecdotes behind them plus photo collections showing her at favorite points throughout her life. Many of the recipes feel classic but slightly outdated—or maybe just classic, because even if you know should label some of these as passé, they still hold much appeal.
And while Stewart includes many old favorites, she shows herself to fit the label (and groan-inducing phrase for word nerds) of “lifelong learner,” happy to update what she’s always done with new techniques that others discover. That’s true from the first recipe, in which she credits J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for showing us the better way to boil an egg—which is, skip the boiling and steam it instead.
Stewart inspires strong feelings in others, positive and negative, as demonstrated in the reactions to a Netflix documentary about her. But what keeps coming through, in that show and this book, is her consistency: her exacting expectations of herself and others, her love of gardening, her belief in the power of a beautiful home and table, her not-small ego (though knowing what she has accomplished—the first female self-made billionaire—makes it hard to argue her right to that ego), and those classic recipes, all alongside a flexibility to adapt to any situation. That includes, of course, her time in prison, which goes unmentioned here, or a seemingly unlikely friendship and collaboration with Snoop Dogg.
So this book, like most of her others, is worth a read if:
you love photos of colorful eggs;
you are a relatively confident and somewhat experienced cook;
you want recipes that work, aren’t too difficult, and are proven winners, but have tweaks you may not have come across;
and/or photos of a glowing table with classic New England, old-money-ish silver serving trays (which might have come from Stewart’s Macy’s or Kmart lines) with champagne flutes filled with golden nectar, surrounded by a tin of caviar on a footed tray and gold-tinted plates of caviar-topped crepes, bring you joy.
To wit:
For lovers of pastel eggs and dreamers of their own country-manor-cute, perfectly clean, never-attacked-by-foxes-or-creepy-snakes chicken coops, Stewart has you covered with just enough satisfying photos. And her egg recipes cover some classics, such as a simple spinach and Gruyère omelet, or coddled eggs (steamed in coddlers or ramekins with mushrooms and a nice addition of Dijon and honey; these seem more consistently reliable than shirred eggs, and if you don’t have coddlers, try steaming in 4-ounce Mason jars instead of ramekins, using their lids instead of parchment paper rounds). Or try artichokes with poached eggs, smoked salmon, and hollandaise (for which she gives both classic and quick sauce recipes, with no explanation of why you’d choose one over the other). “Custard egg sandwiches” look frankly unappealing in the photo, a chunky square of egg custard plopped between two thick, barely toasted slices of milk bread with just a bit of watercress barely touched by rice vinegar. The baked custard, though, was creamy and souffle-light, with only about five minutes of prep time. If the full sandwich doesn’t appeal, a custard square atop just one piece of toast with a garnish of watercress makes a great alternative.
Well-written recipes that are best for cooks with a little experience and confidence: Stewart’s recipes generally fit on one page with enough detail to promise success. But some things are assumed, so this is still better for somewhat confident and experienced cooks. For example, a garlic confit recipe omits any instructions on getting the baked garlic out of the skins.
Classic recipes that work, with tweaks: These are exemplified in a gougères recipe, in which Stewart takes this hors d’oeuvres, amped up with Comté, Gruyère, and Parmesan, to another level through her recent discovery that the classic recipe is much better when you as much as double the eggs—no four eggs here, but eight, for especially light, open, airy crisp puffs. Other examples include orange-scented currant scones that boost the typical cream scone with Grand Marnier-soaked currants and a hefty dose of orange zest, or crisp vegetable flatbreads that take the typical Martha approach of turning a basic cracker into an Instagram-ready one, with an almost stained-glass design of sage leaves and onion, tomatillo, and cherry tomato slices. (Though not given as an option, if you have a pasta machine, try putting the dough through it for ease in getting these very flat.)
Among other tested recipes, none bombed or even came close to disappointing. Buttermilk sorbet was a classic lemon-scented Southern scoop, made easier to scoop with its touch of corn syrup. Lemon sugar cookies were perfect alongside (or outside, as a sorbet sandwich), though more lemon zest would never hurt. Onion rings, which employ both instant flour (Wondra) and beer, came out supremely light, crisp, and gently lager-flavored.
Photos evoking old-money New England: Ah, to be a billionaire.
Quick takes:
Martha: The Cookbook, by Martha Stewart. 303 pages. Published by Clarkson Potter, 2024.
Organization: Chapters on breakfast/brunch, soups/salads, cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, garden sides, and desserts, interspersed with photos and memories.
Ingredients measurement methods: C’mon, Martha. Here we say you are both consistent but open to change, learning, tweaking … and yet you still give measurements by volume only. We know you want your readers to succeed, and we know from your cocktail recipes that you know how to measure some things in ounces, so why won’t you evolve here?
Photos: It’s a Martha Stewart book. Need we say more?
Index: Fine, but note that it is only recipes—no references to the anecdotes.
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