Book review: Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries, & Shakes

Unfortunately, Beer and Butter Tarts, the blog that I had started to write for, is not continuing - its creators just had too much to do between that and TasteTO, my favorite blog about food in Toronto. Happily, I'll be writing for TasteTO come September. Here's a review I wrote for Beer and Butter Tarts before it was decided it would not continue. I'll be posting links here to anything I submit to TasteTO.

Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries, and Shakes

by Bobby Flay with Stephanie Banyan & Sally Jackson
Clarkson Potter, Copyright 2009, 159 pages, list price: $30.00

I don't know many people who don't enjoy a good burger, fries, and a milkshake. Why else would vegetarians endure those disgusting hockey pucks that so often pass as burgers? Bobby Flay's newest cookbook, Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes, appeals to that part of all of us who are tired of thinking about local, organic, healthy cooking, and just want a big plate of delicious fat, salt, and sugar for a meal. So long as it's done right, what's the harm?

This book delivers on the promise of many delicious sounding (and looking) recipes for all different types of burgers, fries, and milkshakes. The burger recipes, with the exception of the fish burgers, are all built on the same base: a meat-only burger with a soft bun of your choice. The toppings are where the excitement is: there are 28 beef (or turkey) burger recipes and 4 fish burger recipes to try. All have appealing taste combinations that are based principally on American regional cuisine (e.g. the Buffalo burger, inspired by Buffalo wings), though some venture into territory more international, but not so new (e.g. a Greek burger).

The advantages to this book are that it emphasizes simplicity and quality of ingredients, and suggests burger combinations that one might not have considered - it definitely moves beyond the concoctions you can create at Harvey's. The milkshake flavors, and how to create them from various ingredients, are inspired. (The lemon meringue milkshake? Yum!). There is also a section that talks about creating your own sauces and spice mixes - like chipotle ketchup and horseradish mustard mayonnaise - that would improve the offerings at any barbecue. Watch out for the heat level in his recipes, though - even my husband cut back on the quantity of chipotles in the ketchup, and he loves anything spicy.

There are a few other instances where this cookbook leaves a bit to be desired. For those who are unskilled or have no experience with deep-frying, this book will not tell you how to do it. Each recipe for fries and onion rings that calls for the food to be deep-fried includes a quantity of oil (usually one quart, or 0.95 liters), the temperature to bring it to, and instructions on how long to leave it in the oil for. These seemed to be sufficient instructions to me...until I used a pot where a quart of oil ends up being only an inch deep, so I topped it up with another quart. When I put the sweet potatoes in the heated oil, it boiled over all over the stovetop. A word to the wise: for those trying to do deep-frying on a stovetop for the first time, don't do it on a gas stove. (Thankfully, my failed experience was on was an induction cooktop, which made for relatively easy cleanup and an intact kitchen).

No matter what your deep-frying skill is, though, the quantity of oil suggested was too small for stovetop cooking - and was definitely too small for the deep fryer we bought the next day, which happened to be one that Flay endorsed in the book. Another quantity that seemed too small was the amount of liquid in the milkshakes: most of the recipes call for a mere 1/4 cup of milk to almost two cups of ice cream. Not only does this not actually produce milkshakes of the size promised (one 16-ounce milkshake) - it is a very, very thick shake. Which could be nice - but with the outcome as thick as it was, I wondered whether it would just be easier to have a bowl of ice cream with the toppings that went into the shake, and save cleaning the blender.

This cookbook is a cute little read, with some good ideas - but there isn't a whole lot of substance behind the beautiful photography and the celebrity chef name. If you're a big burger fan, or have been meaning to try different fry and onion ring recipes and some interesting spice blends and sauces, this might be worth a buy. Otherwise, I'd just flip through this at the bookstore or the library for some ideas for your next barbecue.