Roben Ryberg's new cookbook

celiacmaine-iac · Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 836 Location: Maine

I just received Roben Ryberg's cookbook, You Won't Believe It's Gluten-Free, from Amazon yesterday afternoon. I obviously haven't cooked from it yet, but I'll give my overall impressions of it.

First, it's huge! Lots of recipes, in lots of categories.

She has designed this cookbook with a simple premise. In almost every recipe she uses one single flour/starch to make the food. This seems like a wonderful idea in theory, but I'm going to have to try a few of the recipes to see if theory works out in practical terms. The cookbook would arrive on the day I decided to remove all sugar and refined grains from my diet for a while. Rolling Eyes

I'll have to use DH as a victim.... He usually goes pretty willingly to the slaughter! Laughing

I think that for people with multiple food sensitivities that using single grains would be a great way to go. In the book, for example, she has recipes for chocolate cake that are basically the same cake, but she has a corn-based one, an oat-based one, a potato-based one, and a rice-based one. Each recipe differs slightly in the ratios of other ingredients she uses, to get the best results. All of her baked recipes contain options like this. She is up-front about telling you what to expect from certain versions, and often mentions the version she prefers. There are only a couple of recipes that use more than one grain, and I believe those only used two.

She also has a lot of good general information in the book about cooking GF.

I'm usually pretty good at telling how a recipe will be by reading it, and I think this book looks OK. Part of the size of the book is due to having multiple versions of many of the recipes, but there is still a lot of variety in the book, ranging from appetizers, to mixes, main dishes, and of course, baked goods. I can't wait to try a several of the recipes. There are many in the book that will even work with what I am doing now diet-wise. As I try some I'll post my reviews of them.
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Steph

cruelshoes · Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 2688 Location: Washington State

It's getting a lot of talk over on the Delphi foum, partially because the author is a poster over there. I was not a fan of her previous cookbook, mostly, I think, because I do not care for recipes that rely so heavily on starches. They don't feel right in my mouth for some reason. I look forward to your reviews of the recipes. If you recommend the book, I may check it out of the library or something.
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-Colleen
Dx 8/05 via bloodwork/biopsy
10-YO son Dx 11/05 via bloodwork/biopsy
Daughters (12 and 2) have neg. bloodwork

A woman is like a tea bag-you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. - Eleanor Roosevelt

celiacmaine-iac · Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 836 Location: Maine

I definitely had mixed results from her first cookbook. A couple of her recipes in that book have become family favorites (her Danish, cheesecake brownies, and rolls), but others I didn't have good results with. It was a good cookbook to start with, in that the recipes were simple. This new one looks like a vast improvement on the first.
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Steph

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8797 Location: WI, USA

We got this one of her's. I know Peg didn't care for much of it either. To be fair - we got it when we first started all of this, maybe if she were to revisit it now years later...

Mouth feel - Peg says some GF baked goods have a slippery mouth feel and is always trying to minimize this. I don't notice it, but Miss NGF does Wink

. Peg always suspects the tapioca, corn, etc starch.
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

celiacmaine-iac · Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 836 Location: Maine

Call me strange, but I actually prefer the mouth feel of the starches like tapioca, etc. I think it's why I like Chebe so much. I tend to dislike the feel of some of the other flours, like rice, in my mouth. They just seem to dissolve into ick, and I use the super-fine rice flours so it's not an issue of grittiness.
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Steph

cruelshoes · Joined: 23 Sep 2005 Posts: 2688 Location: Washington State

Fidissimus · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 1603 Location: Portland, OR.

Wasn't my favorite either. Hope she improved.
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Cheers!
Jenn

GF BD: Feb. 2001
Free of wheat, barley, rye, oats, dairy, eggs, almonds, pineapple and brewers yeast.
http://graindamaged.blogspot.com/

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8797 Location: WI, USA

celiacmaine-iac · Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Posts: 836 Location: Maine

aklap · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 8797 Location: WI, USA

heheheheeheh Thanks!

Please let us know how you like the new cookbook!! Hope you get lots of "keepers" from it.
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa