Tony Rican

Editing Nightmare

If you read through my reviews of the books Rockridge Press has sent me you will see many complaints about editing and book design. This one, "The Easy Puerto Rican Cookbook " by Tony Rican is the worst yet. Colors, fonts, point sizes, are all jumbled up and awful. The author's name is a tiny footnote to the cover; his photo on the back and inside is completely dark. The same dishes are used in more than one photo. The notations about Dairy-Free, Gluten-Free etc, are show more presented above the recipe title and are so small that they can barely be seen. Didn't anyone look at the galleys???

Mr. Rican blogs about food on Average Guy Gourmet. His online presentation is knowing, funny, and very accessible and I can understand why he has a following. But blogging is not the same as writing and Rockridge editors did him no service here. There are so many editing errors in this book that I can't begin to list them all, but here are a few:

- Some recipes call for sweetened condensed milk, others for evaporated milk, and others for condensed milk, a product that does not exist. Evaporated milk comes up when searching for unsweetened condensed milk.

- The chicken soup recipe on p 108 is an Instant Pot recipe but the instructions in the Variation sidebar are for a slow cooker.

- There is no symmetry of wording across or even within recipes. The ingredient list for Mofongo Stuffing lists "chopped aji dulce peppers" and "aji caballero pepper, chopped".

- The recipe for White Bean Soup begins with frying bacon and removing it from the pan. It never shows up later in the recipe. Similarly, in the variation for Beef Stew, the meat is removed from the pan and never returned.

- When making Pasteles, a kind of tamale, the recipe says to return them to the pan to cook longer if they are not done after 1.5 hours, but doesn't tell us how to know when they are done.

The list goes on. I marked nearly every page of this book with highlighted problems.

I'd watch Mr. Rican's blog instead of buying this book.

I received a review copy of "The Easy Puerto Rican Cookbook " by Tony Rican from Rockridge Press. show less

I have not made any of the recipes yet but I will be doing soon. This cookbook has 100 recipes that have a test of the island of Peurto Rico. Lots of rice and beans but hey I like rice and beans. There is a guide in the book that tells you if your pantry is stocked with Puerto Rico. There are also tips at the end of each recipe, I love this part, that lets you know what you can substitute, make-ahead tip, leftover tip, ingredient tip, variation tip, and entertaining/holiday tip.
We start off show more with Beverages and No-Cook recipes, 30 minutes or less, ingredients or less, One Pot recipes, Sheet Pan, Casserole and Bakery, Slow Cooker/Pressure Cooker Recipe, and lastly, staples.
As I looked through the recipes I found quite a few that I would like to try like Arroz con Polo which is Rice with Chicken and Arroz con Salchichis which is Rice with Sausage. Nice easy recipes with minimal prep involved. That is great. Sometimes I like being in the kitchen cooking and other times I don't.
I like the cookbook, wish there were more pictures. This is a cookbook that is perfect for the person who loves Puertan foods or you are feeling experimental. show less