Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, Stems, and Other Odds & Ends into Delicious Meals

In this terrific collection, Food52 writer Hard offers 60 different ways to get the most out of one’s fruit, herb, and vegetable scraps. “According to the National Resource Defense Council,” Hard writes, “40 percent of the food in the United States goes uneaten.” Home cooks are probably familiar with the concept of using stale bread for bread crumbs and croutons, but they might not have considered using mushroom, carrot, or sweet potato odds and ends for a strata (a layered casserole), quick pickles, or vegetable tempura. Boozy infusions that, e.g., combine lemon and brandy, bourbon and roasted corn husks, or a mix of jalapeño and tequila are simple, as is incorporating pickle brine into a Bloody Mary or potato salad. Even stems are put to use: basil stems are used to create a buttermilk dressing; parsley stems are mixed into a fresh, zesty tabbouleh. Hard’s plainspoken style and culinary ingenuity is sure to win over even the most profligate of home cooks, as this is far from a collection of novelties. Those who take the time to set aside their scraps are guaranteed to find a few new tricks here. [em](Oct.) [/em]