Cookbook Review: Samin Nosrat's Delectable Collection of Good Things

Images by Aya Brackett | Edible Indy is launching its first cookbook club! Join us on November 9th to share recipes from Good Things by Samin Nosrat. Find more information and reserve your spot via eventbrite.

Samin Nosrat’s sophomore cookbook is now available in bookstores around the country, and it’s bringing all of her everyday staples to the page. Nosrat rose to worldwide recognition after the success of her debut cookbook, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and the Netflix series of the same name. From page to screen, she taught the world the fundamentals of the kitchen that had previously been reserved for those attending culinary schools or apprenticing in Michelin star kitchens. Now, her new book, Good Things, breaks down the meals she makes in her own kitchen again and again. 

In the introduction to Good Things, Nosrat expressly says she never intended to publish recipes, and in a way she’s managed to skirt the traditional definition with this book. Her collection of recipes is not organized by standard categories like meal time, continent, or type. Instead, chapters are labelled by their components, or flavor profiles, or use cases. There’s a chapter on using pantry staples, one on salad dressings, and one on the different methods of cooking and using chicken. It is by no means a comprehensive cookbook, but it does manage to deliver on hundreds of unique dishes by virtue of the mix-and-match nature of the collection. 

Fans of Nosrat will know her philosophy on cooking is very much closer to engineering a meal than following a clear, set path. The work is educational, that much is certain. The opening chapter details tools, ingredients, and kitchen fundamentals in the same way that her first work did. The recipes are downright tasty- from a creamy tomato soup that you’ll want to drink all winter to a gorgeous matrix of colorful salads that stretches all seasons. But there’s something more to this cookbook– it’s a very intimate and honest look at Nosrat’s everyday meals. She seems to be saying through the pages, “I know if a dressing is good enough, you’ll put it on just about anything.”

In the final chapter, which is devoted to all things sweet, Nosrat touches on the lessons of grief that leave you growing gorgeous if temporary flowers and eating off of the good plates. She says, “Our brains are hardwired to pursue not only pleasure but also sweetness. So to enjoy a dessert is to be utterly, beautifully human.” To that end, this cookbook is, yes, a collection of recipes, but it also seems to be a delicious form of memoir.

Good Things is now available for purchase. Learn more about it here.