Cookbook Review: More is More by Molly Baz

Note:  I am still reviewing 2023 cookbooks until a “best of” for this year comes out.

Since I started this cookbook review journey, I’ve come across a lot of foodie influencers.  I hate to use that word “influencer” but it fits.  These are people that have hundreds of followers, podcasts, YouTube channels, subscription only digital clubs.  To me, it seems like a lot of hype. What makes them a cooking expert anyway? How did they get a cookbook published? Bah humbug!

Then I thought about it.  A) I’m probably jealous, and B) why do I think I can write a blog focusing on recipes?

Humbled, I picked up More is More: Get Loose in the Kitchen by Molly Baz and tried to have a good attitude and open mind.  I had a blast.

About the book:

A BEST COOKBOOK OF THE YEAR: NPR, Good Housekeeping, New York Post, Wired, Publishers Weekly

It’s time to crank up the heat and lose the measuring spoons because the secret to cooking is hiding in one simple motto: MORE IS MORE. In her bestselling debut cookbook, Cook This Book, Molly Baz taught the cooking essentials and put her love for mortadella and dill on blast. In More Is More, she’s teaching cooks how to level up their cooking, loosen up in front of that ripping hot pan, and seek deliciousness at all costs. (And yes, there will be more mortadella.) More Is More is a philosophy that encourages more risk-taking, better intuition, fewer exact measurements, and a “don’t stop ‘til it tastes delicious” mentality.

The recipes in More Is More are fit for any day of the week and for cooks of all skill levels. Each recipe will teach a technique or flavor combination that takes Molly’s maximalist, “leave no flavor on the cutting board” approach. So crank your ovens! Grab a fat pinch of salt! And if you’re going to use an ingredient, truly use it. Just one lonely clove of garlic? Not in this cookbook!

Start your morning with a Crispy Rice Egg-in-a-Hole, throw together a Chicken Salad with Coconut Crunch for lunch, look forward to Drunken Cacio e Pepe for dinner, and save room for a fat slice of Ooey Gooey Carrot Cake for dessert. The Only Meatloaf that Matters will teach you the power of re-frying, while Miso-Braised Chicken and Leeks will ensure you never throw away the green tops of the leeks again.

Throughout, you’ll encounter dozens of QR codes to step-by-step audio tutorials for a hands-free cook-along experience guided by Molly, plus recipe videos to help illuminate some of the trickier skills and recipes.

With intoxicatingly delicious recipes, vivid photographs, and Molly’s one-of-a-kind playful guidance and whimsy, More Is More will inspire cooks to embrace a fearless mindset to level up their cooking—for life.

About the author:

A former food editor at Bon Appétit, Molly Baz is a cook, recipe developer, video host, cookbook author, and Caesar salad enthusiast with a lifelong love of cooking, eating, and teaching other people how to cook. She was placed on this earth with one mission: to convince you all that cooking is nothing but FUN, salt is the single most important ingredient in your kitchen, and delicious food is really not that hard to make. For more Molly, check out her cookbook Cook This Book or her YouTube series Hit the Kitch. mollybaz.com

What I thought…

I take back what I said at this post’s opening. Obviously, as a former food editor for BA, Baz probably knows a thing or two.  From her intro,  I had a couple of epiphanies before I even read the first recipe.  First, she’s a genius to make dive bar calamari edible at 10:30 in the morning after two Bloody Marys.  Second, I totally adore someone who ends their introduction with “I promise it’s going to be fucking delicious” (17).

Even though one of Baz’ mantras tends to be let your freak flag fly in the kitchen and be bold and cook with abandon, there are a few rules (pp 20-22).  To sum up, she establishes the following:

• “If you’re gonna use it, use it.” An ingredient needs to make itself known!
• “Loosen up.” Cook intuitively (or learn to do so bravely).
• “You’re probs not using enough.” Always, always, always consider salt, fat, fresh herbs and acid.
• “One Ingredient, many ways.” Ever think about stirring pickle juice into a vinaigrette or chicken marinade?  (You see where this “rule” is going.)
• “If it ain’t yummy, fix it.” Zhoozh away.  (Again, be brave.)
• “Turn ya burners up (let’s burn some shit).” Build flavors by charring, crisping, blistering, etc.
• “It’s all in the sauce.” Why not sauce it up? It will taste better.
• “Though shall not waste herbs.” Enough said.
• “Condiments are your BFFL.” I’m reminded again what she can do with mayo, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and lemon garnishes from Bloody Marys.
• “When in doubt, refry.” This goes for burritos, banana bread, leftover meatloaf…
• “Enough is enough.”  You have to know when to call it…
• “When less is more.”  See above.

As with most cookbooks, there’s a must-have list of cooking sundry but in Baz fashion she also lists what gadgets and supplies one needs to “Stock ya bar!” (34). She also shares her kitchen layout to “Cook smarter, not harder” (38-39).  To continue her inventive sharing, she creates “A Scoville Spectrum” for salty ingredients, kimchi to fish sauce (28-29), and a pie chart of pantry items (42-43).  She stocks a lot of lemons and little pepperoni and chocolate.  (What?!?!?!)

Recipe ingredients are listed by produce, dairy, protein, pantry and special equipment as applicable.

Most every recipe in her appetizer section, “Snick-Snack,” are inventive but “Quick as heck!”  I truly wanted to live her salad mantra:  “Be the salad you wish to see in the world” (67).  Most of these are “quick as heck,” too.  There really are no words for the Carbs section.  It’s all about the pasta (and Pepperoni Fried Rice and Triple Threat Garlic Bread). For proteins, she includes “Surf (Where There’s Surf There is Turf,” “Chicken,” and rounds out More is More with “Veg,” “Sandos,” “Breakfast,” and “Sweets.”

There is no beverage section, but there are “Drink Break” inserts.  And she breaks up the book about midway with “A Last Meal for the Living” (168-174), an all-encompassing supreme gluttonous epicurean feast which includes “Towers of Cultured Butter with Flaky Sea Salt on the side.”

Here are my recipes to try from More is More…

• Crick-Crackers (58)
• Sizzled Speedy Tomato Salad (75)
• Druken Cacio e Pepe (96). This recipe is truly inebriated, using one full bottle of red wine.
• Olive Oil-Drowned Potatoes with Lemony Onions & Herbs (222)
• Not So Basic B Turkey Sandwich (236), with chimichurri mayo
• Early Grey & Apricot Jam Scones (255)
• Griddled Chorizo & Egg Stuffed Pitas (256)

My hat is off and my head is still bowed.  After perusing More is More, I’m still processing her “Chicky Chicky Bread Bread” (198).

I like to nestle some stale bread beneath the chicken as it roasts; it soaks up the fat without getting soggy, and you end up with custardy schmaltz-soaked bread with crispy! fried! edges! (198)

I’m in awe.

More.Is.More.

This is a solid, fun, informative cookbook. Total five stars!

I’m linking up with Foodies Read for March.