Book Review: Family Circle's Creative Low-Calorie Cooking

Apologies are in order, Gentle Readers. I apologize. I've been too busy in real life to keep up with reading a book a day; that's no reason to deny representation to the writers and publishers of books I have for sale. Here, fresh from the can, is a lovely period piece for the cookbook collectors:

Title: Family Circle’s Creative Low-Calorie Cooking

Author: Barbara Gibbons

Date: 1971, 1976

Publisher: Family Circle / New York Times

ISBN: 0-405-06684-8

Length: 159 pages including index

Illustrations: many color photos

Quote: “It was really a matter of learning how to duplicate the taste and texture of my favorite foods, without the unneeded extra calories.”

Some of the ideas discussed in this book have stood the test of time; they actually modernize these recipes. The oil in baked goods can usually be minimized—you can safely substitute teaspoons for tablespoons in most recipes from before 1970. Fresh fruit can replace syrup on pancakes or replace any butter-and-sugar confection as “dessert.” When meat is cooked on a rack in a pan, most fat will drip into the pan; it can be burned (not poured down the drain) or buried (not composted), or used to make pet treats. When meat is cut fine and heated in water, most fat, blood, and other impurities will rise to the top, where they can be skimmed off and disposed of. Pork-free processed meats are less oily than pork-based processed meat; soy-based processed “meats” are the lowest in fat of all. Cornstarch and arrowroot starch thicken gravies more efficiently, and add fewer calories, than white wheat flour. Chicken skin is best discarded with the wrapping.

Gibbons does not challenge all the myths of cookery that thin people have successfully debunked. She never disputes the claim that sandwiches have to be slathered with butter or mayonnaise. (They don’t; bread and lean meat might be dry, but fresh, juicy vegetables add lubrication, flavor, nutrition, fibre, and virtually no calories.) She clings to the delusion that salads need “dressings.” She has also formed the bad habit of always frying onions in butter, or even in “diet margarine.”

I can think of no reason why any onion would deserve to be smothered in “diet margarine.” If you live in an area where naturally sweet and mellow onions, such as Vidalia, Walla Walla, or Maui onions, are available, you may find that your favorite way to ingest allicin doesn’t require cooking the onions at all, which saves some energy and cooking time. If you have to use a painfully pungent onion, try baking it (dry) or boiling it to mellow the flavor.

Then there are a few ideas that have not stood the test of time. “Low-calorie sweeteners” are seldom worth the bother. Some “reduced-calorie” or “low-fat” pre­packaged foods are so called because less fat was added to the recipe, which is great; others are made with bizarre chemicals that may trigger allergies or build up toxicity. And the body does need some oil, especially the “essential” omega-3 found in fish and omega-5 found in grains...but why waste time with expensive creamy or mayonnaise-y “dips” when yogurt and salsa have already been discovered.

Some ideas Gibbons accepts are controversial. Cooking food in wine, rather than oil or water, is traditional in some countries—usually countries, like France and Italy , where most of the water is unfit to drink—and can add an authentic flavor to recipes that came from those countries. On the other hand, many people hate that flavor, and many are sensitive to chemicals found in wine even after the alcohol cooks out. Why not just use broth?

Then there’s the old granola-era trick of trying to make sweet desserts without using sugar. Some people actually enjoy these bogus desserts. I have fond memories of making all kinds of granola-era cookies: “Take two tablespoons of oil, two tablespoons of honey, one egg, two cups of oatmeal, two cups of flour...” Making these “cookies” was fun. Children enjoy stirring and shaping mud “pies” too. As an adult, I’m not inclined to bother with many desserts, but when I do make or eat a dessert I don’t try to reduce the sugar. To those who think every meal needs a dessert, but who want to lose weight, I recommend after-dinner mints.

Low-calorie recipes won’t make every family thin, all by themselves, but learning to enjoy low-calorie options that work for us is part of what helps some people stay slim throughout life. This is a good cookbook for anyone who is still new to the idea of low-calorie cooking. It's also a classic cookbook from the early 1970s, when people believed that just eliminating surplus calories in food would make everyone slim and fit. (It won't, because most people who need to watch their weight need to rev up their metabolism, but it can't hurt. In fact reducing calories from fat is one of the steps hypothyroid patients use to normalize their metabolism.)