Foil Packaged Dinners by Julia Rutland Book Review

Foil Packaged Dinners by Julia Rutland grabbed my attention at “Stop doing the dishes…” However, many of the meals required getting other dishes dirty as prep work. Some recipes more than others. I was expecting to be able to throw a bunch of cut up food into some foil, fold it up, cook it, and, bam, dinner. That is not the case. Because of this, I think this book is great for camping meal ideas, BBQ day, after a hurricane when you are using a grill, and other similar situations. You would have to be choosy with your ingredients and the vegetable section would probably be best in those situations. Most of those are situations you don’t want to dirty a lot of dishes or have limited resources, so the simpler recipes are much more useful. I would have liked to have seen more of this type of recipe.

Photos of all the recipes would have been nice. I found the ones with photos more enticing to try because I can see what I will be eating before I start. 

What I felt the book did well was the introduction, tips and tricks, types of foil, temps, measurements, etc. There are so many types of foil, and I had no idea what a difference different types of foil would make. The tips and tricks are especially helpful. Like any kind of cooking there are rules to how you use different pans, oils, utensils, etc. This is no different. Again, I didn’t think about that. I just figured you throw a bunch of food in some foil and cook it. I found the flow of the book was nice. There were a few dishes that could be in two sections, but overall, not a big deal. There were also some old popular recipes, along with lots of new flavourful and unique dishes to try.

I think this book is great in terms of being a cookbook. I think the “Stop doing the dishes…” needs to be changed in the description as I found that misleading. There are very unique and excellent recipes to try. I would have liked some simpler recipes with just a cutting board, knife, and foil involved and less prep work. 

I received an electronic advanced reader copy from Tiller Press through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.