Vague Directions

I don’t like vague direc­tions when I’m try­ing out a new recipe. Not vague like Patrick­’s black beans, but vague like this: I made man­go sor­bet this week­end and the recipe called for reduced sug­ar water, but the direc­tions sim­ply said bring to a boil then reduce heat and sim­mer for five min­utes. .5C of sug­ar in 1.25C water. Then you mix it in with some man­gos and orange juice and freeze it [adding whipped egg-white lat­er]. Mine end­ed up like man­go ice or a man­go slurpee instead of sor­bet because there was [obvi­ous­ly] too much water in it. In ret­ro­spect, I have deter­mined that the sugar/water was sup­posed to be reduced until it was sim­ple syrup, but I guess the recipe just assumed I’d know that. Which brings me to my con­clu­sion:

I’d like a Stu­pid Chef’s Illus­trat­ed Ency­clo­pe­dia that gives you both meth­ods and pic­tures of cer­tain culi­nary tasks. Like what “stiff peaks” means when whip­ping egg whites, and how to sep­a­rate an egg in the first place [which my mom told me how to do when I asked] and lots of oth­er things that cook­books assume a chef already knows. The Bet­ter Homes and Gar­dens cook­book is good for some of this, but it isn’t com­pre­hen­sive and is more focused on pro­vid­ing recipes than tech­niques.