How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food

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Summary: THE source to review the basics of cooking and beyond.
Review: I've planned and cooked entire dinner parties using this book without feeling overwhelmed by frivolous details and gaining the confidence to use unfamiliar ingredients. Bittman's thorough explanations of basic procedures (frying an egg, cooking a steak) helped me refine my techniques and introduced me to delicious simple variations.

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Summary: This book actually tells you how to cook everything!
Review: As a beginning cook I constanly refer to this book to answer my questions. It is also a great reference if you have other cookbooks that may have instructions that aren't quite clear to you. The glossary in the back is great and it has many basic recipies for things that you may not find in other cookbooks. It is also very flexible and gives you room to add your own flair. I have quite a few cookbooks, and this one is definitely the most useful!

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Summary: How to cook everything, except everything you want to cook!
Review: I tried to find 8 dishes I wanted to cook (2 Italian, 2 Mexican, 4 non-ethenic) and could not find a single one. 0 for 8 is not what I expected from the title. This one goes in the garage next to the "White Trash Cookbook".

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Summary: the only cookbook you'll ever need
Review: This is the most complete, contemporary cookbook I've ever used. I don't get through a day without it. The perfect gift for a new couple.

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Summary: Great basic-but-not-too-basic cookbook.
Review: I've never cooked this much in my life. Non-pretentious recipes that you can make as healthy or unhealthy as you want, easy ways to vary them to your own tastes, and useful general information like "how to buy fish."

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Summary: The worst food I've ever made (and I've made some bad food!)
Review: After reading all the great reviews of this book I thought it would be a wonderful addition to my somewhat limited cookbook library. Boy, was I wrong! Granted, I've only made 6 recipes, and there are probably several thousand in this huge book, but all 6 have been horrible. Let me share my latest disaster - Summer Pudding. It sounded great. First, you spend a fortune on summer fruit such as blueberries, strawberries, raspberries (you get the drift). Then you boil them to a puree, add some sugar (so far, it really is good). But then, you pour this over white bread, put it in the refridgerator for hours, and the result is supposed to be similar to tiramasu. Ha! I don't know what miracle I was expecting to take place, but none did. In fact, it looked remarkably like liver, and tasted like... white bread soaked in what used to be good sauce! YUK! That's the last thing I'll ever make out of this book.

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Summary: very good book i liked it.
Review: I LIKE TO COOK SO THIS BOOK I GOT AND TRYED IT TURNED OUT GREAT

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Summary: must I be lectured?
Review: I find Bittman's tone overbearing, almost untenable. Must he constantly shake his finger at me, telling me what I have to freeze, or why I have to do things exactly his way? Perhaps some people who don't know how to cook "everything" will appreciate the fingerwagger's way to prepare and cook. "Dice exactly according to instructions." But if you know as much as a very little, you might be put off by someone who so obviously knows everything.

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Summary: Absolutely fantastic
Review: This book is great! Everything one could ever want. As he says, it's simple recipes. If you want more elaborate dishes or a particular type of cuisine, look elsewhere (although he does have many ethnic dishes.) For young and/or busy people, this is indispensable. And full of helpful advice as well, and great beverages...awesome through and through. This, and Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions" is all my kitchen needs. One could spend a lifetime making recipes from both books. Please, get it; you will NOT regret it!

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Summary: If you have other cookbooks you like, don't buy this one.
Review: I got this as a gift, and it is an okay book. I've looked up some misc. things like how to cook barley or good proportions for a milkshake, but generally the recipes are overly simplistic, for boring, middle-American food. The author's style also tends to overpower the recipes (his constant advice to eat leftovers and freeze 5 extra lbs. of stuff really bugged me and my tiny apartment freezer). This book is just not written for the sophisticated or simply urban cook or diner.