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Summary: I reach for it first
Review: I've had Bittman's book for a couple of years now, and it's the one I pull off the shelf for everyday cooking. Its great strength is in suggesting variations on themes, and, as promised, nothing is weird or fussy. The book does have spicy and ethnic recipes...(Vindaloo Pork is a winner!) I find that its major weakness is in vegetables; the "10 simple variations" aren't part of the vegetable recipes. When you pair Bittman with Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, though, you have a winning team for putting together a tasty meal; Madison's book is brilliant at suggesting which herbs, sauces and combinations work for just about every kind of vegetables. These two together cover all of good, basic American home cooking.
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Summary: Aptly titled
Review: This is a great basic cooking book--perfect for reference. Recipes are simple with suggestions for making them your own. It accompanies me to the beach every year when I don't know what I might be cooking up for dinner. Also check out The Minimalist Cooks at Home by the same author for more simple yet great tasting recipes!
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Summary: The New 'Joy of Cooking'
Review: What I dislike most about most of the cookbooks I have on my shelves is that I can spend a few hours looking at amazing glossy photos of mouth watering foods that include ingredients that are near impossible to find, that any deviation from the recipe seems like a terrible hazard, that you are doomed to merely replicating a dish rather than 'creating' a dish. Perhaps it is Mark Bittman's thorough introductions on each topic - breads, soups, poultry... or the inset boxes that offer multiple alternatives for recipes, but "How to Cook Everything" encourages you to make adaptations, skew recipes to your own taste and styles. For example, yesterday I used his recipe for "Rich/Cream Muffins" which Bittman explains he uses for sweeter muffins as opposed to the previous recipe which he has reduced the amount of sugar (and because of that, the egg and milk content). These recipes are "the base" for what you can then add in: blueberries, chocolate chips, banana and walnut... etc. In this sense, Bittman does give you the tools on how to cook Anything and Everything.
Some people complain in these reviews that the book doesn't quite include Everything. I believe the point of the book is to educate you so that you'll have little trouble adapting the recipe so that you CAN cook everything.
Alan Witschonke's illustrations are also fantastic. How to julienne carrots, or take a part a chicken, or filet a fish... Mr. Witschonke will show you in the clearest terms possible.
Lastly, the first 100 or so pages of the book describe the bare essentials for a kitchen, proper techniques, and the explanation of some of the culinary terms you may come across in the book -- all fantastic assets to the book.
Buy this book, it should be the cornerstone of every home-cook hopeful's kitchen.
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Summary: Has saved me from Ramen!
Review: When I moved into my first apartment, I was clueless. I grew up in a pre-packaged home, in that nothing we ate was cooked from scratch. As a college student, I couldn't afford to live that way, and so I was stuck eating the very few things I knew how to make, and I ate an awful lot of ramen noodles. When I got this book, everything changed. Bittman's recipes are simple and well-explained. I love the little boxes in which he makes all sorts of suggestions for additions or variations to the basic recipes. The substitutions throughout are also very handy and save me many trips to the grocery store. While I was resistant to the idea that any single (though large) cookbook could include "everything," Bittman's book really does cover a very wide spectrum. Almost anything I can think of can be found or modified from something similar. I use this book at least a couple times a week, and have used it for everything from numerous chicken variations to homemade cinnamon rolls. Really, I don't know how I managed before this book. It has saved me from ramen!
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Summary: Must have for any serious cook
Review: Great 800-page hardbound book with lots of explanations and cooking instructions. For such a low price, it's not only a great deal but a fantastic kitchen reference you'll frequently come back to.
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Summary: A MUST HAVE for every kitchen!
Review: I love cookbooks and have a ton of them but this is by far the most practical cookbook I've ever used or seen. It not only has recipes for almost everything, but it teaches how to purchase, prepare, and cook everything. I open this cookbook as a reference at least twice a week & I wouldn't want to cook without it. It would make a perfect bridal shower or housewarming gift.
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Summary: How to Cook Some Things...but not everything
Review: Okay, I guess looking up "how to cook corn-on-the-cob" should be in a book for beginners, but I believed this book would really deliver what it advertises. It doesn't. It has some nice pictures (eg. how to dice carrots) but it most certainly does not tell the reader how to cook everything. The index is good, but not 'user-friendly'; cross-referencing would make it easier to use. It's a big book on my bookshelf now that I imagine will eventually end-up with all the others I never use.
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Summary: New Classic!
Review: This is a great book sure to be a new classic right along with "Joy of Cooking." Highly recommended as a wedding gift or great for anyone that truly appreciates good food. The recipes are simple but not boring. If you have a passion for food you will not regret the purchase of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe not Everything...
Review: This book is the kind of book where you can flip to almost any page and do a fast and informative read on almost all foodstuffs. It's like the Trivial (or rather Practical) Pursuit of the food world. But certainly not everything. It's a pretty tall order to claim EVERYTHING. While I was perusing the pages, I noted some recipes I make were not included. Granted some of the dishes I prepare are ethnic and while Mark Bittman does include a number of "ethnic" dishes in the book, it is by no means complete and definitive. I don't know what it is but I have some reservations when authors write recipes of ethnic dishes when they are not of that ethnicity themselves, especially chinese dishes. But then again, I'm biased.
There are a wide range of recipes, but I couldn't help thinking this was a very American interpretation of diverse cooking. Nothing wrong with that, but just remember it's not "Everything".
Having said all of that however, I am very impressed with this book and I believe is a great source for factual information on the basics of food and food preparation in America.
So far I have used one recipe, and I would modify it somewhat (Poached halbut in soy sauce) because the cooking time was a tad long. I have also found a number of recipes I am interested in making. I'm impressed with the number of variations he suggests for many of the items, and I am sure I will use it often as a source of reference.
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Summary: THE Reference Cookbook for the home cook
Review: As stated in most of the reviews, this cookbook is wonderful if you have ingredients but are unsure what to do with them... ...or are looking for suggestions/variations of a recipe to meet differing tastes. As an introduction to each ingredient, you will find information about 1) types of the ingredient, 2) proper handling/storage and 3) preparation techniques. I particularly like the fact that when the author specifies a hard to find ingredient, he provides other alternatives so that you can complete the preparation without the wild goose chase. He also explains some of the reaoning behind the method -- which I find helps me to be a better cook. At the time of this review as an example, bing cherries are fresh. I looked up under "cherries" and found the normal cherry pie and the not so normal "cherry soup". I also found information about where cherries subsitute well in other recipes. (I ended up making a cobbler which was a raspberry recipe.) Some reviews of this cookbook suggest that the recipes are more middle of the road -- too easy or too bland. I would agree that there is great effort placed in attempting to make this information suitable for the masses. I, too, go too a specialized cookbook if I am looking for something exotic. However, this book is always my starting point for planning with new ingredients and I have never been disappointed with the results.
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