Rating: 
Summary: THE FIRST COOKBOOK YOU SHOULD BUY
Review: I HAVE BEEN COLLECTING COOKBOOKS FOR 40 YEARS AND THIS IS MY ALLTIME FAVORITE! N0 COOK SHOULD BE WITHOUT A COPY OF THIS BOOK. BASIC EVERYDAY COOKING TO CLASSY ENTERTAINING IS COVERED. IF I COULD ONLY HAVE ONE COOKBOOK IN MY KITCHEN, IT WOULD BE THIS ONE. A GREAT PRESENT FOR A NEW BRIDE OR A BATCHELOR
Rating:
Summary: If you only want one cookbook...
Review: This is it. A little pretensious in spots but exhaustive. The definitive cook's cookbook but also very usable for novices. Timeless, painstakenly accurate and indespensible.
Rating:
Summary: The Once and Future Cookbook Champ!
Review: Diehard "Joy" fans rejoice, you can still get the "original" Joy of Cooking everyone's mother and grandmother used. This edition, first published in 1975, is, as I understand it, the last edition written by Irma Rombaur's daughter (the latest, "New Joy of Cooking" was written by Rombaur's grandson). Many prefer this edition to the "New Joy" since it contains less fussy and more classic recipes. Personally, I have them both, and they each have their pros and cons (the "New Joy" finally takes into consideration some basis of healthful cooking, for instance, and drops some of the more antiquated appetizer and cocktail recipes). I also own the "Joy of Cooking : A Compilation of Reliable Recipes With a Casual Culinary Chat," which is a word-for-word reproduction of Irma Rombaur's original, self-published edition of this cooking classic. (With all these editions on the market, it's clear that Irma's grandson knows how to make a profit, if not a perfect chocolate soufflé.)"Joy of Cooking" is synonymous with good, old-fashioned practical cooking. Every good cook I know owns at least one copy of this book. It's a super all-purpose cookbook, offering well-tested, straight-forward recipes for just about any food you can think of. Alongside the classic "Betty Crocker Cookbook," the "Fannie Farmer Cookbook" and something new from Martha Stewart (I like the "Martha Stewart Living Cookbook," which is a compilation of recipes from her magazine) and/or Cook's Illustrated (either "The Best Recipe" or the "Cook's Bible"), "The Joy of Cooking" will create a perfectly balanced recipe collection for the experienced cook or novice baker.
Rating:
Summary: Beaver and Muskrat and Armadillo, oh my
Review: `The Joy of Cooking' is touted as the most comprehensive culinary manual published in English by the unprecedented appearance of introductory blurbs by the holy Trinity of American culinary writers, Julia Child, Craig Claiborne, and James Beard. That is more than enough incentive to see if this hoary classic has clay feet. I am very pleased to report that in spite of a few hiccups here and there, this book deserves every bit of reputation it has acquired as the `go to' cookbook for America.
A little hint I learned early on about assessing the quality of non-fiction books is the number of editions through which the title has been printed. I do not know what the record is, but `The Joy of Cooking' probably comes close to it for a book that is not published every year such as an almanac. A lot of editions means that the book has been popular and that many eyes have gone over the text and have corrected just about any misstatement which may have crept in. My copy reports thirteen (13) editions beginning in 1931. Since agriculture, nutrition, cooking fashion and equipment changes with the times, especially in the last 100 years, I would not trust an older book as a practical kitchen guide, although I may value it as a historical source. The changes over the last 30 years in the fat content of pork alone can turn a host of good recipes into recipes for shoe leather. `The Joy of Cooking' shows many signs of being abreast of the times, up to the mid 1970s, but it also shows some signs of not knowing about important recent trends. While both Julia Child and Elizabeth David both endorsed nonstick surfaced skillets for cooking eggs and other protein, `The Joy of Cooking' has no entry in its index for `Teflon' and does not mention stick-free cookware in its discussion of omelet making techniques.
The other side of the coin is that the `Joy...' covers most subjects, including omelet making to a level of detail which would impress even the most fastidious culinary writers such as Judy Rodgers and Jeremiah Tower. It does not just give us a single omelet technique, it gives us five. Where most 300 page cookbooks gives us six or seven topics, `Joy...' has 32 chapters of recipes plus three chapters on general food topics such as preservation techniques in 850 pages. My favorite all-purpose cookbook `James Beard's American Cookery' comes in at a close second at 840 pages. `Joy...' covers a greater range of topics than Beard and probably has a lot more material than the scant 10 pages difference in size suggests as `Joy...' has a smaller typeface and is printed in double columns. Size would count for nothing if the information were not good. It turns out that the quality of the instruction on standard tasks such as making stock, cooking an omelet, and making a basic piecrust is very, very good. The directions for stock making cover all the cautions and recommendations of Judy Rodgers, the writer / chef whose stock recipes are by far the most careful I have ever seen.
`The Joy of Cooking' reminds me of promotional material for the Encyclopedia Britannica, where the 24 volume set was pictured as a replacement for a library comprised of fifty or more books. `Joy...' covers numerous subjects which you may be surprised to find outside a book specializing in subjects such as artisinal breads, canning, and game animal cookery. And, while Beard has instructions for cooking bear and squirrel, he missed out on the recipes for muskrat, woodchuck, beaver and armadillo. So, I agree 100% with the notion that if you start a collection of cookbooks with the intention of actually cooking from them, the latest edition of `The Joy of Cooking' should be the very first one. But, I also recommend that if you are especially fond of a certain style of cooking or with any type of bread or pastry making, that you get at least one or two books on that speciality. In bread baking, `Joy...' covers yeast breads and sourdough breads, but it does not address techniques for using natural yeasts and its yeast rising for certain breads such as brioche take short cuts to avoid an overnight rise. Oddly, the book also takes shortcuts to speed up the usual 3-day marinade for sauerbraten. So, this is definitely for the everyday cook and not for the artisinal or the `slow cooking' devotee.
From the low price and binding style, one may approach `Joy...' as a greatly inflated church lady fund raising cookbook. Nothing is further from the truth. The writing is as skillful, as crisp, and almost as entertaining as the best of Julia Child's text. There are long, intelligent essays on foods and how to identify the best produce, meats, and fish. The book does not give you the Shirley Corriher angle on techniques, but it does give you all the best techniques and a common sense explanation of why they are good. I even suspect my favorite culinary nerd Alton Brown lifted some ideas from these pages, as it includes the notion of storing root vegetables in sand, something I have seen on `Good Eats'.
There are a few minor lapses, such as overlooking a mention of the high acidity (7%) of white wine vinegar and the low acidity (4.5%) of rice vinegar. A sign of the age of the text is the fact that it doesn't even mention balsamic vinegar. Another small blemish is that the text often refers to pictures that are not located where the text points. I will also point out that the book makes extensive use of references to other pages for procedures or preparations to fill out a recipe. A small price for a truly encyclopedic work.
Highly recommended as a first cookbook and a reference for even jaded foodies.
Rating:
Summary: Indispensable Guide to the Kitchen
Review: This classic edition of Joy of Cooking is the one most indispensable book in anyone's kitchen or pantry. It has literally thousands of recipes organized by major ingredient - all with sufficient detail to turn out excellent results. Rarely will you find any Western food for which the recipe is missing in this book. In addition, each section has pointers on things to look out for - about the ingredients, about the various cooking methods appropriate to those ingredients, and about the tools used for various kinds of cooking and the utensils used for serving the food. These sections can make interesting reading even if you don't cook - and will make you a better cook if you do. The recipes do assume a kitchen reasonably well stocked with basic spices and other ingredients. Fortunately, the background information helps you to work around any missing ingredients. One note - don't confuse this book with the "new" Joy of Cooking. The latter documents '90s food trends that are already starting to look dated. This classic version will remain a classic for decades to come.
|
