JOY OF COOKING by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker
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Book Reviews of JOY OF COOKING
Book Review: THE one, the only, THE cookbook to own
Summary: 5 Stars
You'll never be sorry you bought this book unless you're already a graduate of The Culinary Institute of Amererica or The Cordon Bleu. If it ain't in here - you don't need to know it, cook it or eat it.
Jam packed with interesting and genuinely useful information on all things related to cooking, drinking and eating this book rarely lets you down. The recipes are easy to follow - but not always Betty Crocker easy - but you'll know that from reading the recipe before starting. Who else would explain not only what Gallantine of Turkey is, but how to make what must easily be the most complicated dish ever created? The humor throughout adds a welcome light touch, as in Duck Rouennaise - "if you don't care to throttle a live duck..." (In theory, you "should" strangle a live duck to begin - yet the Rombauers don't expect that you [or anyone outside of France] will)
There is no snotty gourmet attitude here, just two women who know their stuff giving you the benefit of their experience. Unlike recipes i've seen from other well-known gourmet's books, not one recipe will tell you to begin preparing a recipe several weeks in advance of serving it. I once saw an on-line recipe call for veau de lie (veal stock) and then proceed with a recipe for the stock that made eighty (80!) quarts of the stuff! Not so, here. The Rombauers know you're trying to cook on a 30 inch domestic Maytag or GE range - not an 8-foot, 12 burner, two-oven, $12,000 commercial unit.
Joy is the standard bearer of cookbooks for the home cook - it's outlasted all others and with good reason - it works, does what it says and says what it does. Worth every last cent at twice the price.
Book Review: The Original and Best
Summary: 5 Stars
(But don't buy the spiralbound!) I'd been looking for the old, good, real Joy for a while, and found it in the spiral-bound format at a certain unnamed competitor of Amazon. Bought it on the spot, and almost immediately regretted it - what thin, cheap paper! It's like trying to read Kleenex. I left it at my beach share for the summer and the humidity alone made the thing swell noticeably.
Now, as for the contents: Joy is not for the contemporary "beginning cook," since microwaves have ensured that today's beginners know nothing at all about cooking (indeed, judging from some of the comments here, they barely seem to handle the concepts of "reading" or "visualizing without pictures"). The value is for the cook having both basic skills and the inclination to educate him- or herself. Irma and daughter Marion make wonderful companions, providing a strong, sympathetic editorial voice throughout. (Unlike the dreadful 1997 rip-off perpretrated by greedy, grave-robbing grandson Ethan, who consigned the actual writing over to a 40-odd-person committee - and it shows.) Especially helpful are longish sections detailing cooking processes and ingredients, which provide a cook with the wherewithal to vary recipes as needed.
The recipes themselves are mostly classics, with some for the ambitious and others that are perfectly suitable for day-to-day. A few even reflect changing diets, with lower-fat and -calorie variations, but the emphasis is definitely on standbys.
This is a book to learn with and to treasure. Just do yourself a favor and get the hard-cover!
Book Review: Best All-purpose Cookbook
Summary: 5 Stars
The Joy of Cooking (this original, authentic version) is an indisposable book, a titan among cookbooks for sure. If glowing reviews from world-famous chefs is not enough, just listen to us novices. This book will not teach you every fundamental about cooking (learn from your mother) but it will teach you how to cook and how to understand cooking. This is one cookbook that is more than recipes: its the art and science of cooking.The thousands of recipes are mostly things you've seen before (lemonade and baked chicken) and some you probably haven't (see Baked Brains in the Beef section). It covers the use of most any ingredient you will see in cooking any dish - vegetable, poultry, or meat - and it will show you how to properly apply heat, add seasonings, and most importantly, how to modify the recipe. Diagrams are few (they aren't generally helpful in my opinion) and explanations can sometimes be short, but the book covers a lot of territory. That said, it is best not to consider the the "only" cookbook - rather, it should be the central one. Complement it with a cooking encyclopedia and a collection of cookbooks from specific regions or styles for a complete cooking set.
No shelf of cookbooks is complete without this book; I would be lost without it. Also, this makes an excellent wedding or birthday gift. Avoid the spiral-bound version, the book needs to be hardcover and well bound because of constant use in the combat zone (kitchen).
Book Review: One of the greatest cookbooks ever written in English
Summary: 5 Stars
I grew up reading the 1964 and 1975 editions of Joy. Joy is not a cookbook for people who just want some trendy recipes. Joy is a work for people who want to really understand food and cooking. It is a tour de force. It is so logically laid out and so explicit that anyone who is willing to actually use it the way it was intended (reading the Pointers for Success and The Food We Eat, etc.) who has any aptitude at all can become an excellent cook. I collect cookbooks and am a vegetarian and if the choice were to give all the rest of them or to give up Joy, I would give up all the rest, because Joy teaches the basics of food preparation. Some people criticize it because it has recipes for making the things people usually buy at the store, like cream cheese and yogurt, or things one cannot imagine wanting to make (raccoon? Ugh!) but I believe this only adds to its value because it leaves one prepared for anything. The success ratio of the recipes is extremely high; in a lifetime of cooking I have only come across one or two which disappointed me. The recipe for buttermilk waffles is so good that having gotten used to them, my husband will never eat another non-Joy waffle again. The only caveat I have is to buy only the hardback edition. I would recommend Joy highly to novices who really want to learn how to cook and are not afraid of having to read and exert mental effort. Joy is a national treasure.Book Review: Joy of Cooking -- 1975 Edition
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the edition before they started (in my view) spoiling the best cookbook out by making it trendy and getting away from the idea of a basic cookbook.
I've just bought 4 copies. Why? One to replace the tattered paperback that's answered every question I've thrown at it over thirty years, simply, clearly and concisely. It recognises the fact that while I'm ignorant on the point in question, I'm not necessarily stupid. It recognises that I may need information on some of the basics -- so it points me to where I can find that as well.
So why the other three copies? One for a daughter who's a very accomplished cook and baker and is about to leave home. She'll find in it the answers to the (relatively few) questions she still has on the culinary arts and she'll find inspiration to go further in her cooking and baking.
That leaves another two to acccount for. I've got two daughters in law. What more useful present could I give them? Unlike most books, I know this one won't be glanced at and then put away. It'll be used again and again for decades. So it's a hardback version. I'm sure it'll give them much pleasure over the years. A cookbook that takes the frustration out of cooking. Written for ordinary people. To show them how to do ordinary things extraordinarily well, giving them ALL the information they need to make sure that it works out EVERY time.