Joy of Cooking

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Joy of Cooking

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1MarthaJeanne
Jan 11, 2009, 4:29 pm

I thought I'd post here that a discussion is going on in combiners about how Joy of Cooking should be separated into works. If you have opinions on the subject, come join us at http://www.librarything.com/topic/52454

2MrsLee
Jan 11, 2009, 4:44 pm

Yikes! That sounds far more involved than I want to be. :) I don't really understand the whole combiner thing, so I stay away and let those more knowledgeable take care of it. I just want the books in my library to be the edition and work that I have and don't pay much attention to how many others have that work

The logic of the discussion seems sound to me, if I had an early edition, I would want it separate from the newest one.

A question, does this mostly just apply to the way LT matches your books up to others? In other words, if someone combined editions of Joy of Cooking or The Hobbit, that wouldn't change the data on my book in my library would it?

3sabreuse
Jan 11, 2009, 4:52 pm

>2 MrsLee:, nothing can change the data in your library, ever -- even if someone combined Joy AND The Hobbit (in which case they'd have a price on their head, but your catalog would be fine.)

4MarthaJeanne
Edited: Jan 11, 2009, 4:56 pm

No. It doesn't change the information entered in your library.

It does change connections to others.

It can change the CK (Common Knowledge) fields as those are connected to a work and are not part of your personal record.

If and when a consensus is reached on Joy, that should probably also be extended to Fanny Farmer, Betty Crocker, and other multi-edition cookbooks. (Fanny is where I have a bigger personal interest, as I own three editions, last time I checked they were in two works.)

5florahistora
Jan 15, 2009, 11:30 pm

I really do not get the combiner group - requires more tech knowledge than I have. I will say that various editions of Joy contain very different recipes. This is true of many editions of various books, (she says simplistically!). I view my differing editions as different cookbooks. For example. If I want a recipe for creamed or scalloped oysters or eggnog I must look in earlier editions. If I want to cook for my heart then I must turn to the latest one. I hope I have cataloged each one separately - must check.

6florahistora
Jan 15, 2009, 11:33 pm

Just checked and somehow my earlier edition is not included in my library - tomorrow's work!

7MarthaJeanne
Jan 16, 2009, 4:10 am

I don't think the combiners have come to any consensus yet, except that the 1997 edition should not be combined with the others. It rather looks like the very earlies will be together, the 1997 separate, and everything else (including 2006) together.

florahistora - the one in your library is 1997, so that would match your experience.

8mcglothlen
Jan 24, 2009, 10:02 am

This is exactly a sore subject for me.

The different revisions (note that I don't say "editions") are so radically different both in appearance and content that it frustrated me a lot. So much so I became pretty disenchanted with LibraryThing and all but stopped using it.

It didn't occur to me until just now, of course, that I could have created new entries for each revision (I have them all) with "19** revision" in the title. That's what I'll do. Eventually. I will probably even do that for the different editions, too.

I don't care about the social networking part of this. I use LibraryThing when browsing rare/used bookstores to verify whether or not something is in my cookbook collection already. This is PARTICULARLY important when considering something like Joy of Cooking because my old, shriveled brains simply won't hold all those edition dates in my head.

9mcglothlen
Jan 24, 2009, 10:06 am

Message 4, MarthaJeanne:

As I said, I don't really care about the social networking as much as I care about the ease of use of the tool for book collecting purposes. I do like the social networking aspects of the tool (LibraryThing) but it comes in a distant second place to my main goal.

"Connections to others" is something I basically don't use at all. I barely even use Touchstones. They frustrate me because they take more work than I want to spend in a quick trip to LibraryThing.

10MarthaJeanne
Jan 24, 2009, 4:06 pm

The combinations do not affect your data. If you have your copies listed the way you want them, they will stay listed that way when you look at them from your account, no matter what happens at the combination level. What you may get is a work page with several of your copies all listed together when you think they shouldn't be, but in your library each entry will remain separate. Also from that work page you can click through to your details for each of the copies.

If you put edition or revision information in your titles, it will help combiners get your edition into the right work. But if you don't care about the connections, that probably won't matter to you.
If you do care your input, as someone with several revisions, would be valuable both for setting up the works and for creating a series. If that was done in the detail you prefer, that series page would be valuable to you.

I started this topic so that people like you would have a chance to be heard. It's not something I'm working on myself, but as I am in both groups I wanted people here to have input there.

BTW you may notice that I didn't use touchstones either. They are useful in some contexts, but often are more trouble than they are worth.

11mcglothlen
Jan 26, 2009, 9:33 pm

Yeah yeah. That makes sense. I take it all back. I can't remember what was annoying me earlier. But it did involve Joy of Cooking. I still think I'm going to add the years to my JofC titles because it would help if I didn't have to scroll around on my little Q phone screen when I'm searching for editions/revisions in used book stores. :)

12MarthaJeanne
Jan 27, 2009, 2:32 am

I do understand - I decided not to catalog my Bibles on here after doing the first one, because I can't stand that mess.

Joy is in much better shape now than it was.

13MrsLee
Jan 27, 2009, 7:17 pm

So if one did want to catalog their Bibles here, should they just input them manually? I also gave up on the Bible idea, it being too hard to find the precise version. What do you all recommend?

14varielle
Nov 10, 2010, 1:07 pm

Regarding the Joy of Cooking, the only editions I keep up with are before they removed the 'possum recipe and after. :)

15varielle
Nov 10, 2019, 10:01 am

On today’s CBS Sunday Morning was an episode about the latest edition still being edited by Rombauer’s great grandson and his wife. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/the-joy-of-cooking-updated...

16hfglen
Nov 10, 2019, 1:47 pm

>15 varielle: Thank you! I have a 1952 model that my mother used a lot, and a more recent one that Better Half acquired but only uses occasionally. I, at least, found the clip fascinating.

17Lyndatrue
Nov 10, 2019, 6:44 pm

>15 varielle: Gosh, I had forgotten how annoying certain web sites were (such as insisting on playing videos, and making it hard to hit the button to stop them).

For those that just want the link to the site without going through Google, here it is.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-joy-of-cooking-updated-edition/

I admit that I already have multiple copies of the J of C, and I'm not sure that I need another one. Who knows? Maybe a few people will buy it, and then it'll end up in the used bookstore. That's where all my others have come from.

18MarthaJeanne
Edited: Nov 11, 2019, 2:46 am

I have a fairly old one - the British reprint of the fourth edition (1963). It's falling apart, and some pages are getting hard to read. I need a new one, but a new copy of that one. I had a newer edition, but it didn't have some of my favourite recipes, and had changed some of the others. So I recently stuck a few pieces of Gorilla tape to the top of the binding, and we carry on.

I admit that I'm not likely to ever make Cardinal Punch again, but it's good to know that I could.

19varielle
Nov 12, 2019, 1:09 pm

Mine is the 1975 edition. Still has the recipes on cooking opossum, raccoon, squirrel and other woodland creatures.

20LolaWalser
Nov 12, 2019, 1:35 pm

>19 varielle:

I presume that must've been the edition my mum had--at least, some 1970s edition. It's one of the earliest books I remember and that's the only reason I have a copy ("sentimental cookbooks" category); I was thrilled, THRILLED out of my little toddler mind by the line drawings in it, in particular the disembodied hands, slicing and chopping and whisking etc.

Otoh, now I'm curious as to whether there were differences between the American and British editions (a reprint, as MarthaJeanne mentions?) Because she would have bought it on Cyprus or in Greece.

Funny I never tried to make anything from it. Although I read up tips and info about ingredients etc. here and there.

21kerrlm
Edited: Nov 23, 2019, 6:49 pm

I was elated to know of the new edition! It would be wonderful to have ALL the editions, bLut now I have 3 . This one is so much better than the last few. Comments on Joy on Lt don’t differentiate which is confusing.