Joy of Cooking [1997]

This would be valuable even if it had no recipes at all. Need a conversion? It's here. Need to learn how to do a basic white sauce? It's here. Wanna get fancy? It's here, too. At a certain point you begin to get the "feel" for cooking from this book. It's one thing to follow a recipe, but it's quite another to understand what's going to happen if you use corn starch here or baking powder there. This book helps you get beyond the strict following of recipes so you can do your own innovations. My Mom gave me Betty Crocker when I left home. I gave my kids Joy of Cooking.

Even though I'm vegetarian (and this book is really heavy on the meat) I still find there are a few jems throughout this book. With more than 1000 pages, I keep thinking I'll find more, but the meat emphasis is pretty strong.

All that being said, the unsweetened dried fruit and nut granola is my all time favorite cereal. I've yet to find anything in a store or in any other cookbook that comes close to this granola. Other areas I've got bookmarked include the muffins, quiche and eggs.

There's some very nice technique discussions in each section and a lot of variations. After I've read the technique information and the variations, I can usually make an educated guess on whether one of my own variations needs any special changes to the show more recipe.

Several years ago I got so fed up with seeing meat stuck everywhere in most omnivore cookbooks, I stopped buying anything that wasn't intended to be vegetarian (a little chicken stock here, a little bacon there). This is one of the rare cookbooks I've bought knowing that meat is a large focus and I don't regret it. show less

This cookbook is considered “authoritative” for good reason. It is a comprehensive compendium not only of recipes, but of all sorts of basic kitchen skills. For example, in the chapter “Shellfish,” you learn about shellfish safety, different varieties of shellfish, how to prepare it - from how to peel shrimp to how to kill a lobster to how to clean crabs, and so on. The chapter “Meat” goes through all the basic cuts, and all the various methods for cooking and storing it before getting into the recipes themselves. “Candy” teaches you about melting, tempering, and molding chocolate, all about fondant, and the difference between praline, almond paste, and marzipan. All of this background and instructions are accompanied by show more drawn illustrations. A large appendix provides a thorough selection of charts on measurements, conversions, substitutions, and nutritional data.

The recipes are good, but "standard fare." There is certainly value in having access to them. But the real value of the book is in the extensive supplemental matter. show less

Aptly described by other reviewers as an American classic, The Joy of Cooking has been in "my" kitchen for as long as I can remember. My own personal copy, which I still own, came to me as part of a prize that I won in a book raffle during college. I somehow managed to misplace the other four cookbooks that were also part of the prize (lost in a move, I believe), but this volume is still around.

More than just an extensive and thorough cookbook, this is a culinary reference work, containing all sorts of basic information about food preparation. Wondering how long you should soak those dried beans or legumes before cooking? Hoping to discover how to blanche nuts? Look no further... I find that this is a helpful book to have around, even show more if I don't use the recipes that often. show less

This may not be my go-to reference for the kitchen, as I have other ones I appreciate much more, I cannot deny the solid explanations and breadth of this book. I do use it on a frequent basis, usually to cross-reference information in another book. As I said, the information in the book is solid and it has a great coverage of the basic techniques one needs; the place where I find it does not compare to others is certain recipes, particularly when going beyond the basics. Of course, everything I have tried is passable, some even good, I just don't think the recipes are necessarily great and are not the first place I look.

I have and will continue to buy this book as a reference for new cooks, largely because my favourite is not always show more there and this "classic" is in every bookstore. Every kitchen needs a book like this and you cannot go wrong having this book on your shelf, but there are just references I like better. show less

This may not be my go-to reference for the kitchen, as I have other ones I appreciate much more, I cannot deny the solid explanations and breadth of this book. I do use it on a frequent basis, usually to cross-reference information in another book. As I said, the information in the book is solid and it has a great coverage of the basic techniques one needs; the place where I find it does not compare to others is certain recipes, particularly when going beyond the basics. Of course, everything I have tried is passable, some even good, I just don't think the recipes are necessarily great and are not the first place I look.

I have and will continue to buy this book as a reference for new cooks, largely because my favourite is not always show more there and this "classic" is in every bookstore. Every kitchen needs a book like this and you cannot go wrong having this book on your shelf, but there are just references I like better. show less

It takes a lot of effort for me to experience joy in the kitchen, unless we are talking about sipping coffee. This is a great cookbook, however, with thorough background information about selecting foods, basic to advanced preparation techniques, and yummy recipes. This is a classic, for good reason. I have my grandmother's earlier edition and I recommend the more recent ones (more recent editions, for example, assume that the eggs are cold and out of the refrigerator rather than room temperature from the chicken's nest!).