Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006

I wanted an all purpose cookbook for a gift. The book should have all the latest information on food prepartion, calories,etc. I have an old edition that I use for any food preparation question.

As a Chef for the last 10 years, this book has never done me wrong. Every recipe is rock solid, I love being able to find a recipe for something that I may not be familiar with. I give it to every novice cook or aspiring chef I come across. Its step by step recipes is an invaluable resource to even those who are unsure of themselves in the kitchen.

"Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006" is a terrific cookbook. I am the cook in our houshold and I have it sitting out where I can get at it. Also, I still have the previous edition sitting on a shelf, just in case. This is the cookbook I consult first, when I want to make sure of anything having to do with cooking or any sort of food preparation.

This is the one cookbook that will give me a good recipe for any standard dish, with lots of hints for more difficult dishes. Also, it has a huge amount of cooking basics.

This book also makes a terrific present!

The infamous and unfortunate late 1990s "update" of this important classic took it in a trendy, low-fat, vaguely-Northern-Italian-accented direction -- and worse, removed so many of the key instructions and techniques that made the classic Joy the one all-purpose reference. A sad day indeed. Fortunately, a happier day followed when it was announced, after some uproar, that the 1975 revision -- the Last Good One -- would remain in print, and so it does to this very day. Do yourself a favor: Forget this unfortunate hodgepodge and go get the real thing, ISDN #0026045702, available in lovely durable timeless hardcover right here at Amazon.

Joy of Cooking is downright amazing. It's rare that I need a recipe that I can't find in here. And never has this book let me down.

I love cookbooks. I have the ones by famous chefs, I have the local collections put together by churches. I have the ones that are put out by magazines and the ones put together by websites. I've got some like this, densely packed with information but not a lot of pictures (aside from instructional ones) and I have some that seem like they exist only to show off pictures of the food. (And that's fine by me!)

But when I'm making something for the first time, I come to Joy. When I need to do a recipe and I don't have time to try a recipe that might turn out awful, I go to Joy. When I just want to eat really good food, Joy of Cooking is bound to be my first stop.

And why wouldn't it be? There are so many recipes in this book! For everything! See the number on the cover? 4,500? They're not kidding. There will be some of those recipes that you don't like. But that will probably come down to your own taste -- you couldn't get me to eat borscht in a million years -- and not a bad recipe.

A lot of people say that if they could only keep one of their cookbooks, this is the one they'd grab. I'm going to echo that sentiment. This is the only cookbook a lot of people will need. If you're a cookbook addict like me, you'll still buy more, but if you just need a comprehensive book to help you out in the kitchen, then look no further.

However, there are mistakes in this book! With any cookbook or craft book or anything that gives you instructions on doing something, you should always look for the errata. Joy of Cooking has a pdf file of their corrections on the website [.....]. There's a section right at the bottom of the front page talking about it. The recipes that will need corrections are:

Orange and Onion Salad (Sicilian Salad), Chicken Marengo, Chicken Paprika (Paprikas Csirke), White Bread, Whole Wheat Bread, Pancakes or Griddle Cakes, Pecan Lace, Caramel Buns (Schnecken), Crisp Chocolate Cookies, Beer Bread, Sponge Cake, Orange Curd, Filled Sweet Crepes, and Madeleines.

If you notice any others, please let them know so that we can all get them fixed!

There are two kinds of people looking for cookbooks that I would not suggest this book to. The first kind are people who don't really cook, and don't really care about the recipes. You know who you are! You like to look at the pictures of delicious looking food and maaaybe you think, "One day, I might make that." but you know you won't. I was like that once, and owned many many colourful cookbooks. Once I started cooking, I got this book. And there are very few pictures. The black and white drawings that do occasionally show up are, as far as I've seen, not of the finished product. You'd be better served with a different book.

The other type is the person who only wants a cookbook for one kind of food or one method of cooking. It's not that there aren't recipes from various regions and cultures, or that there aren't tons of things to bake, barbecue or deep fat fry. But if that's ALL you want, then there may not be enough, say, Greek recipes for you, or everything that doesn't involve grilling may get in your way.

But for everyone else in the cookbook market, I would say, if you don't have this book yet, you have to get it!

I haven't even mention the other things in the book. The Know Your Ingredients section could probably be a book in itself, and doesn't just cover background information on ingredients or help with how to use them, but in many cases, how to grow them, get them and prepare them. There are instructions for choosing a maple tree to get syrup from and how to tap it. Seriously!

Cooking Methods and Techniques covers kitchen equipment and cookware and of course, methods and techniques such as cooking in your fireplace, outdoor cooking, high altitude cooking, deglazing, skewer cooking, microwave cooking, and how to deal with burns and get out stains.

It's time to end my gushing now though. If I don't stop writing you'll never finish this review and then how will you get it?