Cooking Books

I'll make this review relatively short and sweet. This book is amazing. It's easy to read and follow and the recipes always turn out great. I made lamb tagine tonight (a Moroccan lamb stew with dried fruits, spices, tomatoes & onions) and my lamb-hating fiance had seconds! It was perfect. If you love food, and you want to impress people with your cooking skills (even if you're a beginner, and I am, believe me) you need this cookbook! It's HUGE, but I can accept the extra space it takes on my counter because it's so useful. It's full of all kinds of tips, product recommendations, trial-and-error recipe stories, and diagrams. Perfection!

This book is great: Clarity on the recipes, and background explanation if you want to know more about the lengths they went to in perfecting the recipe.

It really helps eliminate that little nagging voice I sometimes get "Maybe I should add 3 eggs instead of 2" etc, knowing that they already tried several combinations of ingredients to arrive at the given recipe.

One of the best cookbooks I have used!

I am very happy with the cookbook. It is a little larger than I expected but it will be used for years and years in our family

This book is amazing. I'm newly married and did not start cooking until I bought this book. I read reviews on Amazon, and bought it as a gift for a family member. I started reading it and thought it was so good, I bought one for myself. I didn't cook often before getting this book, but this book is a great starting place as well as a great book for those who know their way around a kitchen pretty well. I love that they explain everything they tried before making the recipes. There is SO much in this book, you won't want to put it down. The chicken parm recipe is the best thing I've ever eaten! Buy this book for you and a friend!

I love this book.. it is a staple in our kitchen and THE go-to book when it comes to anything related to cooking.
It's well written with detailed reviews on equipment and ingredients.

There are recipes on here that I have made over 20 times! I can't say that for any other cookbook I own.

A great gift for the bachelor, single gal, or newlywed couple!

I've been nearly vegan for almost 2 years. By that I mean, I've been vegan in just about every way except baked goods. I'm a HUGE sweets person and am now excited to have these amazing recipes. I think the best thing about this cookbook is that if you're a baker you most likely have all of the ingredients or can easily get them at a regular grocery store if you're not a Whole Foods shopper. I also love that the recipes make exactly one dozen. My boyfriend doesn't eat sweets so I make a dozen cupcakes and keep them in the refrigerator and eat one a day. They will last over a week in the refrigerator but as they near weeks they get dry - so find a friend or neighbor to share with if you'll be the only one eating an entire batch! Also, the recipes are simple. I'm normally in and out of the kitchen in an hour with my cupcakes made, cooling and simply awaiting the frosting that I'll put on them a few hours later(along with my kitchen cleaned). The book gives you great ideas for being creative and changing up the recipes that are printed which makes it fun to come up with your own stuff using the basic recipes, although the fancy cupcake recipes in the book are amazing as is. I don't have any vegan friends so sometimes I tell people they're vegan and sometimes I don't - either way, everyone has LOVED them! No one notices a difference between them and non-vegan cupcakes.
Be sure to take the time to read the begining of the book as there are lots of great tips and tricks for making perfect cupcakes.

Every single recipe in this book is awesome, and there's no other way to put it. Thanks, Isa! It's so much easier to feed omni friends and relatives when there are luxurious delicious fantastic junk food recipes like these to make. Her other books are just as great, by the way.

I've made cupcakes every weekend since I bought the book. I know, I'll be a blimp. Can't help it!

I think the basic golden vanilla cupcakes are the best yellow cake recipe I've ever tasted. The version using Earth Balance is best. I put the chocolate "buttercream" frosting on them, and I think this is the hands-down best combination in the book. You can get really fancy and time consuming with some of these recipes but I tend to stick with simpler combinations.

One thing I noticed is that it doesn't specify what vegan shortening is best: I've used the Spectrum nonhydrogenated stuff that's basically just palm oil. It works fine. Maybe the author has a better recommendation, though. The buttercreams call for a half and half blend of the shortening and Earth Balance or similar. This sounded weird to me, but last time I made the buttercream with just Earth Balance and it was definitely too salty and a bit chemically tasting, so the half and half thing is the way to go.

Ah. Unless you've got a sweeter sweet tooth than mine (and it'd be hard to achieve) you can definitely make 1/2 recipe of the chocolate buttercream, or 1/4 recipe of the vanilla buttercream, to pipe onto 12 cupcakes. Using the recommended amount of frosting would be insane and out of control. But maybe you'd prefer that!

I am not vegan, but the basic chocolate cupcakes are so moist, its the only recipe I use. Many of the recipes have a long list of ingredients but the end product is well worth it. Try the Agave cupcakes; great for people who are watching their sugar and they are so yummy. Also, if you like waffles get their other book Vegan with a Vengence and try the chocolate chip waffle and the Ginger pear waffle (I omitted the ginger since I am not too keen on ginger in sweets)...they are wonderful.

i had a party and made about 40 of the low fat cupcakes, they're all gone. my friend who is anti-vegan ate 2. many people ate 4. BIG hit. tasted like the real thing. amazing. DELICIOUS. (p.s. i hate the taste of soy, but these were freaking awesome!) if you like cupcakes buy this book! i am hooked!!

I really enjoyed the creativity of these recipes, but most, if not all of them, called for refined sugar, which isn't considered vegan. While some vegans are happy to use it, I don't, and had a hard time reworking the recipes around that. It basically invalidated my whole reason for buying the book.

Even though this is an older edition, I love this book! The several recipes we've already tried come out fantastic. Take the time to read any excerpts in the book or magazines...they help explain the flavors and methods they chose, so that if you have a slightly different preference it is easy to alter the recipe to desired results (I've easily altered the chocolate chip cookies to get the desired dough finish, but the base recipe is very good). Love Cooks Illustrated!

Book was in excellent condition. There was no mildew smell, and this is very important to me.

I searched this out for the biscuit recipe but have to say all the recipes I have used have turned out lovely. Each recipe is well explained, well thoughtout and overall it is a very easy cookbook to use.

This cookbook is one of my most ragged cookbooks. It is the one I look for when I want to fix something special or homey. The stew recipe is absolutely the best!
Elaine Littau
Author of "Nan's Journey"

Yes, this is an excelent book. I cant think of a single recipe that I have made from this book that has resulted in a failure. However there are a few things that get to me when using the book.
1. The Index: The index in this book is perhaps the most absurd index I have ever encountered. I dont know who formatted it but they should never be allowed to create an index for the rest of their career. The way things are tabbed, spaced, and positioned on the page makes it almost impossible to find what you are looking for without sitting down and seriously taking time to search.

2. Christopher "I am depressed" Kimball - At the intro to every single recipe he startes it out with some depressing horror story "Most apple pies turn out soggy, burnt, too crispy, too moist, rotten, dog food..." "most roast recipies turn out like cardboard cooked in a lava flow"

he is depressing.
but cookbook good

As a chef, it is great to know why food behaves the way it does when it is cooked and prepared, as well as interesting histories and anecdotes of different ingredients.

This is an awesome book. I used my daughter's copy until she took it back and I decided I couldn't live without a copy of my own.

This is, hands-down, one of my favorite books. I have always had an interest in biology and food science in general, and this is the only food science book that presents the information in a entirely accessible way. Anyone can enjoy this book-from the professional to the novice. Even if you don't cook, you certainly eat, and reading this taught me far more about the food that I buy every week in the supermarket than I ever thought I would know. Definitely recommended. This book should be in every household in America.

Originally purchased because friend said it helped him be more versatile. "It doesn't have specific recipes, but with just what I have, I'm confident I can cook something."

In my opinion, the book has plenty of information. Not quite a recipe book. Definitely a "lore" book. In that sense, it is an excellent work.

Read "On Food and Cooking" for those little tidbits that will help you win The Next Food Network Star. That's the kind of information it has. Helpful things, but not the be-all end-all of cook books - or books on cooking.

I learned more in the first chapter about the science of food than I had known the rest of my life previous to that. And it was a fun read to boot. I'm still working my way through this, but the book deserves all of its praise. I can't help but soak up the Whys and Hows of food with delight.

This book has all the necessary information from what kinds of grills are available to how to set up and use your grill. There are lots of pictures and clear directions. The recipies are yummy, easy to follow and range from simple to elegant. The book has many little tidbits of information that will make your grilling more successful. I would recommend this book for new and experienced grill masters alike.

This is a perfect book for someone learning to cook on the grill. My girlfriend NEVER cooks, and is pretty lost in the kitchen. With all the pictures in this book you cannot go wrong. I purchased this book as a surprize for her from Amazon. The day she received it she made me a wonderful dinner on the grill. Every recipe has a step by step pictorial. As a seasoned cook i can't wait to try some of the recipes that have intimidated me before....like making perfect ribs. 100% satisfied!!!!

The book arrived timely and in the described condition. It has great technical grillin tips and procedures, so it's great for that. But your buck stops there.

This is an excellent book if you are not a grilling pro and want to learn details that would help you, this perfect. I did some grilling before I found this book, well it was O.K., but after I have learn a couple of thing that have help me a lot.
It also has a lot of references to websites that are grilling related. There is a section about sauces that is pretty good too. I hope everybody enjoy the book as much as I have enjoyed.

This is the best and only grilling book i own. All my friends and family call me "the grill master" because that's all i do. I don't let anybody touch my grill besides my husband.I love the recipes in the book especially the beer can chicken one. If you have not tried it youhave to even if you need to get the recipe from someone who owns the book.

This great reference book covers a ton of different topics. It will remain in my collection from now on. It doesn't go very in depth on some of the topics, but it does give enough information to let me decide whether or not I want to dig deeper.

I'm only up to page 227 in this 900 page book and I'm wildly enthused about it. I don't know if I'll ever read the whole thing cover to cover, a lot of the information in it isn't applicable to my life, but what is, is a goldmine.
If you were only going to buy one book this year, this should be the one.If you have an interest in living frugally,naturally, and greenly this book is invaluable. If you live some place you can grow a kitchen garden, she's got hints and tips for growing almost everything, from sugar cane to broom corn and all the stuff you eat regularly in between. If you decided to try and live off the grid, this is a good starting place for information of all sorts.
Even living in the city, this provides a ton of information for how to live more frugally and greener including some ideas I've never heard of but make so much sense in retrospect, I wonder why I didn't think of that. She mentions non-powered washing machines and washing boards, but her method is so much easier on clothes and costs very little. A dedicated to clothes washing plunger. Looking at it, it makes perfect sense, you agitate the water, and rubber is easier on clothes then washing boards. She says to use your wash water until it's too dirty, then put detergent in your rinse bucket and fill a new rinse bucket which is a great idea. I'll definitely be trying it with the clothes E and I for every day use.
On a personal note, this book fits in perfectly with my life philosophy. To me, living green should be also living frugally, it shouldn't be something it costs a lot to do, but does take more effort. It should be about making do,mending and repurposing rather then the constant consumerism. But with green being trendy, it is a marketing ploy now. This book is a nice get back to basics type book.

This truly does contain just about anything you would want to know about country living. From milking goats to planting, canning. This is a very large book and would be great as a reference. Not something you would sit down to read straight through. I think it would benefit those who want to live off the land as well as those who simply want a small garden in their backyard and learn to can their own food.

Full of useful information on Gardening, cooking, cleaning, everything. How to preserve veggies and meats. A very useful encyclopedia that should be on everyone's bookshelf. Gives good, general information and gives sources for additional information if more specific information is needed. A must have.

As the publisher of [...] I'm always on the lookout for helpful information. That kind that gives people an edge when dealing with catastrophic events. What this book offers is helpful for those who survive those events and must then rebuild with whatever is at hand.

I remember my mom making cookies from this book. This was her book and was published in 1963. I loved reading the recipes and seeing the marks she made next to the cookies she made.
There are recipes in here that I have never even seen before. This book is great for all levels of bakers. The beginning goes over some basic utensils, measuring and even some hints. I highly enjoyed seeing the variations to many of the recipes in the book, just by adding a different spice or adding nuts.
The best part of the book for me was the section called Betty Crocker's Best Cookies. My version has the best cooky of certain 10 year or 5 year periods starting at 1880. I enjoyed reading the blurb about the cookie and the historical highlights of events that happened during those periods.
So if you need a new cookie recipe or just want to find an old favorite then check out Betty Crocker's Cooky Book!!

This book was a bit of a disappointment. None of the pictures of cookies in the book actually look good to eat. They look like they would be ideal in decorating the witch's house from Hansel and Gretel but I wanted cookies to eat not enjoy visually. I like the retro look but for cookies that are meant to be eaten, I recommend the Cookie Bible. Everything in that book looks and tastes great.

Ahh, this book takes me back! I can't tell you how excited I was to see it back in print. When I was a little girl, this book was the go-to for all of our cookie making adventures. Now I can share it with my family. I've had it for a few years now, and have used it countless times. Forget those pre-packaged cookie doughs, get back to basics and TASTE what a cookie is supposed to taste like!

My Mother had this book when I was little and when I saw it I knew I had to have it. I'm sure it didn't cost that much back in the 70's but it is so worth it. I used to just look through it all the time and Mom would let us pick out cookies for her to make us. Now I make cookies for my daughter from this book. Thanks

Roderick Perez

After decades of using this cookbook, and with the pages starting to fall out of it, I finally decided it was time to buy a new copy--and thank heavens a reprint is available. This has some of the best cookie recipes ever and it's like a childhood on spiral bound pages. It's not just that most of the recipes are good, the book is set up so that it's easy to read and use and pictures of the finished product abound. If I could own only one cookie cookbook, this is the one. My faves: Spritz, Ethel's sugar cookies, Snickerdoodles, Butterscotch shortbread, Chocolate nut wafers and the Mexican wedding cakes. And hardly a winter goes buy that i don't make at least one batch of Molasses Crinkles. I can highly recommend this book.

This is a great book for everything grilling. From grill care and use, to receipes that turn out great, this book has it all and is a must have for any grill owner and user.

I started to make the rub in bulk since I make it so much. I found a baby food jar will hold enough for three more chickens, so I quadrupled the recipe last weekend when I made it.

The book as a whole is a beaut.

I love this cookbook. I thought I knew about BBQing. This book opened my eyes to a whole new level of Grilling. A must have for any BBQ lover.

I've tried upwards of 40 of the recipes in this cookbook and every single one has been outstanding. Most are relatively simple and (for grilling) pretty quick. It's also a true grilling education, with a lot of detail on how to grill every type of meat, both in the recipes and in the chapter introductions. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

this book is awesome! What I like about the book is that the recipes are real - the Asian recipes use things like fish sauce,hoisin sauce, sesame oil, fresh cilantro,and rice wine, rather than a bottle of teriyaki sauce from the store. I think that may intimidate some cooks, but trust me - just give it a try - once you have those types of ingredients on hand, you can make all kinds of new dishes. We've made probably 25 recipes from this book so far, and they're all great. If you like to grill, and aren't afraid of a little experimenting, this is the book for you!

One berry, two berry, pick me a blueberry! I am pretty certain I can recite this one by heart, having read it an unimaginable number of times to my twins, now age three. It's incredibly silly, fantastic (waffle trees anyone?) and the rhymes are super catchy and fun. The drawings are top notch, full of details. Look for the hints on each pair of pages, glimpses of what will come next in this wacky tale. Joyous and downright delicious.

I love the rhythm of the book and the pictures. I don't mind reading it over and over to the kids. The kids love it too. They can recite the whole thing, even though it's filled with nonsense words.

My first grader still enjoys this book. He follows the illustrations very well, with the sense of "what's coming next?" Littler children (much littler) are just enthralled by the book. The language is so appealing. Made up words and wonderful cadence take this boy on a berry-picking adventure with a bear over a waterfall, through strawberry fields, on the trackberry with the blackberry train, and into raspberry fair.

Simply wonderful -- we have read this many, many times.

I will not be coy. This is one of my favorite children books to read to my children. The illustrations are whimsical and invite your children to make sense of them and help tell the story. The story itself is a lovely mix of word play, and delightful imagery. We return to this one again and again. Appropriate for very young children as the just the sound of the story is delightful, up to well... I suppose adult as I'm still enjoying it.

As a new mom, I have been disappointed with some of the children's books I have come across. As a lover of literature, I find myself being very judgmental of everything I read for my son. Degen's Jamberry, however, is wonderful. Not only does my son enjoy the pictures and the rhymes, but I really enjoy reading it as well. This is what a young child's book should be: full of catchy and easy to remember rhymes and rife with terrific art work. I wish more of the books out there were like this one. Highly recommended for even the youngest of children.

This is a great cookbook. It shows how to make even basic things like ketchup and pancake syrup that you would normally have to buy for recipes. This is well worth the money.

Excellent. I love the philosophy behind it, and it is good, basic, comfort food worth serving your family. I don't usually buy cookbooks, but I am glad I got this one!

I believe the recipe should have been tested by more than one cook.Everybody taste are different.The true idea is there. we do need to get back to basic of real family value and cooking.

My parents got this cookbook many many years ago, and when I moved into my first apartment, they got me a copy. This is the cookbook I got to for all the recipes I actually USE- whole wheat bread, potato soup, and others. Though its written by Mennonites, and the introduction is all about the mission of the cookbook, I just plain like the recipes. I find them practical, simple and the kind of hearty, comfortable, home cooking (but HEALTHY) everyone craves. Also, the recipes rarely call for ingredients you can't get in your local grocery store.

to sum up: Practical, my go-to cookbook, and something I would recommend for everyone.

This book was bought as a replacement for one we had years ago.
It has always been a family favorite.