Joy of Cooking: Fully Revised and Updated

"Joy of Cooking" is probably on your mom's shelf at home in an older edition. The original cookbook bible of American home cuisine by Irma Rombauer has been a pillar of home cookbooks since the Bobbs-Merrill published edition in 1936. Later the book was updated by her daughter Marion and there have been nine editions (the very first, a privately published book.). I have one of the older wartime editions from my mother-in-law. The book is chatty and yet has a lot of good advice for the home cook as well as some recipes that today you would never make, even for a Facebook Page devoted to retro (and dubious) cuisine. Irma Rombauer's history is a brave one--she was widowed in her fifties, her husband was tragically a suicide and at first, she created this book privately out of her own notes. But it became a life's work and to this day, her family is still involved in its publication. By the way, it's true the TABLE OF CONTENTS doesn't work. Kindle editions must be the red-headed stepchildren of publishers. So often, tables and drawings are rendered too small and not able to be zoomed larger. In this case. the t.o.c. didn't make it to final release or someone THOUGHT (wrong) the book would be searched or the hyperlinks used instead. I hope they update it. Badly needing an update, this ninth edition took almost a decade to produce and the recipes are tested. The sections on "batterie de cuisine" --your equipment and on nutrition and technique are updated and useful for the starting cook. The chapter has good advice based on new science on healthful foods and reading nutrition labels. The diagrams for table settings for formal and informal dinners was retained but updated. And more microwave recipes are included, which was needed as they are now standard in almost all kitchens. I personally love the chapter on party planning--children's parties, brunches, clubs, afternoon tea. There is some chatty and helpful hints for most occasions, as well as menus, which even if you don't copy outright, you can use as "yeast starter" for ideas of your own. If you use the Kindle edition, the menus are hyperlinked to the recipes themselves. I normally don't like Kindle cookbooks for reference books, preferring the print copy, but in this case, I can heartily recommend the Kindle edition, especially if you are the kind of person that pulls up recipes on your phone or Kindle or PC. There's also a section on "cook for a day, eat for a week." This may be the hidden treasure, because a lot of family spend a good deal of money on take-out, carry-out and eating out. Not only is take-out food less healthy and more apt to have too much salt and fat, it can get boring. You can add more nutritious and varied foods by cooking your own--but who wants to cook after a day's work. Even if you share the cooking, it's a burden and everyone is over-scheduled and tired. These recipes will fill your refrigerator with lots of good things you can reheat. And you can make several dishes, say, one vegan or vegetarian for the one person at home who refuses to eat what everyone else is having. There IS an index to the dishes that are vegan, though I would not recommend this book alone for vegans as it's for omnivores. Old funny things that required cans of soup are gone, replaced by whole food, Asian, Middle Eastern and Hispanic favorites. like Shakshouka, Migas and overnight steel cut oats. There is also a section on drinks for entertaining. I was absolutely thrilled with the update of this classic. I tended not to use my old edition very much (I won't open a can of soup in any recipe) so this book is a welcome classic come to new life. Highly recommended.

I have 3 issues of this book because it's amazing. I got my first edition decades ago...it's held up to even my chaotic cooking...and the information inside is educational in both recipes and random informational value about not just food, but the history of it...I've even read it like a non-recipe book, just to learn how certain recipes came to be, and other such learning moments. It's more than just a great cookbook - it's a great book in general that happens to be packed full of recipes. They teach you to cook meats I'LL never cook, but it's very interesting to read about how to if times ever got so bad that I had to eat wild meat. lol Great writing, great recipes, and highly educational...I just bought the original, first edition as a Christmas gift for my niece, who recently got her first big job in another state, and is learning how to cook on her own while living far from home. I learned to cook, can, and so on from this book in the early 70s, so it seemed like the perfect first recipe book for her to learn from, too. She doesn't know it yet, but she's getting this for Christmas this year...and her mother is a bit jealous - now she wants to borrow my copy so she can learn more from these terrific authors. This book is invaluable - you'll never need another cookbook with Joy of Cooking in your kitchen!

A must have for every cook. Would be a wonderful wedding gift. So many recipes! I have the same book but is 40 years old. Even cookbooks need updated now and then. Highly recommended.

I purchased this cook book as a way to jumpstart my cooking journey in 2020 during the covid letdowns. 6 years later, I still use this cookbook as the 'end-all' reference for any item in the kitchen. I have baked, cooked, and candied hundreds of recipes and added notes to each recipe I try. If there's a food you're thinking of- anything, dream it up then find it in Joy. The recipes are for REAL cooks, you will sometimes chase special equipment such as immersion blenders, popover pans, cookie stamps., and scour the internet for very specific items: graham four, annato powder, cane sugar.. and your cooking knowledge will be forever improved. You will discover lost gems of cooking, and refine your true ART and JOY of cooking. For this reason, I purchase this definitive book for anyone who is 'serious' about cooking as it is a multi year journey. The recipes themselves are always better than any average online recipe or 'meh' family recipe, because these have been reprinted and vetted for decades. My favorite in here are the old American recipes that are not in common use anymore, such as 'indian pudding', 'corn chowder', 'shoofly pie', and these recipes phased out of modern kitchens still hold their shine. That being said, for cultural food such as Mexican, German, Greek, these varieties are better served by a culture-specific cookbook. Think of Joy as your go-to for classic American palletes, and if you are up for the challenge and art of cooking, and if you have the time for it, (I'm thinking of the 4 hour puff pastry recipe), this cookbook is definitley for you.

My first JOC was as a wedding gift in the late 60's. I was 21 and knew beans about cooking. This book was my Bible. The newly updated one is fantastic. The old one is 915 pages and the new is1156 pages; much bigger. What's expanded is the "Know Your Ingredients" section and the "Cooking Methods and Techniques". The latter does not include "Air Frying" but that's not an issue to me. The font is the same, but I wear glasses now anyhow. I always preferred this cookbook out of my entire collection (37 books) because the steps for preparation are easy to follow; step by step, as opposed to one long list of ingredients followed by one one long paragraph of instructions. I was a happy 21 year old bride, now I'm a happier 78 year old grandmother.

An encyclopedia of culinary knowledge! Although I love the earlier versions of this book so much more, it's an enormously useful book. Much more that recipes, it has entire sections about how to choose foods, place settings, techniques. This is the type of cookbook that one should open at the front and start reading. I gave this newer edition as a gift for a new family.

I love this book. I often give it as a gift for showers or weddings. Good reference book for the simplest cooking methods!

I asked for Julia Child's "Mastering the art of french cooking" last year, and was given that cookbook as well as this one. I'm so glad that my husband got me this one too! The Julia Child cookbook is not for everyday cooking, but this is. I've used it probably 50 times in the last year, whereas I've used the french cookbook about 5 or 6. This cookbook is comprehensive and has an extensive section on beverages, with some wonderful recipes for hot toddys, very strong but good eggnog, classic cocktails, and lots of party drinks and nonalcoholic beverages (multiple types of hot cocoa, ciders, juices, teas), a great section of appetizers, so many dinner recipes that I'll never get to all of them, desserts, ice creams, cakes, pies...vegetables, brunch, lunch, breads, mayonaise, sauces, jellies, pickles, slow cooker recipes, quick and easy, serving suggestions, sample menus...it's a lot, but it's surprisingly easy to find recipes because they're well-organized and easy to find in the index. Some of my favorites are the recipes from various countries that I might not otherwise think to make. I've made spaetzle, gnocchi, swedish meatballs, hungarian chicken (paprika chicken), moussaka, curries, dal...my husband is as glad that he bought the cookbook as I am. What sets this apart from most cookbooks is that it has so much information without being overwhelming. Each vegetable has a description of how to handle it, good methods for cooking it, and then there are various recipes. The recipes aren't buried in all the text and are easy to follow. They use the same format for all the main ingredients, from various cuts of meats and fish to alcoholic beverages. There are instructions for making jams, jellies, preserves with the instructions on how to can them. I'm really looking forward to trying the croissant recipe. The instructions are very detailed with some pictures of how to fold the dough and butter. This version of Joy has some legacy recipes from the original 1931 cookbook, plenty from the other versions, and also plenty of modern recipes. I would recommend this for someone that wants a good go-to cookbook with both quick and easy and more difficult recipes. It's perfect for someone wanting to learn to cook or for someone that knows how to cook but wants new recipes. I have about 30 cookbooks and this has quickly become my absolute favorite.

I'm an Englishwoman living in the UK, who's been cooking for over 50 years and consider myself an experienced and adventurous cook and I love this book. I have the 1975 edition and while it reflects it's time by using some convenience foods in some of it's recipes, overall it's a very useful book. It has clarified some questions I had about US ingredients and I expect it will do more. As well as a "how-to-do" book it's a fascinating read. I like the lay-out of the recipes - the ingredients are printed in bold type and interspersed in the method, which is a system I like (others may not like this but each to his/her own). Now I have this book I feel my culinary education is complete - I have the book that teaches me how to cook a bear!!!!

Very good book

The recipes, followed to the letter, are top notch! There are so many recipes in this book it has yet to happen that I have not found a recipe I've hoped to find in the index.

So glad I found again this book I grew up with. Works well on Kindle, you can look through it for ingredients and recipe names.

アメリカの友人の家で見かけて、購入しました。 日本と計量方法や温度表示が異なるので、その点だけ慣れれば（アバウトでいいです）、思いがけない、しかも簡単な料理方法に出会えます。