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How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food
 
 

How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food [Hardcover]

Mark Bittman
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (240 customer reviews)
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Mark Bittman, award-winning author of such fundamental books as Fish and Leafy Greens and food columnist for the New York Times ("The Minimalist"), has turned in what has to be the weightiest tome of the year. There are more than 900 pages in this sucker--over 1,500 recipes! This isn't just the big top of cookbooks: it's the entire three-ring circus. This isn't just how to cook everything: it's how to cook everything you have ever wanted to have in your mouth. And then some.

Bittman starts with Roasted Buttered Nuts and Real Buttered Popcorn, and moves right along, section by section, from the likes of Black Bean Soup (eight different ways), to Beet and Fennel Salad, to Mussels (Portuguese-style over Pasta), to Cream Scones--and he hasn't even reached seafood, poultry, meat, or vegetables yet, let alone desserts. There are 23 sections in this cookbook (!) that reflect directly on the how-to of cooking, be that equipment, technique, or recipe.

Every inch of the way the reader finds Bittman's calm, helpful, encouraging voice. "Anyone can cook," he says at the beginning, "and most everyone should." More than a few college kids are going to head off to their first apartments with Bittman's book under arm. More than a few marriages will benefit with this book on the shelf. And anyone who loves cooking and the sound of a great food voice is going to enjoy letting this book fall open where it may. No matter what the page, it's bound to be a tasty and rewarding experience. --Schuyler Ingle --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

There's a millennial ring to the title of Bittman's massive opus of more than 1000 basic recipes and variations as the widely known food writer ("The Minimalist" is a weekly column in the New York Times) and author (Fish) contributes to the list of recently published authoritative, encyclopedic cookbooks. He concedes that most accomplished cooks will find little new here, and indeed the recipes can be as simple as how to pop corn. His voice is a comfortable one, however, so the tone is less tutorial than, say, that of the newly revised Joy of Cooking. While much of the ground covered is familiar, Bittman offers inventive fare (Kale Soup with Soy and Lime) and reclaims formerly abandoned territory?his Creamy Vinaigrette calls for heavy cream. Pastas range from Spaghetti and Meatballs to Pad Thai. Similarly, sandwiches include both old favorites and fresh combinations, e.g., Curried Pork Tenderloin Sandwich with Chutney and Arugula. Bittman's friends, he says, praise his Chicken Adobo as the best chicken dish in the world. He doesn't linger too long with beef because Americans are eating less of it; he remarks that a well-done hamburger is not worth eating. Vegetables are comprehensively addressed from Artichokes to Yuca, with attention paid to buying, storing and cooking methods well suited to each. Desserts are mostly homey, like Apple Brown Betty and Peaches with Fresh Blueberry Sauce, but there is also a Death-by-Chocolate Torte. The enormous breadth of recipes, the unusually modest price and Bittman's engaging, straightforward prose will appeal to many cooks looking for reliable help with?or reference to?kitchen fundamentals. Illustrations not seen by PW. 250,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo; simultaneous CD-ROM; 15-city author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on kitchen equipment, or you can spend a couple of hundred bucks and be done with it. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

240 Reviews
5 star:
 (166)
4 star:
 (34)
3 star:
 (18)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (15)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (240 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most helpful customer reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A sheepish Follow Up, Feb 4 2004
By A Customer
About 6 months ago I wrote a negative review of this book, and since I can't seem to access it to delete it, I need to write a rather sheepish follow up.

I was a very reluctant beginner, and I was initially discouraged with this work, because I found the author's suggestions on doing everything from scratch overwhelming. But another purchase, "How to Cook Without a Book," got me on my feet, and after a few good results, I found myself turning more and more often to this one. I now use it every day.

From it I have learned everything, from the basic to the mysterious, and after months of use I can honestly say I have never had a bad result. My family doesn't know what hit them, and their compliments have grown in stature until yesterday my husband announced that I am a better cook than his mother, a small, round Italian woman dedicated to her craft, and someone I hope never reads this. (: I have had so much success from every recipe I have used that I, um, well, I actually kind of like to cook now, which is a minor miracle considering how I felt about it before.

This book with the other I mentioned have changed my family and even social life. My family is delighted and eating far better than they were, and I am much more willing now to have people over, knowing I can serve up something warm and delicious, elegant or comforting, without panic and apprehension.

So it's 5 stars to my former 3, and a "thank you" to the author to boot.

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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Not really so simple..., Aug 20 2003
By 
"jen110" (Budapest, Hungary) - See all my reviews
Whether or not this book is worth the money for you depends on what your goal as a cook is. I am a mom who recently gave up my career to stay at home with my daughter. I have never really had an interest in cooking, but I wanted my family to gather together at the table around something more than takeout boxes every night, so I bought a couple cookbooks to get me started. But honestly, this one really discouraged me. The recipes are more long and involved than the title suggests (the preparation times listed are often deceiving, as they include time consuming, pre-made ingredients), and the author's condescending attitude towards anything not started from scratch is kind of disheartening for someone who just wants to serve up something healthy and tasty, not impressive and gourmet. He rolls his eyes at precut vegetables, coughs delicately over store bought curry powder, and downright sneers at bullion cubes ("as for bullion cubes, forget it. You're better off with water and a few extra vegetables"). I'm sure homemade stock or his recipe for "vastly improved canned stock" really is much better, and all in all his recipes and methods seem to be rich and varied, but, though Bittman would probably consider me a culinary lowbrow, cooking just isn't something I want to take up a major part of my. I was much happier with my other purchase, "How to Cook Without a Book" by Pam Anderson. It offers a completely different philosophy on cooking that I found much more doable. So if your goal is to become a master cook and you have the time and inclination to make every meal from scratch, I think this is the book for you. But if your heart or schedule is not devoted to much more beyond the preparation of good but simple food, you probably want to look elsewhere.
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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book with a few problems, May 13 2004
By 
telmar "telmar" (Camp Hill, PA United States) - See all my reviews
I haven't done a lot of cooking in my life, and only recently I started cooking regularly for family. How to Cook Everything has been the only cookbook I've used in eons. Therefore, I don't have a good basis for comparison to other cookbooks. I can, however, compare the food I cook to what I eat and enjoy in restaurants. I've made about 40-50 recipes from this book.

Some advantages of the book:

- It assumes you know virtually nothing about cooking. There are sections on how to mince garlic, dice an onion, core a bell pepper... For me, and for many others, it's great. Experienced chefs can easily skip these parts.

- It's huge. It has an example of just about every (Western) food you might want to cook. Certainly, one could go much further in each area by buying specialty cookbooks.

- The philosophy of the book is ideal for home cooking. Pick good ingredients, add minimal flavorings, cook, and serve. Most of the recipes are fairly quick.

Disadvantages:

- The prep time of many recipes seems significantly underestimated, and often needs to be doubled. Maybe the time printed in the book is amount of time Bittman takes, but as more of a beginning chef, I can't fathom it.

- Ingredients can be a pain to find, and what Bittman says is easily available in supermarkets often doesn't seem to be available anywhere around Harrisburg, PA (not exactly an out-of-the-way place), without checking dozens of specialty markets. What this and the previous statement mean is that cooking these recipes becomes significantly less easy to do after work.

- My biggest problem is that the results, while generally good for home cooking, have been a bit hit-or-miss. I enjoy good restaurant food, and I'd like to think that I could cook the same quality food at home. Bittman's best recipes are excellent, food that I would praise in a restaurant, and it's a treat to find one of them. His worst recipes are purely average, or even a bit below.

What I've surmised so far, although I've only cooked a small percentage of the book's recipes, is that Bittman is at his worst with foods that need a lot of added flavor or spice. I've noticed this in his Italian, Chinese, and Thai recipes - all of them seem to be clearly missing some crucial element of flavor. If I were more experienced as a cook, I'm sure I could identify what it was, but I'm not.

Generally I think this is more a problem with quality control and scope than anything else - with 700 recipes, it's hard for Bittman to wholeheartedly recommend and repeatedly test all of them. I still have no problem recommending this book to everyone as a base cookbook, with the caveats above.

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