The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook: or, How Long Do I Cook a 3-Minute Egg? [Hardcover]

Jackie Eddy (Author), Eleanor Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 4, 2003

For those who are clueless in the kitchen--who can tell the difference between the stove and refrigerator, but turning groceries into leftovers--this is the cookbook for them! With fun B&W illustrations throughout, tasty meals such as One Step Lasagna, Busy Day Ham Wellington, and Overnight Crab Casserole are a snap to make--and will even impress family and friends. Transform culinary tragedies into triumphs with this helpful guide.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Can You Find the Kitchen?
Can You Identify the Stove and Refrigerator?
Can You Operate a Can Opener? --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the Inside Flap

For those who are clueless in the kitchen--who can tell the difference between the stove and refrigerator, but turning groceries into leftovers--this is the cookbook for them! With fun B&W illustrations throughout, tasty meals such as One Step Lasagna, Busy Day Ham Wellington, and Overnight Crab Casserole are a snap to make--and will even impress family and friends. Transform culinary tragedies into triumphs with this helpful guide.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Gramercy (March 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517221705
• ISBN-13: 978-0517221709
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #673,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

145 of 148 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No-fail recipes for everday meals, September 5, 1999

By 

Angel Lee "Liocorno Amethyst Moonstone" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook, Revised: Or How Long Do I Cook a 3-Minute Egg? (Paperback)

The book teaches you everything you need to know from how to hard-boil an egg to stir frying broccoli. It makes are great gift of any beginning cook.

Recipes include breakfast foods, eggs, breads, soups, sandwiches, salads, main dishes, vegetables, desserts, & appetizers. There is no gourmet fare here, just the delicious uncomplicated meals for everyday people.

Some of my favorite desserts are the apple dumplings & easy lemon chiffon pie. I enjoyed the oven pot-roast, meatballs, chili, & pork chops as well. I know I will never get bored with 8 different potato recipes.

I also loved the one-step lasagna. It's great because you don't have to cook the noodles before baking, making it quick & easy to make. The never-fail cheese soufflé & salmon pate will impress dinner guests without hours of frustration.

256 of 276 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars NOT for beginners. Assumes a lot., March 24, 2006

By 

Jenni Kmiotek "chaospearl" (Long Island) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook: or, How Long Do I Cook a 3-Minute Egg? (Hardcover)

This is overall an excellent cookbook. It's simple, easy to follow, and has good recipes. Not great but good. That being said, this is NOT a book for the absolute beginner. It assumes that you know a lot of basic terminology and technique, which is really stupid considering the title.

The book is marketed for people who don't know how to boil water, and yet on the very first page it tells you to fill a saucepan with cold water and immerse an egg. A SAUCEPAN? I don't know about you, but when I was a beginning cook, I called that particular item "a pot" -- the word saucepan is correct, but you'd need to be a culinary sort of person to know that a saucepan is not a pan at all, that is, not an object which is wide and round but only an inch deep. A novice cook sees the word PAN and thinks of a skillet\spider\frying pan. Most people do; it's an understandable error.

I gave my sister this book and asked her what she'd do when confronted with the instruction to fill a saucepan with cold water and immerse an egg. She went into the cupboard, took out a 14" frying pan about half an inch deep, filled it with water, and stuck the egg in. The egg was about three times as high as the sides of the pan. My sister isn't stupid, she just doesn't know that a saucepan is actually a small pot. Nobody who buys a book titled "How Long Do I Cook a Three-Minute Egg?" is going to know that!

After this, the book goes on with such instructions as, "dice the vegetables finely" ... um, dice? What does dice mean? Oh, it means to chop up? How was I supposed to know that? Into what shape do I chop? How big should the shapes be? How thin is finely? The book says nothing, so if you're unfamiliar with a fine dice, you're screwed.

After that, here's the book telling us "allow to simmer for half an hour" without ever bothering to mention what simmer means. Is it high heat? Low? The same heat I was cooking on before? Does it mean there are bubbles in the liquid? Again, no explanation whatsoever.

As I stated, this is a great book, but I cannot stress enough how it is NOT FOR BEGINNERS.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What I was looking for., February 25, 2006

By 

Lila Casey - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook: or, How Long Do I Cook a 3-Minute Egg? (Hardcover)

I bought this book as a gift for my grandchild who wants to start cooking. As I looked though it, I was pleased at its contents. It has the basics explained well with recipes that are simple but not so simple as to be boring. Actually my daughter has used it (mother of the child I bought it for)and was pleased with the recipe she used. I would recemmend this book to anyone interested in beginning cooking.