Customer Reviews

How to Cook Everything (with CD-Rom)

5 star:		(285)
4 star:		(67)
3 star:		(28)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

"How to Cook Everything" is one of the more useful cookbooks I've owned. Each type of food has a "Basics" section that includes lots of preparation tips. The recipes themselves are detailed enough for beginners, and not so esoteric that you have to make a trip to a specialty grocery store every time you want to cook something. Especially helpful are the suggestions for expanding on each dish. For example, after the basic Chicken Kebab recipe, there are four modifications, including Chicken Kebabs in Yogurt-Cumin Sauce.

I'm relearning the way I prepare even the most basic things, like sandwiches and scrambled eggs. Who would have thought scrambled eggs could be so good? And the Pan-Grilled steak has weaned me from the backyard grill forever. No other cookbook would warn you that "clouds of smoke will instantly appear; do not turn down the heat." That bit of fear that your fire alarm will go off at any second just adds spice to the whole cooking experience.

The breadth of this book is amazing. Besides having nearly every type of Western cooking you can imagine, it also has recipes from Japan, India, Thailand, and... you get the idea.

There is one drawback -- this book has no photos, just a few hand-drawn illustrations. However, the book is so big that if it did have photos, it would cost much more.

I had a tough time deciding on a simple "star" rating for Mark Bittman's giant yellow cookbook. On the one hand, I haven't been consistently impressed with every single recipe I've tried. I've certainly had better luck with Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook or even with Joy of Cooking when I really want something to knock my socks off. The recipes alone get three or three and a half stars. All are good, few are spectacular.

On the other hand, some of the recipes really are quite excellent, and even though I'm a more experienced cook than many twenty-going-on-thirty-somethings, I find that the depth of reference information in How to Cook Everything is really outstanding. There are pages and pages on such topics as whether or not to presoak beans, how to shop for fish, and at least one nice basic way to prepare just about every vegetable under the sun. For depth of background and reference, Bittman deserves five stars.

All in all, I would actually say this is a good addition to most kitchens, even for those with more experience than those at which the book is obviously aimed, and if you comb through all the recipes carefully you'll probably find plenty that is worth cooking.

This is a wonderful all-around cookbook, much easier to follow than the "Joy of Cooking". Cooking has always been my passion, but my creations were always fairly complex, adventurous dishes ... I never really learned how to make simple, every day meals. This book really helped me out with that! This would be a perfect gift for someone who has recently moved out on their own or for the single guy who needs a break from frozen pizzas! Even if most of the book were useless (which it is not), it would be a worthwhile purchase simply for the section entitled "28 Meals You Can Prepare in the Time it Takes to Boil Pasta" ... the recipes in this section are all simple, require usually less than 5 ingredients and can be prepared in just a few minutes. There are wonderfully detailed explanations in the books about simple, time-saving cooking techniques, as well as the reasons why certain things are prepared the way they are, so that the cook will have a better understanding of what they are doing. I would recommend this cookbook to everyone!

As someone who is learning to cook only late in her life, I was apprehensive and embarrassed about asking simple basic questions of friends and family. Perceiving this, my parents gave me this cookbook, and voila! -- I can cook!

With step-by-step instructions on everything from cookware, ingredients, buying, preapring, cooking, and serving, there's nothing this book can't handle. It provides recipes to prepare foods in the simplest ways, all the way up to complex gourmet dishes. And it covers every imaginable food -- if it isn't in here, I can't imagine where you'd find it.

The language is straightforward and encouraging, with appropriate editorializing on the author's preferences, and the layout is clean and easy to read. I can't say enough good things about this cookbook -- it never leaves my kitchen counter.

I love cooking but after years of disappointment, I stopped buying cookbooks for several years. So many cookbooks nowadays are so "gourmet" oriented, their recipes may be fun for weekend cooking endeavors, but did not help an everyday cook like myself.

I read the recipe collections put together by church, realtors, and so on, but so many family recipes call for canned cream soups and mayonnaise ... they didn't turn me on either. One day, I went to a bookstore, just to see what is out there, and I fell in love with this cookbook. I cannot agree with the author more about today's misconception of cooking "from scratch" in this country. It can be much more easy and fun than many of us may think and this cookbook teaches us how in plain English. They are so simple, you may wonder why so much fuss was made in other cookbooks. I tried the recipes for "Clam Chowder", "Stir-fry Cabbage", "Brownie", "Apple Pie" and so on within a few days after purchase, they are all so easy and delicious, and my family loved them too. (Especially, I will never buy a box of brownie mix again!)

In short, this book brought "joy" back to my cooking and I am thankful for the author.

One more factor to mention: the fonts and layout of this book are excellent, it is very easy to read.

As a long time collector of cookbooks - not planned - just can't stay away from them - I feel I have a little knowledge of what is out there. (I've been buying cookbooks for almost 40 years) My personal impression of this book is that if you can only have one - this should be it. The author not only gives you a list of ingredients and instructions but other information as to why you do it. The little block at the very beginning explaining about high altitute cooking is fantastic. The basic recipes followed with variations is very helpful. It is definately a book of all seasons - not gussied up with fancy photos, but has clearly drawn illustrations on how to do things from kneading bread, the proper way to cut up a chicken to variations on trimming an artichoke. I found recipes in this that I've been looking for for years, things my Grandmother used to fix. I've also found recipes for dishes I've never heard of from fancy international foods to great simple vegetarian dishes. And all the great tips! Written in such a way that it's like Mark Bittman is standing beside you walking you through everything. With this 900+ page book in hand - if you can read, you can cook. And feel good about it. Great gift idea for anyone who eats. I love it!

" 'Convenience' is one of the two dirty words of American cooking... the other is 'gourmet'. ... The gourmet phase, which peaked in the eighties, when food was seen as art, showed our ability to obsess about aspects of daily life that most other cultures take for granted. You might only cook once a week, but wow, what a meal." (from the introduction to the book)

This is an encyclopedic guide to cooking delicious food at home, from scratch. I got tired of spilling things on the library's copy of the book and finally bought my own. Everything I have made has turned out beautifully: an Asian-flavored green soup, puttanesca sauce, chicken adobo, gingered carrots, pears poached in red wine, and bread pudding, just to name a few.

The recipes use few convenience foods, but almost all the ingredients can be found in any supermarket. They are delicious, and most importantly, doable. Even the dishes that have only three or four ingredients, and there are lots of them, turn out to be more than the sum of their parts. Many basic recipes (e.g. grilled whole fish, stir-fried noodles, apple pie) are wonderful on their own but also feature variations for those who want to dress their food up. There are authoritative but not stuffy sections on equipment and technique, as well as some nice meal-planning suggestions ("Twenty fish dishes for fish haters," "Twenty-nine crowd-pleasing Thanksgiving side dishes you may not have thought of"). Look no further: there is enough great cooking and eating in this book to last a lifetime.

For years, I thought that 'real cooking' was for people with unlimited time. Having spent my adult life as a working mother, AND a non-creative 'eater', my cooking has long been limited to basic, efficient, but not very inspiring meals. When I decided that I wanted to become a better cook, I checked out Amazon and found this book. I wish (as does my family!) that I'd found it years ago. From scratch? with fresh foods? Make my own soups? Mark Bittman made me a believer with his down-to-earth, clear writing, unpretentious style, and chrystal-clear instructions.

Don't like some of the ingredients in an interesting recipe? He offers 5, 7 or even 15 variations in near-by list! Bake my own bread? I've been doing it now for 3 weeks and I am hooked at the ease of making low-cost, delicious sour dough bread. Pizza dough. Broiled chicken pesto. French Onion Soup. Making great stuff out of things I'd throw away (shrimp stock with 30 seconds of work and 20 minutes to simmer turns into a fabulous pasta sauce a week later. -- my great-cook brother was amazed and chagrined to learn this trick from his 'can't-cook' sister!)

I could go on and on. I'm buying 3 more for Christmas gifts for each of my kids. What more can one say??

This is THE cookbook to have! I got it about a year ago, and it has changed my approach to cooking. Bittman delivers unbelievable recipes (try the sauteed chicken cutlets with lime sauce, 391) that are easy enough for novice cooks. As an added bonus, he has sections describing each food--what to look for when buying, variations on recipes, how to store, etc. I refer to this cookbook more often than any other.

I've owned this book for about a year now, and today when I realized how often I consult it for cooking and baking, I had to write a review. This cookbook offers far more than recipes! It offers basics of food preparation, suggestions and ideas for alternatives to standard recipes, some background information on where particular dishes originated, and just general helpful hints. I use this book whether I'm creating something on my own in the kitchen, trying a recipe from a friend or another cookbook, or preparing one of Mark Bittman's dishes. Today I was looking for a recipe for pizza dough, and found myself caught up in reading an entire section! The instructions are clear and concise, and the language draws in even cooks with the most casual interest. I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys food preparation - regardless of their skill level. This is a fantastic reference and cookbook, and would make a great gift!