Better Homes and Gardens Heritage of America Cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) [Hardcover]

Jennifer Darling (Author), Shelli McConnell (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen | Publication Date: August 1993

Rich in heritage, historical detail, and lore, this volume includes more than three-hundred regional recipes gathered from people all over the United States. 75,000 first printing. $500,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Could this be the beginnings of a second War between the States? Americans in different regions are as proud of and as proprietary concerning their native foodstuffs as they are their tourist attractions. So when the folks at Better Homes and Gardens attribute, say, chicken-fried steak with gravy to Iowa or Jewish fruit kugel to Delaware, arguments about recipe ownership and origin just might escalate. A photographic panorama of the seven regions of the U.S. provides the backdrop for some solid research and more than 300 recipes adapted for contemporary kitchens. The data cover the growth and history of indigenous crops, the development of kitchen equipment, and the start of a distinctive cuisine--or, rather, seven such. Easy-to-read sidebars punctuate the quality food and landscape pictures; Ben Franklin's witticisms appear, as do the stories of Chicago's deep-dish pizza and Boston's Park House rolls. Part history, part cookbook, this summation of our food lore gives cohesiveness to the term melting pot. Barbara Jacobs

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Meredith Books; 1st edition (August 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0696019957
• ISBN-13: 978-0696019951
• Product Dimensions: 14.5 x 10.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Resource in My Kitchen, June 24, 2002

By 

Becky "Beckyu" (SmallTown, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Heritage of America Cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) (Hardcover)

If I could only keep one cookbook, this would be it. I find myself going to this book time after time for both classic and unique recipes. It has given me a much richer sense of the history of the nation as a whole, and even of my own geographic region. The recipes are wonderful, but the explanations of how and why the dishes were used...well, they're what makes this book truly special! I have the original and the book jacket is pretty worn, but it will always have the most prominent place on my shelf.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite cookbook of all times, February 21, 2004

By 

"kayruth" (Richmond, Va. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Heritage of America Cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) (Hardcover)

Excellent, tested recipes make you a good cook and I can make any recipe in this book with confidence that it will be one that people will ask for the recipe. I love good food and learning the history of how each region of the country came to be famous for certain dishes deepens your appreciation for it. Every recipe has a picture,too!
No one I know has this book (it was a gift to me) so I loved reading other people's five star reviews. I finally found some out of print editions on Amazon.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive, June 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Better Homes and Gardens Heritage of America Cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen) (Hardcover)

Absolutely beautiful...and imminently useable (the recipes, not the oversized hardback format). Every recipe that I expected in an all-American book was in here--Key lime pie, lemon chess pie, posole, Parker House rolls--it's really wonderful and complete. I would love to see this in a trade paperback edition, so more people could afford and use this beautiful book of delicious recipes and regional cooking history. A great gift for your foreign friends, or someone going to live abroad (permanently, if you're going to lug somethin of this size around!).