Customer Reviews

The Good Home Cookbook: More Than 1,000 Classic American Recipes

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As this review is for Amazon.com and not the cookbook's website, I feel obligated to disclose that I received a free copy of this cookbook to review. And, while this is a thorough and comprehensive collection of "home cooking" standards, it probably wouldn't hold up as my first go-to reference.

If you don't already own a Better Homes and Garden or Joy of Cooking book, then this would be a great place for you to start building your collection. It's not full of fancy, dinner party recipes but it is full of comfort food and standard family dinner meals. Not sure how to cook a chicken? It's right there with instructions on how to carve, as well. Want to know how to make that tuna noodle casserole you remember from Mom's house? That's there, too!

I do like how the cookbook is arranged - there's a whole section on breakfast food so you can flip through one section and see if you want pancakes or hashbrowns, sausage or omelet, etc. No more flipping through Vegetables, Baked Goods, or Meats to figure out breakfast.

I don't like how some recipes seem to be repeated with just one ingredient change. Do you really need a separate recipe to go from Crawfish Etouffee to Shrimp Etouffee? Do you need yet another one to tell you that chicken is acceptable to swtich to a Chicken Etouffee? There's a few places this occurs and it's not a big deal, just a minor annoyance on my part.

This is a good entry cookbook for true beginners who aren't comfortable with the "mix and taste" concept. You know that tuna salad has mayo and tuna and maybe celery (depending on whose mom made it) but what proportions? Ditto for chicken salad. Well, it's all spelled out for you so you can build a base recipe, then add or delete ingredients for next time, depending on your taste buds.

Summary? I would purchase this as a simple reference cookbook if I didn't already have my BHG. If you own any other "basic" cookbooks, you may find yourself bored with this one.

Just spent the morning looking through my copy and it is wonderful! I love all of the tidbits about the recipes and have found alot of recipes that I enjoyed as a kid. I was a tester and it was a great experience, I was honored to be a part of it. The layout is crisp and clean, with retro designs. I will be giving all of my friends a copy for the holidays. The book has something for everyone that enjoys real food. It won't spend any time on the shelf collecting dust, it is one of those rare cookbooks that belongs in the kitchen all the time.

I love to cook, and have been doing it for many, many years. I learned from my mother, a fine cook herself. As a matter of fact, I had gotten to the point where I vowed to not buy any more cookbooks, as I decided that I had the best Italian, the best Mexican, the best cookie, the best bread, the best soup, the best, oh...you get the idea. While I did receive this as a promotion, if I had seen it, I do believe I would have bought it anyway, as it really does seem to contain every basic and good dish that I have ever gotten from my mother, mother-in-law, grandmother and numerous friends and neighbors over the years. Now I can just go to this for all my tried-and-true recipes, rather than try to hunt through my files for that old spattered clipping or index card from way back. When I have compared my well-worn clippings and hand-written recipes to many recipes in this book, often they are ingredient-for-ingredient the same. They really did their research on this one. The directions are clear and concise, and any cook, from novice to expert, should have no problem following them. This book, along with a nice pot or pan, will be my go-to wedding or shower gift from now on.

And on a practical note, I must mention that I truly appreciate the sewn-in binding on the book, as it lies nicely and flatly open on the counter.

The only thing that could have made this even better would be if it had pictures!

A book filled with real down-home recipes like Mom and Grandma used to make, and everyone looked forward to eating.

A large collection of recipes like you would find in a local community or church cookbook used every day by your neighbors, relatives and friends. And the cooking tips just add to the value of the book.

Will be used over and over, for whatever you might be hungry for.

This book provides me with the recipes that you're always looking for and can never find. It has the basic "traditional" recipes that most cookbooks assume you already know, but were never taught! The food that Grandma made. I love to look through this book for ideas, especially for Sunday dinner.

I love this book. It has all of those great basics that we like to cook for everyday meals. It has very explicit directions that make it easy for my teenager to learn how to cook. We've made many breakfast items and they've all been great. I bought another copy for a Christmas gift after using it.

When I first started looking at this cookbook, I was planning on some kind of fish for dinner tonight. So I started at the table of contents. There's a whole chapter on Fish and Shellfish. Soem 25 pages of recipies and other information, with typically 2-3 recipies on each page. I found more things I wanted to cook than I could do in one evening. I'm still debating between Shrimp Scampi and Shrimp Etouffee for this evening.

The book says that it has more than 1,000 no-nonsense recipies. I didn't count them, but that seems about right. By no-nonsense, they seem to mean that these are the recipies that came from long ago. (No, we didn't have shrimp scampi in Louisiana where I grew up, but Etouffee was a standard in every restaurant, and you could get either shrimp or crawfish.)

Among the things I really like about this book are:

It doesn't call for a lot of exotic spices. Here in the desert, we're limited to the standard McCormick spice rack at the supermarket.

Likewise, it doesn't call for a lot of specialized equipment that some gourmet cookbooks want you to use. Mostly I've got the standard pots and pans, not fancy stuff.

This is a good standard, old fashioned, use every day type cookbook.

This book has every classic American recipe in it and it is just excellent. There are recipes for every meal and for every occasion. There are even sample holiday menus for every month of the year and tips for making all sorts of treats. There are also recipes for making drinks and cocktails. All the recipes come with a description of the history of the recipe. I am really amazed at how extensive this book is and it has now become my new standard cookbook. This book is a must-have for all home and professional cooks.

Wonderful cookbook! I read the reviews and just had to go out and buy it for myself! I've been looking for a cookbook with EVERY classic American comfort food recipe, and this is it! It has everything from Appetizers (Spinach-Artichoke Dip and Deviled Eggs) to Breakfast (Biscuits and Gravy; French Toast and Oatmeal), Main Dishes (Chicken Parmesan, Turkey Tetrazzini, Crown Roast) to Sides (Green Bean Casserole from scratch!) and luscious Desserts (Apple Turnovers, Chocolate Cream Pie and Lindy's Original New York Cheesecake!). If you love to cook and want to get back to the good old days of comfort food, this book is a must buy!

The Good Home Cookbook is a new classic. A must have for cooks of every level, it would make a perfect wedding gift for newlyweds, kids going off to college, couples moving into their first house, etc. This is one of those books you'll always turn to first because you know it'll have a recipe for whatever you're looking for. The best part about it, though? The interesting facts and mini history lessons at the beginning of the recipes. More than once I've gone to look something up and found myself still reading (and starving!) 20 minutes later.