Customer Reviews

The James Beard Cookbook

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although the cover fell off my copy years ago, I still use the book. It only makes sense there's no cover. After all, my cookbook is a first printing from about forty years ago, and was passed on through at least two other families before making its way to me.

This book covers the basics of North American/western European cuisine. I learned how to make killer omelettes (plain, or oven-puffed with cheese sauce) with this, and my terrified-of-the-kitchen hubby learned to make a delicious ham supper. Whenever I'm sick and can't cook but we're expecting company, he always goes for this particular cookbook. If he can't find it, he whinges ferociously. None of my other books are as clear and concise, I guess.

The James Beard Cookbook is an excellent book for anyone. For the absolute novice, it details the best ways to cook bacon and eggs. For the kitchen maestro, it explains numerous sauce and souffle techniques. So, if you're looking for a good basic cookbook for yourself or for a lost-in-the-kitchen bachelor(ette), I strongly recommend this book.

Still using a small-format paperback copy of the original edition that we got 25 years ago! We are now replacing that copy with a better one, since our old eyes are having a little trouble with the small print, and since we want a book that lays open more easily when we are cooking.

Beard, along with Mark Bittman, are the the only two cookbooks for Americans that tell you how to do virtually any common task. If you aren't sure how to fix a particular food (or dish) they will tell you very clearly and quickly. Recipes are not particularly slavish, but suggest ready substitutions.

Some of the first things we learned from Beard how to make were omelets with herbs, red pasta sauce, chili with beans, and steaks seared in a hot frying pan. We know these sound very basic, but we still find them to be staples in our household and for company because they are so delicious.

When we first married, we used the Better Homes and Garden cookbook successfully to get started (it has pictures!) but Beard and Bittman are better for cooks with even the slightest experience (i.e., those who can find the kitchen!)

We have (and have discarded) lots of other cookbooks, but Beard will always be right at hand for quick reference.

This cookbook, in its first edition, was the first I owned. After 27 years, I now own dozens of cookbooks - but Beard's is still the one I consult most frequently. The great virtue of the book is that it provides recipes of considerable culinary interest which are also, for the most part, simple and practical to execute. The recipes for chicken saute, meat sauce for spaghetti, souffles, gingerbread, beef stew and Sauerbraten are all standards in the cuisine of our home.

This cookbook is the basis for most of what I know and love about cooking. I read it over and over as a young person - I was fascinated by James Beard's appreciation for simple but elegant dishes. I differ with the earlier reviewer's comment that the dishes are "fancy". In fact, most of the recipes are basics - how to roast a chicken, how to cook green beans, and so on. With many of the recipes are suggestions for which dishes would go well with them. Granted, the recipe for whiskey cake does start something like, "Cut a pound of raisins in half," and you have to actually start this task to realize just how many trillions of raisins there are in a pound. I've usually avoided this excessive raisin involvement by substituting currants or chopped dates, but somehow the freshly-halved raisins do make the cake go from excellent to great.

I, too, have an early (1959) edition which is held together only with spills. The other reviews convinced me this is the same book, and I am eternally grateful for that. Last night as I sorted out the separated pages to follow a favorite recipe, I knew I had to search for a replacement. I've worn it out, made it do, used it up, but I cannot do without!

I learned to cook using an early edition of this cookbook. When it wore out, I bought another. I am now ordering a copy for my 18 year old son. He discovered in on my shelves and always goes to James Beard first. Basic techniques, theme and variation, putting together menus and learning how ingredients go together - learning by doing! - James Beard wrote the book.

I am buying a new copy of this book because my old one is being held together with rubber bands. I have had this book since the early 70's. I love to cook, and am a great cook. Between this book and Julia Child, nothing is very difficult.

Everyone ought to have at least one cookbook that covers basic recipes for just about anything you may have to cook. And this is the one I recommend. You can be staring at a cut of meat, or a fish fillet. Or wondering what cheese and wine to serve with fresh fruit. Or trying to guess how to make a cheese fondue. Or a pie for dessert. This is the book that will help you do it all. The recipes are not particularly fancy, nor are they exotic, but they're safe.

My personal volume of this fine work is a 1959 first edition (paperback). Some might jump to the conclusion that the recipes found herein are out-of-date and if you're into special diets or "healthy eating" in terms of low carbs, etc., you'd probably be better served with a more contemporary cookbook; however, if you're really into "scratch cooking," Beard was the renowned master of the art and most of his recipes are as solid today as they were back then.

The work covers appetizers; bread; cheese; desserts; eggs and breakfast meats; fish and shellfish; fruit; grain dishes; meat; pasta; poultry; salads and dressings; sauces; souffles; soups; and, vegetables and legumes. There's also a basic cooking guide in the front section.

What sorts of recipes can you expect to find herein? Pumpkin pie, corned beef hash, barley casserole, meat loaf, veal chops with cream sauce, duck with pineapple, coleslaw, stuffed mushrooms, and hundreds more. The work is inclusive of both the basic and the exotic.

This book is of equal value to the new cook as it is to the veteran chef. If I have a complaint it's that the fonts are small and it doesn't lie flat on the counter.

For the price, it would be difficult to find a better basic cookbook than this one.

It's hard to rate this book next to modern cookbooks, but for it's age, it's a classic.

If you haven't bought into the low-fat, low-cholesterol,
hydrogenated-waste-vegetable-oil-is-good-for-you koolaid of the last 40 years, this
book is full of fantastic recipes and a reminder of when food tasted good without
added emulsifiers and solubized whey protein.
(if you have, ask yourself why Americans drastically DID cut the saturated/animal fat,
cholesterol, and fat out of their diet over the last 30 years and yet obesity,
diabetes, CHD, and cancer went through the roof.)

I love the fact that almost every recipe includes butter (or pork lard or bacon fat
or beef drippings). I love that the sauces have heavy cream. And eggs are prominently
featured in everything. I don't think I saw skim milk mentioned. My grandparents
and great-grandparents could have made many of the dishes with what they had on the
farm, supplemented by a few staples from the grocery such as flour and sugar.

Each recipe is usually only a minimal number of ingredients, all of which are
at every grocery store (with the possible exception of squab :) ).
It's sad that he notes the best eggs are fresh ones that have never been
cooled. Try finding that nowadays. In 1959, you still had a milk
and egg man deliver yours every day.

Almost every recipe has several variations listed.

To give you an idea of how people ate in 1959--the dessert section is only 20 pages
and the grains section 5 pages out of a 500 page book.


Minuses are related to it's age. This is the better cooking of the European American
immigration. The influence of Asian, Hispanic, and Indian cooking is completely absent.

Other minuses are that it is not heavy into the explanations or reasoning behind
cooking. It's purely focused on cooking the dish.