Customer Reviews

Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being a novice and a poor cook I had tried a number of cookbooks and found them all lacking. Until I bought Learning to Cook. Now I'm a good cook and getting better, and I've only had the book for a little over a month. Whats the differance? Easy to read, great recipes/uncomplicated and mistake proof. Cooking is now fun, not only that but the family now actually looks forward to dinner. Using this book wiLl make all of your cooking better, reguardles of where the recipe comes from. So far I have yet to repeat a recipe, and not a bad meal yet. My personal favorite is the Pork Tenderloin with Jalapeno Sauce. After having the Original Macaroni and Cheese my nine year old proclamed it the best she had ever eaten. Get this book.

Have you tried to make scrambled eggs and they came out dry and bland? Bought some fresh trout from the supermarket, tried to follow a recipe, only to be disappointed with your dinner?

If this sounds like you, chances are you're a beginner cook. You are trying to use your kitchen to make home cooked / hearty meals - but don't always know exactly how to prepare something. Or cut something. Or season.

If the above is the case, then this is THE book. Learning To Cook has several sections - appetizers, soups, salads, fish, chicken, meats, vegetables, breakfasts, deserts, etc. Each section has 5 - 10 recipes. What makes this book unique is that each recipe is a beginners "how to" on how to make the dish. And the instructions cover EVERYTHING! That is, you can start clueless, then read a recipe in 15 minutes and know exactly HOW to make a great salad - or soup - or fish - or chicken dish.

I've used this book for a month as follows: I've read one recipe about every other evening. I've stopped at a supermarket on my way home from work to purchase what the recipe calls for. I then re-read the recipe and then follow the instructions to make a great meal - every time.

In just a month, I've graduated from the level of kitchen neophyte!

The book is also full of tidbits - how to store fruit, photos of various salads, what to do with leftovers.

If you've never cooked in your life, or have tried and have been disappointed, or are embarresed to admit it you don't know what you're doing in a kitchen, then Learning To Cook is a must!

This is a cookbook for everyone from novices to experienced cooks. The directions are clear and easy to follow. Handy hints are helpful and informative. I personally have prepared several of the recipes including "Pot Roast with Vegetables and Gravy." All were excellent. This cookbook would make a perfect gift for newlyweds or anyone else with a budding interest in cooking.

I bought this book when I moved out of the dorm rooms with my husband. He didn't know how to cook at all and I could cook. I could cook marvelous cheesecakes, fabulous beef stroganoff, meals that take hours, but nothing for I've just come home from work and need dinner Now. That is what this cookbook is for. Learning everyday recipes you can do if you have a lot of time or a little. She also give suggestions on what to do with the leftovers(lamb curry is exceptional) and, occasionally, what to serve the dish with. More than improving my cooking skills this book has been invaluable in improving my meal planning skills.

Of course, no book is perfect. I found her black bean soup to be rather bland. (Try the original Moosewood Cookbook's Brazilian Black bean soup) Her recipes use milk, cream, butter, and oil like your grandmother used to, so if you are nervous around any fat at all, this is not the book for you. And I recommend using corn starch for gravies rather than flour since it is simpler and comes out smooth no matter what. Finally, some recipes are time consuming and being a busy modern person I rarely get around to making chicken broth as she suggests. But it is still nice to know.

Otherwise, this is a simple cookbook with clear instructions for a novice. Nothing fancy (a few dishes and all the appetizers would do well at a dinner party, but for the most part this is every day cooking), just good home cooking.

I have 6 children, ranging from teens to toddler, and I cook a lot. I have always appreciated Marion Cunningham's recipes because they are realistic and the way families eat. I bought this book to add to my collection and have thoroughly enjoyed it. My family has enjoyed everything I've cooked from it. With this cookbook I successfully made delicious biscuits for the first time. Even when the subject is an area I'm already comfortable with I enjoy reading it. I agree completely with her goal of helping us cook for our families and friends so that we can share a delicious, wholesome meal with the people we love. Her recipes and comments are to be treasured and passed down to future generations with wonderful memories.

At this point I am a really good home cook, and I would have passed this up as a book for beginners if I didn't consider Ms. Cunningham a culinary genius. I owe my skills to my love of good food, followed by Julia Child, M.F.K. Fisher, Barbara Kafka, Marcella Hazan, and last but definitely not least, Marion Cunningham. Anyone who loves to cook should get this book, buy a waffle iron, and make raised waffles for everyone he or she loves. You will not be disappointed (but you may gain weight)and whoever you have served them to will be in your thrall. Enjoy.

I bought this book simply to complete my Marion Cunningham collection, but instantly found myself cooking my way through the recipes. There is something between these covers for all cooks, not just beginners. An added bonus is the way Marion's warmth and patience comes through on every page. She is truly a national treasure.

`Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham' by, you guessed it, old school cooking expert, Marion Cunningham, is one of the very few books I have found which effectively address the adult novice amateur cook. Recently, there are a few important books for teaching kids to cook from Food Network personalities, Emeril Lagasse and Rachael Ray and there are several important new tutorials on methods for experienced cooks and avid foodies, such as Jill Norman's exceptional omnibus volume, `The Cook's Book' and Anne Willan's `The Good Cook'.

I stress that this book is for the novice and amateur cook, to distinguish it's audience from the aspiring professional well served by such great books as Madeleine Kamman's `The New Making of a Cook'. The only book I can think of which addresses exactly the same audience is the very quirky `How to Cook' by Raymond Sokolov.

Madame Cunningham's credentials are impressive. Not only was she a colleague of the great James Beard, but she was the chief author on revisions of the `Fanny Farmer Cookbook', the OTHER major American source for household recipes. She was also the consultant to none other than the very literary Jeffrey Steingarten on the ins and outs of making a perfect piecrust. She is also very `old school' in that her pedagogical approach is based, either intentionally or by good fortune, on the principles of the great American educator, John Dewey, who believed that the most effective way to learn was by doing.

Therefore, her `teaching cookbook' is simply arranged in exactly the same manner as a conventional cookbook, by course, with chapters on:

Appetizers / Odds & Ends
Soup for Supper
A bowlful of Salad
Easy Fish
Thank Goodness for Chicken
Meaty Main Meals
Meals without Meat
Good Vegetables
Breakfast Can Be Supper, Too
Extras That Make a Meal
Here Comes Dessert

This really fits my long-term analogy of learning cooking with learning chess. The general principles of effective chess would probably fill no more than two or three pages, yet it takes years to master chess through practice and studying the games of the masters. This may also be why cookbooks by successful chefs are so popular. Unfortunately, this is where the analogy breaks down, as amateur cooking is much more like playing simply for fun rather than playing for a club, national, or world championship.

So, Cunningham has no chapters or articles on sautéing, braising, baking, poaching, or frying. Rather, she gives tutorials on these techniques in excellent sidebars on these matters, plus very carefully worded procedures for her recipes.

I am especially happy that Madame Cunningham has included a chapter on breakfast dishes, as few average sized cookbooks cover this subject, and it means she gives us an omelet recipe I can compare with the 20 other omelet recipes I have read. I give this omelet recipe an A, falling short of an A+ because she did not suggest you have the eggs come to room temperature before adding them to the hot pan. On the other hand, she adds the advice few others mention, of testing the readiness of the pan when you add the butter.

Similarly, I really enjoy reading her instructions on making a piecrust. While I personally object to her using shortening in place of butter, I find her technique flawless, especially since, like the very new `Martha Stewart Baking Handbook', it focuses on nothing more than the four basic ingredients, flour, salt, fat, and water. Add to this the better than average pictorials on key steps, and you will find yourself as illuminated as Jeffrey Steingarten when Madame Cunningham gave him a personal tutorial. The same simplicity in detail can be found in the `Extras That Make a Meal' chapter, which includes staples such as dressings, sauces, and biscuits.


One sense in which this book is `old school' is in the fact that unlike some modern culinary teachers such as Shirley Corriher and Alton Brown, there is little or no synthesis or explanation showing, for example, that making biscuits and making a piecrust are very similar techniques.

Another sense in which this book is `old school' is because there is not much concern with historical accuracy in recipes for named dishes. This is not a bad thing in general, but it may raise an eyebrow, as it does mine, in a teaching cookbook. The recipe for the famous Caesar's Salad leaves out two of the seminal ingredients for this dish, anchovies and coddled eggs and goes so far as to suggest rather poor substitutes for the expensive ingredient, Parmesan cheese.

To end on a very high note, I also find the variety of recipes to be perfectly delightful, as it includes all the basics, plus a few genuine surprises, such as the orange and red onion salad I simply had to try, because I had a hard time imagining how these went together. I was very pleased with the result.

If you are a raw beginner at cooking and simply need some serious, high quality handholding, you cannot go wrong with this book. For a next step, however, go for a cookbook by a more modern writer such as Mark Bittman's `How to Cook Everything'.

Recommended.

Here's what I like about this book:

1. With so many cookbooks featuring exotic ingredients and techniques, this book is so refreshing and simple! I can easily make all of the recipes in this book, and the ingredients can be found in local grocery stores.

2. Ms. Cunningham explains every details that I need to know, from how to pick the ingredients, how to properly prepare them, how to tell when the dish is done, etc. etc. Nothing is too detail. I can really learn a lot from this book.

What I don't like about this book:

1. The recipes are too basic, everyday type of food.

This is one book I keep referring over and over and a keeper. But, I'd like to see more slightly complicated/special recipes. Thus I give it 4 stars!

This book is a wonderful teaching book for my Cooking Class. It's a very wonderful book and I love it!