Customer Reviews

More-With-Less Cookbook

5 star:		(133)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I plan to buy a second copy of this cookbook because my copy of the original edition is stained with 24 years of use. This is where I go for ideas when I have to fix a meal and don't have anything special around to use. This food isn't gourmet, but there are plenty of plain, good recipes. This book has my favorite recipes for cornbread and tortillas, and many, many main dish recipes for basic home cooking.

The spiral binding is a big plus, allowing the book to be laid open flat while I cook. More cookbooks should be bound this way!

Of course the greatest treasure of this book is the wisdom and insight of Doris Longacre, the late author. For the reader who never plans to cook a thing, the insights she shares about life, hospitality, the world's resources and respect for other cultures all make the More-With-Less Cookbook worth buying and reading multiple times.

I'm ordering a new copy of this cookbook from Amazon because the copy I was given as a wedding present 13 years ago has completely fallen apart. This is a cookbook with a difference - it's not just a compilation of recipes, but can change the ways you think about food and cooking. It's been one of the biggest influences on the way I cook - second only, perhaps, to my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother. Many recipes are written with optional ingredients and/or procedures, and cooks are encouraged to substitute and use what is on hand and most economical for their own situations. Besides the recipes, the book is packed with ideas: ways to use up left-overs; gardening, canning, and freezing suggestions - you name it! This is a cookbook for EVERYONE - vegetarians and meat eaters, city and country folks, singles, couples and families.

This cookbook is exactly what it sounds like- a cookbook about eating more with less. It is not all about eating hamburger but it is about saving money, eating nutritious meals that are cost effective and delicious.

Every recipe calls for normal ingredients that you would typically have on hand in your kitchen. The recipes we have tried have been a hit in my family and have been easy to prepre. The directions are clear and easy to read.

Enjoy. Well worth the money.

Maybe I was disappointed in this because I'm looking at it from a bit of an insider's perspective, since we didn't buy much packaged food anyway when I was a kid, but this is really only helpful if you're currently heavily dependent on pre-prepared meals or processed foods, and utterly ignorant about making anything from scratch. I'm not trying to be confrontational, but this is very basic cooking. If you're already semi-accustomed to cooking anything from staple ingredients, you've learned 7/8 of what this can teach you.

Not so much a bad cookbook as an outdated one. The ideas covered here are covered in greater depth in _Diet for a Small Planet_ (and probably many other books), and there are more modern meatless/reduced-meat cookbooks that are much more inventive. (This is not vegetarian, although it does advocate eating less meat.)

This seems to involve too many repetitive casseroles, dismal-sounding bean bakes, slightly-misguided attempts at ethnic cooking, and awkward 1970's "proto-vegetarian" meals. Oh, and it's bland. Way bland. I ate a lot of this stuff at Quaker potlucks when I was a kid, and I thank my lucky stars that, nowadays, people are becoming so much more familiar with creative ethnic foods. It also involves a lot of dairy and a lot of frying (or, at least, more frying than my mother and I have ever done, combined), and lots of white rice and white flour, which are not particularly nutrient-rich.

This was a great idea in its day, but now that "green" has become so popular, I think there are plenty of more interesting and less fatty books available that could serve the same purpose but would taste better.

I love this cookbook! Besides being filled with wonderful, practical and frugal recipes, it is chock full of information about eating for better health and for the health of the planet. I have spent many evenings curled up reading this cookbook. If you read cookbooks, this is one to not miss!

A couple of notes regarding other reviewers' comments. First, it is NOT a gourmet cookbook, and doesn't pretend to be. This is a collection of thrifty recipes, some with an international flavor, and focuses on readily available ingredients. In most cases, the international flavor comes from Mennonites who spent years in service in developing countries. So, the recipes are international peasant cuisine which has been adapted to North American tastes. If what you are looking for is gourmet cuisine, look elsewhere. On the other hand, if what I said above is resonating with you, in addition to this book, you may be interested in "Extending the Table," another MCC cookbook.

A couple of people have noted that the Christian undertone of the book bothered them. I'm not sure why that is. I am always interested in the philosophies that motivate people, no matter what they are. It would be a shame for anyone to miss out on a great book because they are uncomfortable with the faith of the author. Mennonites are part of the larger Anabaptist movement, which also includes the Amish, so they are definitely Christians. But their faith is also what calls them to service to the poor and marginalized.

The two bad reviews of this cookbook that I've seen focus on it being too simple and "reducing" the subtlety of recipes. After growing up as a missionary kid in West Africa with a mom who relied on this cookbook and after learning how to cook out of it, I disagree. The recipes are simple so that you can modify them to suit your own tastes and what's locally available. If you're looking for a gourmet cookbook, this isn't it...but if you're looking for a superb basic cookbook that will teach you not only how to cook but also how to be more aware of the world around you, this is it. I have other cookbooks that I use frequently, but if I could only have two, I've have Joy of Cooking and this. The Oatmeal Bread, Spaghetti Sauce, Scrambled Eggs & Noodles and Chow Mein recipes are amongst my all-time favorites.

This book is *amazing*. It includes foods from all over the world, as well as a healthy dose of solid American fare, without the reliance on heavily processed, super-marked-up convenience foods.

And no bones about it: this book WILL save you money. How many other cookbooks do you know that tell you how to make your own breakfast cereal? This one does; in fact, it has several recipes, and the ones I've tried have all been wonderful.

The book has some incisive comments about the need to conserve the world's resources which, though they date from another era, still stand true today. The "More-With-Less Cookbook" belongs on the bookshelf of anybody who thinks a better world sounds good enough to eat.

I found this book reduced on the rack of my local grocery store 18 years ago. We lived on a homestead in N Mich., supporting three people on my husband's income of $150/wk. I had $10/wk for groceries, bought staples in 20lb bags thru a food co-op, and froze or canned almost everything we ate. This book was used more than any other cookbook in my library. I learned how to make my own brown sugar, pancake syrup, soybean sandwich spread, and many other things I couldn't afford to buy at the store. This cookbook allowed us to eat better quality meals than most people with much higher incomes, and also let me stretch my dollar to the limit. I don't have such income restrictions today, but still live and eat simply. By the way, my favorite recipe is the Six-layer dish (Casserole). It is very simple to prepare in the morning, bake slowly all day, and gets raves at pot-lucks for flavor. Enjoy!

I purchased this book 15 years ago in Kalona, an Amish community in Iowa. I have used it so much it is spotted and dog earred, and I am pleased to see it is still in print so I can purchase a new copy. When I purchased it we were struggling with reduced hours at our place of employment and we had a young family. We just recently retired (7 years early for me!) and it is still the cookbook I turn to. Besides having the recipes that are really usable and practical, I frequently reread the philosopy in each chapter that helps us guide our lifestyle decisions. We would not be financially independent now if we had not found this book. It was my first exposure to the simple living lifestyle except for our Depression era parents and grandparents.

With a comb binding allowing it to be laid out flat for cooking convenience, Doris Longacre's More-With-Less Cookbook is a showcase of Mennonite recipes for eating better while consuming less of the world's limited food resources. From Whole Wheat Pineapple Muffins, Vietnam Fried Rice, Three-Grain Peanut Bread, and Poor Man's Lobster Thermidor, to German Potato Noodles, Applesauce Crunch, Garden Vegetable Curry, and Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookies, More-With-Less Cookbook is a superbly presented collection of outstanding recipes. Along with an organized ingredients list and cooking instructions, each individual recipe notes how many servings to expect. More-With-Less Cookbook will become an instant favorite for the family cook.