Customer Reviews

The Talisman Italian Cookbook: Italy's bestselling cookbook adapted for American kitchens.

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My mother gave me this cookbook dated back to 1950. Special Edition Printed For: Ronzoni Macaroni Co., Inc. By: Crown Publisher, New York, NY USA. This is the best Italian Cookbook I have ever used. My mother used it to prepare all her childrens foods and I am carrying on the family tradition thru its use. Christmas would not be Christmas without the receipes included in this cherished family keepsake.

Her copy is falling apart from years of use, but it is _identical_ (not a single change) to the one I bought new a few years ago.

If you are looking for authentic Italian food that you could feel proud serving, get this book. It also has a good number of vegetarian dishes and pastries and ices.

I just used it for dinner tonight...

Her other cookbooks are excellent, as well, although they have beautiful pictures and the Talisman doesn't

it has some weaknesses due to the greater availability of genuine ingredients in either supermarkets or italian markets..
the translation lacks some of the delightful formality in the original..the recipes however, are the same as the ones I grew up with in my Nonna's kitchen in Rome..and still consult in my own homes 40 years later...when I compare the recipes in Il Talismano to the dog eared and stained ones handwritten when I was learning to cook..they are right on the money! Enjoy and Buon Appetito a tutti

A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry". With more than 500 cookbooks in my collection I am usually disappointed in my recent cookbook acquisitions. I am also very tough on Italian cookbooks in particular.

This book is a wonderful addition to any Italian cookbook library. If you were looking for a good basic Italian cookbook to begin your Italian cooking library this would make a wonderful start. This cookbook is simple Italian cooking at its best. Most of the recipes in this book are quick (Panettone excluded). I always use the cannoli recipe from this book, with a little creative license taken here and there.

The author also does a nice job of highlighting the regional differences in preparing dishes. I highly recommend this book for anyone that is interested in learning more about Italian cooking.

The book is subdivided as follows:
1. Antipasto
2. Soups
3. Egg Dishes
4. Cheese
5. Fish and Shellfish
6. Meat
7. Poultry
8. Game
9. Macaroni, Spaghetti and Rice
10. Pizza
11. Vegetables
12. Salads
13. Desserts
14. Beverages

My one criticism of the book is in the directions themselves. If you are an accomplished cook the directions are more than adequate. However, if you are a cooking novice the directions are a little lacking. I think this is due to the original publishing date of 1950. This book was written in a time when all women had been taught to cook by their mothers. Sadly, this is not the case today. However, if you have any level of proficiency in the kitchen you should be able to follow the recipes.

This little book is much more complete than I expected it to be when I bought it a decade ago. The book does not give a recipe count, but I would say that it contains a minimum of 500 recipes and probably more than that.

I always turn to this little volume when I am looking for a recipe and then compare other cookbooks to what I find in this one. If you are need to expand your Italian cookbook collection you can't go wrong with this little book. Don't expect photographs though, the book is just text.

This book-an adaptation, not a translation of an Italian
cookbook was published in 1950. This was a time when
many Americans still held to various dumb and demeaning
stereotypes about Italy and Italians. If there was any
knoweldge of Italian food at all, it was based on an
experience at a few southern Italian-styled restaurants
that had opened in major American cities.

This book and the television show that accompanied it were
useful correctives to the few Americans who were aware of
them. The TV show was a pioneering 'food-tv' effort by a
husband and wife team called the Bontempi. The book itself
was sponsored by the Ronzoni Pasta Company in Queens, New
York and was sold for $3.00 on the show.

Fifty-five years later, the recipes look remarkably soph-
isticated. The only tomato sauce recipe is on the fourth
page of the sauce section and rice dishes get almost as
much space as pasta. Classic dishes-like Saltimbocca and
Osso Buco Milanese abound and Lasagne are prepared in
both Northern and Southern versions. There are a few Italian-
American dishes included-you can have two different
versions of spaghetti and meatballs, but the recipe listed
under 'meatball' is for a one and half pound loaf,
simmered in stock.

The introductory essay by the linguist Mario Pei is priceless.
He explains in the most gentle terms the difference between
American stereotypes and Italian reality.

For a snapshot of Italian food before it became modernized,
this book is irreplaceable. It is also the source of
the kind of simple and elegant recipes that made Italian
food both wildly popular and strongly influential. For
many cooks it will be the only Italian cookbook they'll
ever need.

--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN 9781601640005

You'll find yourself going into this cookbook over and over again. My copy is worn from continued use during several decades. These are authentic recipes from many regions of Italy--not fussy, not "trendy", just perfect! I consider this book as basic and essential to my cookbook library as "Joy of Cooking."

I just wanted to bring back some of the things from my childhood.
Great product!

Back in 1956, this German-American 18 yr. old married a man who had been born and raised in Italy. I had no clue how to cook anything Italian and the first meal I prepared for my new husband was a total disaster. He wouldn't eat my mushy pasta and my sauce was a bland, soupy tomato mess. I cried. The next day, I bought the Talisman Italian Cookbook and it probably saved my marriage. The recipes were very close to the food on which my husband had been brought up and we were both very pleased with the results. As my culinary skills improved with time, I found I didn't need the book every day, but I still referred to it from time to time when I needed to make something different, like gnocci or oxtail stew. Those days are long gone. I live alone now and I don't cook very much anymore, but my elder son's wife now uses my worn and threadbare old Talisman.

An Italian cookbook that is very traditional. . . . The introduction by Mario Pei highlights this: "It may be emphasized that this is an Italian, not an Italo-American cookbook. The recipes here listed describe dishes which are regularly eaten throughout the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula rather than dishes which are the specialty of a single Italian region, or those which have grown up in Italian communities in America." The end result, Pei observes, is that "a large number of these dishes will be almost totally unfamiliar to the American reader."

The book is divided into many sections, starting with antipasto, going through soups, egg dishes, cheese, and so on through macaroni, spaghetti, rice, to pizza, and finishing with desserts and beverages. All in all, the cookbook covers a lot of territory.

Many of the recipes will not be so simple to manage, if one wants to put something together quickly. Other reviews have mentioned this in one way or another.

However, there are some good recipes in this cookbook, traditional as they might be, that promise a nice taste treat. Among these are Beefsteak Hunter Style, Ragout of Beef with Tomato Sauce, Pork Chops in Tomato Sauce, Pork Chops Modena Style, Macaroni with Ricotta, and so on. Again, some recipes call for an awful lot of up front work that many readers won't be interested in. But there are also many others that can be done quite handily.

A good book to add to one's cooking library.

This book has been around in numerous forms for many, many years and is well known throughout Italy as the quintessential cookbook of classic recipes.
The book works its way methodically through the many courses that make up a variety of regional meals throughout italy.
From antipastos, to entrees, mains and desserts, there is a diverse variety of ideas and suggestions to stimulate and inspire people looking to prepare an authentic meal.
The recipes range from simple, easily prepared fare, through to technical and specialised meals that are challenging, yet rewarding when plated.
If cooking Italian is your passion, this book is a necessary addition to your library.