The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

For the past ten years, Jean Anderson has been on a quest: to search out the most popular recipes of the 20th century and to chronicle 100 years of culinary change in America. The result is a rich and fascinating look at where we've been, at the recipes our mothers and grandmothers loved, and at how our own tastes have evolved.

The more than 500 cherished recipes in these pages are mainstays of American home cooking, the recipes that have remained favorites year after year. For the smallest sampling:

California dip . . . Buffalo chicken wings . . . vichyssoise . . . tuna-noodle casserole . . . Swiss steak . . . frosted meat loaf . . . tamale pie . . . corn dogs . . . lobster rolls . . . classic green bean bake . . . perfection salad . . . green goddess salad . . . frozen fruit salad . . . chiffon cake . . . brownies . . . chocolate chip cookies . . . chocolate decadence

Beyond this collection is Jean's exploration of the diversity of our nation's cuisine and our adoption of such "foreign" dishes as pizza, gazpacho, lasagne, moussaka, and tarte tatin. Her painstakingly researched text includes extensive headnotes, thumbnail profiles of important people and products (from Fannie Farmer to James Beard and from electric refrigerators to the microwave), and a timeline of major 20th-century food firsts.

In recording popular recipes that might have been lost, in setting them in richly detailed historical context, Jean Anderson has written her masterwork. The American Century Cookbook may well be the most important new cookbook of the decade; it is certainly the book America will love.

About the Author

A member of the James Beard Who's Who of Food and Wine in America, Jean Anderson is the author of more than twenty cookbooks, among them the award-winning Food of Portugal and the best-selling Doubleday Cookbook (with Elaine Hanna), which was named Cookbook of the Year in the R.T. French Taste-maker Awards. She writes regularly for Gourmet, Food & Wine, Family Circle, Bon Appètit, and other national magazines. Jean Anderson divides her time between Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and New York City.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Gramercy (August 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517225980
• ISBN-13: 978-0517225981
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #611,508 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful cookbook, March 10, 2008

By	Edane "edane" (Wisconsin, United States) - See all my reviews

I was very surprised to see no reviews for this marvelous cookbook. I have the older, 1997, edition and it is full of reliable good recipes, including the _best_ zucchini bread recipe I have ever tried. I make it every summer. In addition to good reliable recipes -- something I do not find in too many cookbooks -- she has an easy friendly chatting style that I personally enjoy reading. Try this cookbook, you'll be glad you did.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warm Style, Great Recipes, A Blast to Read, September 29, 2008

By	OldCookbooks.com "Eddie & Peter" (Reno, NV) - See all my reviews

One of my favorites for style and substance. Gathers recipes from many favorite American cookbooks and is packed with interesting information about recipe and food history. Written with warmth and just plain fun to read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Prefer Older Version, August 23, 2008

By	Brikl (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

This is a very interesting cookbook that you can read over and over as well as use. However, I prefered the older version that I checked out from the library--the quality of the pages was so much better. The pages are so thin...what a shame...