Synopsis
This facsimile edition of the 1931 cooking classic comes with its original introduction by the redoubtable Irma Rombauer and also an illuminating memoir-like foreword by her son Edgar Rombauer.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1998-05-01 | | Edition Description: | Facsimile |
| Size | | Length: | 395 pages | | Height: | 7.8 in | | Width: | 5.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.2 in | | Weight: | 18.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
In 1931, Irma Rombauer announced that she intended to turn her personal collection of recipes and cooking techniques into a cookbook. Cooking could no longer remain a private passion for Irma. She had recently been widowed and needed to find a way to support her family. Irma was a celebrated St. Louis hostess who sensed that she was not alone in her need for a no-nonsense, practical resource in the kitchen. So, mustering what assets she had, she self-published The Joy of Cooking: A Compilation of Reliable Recipes with a Casual Culinary Chat. Out of these unlikely circumstances was born the most authoritative cookbook in America, the book your grandmother and mother probably learned to cook from. To date it has sold more than 15 million copies. This is a perfect facsimile of that original 1931 edition. It is your chance to see where it all began. These pages amply reveal why The Joy of Cooking has become a legacy of learning and pleasure for generations of users. Irma's sensible, fearless approach to cooking and her reassuring voice offer both novice and experienced cooks everything they need to produce a crackling crust on roasts and bake the perfect cake. All the old classics are here -- Chicken à la King, Molded Cranberry Nut Salad, and Charlotte Russe to name a few -- but so are dozens of unexpected recipes such as Risotto and Roasted Spanish Onions, dishes that seem right at home on our tables today. Whether she's discussing the colorful personality of her cook Marguerite, whose Cheese Custard Pie was not to be missed, or asserting that the average woman's breakfast was "probably fruit, dry toast, and a beverage" while the average man's was "fruit, cereal, eggs with ham or bacon, hot bread, and a beverage," the distinctive era in which Irma lived comes through loud and clear in every line. Enter a time when such dishes as Shrimp Wiggle and Cottage Pudding routinely appeared on tables across America. The book is illustrated with the silhouette cutouts created by Irma's daughter Marion, who eventually wrote later editions of The Joy of Cooking. Marion also created the cover art depicting St. Martha of Bethany, the patron saint of cooking, slaying the dragon of kitchen drudgery. This special facsimile edition contains both Irma's original introduction and a completely new foreword by her son Edgar Rombauer, whose vivid memories bring Irma's kitchen alive for us all today.
These pages reveal why The Joy of Cooking has become a legacy of learning and pleasure for generations of users. Irma's sensible, fearless approach to cooking and her reassuring voice offer both novice and experienced cooks everything they need to produce a crackling crust on roasts and bake the perfect cake. All the old classics are here - Chicken a la King, Molded Cranberry Nut Salad, and Charlotte Russe to name a few - but so are dozens of unexpected recipes such as Risotto and Roasted Spanish Onions, dishes that seem right at home on our tables today.
Industry Reviews
After a 20-year wait, this new edition of a cooking classic arrives with a 500,000-copy first printing, whistlestops on Today and CBS This Morning, and reputedly a few nasty bumps along the way.
Stefanatos
First self-published in 1931, Joy of Cooking became an American classic over time because of its reliability as a resource of basic information, not for its culinary daring. The sixth revision, the first in 22 years, advances that tradition with distinction and some calculated flair. Its 2500 recipes reflect how broadly the mainstream of American cookery now flows. New recipes range from Dashi (Japanese stock of kelp and dried bonito flakes) to Grilled Pizza Margherita, Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken in Red Pepper Sauce) and a very simple Vitello Tonnato (cold veal napped with tuna-laced mayonnaise). New desserts are as everyday as Blueberry Cobbler (though this one is flavored with lime zest) or as richly extraordinary as Alice Medrich's Chocolate Cheesecake. Medrich was one of many chefs (including Rick Bayless, Patricia Wells, Jim Dodge and Deborah Madison) consulted for this edition. Modernisms are everywhere, from varietal coffees to a vastly larger sampling of pastas. Appealing new chapters include Grains; Dried Beans and Soy; and Little Dishes, which covers tapas, dim sum, meze and other international specialties. Although cautions against excessive fat intake are included, the taste for deep-frying is answered with Buffalo Wings and No Fail French Fries. As to physical changes, the two-column format remains, but Laura Hartman Maestro's 1000 new illustrations (e.g., of fruits and pasta shapes, as well as of such techniques as cleaning hard-shelled crabs) are more attractive and helpful. Organization is also improved: Stocks and Sauces are collected in one section rather than scattered; Salad Dressings now follow Salads rather than cropping up a few hundred pages later, as in the previous edition. No longer sans serif, the type is chunkier, with ingredients no longer bold-faced. Symbols within recipes (pointers to success, blender, etc.) have been sensibly eliminated. While many expository sections echo the previous edition and the royal "we" still ...
Lopate
First self-published in 1931, Joy of Cooking became an American classic over time because of its reliability as a resource of basic information, not for its culinary daring. The sixth revision, the first in 22 years, advances that tradition with distinction and some calculated flair. Its 2500 recipes reflect how broadly the mainstream of American cookery now flows. New recipes range from Dashi (Japanese stock of kelp and dried bonito flakes) to Grilled Pizza Margherita, Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken in Red Pepper Sauce) and a very simple Vitello Tonnato (cold veal napped with tuna-laced mayonnaise). New desserts are as everyday as Blueberry Cobbler (though this one is flavored with lime zest) or as richly extraordinary as Alice Medrich's Chocolate Cheesecake. Medrich was one of many chefs (including Rick Bayless, Patricia Wells, Jim Dodge and Deborah Madison) consulted for this edition. Modernisms are everywhere, from varietal coffees to a vastly larger sampling of pastas. Appealing new chapters include Grains; Dried Beans and Soy; and Little Dishes, which covers tapas, dim sum, meze and other international specialties. Although cautions against excessive fat intake are included, the taste for deep-frying is answered with Buffalo Wings and No Fail French Fries. As to physical changes, the two-column format remains, but Laura Hartman Maestro's 1000 new illustrations (e.g., of fruits and pasta shapes, as well as of such techniques as cleaning hard-shelled crabs) are more attractive and helpful. Organization is also improved: Stocks and Sauces are collected in one section rather than scattered; Salad Dressings now follow Salads rather than cropping up a few hundred pages later, as in the previous edition. No longer sans serif, the type is chunkier, with ingredients no longer bold-faced. Symbols within recipes (pointers to success, blender, etc.) have been sensibly eliminated. While many expository sections echo the previous edition and the royal "we" still appears throughout, much of the quaint gentility that marked Joy's past tone has been pared away. Nostalgic purists may object; others won't miss the somewhat patrician air. While attempts to be internationally and nutritionally au courant tend to be a bit self-conscious, Joy still contains a vast wealth of invaluable, and now updated, information. BOMC main selection; Good Cook and QPB selections; first serial to Family Circle. (Nov.)
Publishers Weekly (09/15/1997)
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