About this title: Great Food Made Simple Here's the breakthrough one--stop cooking reference for today's generation of cooks! Nationally known cooking authority Mark Bittman shows you how to prepare great food for all occasions using simple techniques, fresh ingredients, and basic kitchen equipment. Just as important, How to Cook Everything' takes a relaxed, straightforward approach to cooking, so you can enjoy yourself in the kitchen and still achieve outstanding results. Praise for How to Cook Everything' by Mark Bittman: "In his introduction to How to Cook Everything', Mark Bittman says, 'Anyone can cook, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Illustrated.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780028610108ISBN:0028610105
Description: Witschonke, Alan. Very good in very good dust jacket. Great shape! Great recipes! ! Great price! ! ! Enjoy for less. CLEAN text. NO hi-lites. Ready to use "To Cook Everything". DJ clean & glossy. Small edge stain, otherwise, looks great. Compare & enjoy best value for... Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 960 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Macmillan
Date Published: 1998-01-01
ISBN-13:9780965785150ISBN:0965785157
Description: Very Good. Clean copy with tight binding and crisp pages. Some wear on extremities and top front cover corner bend. First Printing. read more
Description: Very Good+ in Very Good+ dust jacket. 0028610105. John Wiley & Sons; Reprint; 1998; 944 p., glossy white cover. Light wear at ends of spine. Interior clean, unmarked. Jacket lightly rubbed on edges, minor wrinkling.; 4to 11"-13" tall. read more
Edition: Seventh Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc, Foster City, CA
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780764562587ISBN:0764562584
Description: Alan Witschonke {Illustrator} Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. "Mark Bittman has written a comprehensive book {now accompanied by an interactive CD-ROM} for every cook-aspiring ans experienced-who longs for simple recipes that yield delicious foods. It's for first-time cooks who want to learn the basics of good cooking from a reliable contemporary source. " This book has 944 pages and is illustrated throughout + Glossary + Index + UNOPENED CD-ROM. read more
"When I got this book, it was being billed as the new Joy of Cooking (maybe it still is), a basic cookbook that covers everything from how to cook to what to cook. And, for the most part, it is. The directions are simple, Bittman clearly explains everything from the type of pots and pans you should have to the basics of cooking meat. At the same time, I find that I rarely use this book, unless I'm looking for a simple recipe for vegetables or salad dressing or something else that is to serve as a complement to the main course I'm making. There's a fine line between simple and bland and unfortunately, Bittman seems to have crossed over to bland for many recipes. The recipes I've tried all turn out just fine, but they're usually in need of much more flavor. I find it's best to use these recipes as a base and then to add to it, according to your taste. That said, I wouldn't want to do without this book. It's handy to have in the kitchen since it truly does seem to have a recipe for anything I've needed. Except tea sandwiches..."
"On page xi, Mark Bittman lays things out: "Anyone can cook, and most everyone should. It's a sorry sign that many people consider cooking 'from scratch' an unusual and even rare talent. In fact, cooking is a simple and rewarding craft, one that anyone can learn and even succeed at from the get-go."
There are the usual features in this cookbook (and welcome for all that): ingredients that ought to be in your kitchen (page xiii),equipment, techniques (such as grilling, broiling, roasting, sauteing, etc.).
Then, to the recipes. . . . The first section here focuses (as one might guess) on appetizers. One of these is stuffed mushrooms, which provides a recipe close to that of my wife's family. I can say that the end result is delicious (the key: making sure that it does not get too dry when being cooked). Next, soups. The section starts out nicely with a description of how to make stock. You use bouillon cubes? Bittman says (page 44): "As for bouillon cubes, forget it. You're better off with water and a few extra vegetables." Late on, he addresses meats.
He begins by nicely identifying where the different cuts of beef and pork are, and the characteristics of each (with beef, from chuck to round, from brisket to loin). The recipes for beef are straightforward. This is not Emeril Lagasse or Martha Stewart (each of whom plays a useful role in providing information on cooking). The recipes are "everyday" stuff. For example, his "Grilled steak, American-style" could not be easier to make. Pork chops? On page 457 and after, he describes how to sautee pork chops eight different ways. With apples or with sherry and garlic or with dried fruit or. . . . He discusses stir frying and how to make it work.
Vegetables? He describes the different ways of cooking them and then provides recipes. I have come to really enjoy veggies, after spending my first two decades resisting eating them. There are a series of nice recipes for, to illustrate, asparagus, which is one of my favorites.
All in all, then, a nice cookbook for people who want to cook for themselves and may not be interested in more complicated recipes and cooking."
"There is nothing that, together, The Bittman and I can't cook together. Ice cream, black beans, beets, quiche, chickpea dishes of all sorts, roast chicken... it's easy enough for someone still learning her way around the kitchen to understand, but the flavors and concepts and flexibility of the recipes lend themselves well to someone with more skill. And he covers, really, EVERYTHING. It's great! I can buy random stuff at the grocery store and not worry in the slightest, because MB and I will tackle it together and all will be delicious."
"After a lifetime of being scooted out of the kitchen by a domineering Asian mum, I've found my bible. How to Cook Everything is extremely accessible for a college dining hall-frequenting, homecooked food-ingesting, globetrotting, violently undomesticated young lady like me, and it is with great excitement, joy, and hope (!) that I thumb through and gobble up the recipes in this tome.
Personally, this is why I love: its clear prose, unfussy layout, breadth of recipes, and beginner-friendly-but-unobtrusive sprinkling of diagrams, tutorials, indices, and its unwillingness to assume that everyone knows what mesclun, popovers, or quinoa are. These things sound like gibberish to someone raised in an unassimilated Cambodian household, though I must say YUM to ingredients like lemongrass, galangal, and hoisin sauce. :)
The great breadth of recipes definitely lends to some experimentation, too. I've already tabbed a few dozen recipes I'd like to try and actually made a half dozen others. I'm looking forward to putting my own spin on them once I master the basics. It's the perfect library starter for a beginning cook and uncultivated foodie (like me)."
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